Can we all agree making the tournament at large is the bare minimum expectation this season

[cusefan88]

Doesn't help that Louisville is projected top-4 ACC finish with a new HC after their last two seasons. Things can turn around that quick in the portal era. Red needs to get it done.

They're great on paper but we'll see what happens. I'm assuming they will gel together but you really don't know.

 

[MikeSU02]

I have no expectations until we actually see the team play. I dont know how people can be so certain without seeing anything.

I respectfully disagree... partially.

Yes, without seeing them live, real meaningful game time, it's hard to say what to expect. If game 1 opens up and JJ is getting into the lane and scoring at will, Lampkin is rim running and punishing smaller guys on O, Bell is hitting everything inside of 30 feet, etc... of course, up those expectations. I'm with you there. Or, if the opposite happens, tamper them down.

Here are the two things I'd say:

1) I would assume that if we had Duke's roster (or insert any top 10 team's roster), our expectations would be high. Final Four/Elite Eight, etc etc. I don't think you would be waiting to see them play before making that call.

2) My second one is more of being a Syracuse fan at this point ---- at what point is it ok to have expectations of literally just making the tournament? That's it. I get we don't have an all world roster. I get we may only have one NBA guy on this team for this year. I'm not asking for the S16. But at what point is expecting to make the tournament ok before seeing the team play in live games? Truly - because I don't think it's outrageous to expect that this year.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I expect an efficient 15 and 10 every night from Lampkin with the NIL package he's getting. Anything less than that is not enough.

 

[MikeSU02]

I expect an efficient 15 and 10 every night from Lampkin with the NIL package he's getting. Anything less than that is not enough.

There is no way in god’s green earth he averages ten boards per game.

I think everyone has to take a breath on what to expect from Lampkin.

 

[Orangezoo]

I have no expectations until we actually see the team play. I dont know how people can be so certain without seeing anything.

Agreed on this. Some of the negative assumptions as well as the optimistic ones are pure guesses and often don’t make sense to me. On paper we have size, more experience and some proven production at various levels of competition across the board.

Unknown what transfers over for the portal guys or improvements from returning guys. It does seem drama should be much less of an issue. That’s one thing that is a solid assumption.

More experience has been a winning formula in the portal era more so than not. So take this limited assumptions plus a lot of wait and see and we really just don’t know.

 

[Orangezoo]

There is no way in god’s green earth he averages ten boards per game.

I think everyone has to take a breath on what to expect from Lampkin.

14 and 7 is what I expect. It’s the rebounding of his front court mates that share the floor with him that will tell me more. If he’s doing his job boxing out and playing physical in the paint, then guys like Donnie should be feasting on the boards.

I think everyone also needs to step back from expecting the new guys to disappoint too. Red got a lot out of several knuckleheads this past season so I wouldn’t count him out getting as much as he can out of a group that’s more interesting in playing for him and their teammates vs just for themselves.

 

[Orangezoo]

I expect an efficient 15 and 10 every night from Lampkin with the NIL package he's getting. Anything less than that is not enough.

If he averages 10/5 and 3 apg and we win 23/24 games that works too. Much more about overall results vs stats the way I see it. 15-10 with too much usage and meh. Everybody put it all out on the court and play together and let the numbers figure themselves out.

 

[Niastri]

There is no way in god’s green earth he averages ten boards per game.

I think everyone has to take a breath on what to expect from Lampkin.

I think you're right... I'm thinking Lampkin will average about 7 because he's only playing 22-25 minutes a game.

McLeod is picking up the rest of the minutes and will probably get about 5 rebounds a game.

15-12-3-3 between them.

And most importantly, we aren't going to watch another season where our biggest player out there is the third biggest guy on the court.

 

[SUskibum]

14 and 7 is what I expect. It’s the rebounding of his front court mates that share the floor with him that will tell me more. If he’s doing his job boxing out and playing physical in the paint, then guys like Donnie should be feasting on the boards.

