can we put an APB out for our fast-break?

[OrangeFoo]

In all my 20 something years of watching Syracuse hoops I can't remember a squad this feeble getting out and running. Even on opportunities where we had 2 on 1s we managed to mess them up.

For as good as Ennis is doing everything else, his lack of elite athleticism really comes through on fast-break situations and it doesn't help that Cooney isn't an elite athlete either. Whenever Scoop, Brandon, Dion, or MCW were on a 1:1 or 2:1 situation you could count the points... with this squad its pretty shaky potatos.

The result of this is that we are only going to be building a cushion if we can hit our jump shots and since we are never going to be consistent at that all year we are going to have a lot of yo yo games like yesterday where we pull ahead by a good amount and get pulled back in or games where we can't get a big run going.

This season is going to come down to how well we execute in the half court sets so we can avoid scoring droughts.

 

[Jack Hall]

In all my 20 something years of watching Syracuse hoops I can't remember a squad this feeble getting out and running. Even on opportunities where we had 2 on 1s we managed to mess them up.

For as good as Ennis is doing everything else, his lack of elite athleticism really comes through on fast-break situations and it doesn't help that Cooney isn't an elite athlete either. Whenever Scoop, Brandon, Dion, or MCW were on a 1:1 or 2:1 situation you could count the points... with this squad its pretty shaky potatos.

The result of this is that we are only going to be building a cushion if we can hit our jump shots and since we are never going to be consistent at that all year we are going to have a lot of yo yo games like yesterday where we pull ahead by a good amount and get pulled back in or games where we can't get a big run going.

This season is going to come down to how well we execute in the half court sets so we can avoid scoring droughts.

When was the last time we were great on the break, 2010? Even that team didn't look so great on break against butler? I don't think JB values the break as much as he used to. I think he values the ball and possessions. In terms of this season, TE is very cautious and wants to be steady w the ball IMO. He backs off quite a bit when the potential opp is there to push it. Will be interesting to see if that changes this season...

 

[iommi]

I think part of the issue is that Ennis is sometimes hesitant to ATTACK on the break. He's such a cool customer that he often pulls back when he has a chance to take advantage of numbers. I also think our fast break scoring would look a lot better if Ennis could finish better at the rim.

 

[CusefanATL]

When was the last time we were great on the break, 2010? Even that team didn't look so great on break against butler? I don't think JB values the break as much as he used to. I think he values the ball and possessions. In terms of this season, TE is very cautious and wants to be steady w the ball IMO. He backs off quite a bit when the potential opp is there to push it. Will be interesting to see if that changes this season...

since when? 1 of our staples for years was scoring in transition.

If he doesnt value the break as much as he used to... that literally started this year. And came out of left field.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Hard to run when you don't force turnovers and can't defensive rebound. That was the issue yesterday. I mentioned in another thread a week or so ago that our adjusted tempo on kenpom has gone down every year since 07-08, with each passing year being lower than the previous. A lot of this I think has to do with the way other teams play offense against our zone. They wait until 5 seconds to shoot and it decreases the amount of possessions per game for us. Couple that with our inability to defensive rebound, sometimes we play defense for a minute and a half at a time.

 

[iommi]

Hard to run when you don't force turnovers and can't defensive rebound. That was the issue yesterday. I mentioned in another thread a week or so ago that our adjusted tempo on kenpom has gone down every year since 07-08, with each passing year being lower than the previous. A lot of this I think has to do with the way other teams play offense against our zone. They wait until 5 seconds to shoot and it decreases the amount of possessions per game for us. Couple that with our inability to defensive rebound, sometimes we play defense for a minute and a half at a time.

Excellent post.

 

[iommi]

Hard to run when you don't force turnovers and can't defensive rebound. That was the issue yesterday. I mentioned in another thread a week or so ago that our adjusted tempo on kenpom has gone down every year since 07-08, with each passing year being lower than the previous. A lot of this I think has to do with the way other teams play offense against our zone. They wait until 5 seconds to shoot and it decreases the amount of possessions per game for us. Couple that with our inability to defensive rebound, sometimes we play defense for a minute and a half at a time.

Who is our leading rebounder? CJ? I'm too lazy to look at the #s but our leading rebounder probably doesn't even average 7 a game. Part of that is attributable to the distribution of minutes and depth but still...

 

[Jack Hall]

Hard to run when you don't force turnovers and can't defensive rebound. That was the issue yesterday. I mentioned in another thread a week or so ago that our adjusted tempo on kenpom has gone down every year since 07-08, with each passing year being lower than the previous. A lot of this I think has to do with the way other teams play offense against our zone. They wait until 5 seconds to shoot and it decreases the amount of possessions per game for us. Couple that with our inability to defensive rebound, sometimes we play defense for a minute and a half at a time.

