General20
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I must have still been in a Halloween state of mind during the game - maybe because I stayed up until 3am watching scary movies - but the undisputed highlight of last night's game, for me, was Cal St. center Carl Hoffman who looked exactly like the best friend from Sean of the Dead. Google it. If you're immature you will get a giggle out of it, and if you are as immature as I am you will find it hilarious.
The tricky thing about exhibition games is that being reactionary gets you nowhere, and the vast majority of fans are reactionary. I know, you have to be able to project future success to get anything out of an exhibition, I'm just not sure how good I am at the prediction part. Of course, that's not going to stop me from giving my opinions. I have four.
The obvious one, which i'm not going to dwell on because everybody is making the same comments, is Fab Melo. He is much improved. No way to say yet just how good, but he is much improved. Also, in keeping with the Halloween theme, I'm pretty sure Bernie Fine is a witch. He is working absolute magic on SU's big men. Following his Rick Jackson triumph with Fab.
Number 2 is Keita. Everybody seems to be clamoring for a low post threat. I'm not so sure how vital it is (UConn didnt have one last year), but it is certainly nice to have. Melo, even though he played great and lead the team in scoring, did not show any low post moves. His scores came from put-backs, jump shots, and finishing when open under the basket. Keita, on the other hand took 3 nice looking hook shots, two of which fell and one that got half way down before popping out. He looked good, but I think it was telling that SU as a team played worse when he came in for Melo . . . that is how good Melo was in this game. Bottom line, Keita has some post moves now, which is a big step forward in his development as a player.
Number 3 is CJ Fair. He was left open behind the 3 point line once, he took his shot and drained it. That is not really what impressed me. What impressed me is that he took the shot without hesitating. That says, to me, that Boeheim has given him the green light from deep. He most certainly did not have the green light last year, so he must have made great strides in that area. Good news for Cuse. Mostly because it will open driving lanes for Fair to use his floater, which was deadly in high school but has yet to make much of an appearance in college, mostly because defenders blocked his driving lanes because they did not respect his jump shot. Bottom line, Fair has a jump shot which is going to need to be respected by defenses, and which will open up driving lanes for him.
Number 4 is Jardine. We have heard a lot about how improved Waiters and Triche are physically. Waiters body has changed the most, but he didn't seem any more physically explosive to me than he did last year. I thought he was the most explosive athlete on the team then, and I still think that now. Triche seems to have an extra bounce in his step, but its Jardine, who looks like he added the most speed to me. He also looked like the best player on the court last night, even though he didnt do much. For the whole first half he reminded me of an old master in one of those cheesy king fu movies who stands off to the side while everybody else fights, but you just know when he jumps in he is going to dominate everybody else. That pretty much summed up Jardine's night. He seemed content to facilitate for the bigs and the younger guys, but the few times he called his own number he was dominating. Bottom line, Jardine is a better athlete and a better basketball player than he was last year.
Those are pretty much the only worth while observations I have. I, like everyone, got an impression of the three freshmen. Here is what I thought.
Carter-Williams was obviously nervous for this game, and played it at about two speeds too fast for him, which is usual for a Freshman playing his first game. What came through over and above the nerves was how lethal he is going to the basket. His arms are roughly twelve feet long a piece with at least 4 elbow joints, and he has an uncanny knack for putting the ball up at weird angles that the defender cant get to. PT is still going to be a battle for him with Waiters, Triche, and Jardine on the team. The few times SU did play zone (out of bounce plays only) Carter-Williams was lost every time. The good news is that I noticed two times where Waiters came up to him and told him where to be. Pretty cool considering just one year ago, Waiters was the freshman who was lost on how to play the zone. If you want to know why Triche and Jardine are the starters on this team though, watch everybody play D. They are by far the two best defenders.
Cooney is always open (even when he's far from the basket and well guarded) because his release is so fast and he is such a good shooter. As Syracuse fans, we have ran into guys like this in the past. Its nice to have one on our team. The fact that he scored 7 points in only 6 minutes is very impressive. The fact that he only played 6 minutes screams red shirt to me.