I think everyone also needs to step back from expecting the new guys to disappoint too. Red got a lot out of several knuckleheads this past season so I wouldn’t count him out getting as much as he can out of a group that’s more interesting in playing for him and their teammates vs just for themselves.

This seems right, I look at Lampkins upside as Rick Jackson playing along side Highlander like Rick played along arinze (kinda). Highlander is likely to take 12-15 mins is my guess

2010 Rick J 10pts/7boards/26 mins/59% shooting

 

[IthacaBarrel]

Red's seat is going to be awfully hot if he doesn't make the tourny this year

No it’s not

 

[Cusefan0307]

There is no way in god’s green earth he averages ten boards per game.

I think everyone has to take a breath on what to expect from Lampkin.

From what I heard he’s getting a similar NIL package as Kyle McCord. If he doesn’t average 10 boards fine. I don’t want to hear the excuses.

 

[two3zone]

I expect an efficient 15 and 10 every night from Lampkin with the NIL package he's getting. Anything less than that is not enough.

I hope he has more than 5 blocks this season.

 

[two3zone]

From what I heard he’s getting a similar NIL package as Kyle McCord. If he doesn’t average 10 boards fine. I don’t want to hear the excuses.

If that is the case then I'd be funneling money into football and next year's QB.

 

[Sherman20]

There is no way in god’s green earth he averages ten boards per game.

I think everyone has to take a breath on what to expect from Lampkin.

Yeah, that’s not happening. If we can get 7 boards a game from Lampkin, I’d be thrilled. Lampkin’s strength is passing and scoring around the rim/in the paint. I’d be thrilled with 12-13 ppg from him.

 

[Cuse181]

I have no expectations until we actually see the team play. I dont know how people can be so certain without seeing anything.

The tournament should be the bare minimum regardless of what the roster is. You should be able to put together a tournament caliber roster at Syracuse university

 

[UpstateSM]

Will be a great moment in the game thread the first time we see Lampkin play PNR defense

 

[UpstateSM]

Yeah, that’s not happening. If we can get 7 boards a game from Lampkin, I’d be thrilled. Lampkin’s strength is passing and scoring around the rim/in the paint. I’d be thrilled with 12-13 ppg from him.

You'll be thrilled if a dude making as much as the best Syracuse QB since I could walk averages 12 and 7? Couldn't be me.

 

[Cusefan0307]

You'll be thrilled if a dude making as much as the best Syracuse QB since I could walk averages 12 and 7? Couldn't be me.

Agreed. I’m happy players get a piece of the pie, but with that come expectations. They can get criticized like professionals now. This move needs to be worth it.

 

[baggerbob]

This seems right, I look at Lampkins upside as Rick Jackson playing along side Highlander like Rick played along arinze (kinda). Highlander is likely to take 12-15 mins is my guess

2010 Rick J 10pts/7boards/26 mins/59% shooting

Just get back to the days where if a shot goes up and misses we have a better then 50% chance of rebounding it on both ends.

 

[MikeSU02]

14 and 7 is what I expect. It’s the rebounding of his front court mates that share the floor with him that will tell me more. If he’s doing his job boxing out and playing physical in the paint, then guys like Donnie should be feasting on the boards.

I think everyone also needs to step back from expecting the new guys to disappoint too. Red got a lot out of several knuckleheads this past season so I wouldn’t count him out getting as much as he can out of a group that’s more interesting in playing for him and their teammates vs just for themselves.

Last year one of the knuckleheads was Judah who, while driving everyone crazy a lot with his play, was still very talented and made an all conference team.

He also had an all defense guy.

Being cautious about CAA and Sun Belt guys isn’t being a chicken little. Even Lampkin - he was playing with three NBA guys.

Also, I’d be careful assuming everyone is team oriented when the games start when they are on their third college team and are running out of road for showcasing skills.

 

[MikeSU02]

Will be a great moment in the game thread the first time we see Lampkin play PNR defense

Not only defense, he has to be able to handle it on offense. To the point made in this thread about his pay —

He has to be able to set screens, handle the short roll/4 on 3, rim run, elbow jumper, etc.

