Boeheim's Best Coaching Decision w/ This Team

[br801]

i said it nov 21

http://syracusefan.com/threads/g-at-the-point.96581/

Good call.

 

[br801]

Gbinije as the point, as someone else mentioned, was a "best of a host of bad options" gamble; Boeheim wanted offense this year, and to him that meant giving heavy minutes to Richardson, Cooney, and Gbinije. The results were mixed, though March was exciting.

I'll take mixed results that end up with a run to the Final Four any time.

I find posts like this interesting because they reinforce for me what a tough room this is. When we have great teams that are derailed because of an untimely injury or suspension or an inexplicably bad game, many are quick to dismiss the season as disappointing because it ended short of a Final Four or a title. When we have an unexpected deep run with a lesser team, many are equally quick to point out that it only happened because of good fortune, and want to minimize the accomplishment.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I don't buy this whole benching that people talk about. Exactly one game he sat out more than normal. Maybe that Pitt second half JB liked what the group on the court was doing? When it came down to crunch time, TC was in. And with the improvement of Frank over the course of the season, JB gave more blows to TC, G and Mali. What other games was he "benched"?

In the 5 NCAA games, TC played the same exact number of minutes per game he averaged during the season. He took exactly the same number of shots per game as he did in the regular season. In the UNC game, he played more minutes and took way more shots than his per game averages.

The one difference in the NCAA was he took fewer 3's. He did start driving more than he did but IMO, that was by design as much as anything. It seemed like all the guards and Mal all drove more. Even Lydon tried to drive from the foul line some.

Except for Pitt 2nd half maybe, I just don't see any benchings and nothing really changed after that regarding PT or shots.

Yeah i'm not buying the Cooney sitting thing either. He went from playing 37 minutes to 35? Howard still didn't play in second halfs. It was still the main 5 guys getting crunch time minutes.

I just think the coaches finally got in his brain and convinced him he wasn't just a standstill shooter and could attack the basket. Maybe missing the shot against Pitt was the turning point for him, who knows.

 

[Ghost]

Yeah i'm not buying the Cooney sitting thing either. He went from playing 37 minutes to 35? Howard still didn't play in second halfs. It was still the main 5 guys getting crunch time minutes.

I just think the coaches finally got in his brain and convinced him he wasn't just a standstill shooter and could attack the basket. Maybe missing the shot against Pitt was the turning point for him, who knows.

Right, Howard still didn't play in second halves, but in the biggest game of the year, possibly with a tourney invite on the line, plays all those minutes until 6 seconds are left, and it was just a minor footnote?

 

[OttoMets]

I'll take mixed results that end up with a run to the Final Four any time.

I find posts like this interesting because they reinforce for me what a tough room this is. When we have great teams that are derailed because of an untimely injury or suspension or an inexplicably bad game, many are quick to dismiss the season as disappointing because it ended short of a Final Four or a title. When we have an unexpected deep run with a lesser team, many are equally quick to point out that it only happened because of good fortune, and want to minimize the accomplishment.

No.

This thread has nothing to do with minimizing the accomplishment of winning the regional (or with pointing out your unhappiness with other posters and board trends).

The original post was about an on-court decision, the use of a non-point guard as a point guard. I made a series of replies about this basketball decision, using, as support, statistics and my own observations of what happened in Syracuse's basketball games.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Right, Howard still didn't play in second halves, but in the biggest game of the year, possibly with a tourney invite on the line, plays all those minutes until 6 seconds are left, and it was just a minor footnote?

I'm not taking anything away from Howard. He played pretty good against Pitt, but he went back to his "normal" role in the tournament.

I just think the coaches got into Cooneys head in the tournament that he would be a better player attacking, instead of playing the end of the year rather passive. Maybe it was him sitting in the second half against Pitt that convinced Cooney of that? Maybe it was something that happened in practice, but I'm not buying that more rest increased his productivity because he played at least 35 minutes in every NCAA tournament game.

 

[br801]

No.

This thread has nothing to do with minimizing the accomplishment of winning the regional (or with pointing out your unhappiness with other posters and board trends).

The original post was about an on-court decision, the use of a non-point guard as a point guard. I made a series of replies about this basketball decision, using, as support, statistics and my own observations of what happened in Syracuse's basketball games.

That's all fine and valid, but I'll certainly stand by my observation.

 

[Millhouse]

I'm not taking anything away from Howard. He played pretty good against Pitt, but he went back to his "normal" role in the tournament.

I just think the coaches got into Cooneys head in the tournament that he would be a better player attacking, instead of playing the end of the year rather passive. Maybe it was him sitting in the second half against Pitt that convinced Cooney of that? Maybe it was something that happened in practice, but I'm not buying that more rest increased his productivity because he played at least 35 minutes in every NCAA tournament game.

i think it's both. all the timeouts make a difference in the tournament. i think those 5 minutes make a difference. he was so good corralling loose balls, he was so alert. credible threats of benching got rid of his most ill advised shots

worked out great for everyone - we get to remember good cooney now

 

[Cusefan0307]

i think it's both. all the timeouts make a difference in the tournament. i think those 5 minutes make a difference. he was so good corralling loose balls, he was so alert. credible threats of benching got rid of his most ill advised shots

worked out great for everyone - we get to remember good cooney now

Good point on the timeouts. Much longer breaks in the tournament than what you get during the Regular Season.

 

[rrlbees]

That one game had a lot of meaning toward us even potentially playing in the post season. I think that's why people place more significance on it than if it happened against BC with 10 games left to go. He even left FH in after the lead went back up to around 13 or 15. Also, I'll rewatch the beginning of the games so I can cite correctly, but JB pulled TC early in one of the first tourney games immediately after one of his fading left early shot click threes. I'm not sure I'd ever seen that b4. Maybe it was all happenstance, but I think those two things are huge moved by JB going out of his comfort zone.

I'm not even sure of the benching now. Mal came out before TC and when TC came out he was 1-2 with a 3 and a steal just seconds before he came out. What was he benched for? Even his miss was over 1 1/2 minutes before he came out.

 

[Ghost]

I'm not even sure of the benching now. Mal came out before TC and when TC came out he was 1-2 with a 3 and a steal just seconds before he came out. What was he benched for? Even his miss was over 1 1/2 minutes before he came out.

I still have to double-check, perhaps I'm wrong, I thought in one of the first two games Cooney took a shot from the left side fairly early, and JB immediately had Frank up off the bench and heading to the scorers table.