CBS Sports ranks us 12th in the ACC for next year

[kcsu]

Ill take all betters that we finish higher than 12th.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Right, I could see Wake possibly finishing above us (tho Collins is a huge loss for them) - and even nc state - just no way we und up below all three of those teams

People probably said no way we don't make the tournament last year after the first exhibition game.

Sometimes weird stuff happens.

Regardless, can't wait for whatever happens, to happen. Aka, the season.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

Who plays center for UNC? Luke Maye.
Is Cameron Johnson a PF?

Who for Duke scores outside of Allen and Duval?

History suggests they will figure it out, but those teams have question marks.

Miami has two top 20 NBA Draft picks. Lonnie Walker is going to be a stud.

Luke Mayne is a solid player. If he was on Syracuse he'd be touted as a lottery pick...We have a tendency to underrate other teams players and overrate our own.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Luke Mayne is a solid player. If he was on Syracuse he'd be touted as a lottery pick...We have a tendency to underrate other teams players and overrate our own.

Luke Maye is a good player, but he's 6'7.

 

[RF2044]

Luke Mayne is a solid player. If he was on Syracuse he'd be touted as a lottery pick...We have a tendency to underrate other teams players and overrate our own.

Luke Maye is a good player, but he's 6'7.

Apparently, we have a tendency to undersize other teams' players, as well.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Apparently, we have a tendency to undersize other teams' players, as well.

Luke Maye College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

6'7" here. I guess maybe he's 6'8" based on some other sites.

 

[RF2044]

Luke Maye College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

6'7" here. I guess maybe he's 6'8" based on some other sites.

I was just making a play on SH's phrasing above.

 

[Dave85]

Being ranked 12th does not seem unreasonable since we will have a bunch of players who have not ever played together or know the 2-3 zone. We need to get some guards in the pipeline who can make contributions their Junior and Senior years. Maybe FH improves. It just seems to me we were more success during the Rautin, Jardine, Triche, MCW era when we had a senior guard with a developing guard.

 

[GooseMutt]

If we are ranked 12th, the other leagues better make way for the ACC again because I believe we are a tournament team with the Thorpe addition.

 

[Dave85]

If we are ranked 12th, the other leagues better make way for the ACC again because I believe we are a tournament team with the Thorpe addition.

I hope Thorpe has the conditioning necessary to play the top of the zone. The 2017-18 team has so many unknowns. I was optimistic last season. This season it is going to take a heck of lot more to get me to be enthusiastic about 3-star grad transfers who've never play a Syracuse type 2-3 zone.

We shall see.

 

[Madbiker]

Come on. We're at least #10.

 

[GooseMutt]

I hope Thorpe has the conditioning necessary to play the top of the zone. The 2017-18 team has so many unknowns. I was optimistic last season. This season it is going to take a heck of lot more to get me to be enthusiastic about 3-star grad transfers who've never play a Syracuse type 2-3 zone.

We shall see.

I think your comments are right on. I was overly optimistic last year yet I find myself doing it again

 

[HoustonCuse]

Add in that thompson averages 13, 7 and 3. Which I absolutely believe he's capable of if he adds some muscle. 3 being assists, he's much more offensively savvy than bigs of the past.

Sorry, this immediately brought a movie reference to mind, when Mr. Coach Kline said that one win would increase confidence and lead to more victories and the kicker says "That and the Waterboy getting 12 sacks a game!"

 

[two3zone]

That's just the way it is.
The Orange lose a lot of their points.

The three main issues ahead seem to be:

1. point play

2.veteran leadership

3. point play

And did I say point play?

Interior defense

Unknown outside shooting.

First timers in the defense.

 

[two3zone]

I think we finish better than 12th, the schedule makers were very kind to us this year.

It would be tough not to finish better than .500.

 

[jncuse]

Add in that thompson averages 13, 7 and 3. Which I absolutely believe he's capable of if he adds some muscle. 3 being assists, he's much more offensively savvy than bigs of the past.

Counting stats are a terrible way to analyze if Thompson has really stepped up.

He will get his points but will they be of the efficient variety? He has shown the knack to take long two's all day over defenders. Not the best shot if you are not hitting them at a good rate. Will that change?

And of course the "defence" none of which the 13/7/3 measures. I don't remember any big at Syracuse having such a gap between offensive skill / and defensive awareness (or drive, presence). I am certain if he plays enough minutes he will put up a good statline... but will that mean he is actually effective?

If Thompson steps up it will be outside of the statline, and I hope he does.

 

[pearl31]

If Thompson steps up it will be outside of the statline, and I hope he does.

Hope he does to - but sadly scuttlebutt/tea leaves indicate otherwise

 

[Sherman20]

Norlander has never impressed me as a college baketball writer. He lists Kyle Guy as one of the conference's top returning players, and Battle is nowhere to be found. Kyle is a great shooter but he's super skinny and not as athletic as Battle. TB absolutely ate Guy and Ty Jerome's lunch in the game last year at the Dome. He couldn't be stopped getting by those two and finding space to attack the rim or get his shot off. The players stopped setting endless high ball screens and JB just let his athletes overpower the weaker UVA defenders (like they did in the elite eight game in 2016). Battle should have been on that list. And we definitely won't finish 12th (????) next season. That's madness.

 

[Sherman20]

Being ranked 12th does not seem unreasonable since we will have a bunch of players who have not ever played together or know the 2-3 zone. We need to get some guards in the pipeline who can make contributions their Junior and Senior years. Maybe FH improves. It just seems to me we were more success during the Rautin, Jardine, Triche, MCW era when we had a senior guard with a developing guard.