 

[MikeSU02]

From what I heard he’s getting a similar NIL package as Kyle McCord. If he doesn’t average 10 boards fine. I don’t want to hear the excuses.

Lmaooooooo. Legit, for that price, he better be Neon Bodeaux.

 

[cusefan88]

The board will be insufferable when Lampkin has a bad game. It is what it is. This is the new reality of college basketball. Just support the players and stop throwing them under the bus three weeks before they've even had an exhibition.

 

[Orangezoo]

Last year one of the knuckleheads was Judah who, while driving everyone crazy a lot with his play, was still very talented and made an all conference team.

He also had an all defense guy.

Being cautious about CAA and Sun Belt guys isn’t being a chicken little. Even Lampkin - he was playing with three NBA guys.

Also, I’d be careful assuming everyone is team oriented when the games start when they are on their third college team and are running out of road for showcasing skills.

Judah is an enigma. I think it’s fair to say that his production is over valued. He was a high usage guy and put up good numbers vs most everyone because of his FT rate. That said he did very little to be a leader and often times his aggressiveness put us in a hole we couldn’t recover from. It was pure iso ball with him and a couple others.

This year is really the first year where we have gone hard into the portal. I think healthy skepticism is fair and have my own.

I think a lot of our skepticism derives from poor results as a program and I think it’s fair to separate that from the players a bit. Outside of Taylor, each of the portal adds have been well coached and come from solid programs (in a relative sense and overall sense). So they bring positive traits with them to go with the questions via level of competition and analytics. So if we separate them out that way- as 5th year guys/srs, to me they are guys where the range of outcomes with their production is not wide. Somewhere modestly below their prior to modestly above is where I would say a bunch of seniors will fall. Generally speaking, chemistry, willingness to put in the work and all of that is a positive trait towards getting closer to expectation or better.

The Lampkin stuff soured a lot of people and I know that listening to pods like Deans certainly doesn’t excite folks on him either. I look at him as a necessary expenditure for a second year coach trying to revive a program. Getting every ounce out of the kid is on Red to me. Given what he got out of last years team, despite dealing with the BS tells me he’s capable of getting stuff out of difficult kids. Eddie is probably not a super easy kid to deal with , I doubt he’s anything in the category of last year but still the biggest personality.

Anyways without going off too many tangents I think that bias leads us to expecting the worst and setting aside that bias I think there is a reasonable window of expectation that primarily will be impacted by how good Donnie is, how much improved the returning guys are, where the new guys fall in that range of outcomes and then the oddball stuff like what ends up being the Westry impact. Finally and maybe even more importantly, how strong is Red with his somewhat new look staff and having a former HC as an assistant?

It’s odd that it’s really year 2 in Reds tenure that we know the least about how things will go. For me I see reason to have optimism with a healthy dose of skepticism and am going to give them the benefit of the doubt of leaving the past as the past. That however is just me. The football teams progress ( hopefully with a win tonight too) and my Mets making a run this year probably has me a bit more jovial too lol.

 

[Orangezoo]

You'll be thrilled if a dude making as much as the best Syracuse QB since I could walk averages 12 and 7? Couldn't be me.

Wins over stats. I’d rather him be an efficient 10, 5 and 3 ast with closer to a bpg on D and we win 24 games than caring on his total boards. He’s a big body who on tape seals and boxes out well.

Donnie is a good rebounder- but more as an athlete than it being about physicality. Lampkin occupying bodies to let others hit the boards work fine.

Colorado had 3 other guys average 5 boards a game. We had one guy last year average over 5 (Maliq). If you watch their tape- the wings and forwards got on the boards because they were battling the opponents big man- Eddie had him occupied. That’s what we need. We’ve seen this before when we had actual size in the middle and athletes on the wing vs being undersized or beanpoles.

Now I get Colorado had 3 draft picks etc etc but fundamentally a big guy doing his job as a space occupier vs a traditional shot blocker should be making it easier for others to hit the glass.