Buddy's shooting...

[Sgt Cuse]

His value, right now, lies entirely in his ability to knock a couple of threes down. If he does that, it can help. Otherwise, there is very little production coming from him. He's only a freshman. Plenty of chances to improve throughout his career and he will. Needs to get quicker laterally. Gives up penetration quite often. Not a guy to use in the press. But I really like the release on his shot and he is going to be a really solid shooter for us. Quick trigger. He's got solid size which helps some of the struggles defensively that I have seen.

Not entirely. This is a team game and the best offensive team structure just may be TB, Buddy, Eli, OB, and Marek. While Frank is good his game (and the 10-14 ppg we want out of him) doesn't seem to mesh as well with the studs of TB/OB/Eli. Buddy's 10-14 would be 3-4 three balls and some late FTs. That makes life easier for TB and OB to drive, which they need to do more.

Buddy's a coaches son and it is safe to feel his bball IQ rivals the top on the team. Just a matter of getting used to the pressure in my eyes. Same with his FT's. Should be just a matter of time to he is near the top in %.

Buddy is improving right before our eyes, just as JB had hoped. He banked one in the hyper pressure cooker at Duke and then seemed to take that experience to be calm and hit several pure ones against Pitt.

 

[rrlbees]

Not entirely. This is a team game and the best offensive team structure just may be TB, Buddy, Eli, OB, and Marek. While Frank is good his game (and the 10-14 ppg we want out of him) doesn't seem to mesh as well with the studs of TB/OB/Eli. Buddy's 10-14 would be 3-4 three balls and some late FTs. That makes life easier for TB and OB to drive, which they need to do more.

Buddy's a coaches son and it is safe to feel his bball IQ rivals the top on the team. Just a matter of getting used to the pressure in my eyes. Same with his FT's. Should be just a matter of time to he is near the top in %.

Buddy is improving right before our eyes, just as JB had hoped. He banked one in the hyper pressure cooker at Duke and then seemed to take that experience to be calm and hit several pure ones against Pitt.

The team would not succeed long term with battle at pg. even jb says when he goes to the point it’s only to go on his own. Not facilitate the offense. Watch him at pg. he’s either looking to go coast to coast or pulling up for a jumper. He doesn’t call for any plays, doesn’t move guys around, doesn’t run an offense.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Not entirely. This is a team game and the best offensive team structure just may be TB, Buddy, Eli, OB, and Marek. While Frank is good his game (and the 10-14 ppg we want out of him) doesn't seem to mesh as well with the studs of TB/OB/Eli. Buddy's 10-14 would be 3-4 three balls and some late FTs. That makes life easier for TB and OB to drive, which they need to do more.

Buddy's a coaches son and it is safe to feel his bball IQ rivals the top on the team. Just a matter of getting used to the pressure in my eyes. Same with his FT's. Should be just a matter of time to he is near the top in %.

Buddy is improving right before our eyes, just as JB had hoped. He banked one in the hyper pressure cooker at Duke and then seemed to take that experience to be calm and hit several pure ones against Pitt.

Bball iq is great and something I think we have lacked as a whole in recent years. It's also something you point to when there are other (current) obvious weaknesses.

Buddy will contribute in some games the rest of the way. No doubt in my mind. Our best line-up does not include him right now playing major minutes (and I am NOT saying he is playing major minutes, so please don't jump on that).

 

[A Clockwork Orange]

Buddy is still shooting 50% in the last six games at 11/22. Couple that with his poor early season performance of 8/36 and his three-point shooting has gone from 22% to 32.7% in six games. Keep it up, Buddy!

 

[Jake]

Buddy and Frank have both started shooting better in recent games...critically important for a team with limited interior scoring.

Teams are gonna start thinking twice about zoning us.

 

[moqui]

i wouldn't be surprised to find that he leads the acc in 3 pt percentage in conference play, if you delimit to guys who have taken at least 3 threes per contest

 

[richmondcuse03]

The team would not succeed long term with battle at pg. even jb says when he goes to the point it’s only to go on his own. Not facilitate the offense. Watch him at pg. he’s either looking to go coast to coast or pulling up for a jumper. He doesn’t call for any plays, doesn’t move guys around, doesn’t run an offense.