Christmas is a player I like. The reports of him not being able to score are far overblown in my opinion. Is he going to give us 15 a game from the post this year? No, but neither did Warrick or Onuaku right away, and they turned out to be two of the most prolific low post scorers in SU history. Christmas can hold his own with those two as far as how good they were going into their freshman years, and if the reports of his high IQ and willingness to work hard are true, the sky is the limit for him. The guy was a McDonald's All American for a reason.
Everybody always goes a little crazy about depth at this time of year, and for sure, we have a lot of good players on this team. I see the depth chart like this.
Definitely playing every game: Jardine, Triche, Waiters, Joseph, Fair, Melo, Keita.
Definitely not in the rotation: Cooney, Jones.
Will be in the rotation ONLY if their play justifies sitting one of the guys from the first list: Carter-Williams, Southerland, Christmas.
That says to me we are going to be somewhere between 7-10 deep. My guess is we end up 8 deep.
I debated on which list to put Christmas in. The fact that he is a starter obviously bodes well for him PT wise. But, the truth is with freshmen you never know until they get into actual games. If Christmas can't hack it, he will go from a starter to getting pulled from the rotation pretty quick. It could happen, given the talent of Fair and Southerland (who I have not given up on yet as a player, I love his skill set) and the fact that Keita seems like he could play power forward if called upon.
For the record, I like the idea of Keita at power forward. He is a little skinny and will get pushed around as a center, but he can physically dominate any power forward out there. He is quick enough and smart enough to play the wing of the zone. And what power forward is stopping that new hook of his? I doubt any of them. A center can push him out of position, making the hook irrelevant, but it could be a deadly weapon against smaller defenders. The downside is building fouls by having your two best centers play together (I dont think this experiment even gets tried until Melo proves he can play extremely long stretches of games without needing to be subbed for fouls or other reasons) but if Christmas can fill in as an emergency center, it solves that little problem.
Almost forgot, some general team thoughts. This team is long and athletic and gets up and down the court as fast as any college team I have seen. For that reason alone, they are going to be good and they are going to win a bunch of games. If you want to know if they have a chance to win it all, dont get bogged down in the little details, watch how good they play offensively when they are forced to play half court against a defense that is set. In college you dont win it all unless you can score consistently from half court against tough defenses. It really is pretty much that simple. To me it seems like they need to have a lot of motion and crisp passes to score consistently in the half court. That is what I will be looking for.
On final note, Jim Burr seemed to be in mid-season form last night, and that is not a compliment.
The tricky thing about exhibition games is that being reactionary gets you nowhere, and the vast majority of fans are reactionary. I know, you have to be able to project future success to get anything out of an exhibition, I'm just not sure how good I am at the prediction part. Of course, that's not going to stop me from giving my opinions. I have four.
The obvious one, which i'm not going to dwell on because everybody is making the same comments, is Fab Melo. He is much improved. No way to say yet just how good, but he is much improved. Also, in keeping with the Halloween theme, I'm pretty sure Bernie Fine is a witch. He is working absolute magic on SU's big men. Following his Rick Jackson triumph with Fab.
Number 2 is Keita. Everybody seems to be clamoring for a low post threat. I'm not so sure how vital it is (UConn didnt have one last year), but it is certainly nice to have. Melo, even though he played great and lead the team in scoring, did not show any low post moves. His scores came from put-backs, jump shots, and finishing when open under the basket. Keita, on the other hand took 3 nice looking hook shots, two of which fell and one that got half way down before popping out. He looked good, but I think it was telling that SU as a team played worse when he came in for Melo . . . that is how good Melo was in this game. Bottom line, Keita has some post moves now, which is a big step forward in his development as a player.
Number 3 is CJ Fair. He was left open behind the 3 point line once, he took his shot and drained it. That is not really what impressed me. What impressed me is that he took the shot without hesitating. That says, to me, that Boeheim has given him the green light from deep. He most certainly did not have the green light last year, so he must have made great strides in that area. Good news for Cuse. Mostly because it will open driving lanes for Fair to use his floater, which was deadly in high school but has yet to make much of an appearance in college, mostly because defenders blocked his driving lanes because they did not respect his jump shot. Bottom line, Fair has a jump shot which is going to need to be respected by defenses, and which will open up driving lanes for him.