That's been my impression, our tempo has been more cautious since say the 03 team. Interesting that kenpom backs that up, altho doesn't mean much nec. But I agree, if teams are playing slow down against our zone and we are. Not rebounding it, will be tough to run or even force the pace in an up n down half court game. Quite a few people posted before johnnies game that it should be up tempo. That never materialized and IMO both teams playing zone did not help...

 

[OttoMets]

We didn't do it well last year, either. We were conservative but also blew a number of break opportunities when we did try to push.

I'm more confident in our half-court offense this time around, so it shouldn't be as much of a problem. Also an area in which we'll see our three young guards improve.

 

[pfister1]

Hard to run when you don't force turnovers and can't defensive rebound. That was the issue yesterday. I mentioned in another thread a week or so ago that our adjusted tempo on kenpom has gone down every year since 07-08, with each passing year being lower than the previous. A lot of this I think has to do with the way other teams play offense against our zone. They wait until 5 seconds to shoot and it decreases the amount of possessions per game for us. Couple that with our inability to defensive rebound, sometimes we play defense for a minute and a half at a time.

That may contribute, but Ennis does not appear to be comfortable attacking the basket in transition. When he does attempt a contested layup he has trouble finishing and I have noticed a couple of times where he has failed to press situations that in prior years would be seen as offensive advantages and quickly result in points.

Also don't confuse transition scoring with up tempo offense. You don't have to play an up tempo game in order to get and take advantage of transition opportunities. You just have to be willing to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves.

Whether this is a result of athletic limitations, his chosen style, or an area where he isn't yet advanced as he is in others remains to be seen.

 

[Jack Hall]

Excellent post.

When DC2 is not in there we are not remotely a physical team IMO....it is what it is...to me a lineup of Keita, grant, CJ, cooney and Ennis is a finesse team. Which is fine now that we are in a historically finesse league. Rak makes us less of a finesse team IMO, DC2 comes in we can Actually bang...

 

[Jack Hall]

That may contribute, but Ennis does not appear to be comfortable attacking the basket in transition. When he does attempt a contested layup he has trouble finishing and I have noticed a couple of times where he has failed to press situations that in prior years would be seen as offensive advantages and quickly result in points.

Also don't confuse transition scoring with up tempo offense. You don't have to play an up tempo game in order to get and take advantage of transition opportunities. You just have to be willing to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves.

Whether this is a result of athletic limitations, his chosen style, or an area where he isn't yet advanced as he is in others remains to be seen.

I hear you but when we took the lead for the final time against johnnies, TE finished just fine. He's a freshman he's still got some adjusting...

 

[AZOrange]

In all my 20 something years of watching Syracuse hoops I can't remember a squad this feeble getting out and running. Even on opportunities where we had 2 on 1s we managed to mess them up. For as good as Ennis is doing everything else, his lack of elite athleticism really comes through on fast-break situations and it doesn't help that Cooney isn't an elite athlete either. Whenever Scoop, Brandon, Dion, or MCW were on a 1:1 or 2:1 situation you could count the points... with this squad its pretty shaky potatos. The result of this is that we are only going to be building a cushion if we can hit our jump shots and since we are never going to be consistent at that all year we are going to have a lot of yo yo games like yesterday where we pull ahead by a good amount and get pulled back in or games where we can't get a big run going. This season is going to come down to how well we execute in the half court sets so we can avoid scoring droughts.

Scoop and triche blew plenty of breaks and were certainly no more athletic than our current duo.

 

[AZOrange]

That may contribute, but Ennis does not appear to be comfortable attacking the basket in transition. When he does attempt a contested layup he has trouble finishing and I have noticed a couple of times where he has failed to press situations that in prior years would be seen as offensive advantages and quickly result in points. Also don't confuse transition scoring with up tempo offense. You don't have to play an up tempo game in order to get and take advantage of transition opportunities. You just have to be willing to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. Whether this is a result of athletic limitations, his chosen style, or an area where he isn't yet advanced as he is in others remains to be seen.

Ennis attacks the basket just fine. He just makes smart plays rather than crashing into whoever is out there and picking up a charge.

 

[AlaskaSU]

I think part of the issue is that Ennis is sometimes hesitant to ATTACK on the break. He's such a cool customer that he often pulls back when he has a chance to take advantage of numbers. I also think our fast break scoring would look a lot better if Ennis could finish better at the rim.