I always thought this too. Tonight was a marked difference. Boeheim said something in presser about basketball is more than shooting and Tyus wanting to facilitate more, which I thought was interesting. Seemed like a comment about the NBA and being a better all around player. Also complimented him being active on the boards and good defensively. Think it’s also a good reminder that despite JB being hard on players, he’s a players coach.

 

[rrlbees]

I always thought this too. Tonight was a marked difference. Boeheim said something in presser about basketball is more than shooting and Tyus wanting to facilitate more, which I thought was interesting. Seemed like a comment about the NBA and being a better all around player. Also complimented him being active on the boards and good defensively. Think it’s also a good reminder that despite JB being hard on players, he’s a players coach.

I go back to the combine last year and in a couple games they put him at PG to see what he could do. It was kind of ugly. So there’s a lot of improvement there. But even last night, he had a couple of nice assists, but the majority of them were because we were making 3’s. A PGs best friend is guys making jumpers. I just hope this is all showing the NBA scouts that he’s becoming a better all around player. He’s also rebounding much better this year.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

these sample sizes are so small as to be meaningless. both his initial struggles and his current hot streak are tiny sample sizes from which not much can be drawn in terms of predictive value.

 

[SmilinBob]

Buddy moves better than I thought he would feet wise and one thing I really liked is when he drove to the basket under control and made a nice pass. You can see after he hit the 4 in a row and then missed one, he had some doubts about being a chucker so to speak and passed the ball even when he was open. That in itself could be a very good thing at times because he knew everyone needed to be involved and shooting too quickly may have started a slide of not enough people being involved. Kids a player and Jimmy will play him when the right situations occur and is obviously in the main rotation right now.

Love Battle taking the 1 at times, gives Jim a different form of attack on O and frees Frank to play 2 at times and to get rest while being able to rotate all the 3/4's and Merek 4/5. Buddy being able to handle the 2 has made this team a lot better but sadly the cost to a point is Carey getting less PT and not nearly as confident with the ball...almost dribbling the ball like an egg or it's shaped like a football.

 

[AZOrange]

I don’t need a sample size to judge Buddy. I just look at his stroke, how the ball goes in and what his misses look like. Might be the best stroke ever and he might be playing next to the runner up!

 

[SmilinBob]

Buddy and Frank have both started shooting better in recent games...critically important for a team with limited interior scoring.

Teams are gonna start thinking twice about zoning us.

Agree and that said the key to this is being able to get the ball inside/free throw line to the 5's and Brissett and Merek to open things up or the zone will just hover the outside to deny free open looks. Add to that penetration by the shooters will open things up as well and if Battle can do his thing AND be able to pass/assist the world will open for this O.

This team runs like a Jaguar when the 5/4's play well and brakes down like a Jaguar when they don't.

Still have to offensive rebound when they aren't hitting shots and in the second half we saw more effort in that and to me that made a huge difference from having a close game to going to a 20 point win.

 

[Forza Azzurri]

As well as this team has done over the course of the last six games or so (save GT), Buddy has certainly played a part. In his last five he's shooting 8-16 from three. He had shot 8-36 in the early season portion of the schedule, or 22%.

If he comes on, it just opens up the offense more. I think he's starting to get used to the speed of the game, and that is only going to help this team in the long run

What really stood out to me last night was how guys were looking for Buddy, especially in transition.

I specifically remember one sequence where Battle was bringing the ball up the court. It wasn't fast break transition but it was unsettled enough that Miami wasn't organized on D. It was a classic scenario for Battle to attack to try to get all the way to the rim and, instead, he gave it up to a wide open Buddy on the wing. I was surprised by it because I fully expected Battle to go into attack mode.

They clearly trust his ability to shoot the rock.

 

[MSOrange]

What really stood out to me last night was how guys were looking for Buddy, especially in transition.

I specifically remember one sequence where Battle was bringing the ball up the court. It wasn't fast break transition but it was unsettled enough that Miami wasn't organized on D. It was a classic scenario for Battle to attack to try to get all the way to the rim and, instead, he gave it up to a wide open Buddy on the wing. I was surprised by it because I fully expected Battle to go into attack mode.

They clearly trust his ability to shoot the rock.

