Binghamton Thoughts

[bballbeadle]

GENERAL, WHO ARE YOU???

Also, are you a little bit psychic?

 

[SoBristol]

You missed my point on the zones. Teams don't want to zone Syracuse because of Syracuse, their performance against Binghamton had nothing to do with it. Cal and Baylor play zone most of the time and they were reluctant to zone Syracuse even before Syracuse started shooting well. That is why I gave their coaches all the credit, for evaluating SU's talent early before they had proven anything. The Binghamton game just showed us average joe's what the coaches knew all along.

OK -- that was part of your point. But I expect we will see zones from several opponents. Stay tuned.

 

[General20]

GENERAL, WHO ARE YOU???

Also, are you a little bit psychic?

I'm just a guy that runs a bocce ball league and loves Syracuse.

I'm pretty sure that I'm not psychic because psychic's don't exist and everybody who has ever met me (other than the existential philosophers) agree that I exist.

But I can give you a few predictions if you want . . .

Syracuse's next game against St. Johns is going to be an ugly one (the games after finals always seem to be).

St. John's center Obekpa ends up being the best shot blocker we see all year, and he makes Jeremi Grant's life tough.

Rysheed Jordan struggles, and Tyler Ennis plays well.

Syracuse wins a close one, and St. John's ends up the second best team in the Big East behind Villanoa and gets an 8 seed.

 

[jordoo]

I think Cooney and Fair have made their games much more difficult to defend since they are become more versatile. Cooney has now proven he can drive and pass when defenders overplay him and closely defend him for the 3 while Fair has developed a 3 point shot for those defenders who slough off him on the perimeter to stop him from driving or popping the short jumper. I'm hoping Fair becomes a better passer too when he is overplayed and defended closely. Being multifaceted and having the ability to take advantage of what the defense gives you , makes their games special. If Grant develops , most teams have only one lock down defender, if lucky then two. Guys like Cooney, Fair, Ennis should require help to contain and if Grant develops, the only defense that could contain them is SU's own failure to consistently execute and take advantage.

Your point about lock down defenders is a good one. Like KrisJo as a sophomore. He didn't shoot well either at that point but teams never guarded him very closely because of guys like Andy and Wes and he cut them up slashing and hitting the glass.

 

[OttoMets]

I'm still waiting for an extended look at Roberson but I'd point out that you don't have to slap an 'only as a senior' qualifier on RJ. He grabbed 6 boards in 22 mpg as a soph., and then 7 in 26 mpg as a junior. really a pretty solid rebounder throughout and, of course, outstanding as a senior. I also liked Onuaku a lot as a rebounder early pre-injury troubles.

His production was usually good, but I never saw him get after it with the same intensity until his last year, after he dropped the weight. By that point he was pretty much in a class by himself.

 

[bballbeadle]

I'm just a guy that runs a bocce ball league and loves Syracuse.

I'm pretty sure that I'm not psychic because psychic's don't exist and everybody who has ever met me (other than the existential philosophers) agree that I exist.

But I can give you a few predictions if you want . . .

Syracuse's next game against St. Johns is going to be an ugly one (the games after finals always seem to be).

St. John's center Obekpa ends up being the best shot blocker we see all year, and he makes Jeremi Grant's life tough.

Rysheed Jordan struggles, and Tyler Ennis plays well.

Syracuse wins a close one, and St. John's ends up the second best team in the Big East behind Villanoa and gets an 8 seed.

Woweee! I wish I could go into the future right now and see if you are right! I already feel sad and depressed because of your "ugly game" prediction, and it hasn't even happened yet. This is awesome!

 

[CuseFaninVT]

You missed my point on the zones. Teams don't want to zone Syracuse because of Syracuse, their performance against Binghamton had nothing to do with it. Cal and Baylor play zone most of the time and they were reluctant to zone Syracuse even before Syracuse started shooting well. That is why I gave their coaches all the credit, for evaluating SU's talent early before they had proven anything. The Binghamton game just showed us average joe's what the coaches knew all along.

I agree with your point about our effectiveness this year against zones, but what really makes this amazing to me is how poorly we played (in most cases) against zones last year. The turnaround has been phenomenal.

 

[General20]

I agree with your point about our effectiveness this year against zones, but what really makes this amazing to me is how poorly we played (in most cases) against zones last year. The turnaround has been phenomenal.

For some reason people assume you can "figure out" a zone like its a Rubic's Cube or something. The truth is, you can't figure out a zone any more than you can figure out man to man. In both cases the coaches and players know what to do, and in both cases it comes down to execution (which is never as easy as these guys make it look when they pull it off).

Last year's team was not great at executing in half court, and because of that they struggled against zones. This year's team is a lot better in those situations. It has everything to do with the new personnel.

 

[TheRoyalIveyFund]

I doubt it. One of the negatives when I watched him over the summer was how easily he would get moved and boxed out of plays. He's great in one on one situations when he can just out jump somebody for a rebound.

That's why this board is great. Before he steps foot on campus, we'll have a good feel for kind of contributions we can expect (if form holds up...).

 

[billsin01]

For some reason people assume you can "figure out" a zone like its a Rubic's Cube or something. The truth is, you can't figure out a zone any more than you can figure out man to man. In both cases the coaches and players know what to do, and in both cases it comes down to execution (which is never as easy as these guys make it look when they pull it off).

Last year's team was not great at executing in half court, and because of that they struggled against zones. This year's team is a lot better in those situations. It has everything to do with the new personnel.

This is an interesting topic to remember for those stretches in September when hoops hasn't quite gotten started yet and the football team is getting crushed by Clemson.

The reason I think most people talk about 'figuring out zones' has to do with two basic points:

1) Defenders are spread around the floor but, obviously, you simply can't cover every inch of real estate meaning even the best zones will have some areas to operate or, at least, areas where they are potentially vulnerable depending on personnel. M2M, on the other hand, is obviously a 'team concept' as well but generally doesn't concede any space on the floor to the offense. At least in theory.

2) The fact that zones are assigning areas of the floor to players means that theoretically you can run plays to overload a particular zone and create unbalanced situations favoring the offense.

I know we're talking about two different worlds here, but I always loved playing zone defenses in lacrosse b/c you generally overload them pretty easy and get pretty good looks pretty consistently if you simply executed some basic plays. And there is some merit to teams 'figuring out' zones in major college hoops. I always thought UConn did a phenomenal job attacking the short corner from the baseline and made a living there. Pitt screens the zone well and rarely got caught in the trap of hoisting long jumpers all day. Of course they also did a nice job on the offensive boards and gave us fits defensively, which may have been bigger keys.

Anyway, I'd say my point is that there is some validity to the notion of figuring out zones in the sense that you can't simply allow natural talent to be the driving force of your offense the way you can against most M2M teams. But, as General points out, you need to have personnel regardless of the defense and most of the meme's you hear repeated over and over by the color guys who do the games (Vitale is the worst) like 'get the ball to the foul line' and 'you've got to get dribble penetration' and 'you can't zone this team b/c they shoot well', etc. are grossly over-simplified and often simply dead wrong.

 

[Francis03]

That's why this board is great. Before he steps foot on campus, we'll have a good feel for kind of contributions we can expect (if form holds up...).

Also let me add to be fair Chris weighed under 200lbs, so it's understandable that he would struggle with bigger guys inside. IMG should be a great spot for him to not only improve his game, but to also fill out and pack on about 15-20lbs of muscle by the time he hits SU.