If you get fouled on the break and miss the shot but. sink your foul shots, thats good enough for me.

 

[AZOrange]

When DC2 is not in there we are not remotely a physical team IMO....it is what it is...to me a lineup of Keita, grant, CJ, cooney and Ennis is a finesse team. Which is fine now that we are in a historically finesse league. Rak makes us less of a finesse team IMO, DC2 comes in we can Actually bang...

We are best off and def with rak in the middle. He plays above the rim at both ends at the 5...

 

[iommi]

If you get fouled on the break and miss the shot but. sink your foul shots, thats good enough for me.

Oh, I agree 100% but Ennis has also missed a ton of bunnies and layups where he has not been fouled.

 

[iommi]

When DC2 is not in there we are not remotely a physical team IMO....it is what it is...to me a lineup of Keita, grant, CJ, cooney and Ennis is a finesse team. Which is fine now that we are in a historically finesse league. Rak makes us less of a finesse team IMO, DC2 comes in we can Actually bang...

The issue with DC is he's a physical specimen and rebounder but his defense is lacking. That's a big reason why JB sits him in crunch time.

 

[iommi]

That may contribute, but Ennis does not appear to be comfortable attacking the basket in transition. When he does attempt a contested layup he has trouble finishing and I have noticed a couple of times where he has failed to press situations that in prior years would be seen as offensive advantages and quickly result in points.

Also don't confuse transition scoring with up tempo offense. You don't have to play an up tempo game in order to get and take advantage of transition opportunities. You just have to be willing to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves.

Whether this is a result of athletic limitations, his chosen style, or an area where he isn't yet advanced as he is in others remains to be seen.

THIS!

 

[Dave85]

We will probably see more fast breaks as the season progresses and the defense gets better. But I would rather have team that was excellent in their offensive sets and occasionally gets a fast break points rather than the other way around. The other thing is we have never had a true pass first type point guard like we do in Ennis. Triche was a SG and MCW was not really true point guard. Even Scoop liked to run an was more like a SG. It seemed like previous teams were really geared to running the fast break.

It's hard to be critical of this team after going 10-0.

 

[Jack Hall]

The issue with DC is he's a physical specimen and rebounder but his defense is lacking. That's a big reason why JB sits him in crunch time.

No question. No biggy, Most of the best teams IMO are finesse teams. Who on Arizona is going to dominate you physically? It's the direction the game is going. Soooo many teams play a three guard lineup, heck duke doesn't even use a center...

 

[Jack Hall]

We are best off and def with rak in the middle. He plays above the rim at both ends at the 5...

If he plays with intensity no question. Big if tho

 

[Timonen]

Hard to run when you don't force turnovers and can't defensive rebound. That was the issue yesterday. I mentioned in another thread a week or so ago that our adjusted tempo on kenpom has gone down every year since 07-08, with each passing year being lower than the previous. A lot of this I think has to do with the way other teams play offense against our zone. They wait until 5 seconds to shoot and it decreases the amount of possessions per game for us. Couple that with our inability to defensive rebound, sometimes we play defense for a minute and a half at a time.

Hard to run when you don't force turnovers and can't defensive rebound. That was the issue yesterday. I mentioned in another thread a week or so ago that our adjusted tempo on kenpom has gone down every year since 07-08, with each passing year being lower than the previous. A lot of this I think has to do with the way other teams play offense against our zone. They wait until 5 seconds to shoot and it decreases the amount of possessions per game for us. Couple that with our inability to defensive rebound, sometimes we play defense for a minute and a half at a time.

I think this is it. We've always had mixed results on *finishing* but I think the point here is have opportunities to run. In the past couple years, we've made a lot of steals at the top of the key that led to clean breaks...and our steals often had somebody leaking out looking for a long pass.

I've also noticed that Ennis and Cooney are often working hard for rebounds. There was a spot early in the game yesterday when it seemed like nobody on our team could get in position for one until Ennis came down and snagged ones. If our guards are doing that, they're not going to be running.

 

[iommi]

G got a key rebound off a missed free throw and got to a couple of 50/50 loose balls. Those were huge plays too.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Hard to run when you don't force turnovers and can't defensive rebound. That was the issue yesterday. I mentioned in another thread a week or so ago that our adjusted tempo on kenpom has gone down every year since 07-08, with each passing year being lower than the previous. A lot of this I think has to do with the way other teams play offense against our zone. They wait until 5 seconds to shoot and it decreases the amount of possessions per game for us. Couple that with our inability to defensive rebound, sometimes we play defense for a minute and a half at a time.

We are very high on forcing turnovers.
http://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketball-men/d1/current/team/519