Ceerqqq
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- Mar 16, 2018
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What we saw last night was more evidence of Jim Boeheim's greatest coaching talent: his ability to coach whatever players he has to work with, over the course of a season, into a unit that can compete with The Best teams in the ACC by the end of the season.
You can accuse him of not having superior recruiting skills, of not having the most charming personality when standing before reporters, etc., but his game-coaching has long been top notch & his ability to develop a team over the course of a season is outstanding. The season isn't over, but last night's game showed us that he has once again coached up a starting five that is capable [on their best nights] of beating the best five of 95% of the teams in the country. What we saw last night was so encouraging...
The most important thing I've seen in the past couple of games is the improvement in defense. The way Brown & Bell are emphasizing their defensive play is a huge part of the team's recent success. Judah is playing much better defense at the top of the zone & even Joe has shown marginal improvement. Jesse's defensive contributions are the biggest key, of course, and they are sensational. Overall, their defensive intensity has enabled them to throttle the 3pt marksmen of other teams and also cover the passing lanes much better than they were at the beginning of the season.
Team offense has also improved to where we have reason to expect that they'll be able to score on most teams they face. Individual players, like Bell, have improved their play on the court quite impressively. Whatever the coaching staff is saying to these players in practice, it appears to be producing significant results in both team & individual play.
No, we don't know the ultimate potential of this team this year, but we've already seen enough to confirm what we've seen consistently throughout the Boeheim Era: the man knows how to coach whatever players he has into a competitive unit by season's end. His critics seem to forget this every year, forever neglecting to factor into their early season expectations the improvement that they should know is going to happen.
Last year was an exception, in my opinion, because 1) he didn't have the kind of athletes he has this year, and 2) he wasn't able to forget that his sons were playing for him (and that he wanted to give them every opportunity to succeed, as individual players, period). From my POV, this was a "failing" that is 100% understandable & forgivable, given all that he has done for the Syracuse basketball program.
I will not be the least bit surprised to see this team win 4 of the next 5 & then play themselves into the NCAA tournament. I've seen it all before...
You can accuse him of not having superior recruiting skills, of not having the most charming personality when standing before reporters, etc., but his game-coaching has long been top notch & his ability to develop a team over the course of a season is outstanding. The season isn't over, but last night's game showed us that he has once again coached up a starting five that is capable [on their best nights] of beating the best five of 95% of the teams in the country. What we saw last night was so encouraging...
The most important thing I've seen in the past couple of games is the improvement in defense. The way Brown & Bell are emphasizing their defensive play is a huge part of the team's recent success. Judah is playing much better defense at the top of the zone & even Joe has shown marginal improvement. Jesse's defensive contributions are the biggest key, of course, and they are sensational. Overall, their defensive intensity has enabled them to throttle the 3pt marksmen of other teams and also cover the passing lanes much better than they were at the beginning of the season.
Team offense has also improved to where we have reason to expect that they'll be able to score on most teams they face. Individual players, like Bell, have improved their play on the court quite impressively. Whatever the coaching staff is saying to these players in practice, it appears to be producing significant results in both team & individual play.
No, we don't know the ultimate potential of this team this year, but we've already seen enough to confirm what we've seen consistently throughout the Boeheim Era: the man knows how to coach whatever players he has into a competitive unit by season's end. His critics seem to forget this every year, forever neglecting to factor into their early season expectations the improvement that they should know is going to happen.
Last year was an exception, in my opinion, because 1) he didn't have the kind of athletes he has this year, and 2) he wasn't able to forget that his sons were playing for him (and that he wanted to give them every opportunity to succeed, as individual players, period). From my POV, this was a "failing" that is 100% understandable & forgivable, given all that he has done for the Syracuse basketball program.
I will not be the least bit surprised to see this team win 4 of the next 5 & then play themselves into the NCAA tournament. I've seen it all before...
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