You sure about that? I heard Buddy's PT was tearing the team apart

 

[CousCuse]

He is going to drop a big number on some team soon. Hope it's UNC or UVA, or both.

 

[Forza Azzurri]

You sure about that? I heard Buddy's PT was tearing the team apart

LOL...Are you trying to get me riled up again???

The whole Buddy thing has been a classic example of "post-immediately" because I'm pi$$ed off that we lost EDIT: (because I'm pi$$ED off because Buddy struggled in the first two games of the season - the post was not after the UConn game. Pretty sure it was after Morehead St.) rather than actually think about the timing, and the sample size, I'm using to justify the post.

For a poster to have started a nepotism post after only two games, especially given our injury situation, was lacking in judgement (and it wasn't just that poster, there were a number of posters who either liked his post or responded to it in agreement).

It has been a very interesting season because Howard's injury, especially, meant that Boeheim didn't have his full complement of players during the pre-season and a part of the non-conference. And, even when Howard came back, his not being at 100% meant Boeheim had to let him play his way back into form.

As a result, he has had to do a lot of tinkering, especially on the offensive end, and figure things out on the fly.

He had to figure out how to best use MD. You can see how that has taken shape.
He had to force feed Buddy minutes early on due to injuries when, IMHO, Buddy wasn't ready. Also IMHO, I would wager that Buddy would not have seen the time he did that early on if JB had had other options. Then he had to get Buddy to get his confidence back.
He had to figure out how EH would fit in.
He had to play Battle out of position early on.
He had to get PC back to playing like he was at the end of last year.
He had to figure out what he had this year in Sidibe.

Lots of moving parts and it simply takes time to figure it all out - time that you really don't have when you have struggled in the non-conference and are looking at the meat of the schedule in the face.

And, of course, with the level of expectations coming off last year's end of season success, posters have no patience for that so, of course, you get the Boeheim's gotta go and the Buddy's only playing because of his Dad and PC sucks, and Sidibe sucks and Hughes sucks and GMAC sucks and Cooney still sucks etc.

BTW, for the record, I still don't think we are in the same league with the very top teams in the ACC. Yes, we beat Duke but we needed them to shoot a horrendous percentage from 3 and they still took us to OT. When we shot that percentage from 3, we lost at home to Georgia Tech by double digits. Let that sink in for a minute.

I like the fact that the changes JB has made to the offense has resulted in getting better shots and more wide-open looks and fewer contested shots late in the shot clock.

But, let's see how we do on the road against a good Virginia Tech team and then the two road games after that. A really good team should be able to take care of business against all 3 of those teams. I'm not so sure that we are a really good team yet.

 

[Sgt Cuse]

The team would not succeed long term with battle at pg. even jb says when he goes to the point it’s only to go on his own. Not facilitate the offense. Watch him at pg. he’s either looking to go coast to coast or pulling up for a jumper. He doesn’t call for any plays, doesn’t move guys around, doesn’t run an offense.

Bees -I have been watching Battle at the point and the team is dangerously good with him there, and Buddy at the 2. They complement each other so well. I think more and more people are now seeing this. TB is doing more than just going coast to coast, he's pulling the opponent D and getting it to Buddy (among others) for open looks.

The composition of the lineup of TB, Buddy, Eli, OB, and Marek (true OB didn't have his best game last night though) has obvious power. It is rivaling (and really is probably dead equal) to the Frank lineup. This team can succeed long term with Battle at the point.

TB at the point w Buddy at the 2 is now the clear leader as the guard rotation. And now with the that lineup having the lead at the halfway point of the season, I think that is how it plays out for this year.

 

[Forza Azzurri]

Buddy and Frank have both started shooting better in recent games...critically important for a team with limited interior scoring.

Teams are gonna start thinking twice about zoning us.

We shot Miami out of the zone and then shot them back into the zone...

 

[realorange]

SgtCuse, you don't have to post the same thing twice in your effort to keep Frank on the bench.

As other posters and JB have said, they don't believe Tyus is at his best being a PG. I guess Frank doesn't have enough charisma for you and others. He just gets the job done.

Buddy is fine coming off the bench at this point. He is not yet capable of doing the things that Frank can and neither is Tyus if you continually put him in the PG position.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

SgtCuse, you don't have to post the same thing twice in your effort to keep Frank on the bench.