Number 4 is Jardine. We have heard a lot about how improved Waiters and Triche are physically. Waiters body has changed the most, but he didn't seem any more physically explosive to me than he did last year. I thought he was the most explosive athlete on the team then, and I still think that now. Triche seems to have an extra bounce in his step, but its Jardine, who looks like he added the most speed to me. He also looked like the best player on the court last night, even though he didnt do much. For the whole first half he reminded me of an old master in one of those cheesy king fu movies who stands off to the side while everybody else fights, but you just know when he jumps in he is going to dominate everybody else. That pretty much summed up Jardine's night. He seemed content to facilitate for the bigs and the younger guys, but the few times he called his own number he was dominating. Bottom line, Jardine is a better athlete and a better basketball player than he was last year.
Those are pretty much the only worth while observations I have. I, like everyone, got an impression of the three freshmen. Here is what I thought.
Carter-Williams was obviously nervous for this game, and played it at about two speeds too fast for him, which is usual for a Freshman playing his first game. What came through over and above the nerves was how lethal he is going to the basket. His arms are roughly twelve feet long a piece with at least 4 elbow joints, and he has an uncanny knack for putting the ball up at weird angles that the defender cant get to. PT is still going to be a battle for him with Waiters, Triche, and Jardine on the team. The few times SU did play zone (out of bounce plays only) Carter-Williams was lost every time. The good news is that I noticed two times where Waiters came up to him and told him where to be. Pretty cool considering just one year ago, Waiters was the freshman who was lost on how to play the zone. If you want to know why Triche and Jardine are the starters on this team though, watch everybody play D. They are by far the two best defenders.
Cooney is always open (even when he's far from the basket and well guarded) because his release is so fast and he is such a good shooter. As Syracuse fans, we have ran into guys like this in the past. Its nice to have one on our team. The fact that he scored 7 points in only 6 minutes is very impressive. The fact that he only played 6 minutes screams red shirt to me.
Christmas is a player I like. The reports of him not being able to score are far overblown in my opinion. Is he going to give us 15 a game from the post this year? No, but neither did Warrick or Onuaku right away, and they turned out to be two of the most prolific low post scorers in SU history. Christmas can hold his own with those two as far as how good they were going into their freshman years, and if the reports of his high IQ and willingness to work hard are true, the sky is the limit for him. The guy was a McDonald's All American for a reason.
Everybody always goes a little crazy about depth at this time of year, and for sure, we have a lot of good players on this team. I see the depth chart like this.
Definitely playing every game: Jardine, Triche, Waiters, Joseph, Fair, Melo, Keita.
Definitely not in the rotation: Cooney, Jones.
Will be in the rotation ONLY if their play justifies sitting one of the guys from the first list: Carter-Williams, Southerland, Christmas.
That says to me we are going to be somewhere between 7-10 deep. My guess is we end up 8 deep.
I debated on which list to put Christmas in. The fact that he is a starter obviously bodes well for him PT wise. But, the truth is with freshmen you never know until they get into actual games. If Christmas can't hack it, he will go from a starter to getting pulled from the rotation pretty quick. It could happen, given the talent of Fair and Southerland (who I have not given up on yet as a player, I love his skill set) and the fact that Keita seems like he could play power forward if called upon.
For the record, I like the idea of Keita at power forward. He is a little skinny and will get pushed around as a center, but he can physically dominate any power forward out there. He is quick enough and smart enough to play the wing of the zone. And what power forward is stopping that new hook of his? I doubt any of them. A center can push him out of position, making the hook irrelevant, but it could be a deadly weapon against smaller defenders. The downside is building fouls by having your two best centers play together (I dont think this experiment even gets tried until Melo proves he can play extremely long stretches of games without needing to be subbed for fouls or other reasons) but if Christmas can fill in as an emergency center, it solves that little problem.
Almost forgot, some general team thoughts. This team is long and athletic and gets up and down the court as fast as any college team I have seen. For that reason alone, they are going to be good and they are going to win a bunch of games. If you want to know if they have a chance to win it all, dont get bogged down in the little details, watch how good they play offensively when they are forced to play half court against a defense that is set. In college you dont win it all unless you can score consistently from half court against tough defenses. It really is pretty much that simple. To me it seems like they need to have a lot of motion and crisp passes to score consistently in the half court. That is what I will be looking for.
On final note, Jim Burr seemed to be in mid-season form last night, and that is not a compliment.