Howard, Battle, Thompson, Chukwu and Moyer have all had at least one year (two of them several years) learning the 2-3.

You also slag off 3 star recruits referring to Thorpe. 3-stars can develop into good players. Remember that players like Rautins, Southerland, Keita, and I believe even Triche were 3 stars. And those are only recent guys. Lots more in our history. Don't obsess over the star system when evaluating players. Recent ACC guys like John Collins, Matt Farrell, Ben Lammers were all rated below 200 coming out of high school. Wasn't Buddy Hield too?

 

[jordoo]

Sherman20 killing it in those last two posts.

 

[pearl31]

Norlander has never impressed me as a college baketball writer. He lists Kyle Guy as one of the conference's top returning players, and Battle is nowhere to be found. Kyle is a great shooter but he's super skinny and not as athletic as Battle. TB absolutely ate Guy and Ty Jerome's lunch in the game last year at the Dome. He couldn't be stopped getting by those two and finding space to attack the rim or get his shot off. The players stopped setting endless high ball screens and JB just let his athletes overpower the weaker UVA defenders (like they did in the elite eight game in 2016). Battle should have been on that list. And we definitely won't finish 12th (????) next season. That's madness.

yeah it was actually hilarious watching Guy try to defend TB

 

[Dave85]

Howard, Battle, Thompson, Chukwu and Moyer have all had at least one year (two of them several years) learning the 2-3.

You also slag off 3 star recruits referring to Thorpe. 3-stars can develop into good players. Remember that players like Rautins, Southerland, Keita, and I believe even Triche were 3 stars. And those are only recent guys. Lots more in our history. Don't obsess over the star system when evaluating players. Recent ACC guys like John Collins, Matt Farrell, Ben Lammers were all rated below 200 coming out of high school. Wasn't Buddy Hield too?

Not to burst your Orange bubble but the way you win NC is with great play from junior and senior guards. If this was Thorpe's fourth season playing 2-3 zone you may have point. But the problem is not intelligence in learning the zone. The problem playing the top of the 2-3 zone requires insane levels of conditioning to do it right. It takes a HUGE amounts of effort to swing from one side of the court to the next. Last year Gillon ran out of gas lots of times. I hope Thorpe has more endurance than Gillon.


You have to understand something. Like many people, every time I watch the Orange play I think they are going to win at the beginning of every game. However, objectively speaking, just based on our guard talent, this team has a lot to prove in terms of where the scoring is going to come from. Thompson and Battle will have to make HUGE leaps in scoring for this team to do really well.

As I said in my original post that you responded too but left out when you quoted me: We shall see.

 

[SoBeCuse]

Norlander has never impressed me as a college baketball writer. He lists Kyle Guy as one of the conference's top returning players, and Battle is nowhere to be found. Kyle is a great shooter but he's super skinny and not as athletic as Battle. TB absolutely ate Guy and Ty Jerome's lunch in the game last year at the Dome. He couldn't be stopped getting by those two and finding space to attack the rim or get his shot off. The players stopped setting endless high ball screens and JB just let his athletes overpower the weaker UVA defenders (like they did in the elite eight game in 2016). Battle should have been on that list. And we definitely won't finish 12th (????) next season. That's madness.

All these national guys are douches with the exception of a few who actually know something. Bilas, Fran, Dakich, Seth Davis, etc. Guy will get his and Battle will too. Guy is instant offense just like Battle. Guy sucks defensively obviously. Jerome is even worse. The E8 game was a bit different than the Dome game. They did stop the ball screen nonsense but it was all Mali. Brogdon had REALLY good defense on him. Also, UVA inexplicably as Boeheim mentioned, botched a bunch of fast breaks after they broke the pressure with no problem. Huge momentum shifts. It's not even worth discussing guys like Norlander on here.

 

[moqui]

Howard, Battle, Thompson, Chukwu and Moyer have all had at least one year (two of them several years) learning the 2-3.

You also slag off 3 star recruits referring to Thorpe. 3-stars can develop into good players. Remember that players like Rautins, Southerland, Keita, and I believe even Triche were 3 stars. And those are only recent guys. Lots more in our history. Don't obsess over the star system when evaluating players. Recent ACC guys like John Collins, Matt Farrell, Ben Lammers were all rated below 200 coming out of high school. Wasn't Buddy Hield too?

any idiot can attend the big AAU events and chart the guys being watched by K, Cal, Miller etc.
star ratings largely are doled out by guys not talented enough to land spots on any D1 staff and often are at least as representative of a bandwagonning effect as any actual analysis
recruiting is hit & miss, but JB and his staff have a very good hit rate of identifying & landing the right guys even when not the rated guys and turning them into quality SU hoops players

 

[Cusefan0307]

any idiot can attend the big AAU events and chart the guys being watched by K, Cal, Miller etc.
star ratings largely are doled out by guys not talented enough to land spots on any D1 staff and often are at least as representative of a bandwagonning effect as any actual analysis
recruiting is hit & miss, but JB and his staff have a very good hit rate of identifying & landing the right guys even when not the rated guys and turning them into quality SU hoops players

Good post. Not sure why Howard Washington is ranked so low myself. Has to be because he was out of site and out of mind from the scouting services. He was once a top 60 player and top PG for his class. I found some of his AAU numbers from a couple years ago and he was putting up 13-17 points on the regular which means he's pretty good. I think he's a guy that four years from now we will look back at as a steal.