As other posters and JB have said, they don't believe Tyus is at his best being a PG. I guess Frank doesn't have enough charisma for you and others. He just gets the job done.

Buddy is fine coming off the bench at this point. He is not yet capable of doing the things that Frank can and neither is Tyus if you continually put him in the PG position.

I think the reality is that Tyus playing the point, with Frank still on the floor, is a much less pressure filled situation for Tyus right now, as opposed to when Frank was in street clothes. We also aren't facing the same ball pressure that we did in a couple games where Tyus was running the show.

 

[Sgt Cuse]

I always thought this too. Tonight was a marked difference. Boeheim said something in presser about basketball is more than shooting and Tyus wanting to facilitate more, which I thought was interesting. Seemed like a comment about the NBA and being a better all around player. Also complimented him being active on the boards and good defensively. Think it’s also a good reminder that despite JB being hard on players, he’s a players coach.

I think some people may need to revisit the "Battle hasn't improved" (used often in the JB doesn't develop players criticism). TB now is showing mad point guard skills (to go along with last weeks Naismith Player of the week award). Showing these new skills may not give him all ACC props but will be recognized by the NBA.

The lineup with TB at point and Buddy at the 2 is good and improving. TB is showing the improvement in pg skills and Buddy has rapidly improved in-season. Buddy is shedding the deer-in-the-headlights look, looking like he belongs out there. Because this lineup, while already good, is in improvement mode, I don't think we see much of JC the rest of the way. Kind of unfortunate, but I can see JB wanting to maximize the chemistry of the TB/Buddy pairing. We are pretty much half way through the season, time to fine tune the playoff lineups.

 

[A Clockwork Orange]

these sample sizes are so small as to be meaningless. both his initial struggles and his current hot streak are tiny sample sizes from which not much can be drawn in terms of predictive value.

What it's showing is he's not as bad as he was at the beginning, and he's probably not as good as he is right now. I think he can be a 40% three-point shooter, but many on the board feel the need to write players off after they've played ten games here.

 

[A Clockwork Orange]

What really stood out to me last night was how guys were looking for Buddy, especially in transition.

I specifically remember one sequence where Battle was bringing the ball up the court. It wasn't fast break transition but it was unsettled enough that Miami wasn't organized on D. It was a classic scenario for Battle to attack to try to get all the way to the rim and, instead, he gave it up to a wide open Buddy on the wing. I was surprised by it because I fully expected Battle to go into attack mode.

They clearly trust his ability to shoot the rock.

One of the players (I think it was Oshae?) was quoted after the Pitt game saying Buddy "never misses in practice." I think they have faith in him, and he's starting to get used to the college game. He'll certainly have bad shooting nights here and there, but the overreaction of people on this board about him in sometimes mind-boggling.

 

[TexanMark]

Buddy is becoming that guy we hated to see from our opponents: Some under recruited random suburban or rural kid that comes off the bench and nails 4-5 three point shots.

A few NCAA teams' fans will hate him soon enough

 

[rrlbees]

Bees -I have been watching Battle at the point and the team is dangerously good with him there, and Buddy at the 2. They complement each other so well. I think more and more people are now seeing this. TB is doing more than just going coast to coast, he's pulling the opponent D and getting it to Buddy (among others) for open looks.

The composition of the lineup of TB, Buddy, Eli, OB, and Marek (true OB didn't have his best game last night though) has obvious power. It is rivaling (and really is probably dead equal) to the Frank lineup. This team can succeed long term with Battle at the point.

TB at the point w Buddy at the 2 is now the clear leader as the guard rotation. And now with the that lineup having the lead at the halfway point of the season, I think that is how it plays out for this year.

With Tyus at point bringing it up, he didn’t call out one play. It’s more free lance. He had a lot of assists, and there were a couple of good looks, but most were because of giving guys like Frank early, then Buddy a pass that they hit the 3. Now having said that, Battle at PG does draw some defensive attention, so that’s a positive for everyone else. Buddy shot great, especially in the 1st half, but when we took the halftime lead up to 18-20, it was Howard, Battle, Hughes, Dolezaj, and Chewy on the court. Which I feel is our best lineup, especially offensively.