Clean House on this roster

[OrangeDW]

That's my biggest concern. Our best teams have had good bench players and by all reports intense practices, regardless of how much playing time. Seems inconceivable to not complete a roster at a school like Syracuse in this time of immediate transfer eligibility.

Yup.

Alarming at how much we lost, vs. how much we brought in.

Last year we had a team where the second team could probably hang with or even beat the first team on some days in practice. Arguments could be made about who should start, play the most, etc.

Seems like that’s viewed as a problem here now.

 

[Shrmdougluvr]

You can fill out the roster though.

Unless you think Syracuse basketball is incapable of finding 12 worthy scholarship players that want to play here. and if they truly can’t…..why is that?

This roster situation is an absolute joke. If we aren’t trying to be the best, why should any fans bother caring?

This. And two of our scholarship players could supposedly get pretty close to a full tuition ride by virtue of their parent being a long standing employee of the University. Dependent Tuition - Human Resources – Syracuse University

We should have 14 "scholarship worthy" players.

 

[realorange]

This is exactly what Coach wanted people to be saying when he put this team together.

I think that is a foolish statement at best. I believe like many on this board, that he thought Benny would be able to play meaningful minutes. He even made the statement that Jimmy would have been happy with 18 minutes per game.

 

[Cusefan0307]

We’ve had farrrrr worse offenses in our very recent past.

The shooters aren’t average. The difficulty of shots they take make them look worse.

A pass first pg would have helped tremendously.

 

[OrangeDW]

I think that is a foolish statement at best. I believe like many on this board, that he thought Benny would be able to play meaningful minutes. He even made the statement that Jimmy would have been happy with 18 minutes per game.

That is a fair point….at forward. To an extent. All the same - we could only get 3 forwards that were expected to be playable?

I think at guard it’s a different story. Only 3 guards…and 1 that they knew was not going to challenge the starters from getting their 35 mpg.

 

[pfister1]

Do people realize you can’t take away scholarships? A coach can’t just cut a scholarship player.

Sure you can! Schools often don’t because it might be used against them on the recruiting trail, but scholarships are one year at a time commitments.

And if they want to avoid the negative, flip them over to Academic Scholarships and let them start working on their broadcast careers without taking up one of the limited basketball grants.

Athletic Scholarships: Everything You Need to Know

A key part of the college sports recruiting process is understanding how athletic scholarships work. See how much money you can expect to be offered.

www.ncsasports.org

 

[realorange]

Yes we need better athletes. But this is a hyperbolic comment about the offense. The numbers back it up. Syracuse has consistently been among the top 20 teams in KenPom offensive efficiency all season. Obviously tonight we struggled, but a huge part of that is losing Jesse and the adjustment to losing everything he did for us. Again, the offense isn’t the problem. It’s our horrendous DEFENSE that’s central to our struggles.

Agree except the defense was quite good at getting out on the 3pt. shooters. I'd be willing to bet that it was VT worse night shooting this season. Our offense was poor and if we only have a below average night, we would have won the game.

Without Jesse, our shooters had much fewer open shots. And VT got more points close in than they would have with Jesse in the game.

 

[Giants1973]

Agree except the defense was quite good at getting out on the 3pt. shooters. I'd be willing to bet that it was VT worse night shooting this season. Our offense was poor and if we only have a below average night, we would have won the game.

Without Jesse, our shooters had much fewer open shots. And VT got more points close in than they would have with Jesse in the game.

I'm sure Buddy and Jimmy are gone. Jg , st, Frank, Jesse are back . Cole and Benny are ?.

 

[realorange]

You can rely on stats only and think we are efficient but if you guys are watching it’s pretty clear the offense sucks. No matter how many prayers we throw in the ocean. The defense is worse for sure but the O is pure garbage

Love those garbage games when we score more than 80 points.

Even last night, as someone pointed out, between Joe and Buddy they shot almost 50%. Buddy with all his shots still shot 40%. Cole having a bad night, really hurt. Frank took up Jesse's scoring slack.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

So, I just watched the presser and let’s just say I’m confused. Fist, if your defensive game plan, that you set up and practiced before the game was to play out on the shooters, immediately doesn’t happen because of one or two of your players, why not immediately pull that offending player. And yes, I mean Jimmy. Ever notice when Jimmy doesn’t play well, he says we need more out of our forward position, but when it’s Cole messing up, hes not afraid to use the name?

Anyway, regarding the offense, he said the plan was to drive the ball, and that we did that. Does he include Buddy taking a jumper, fadeaway or not, as being a drive? Also, he needs to stop whining about Buddy not getting fouled. Buddy initiates contact on most of his drives, and frequently uses his ward arm without a call. And he rarely jumps into the defense when he’s driving. So yeah, they aren’t going to call a foul.

 

[MikeSU02]

Agree except the defense was quite good at getting out on the 3pt. shooters. I'd be willing to bet that it was VT worse night shooting this season. Our offense was poor and if we only have a below average night, we would have won the game.

Without Jesse, our shooters had much fewer open shots. And VT got more points close in than they would have with Jesse in the game.

We need to recalculate what an average offensive game will be for us.

Our offensive efficiency is going to fall without Jesse.

Last night is going to be more the norm than not without Jesse.

Also, more shots for Buddy means less efficiency because of the way he plays. I said this after Jesse got hurt and it was on full display during the game.

 

[realorange]

That is a fair point….at forward. To an extent. All the same - we could only get 3 forwards that were expected to be playable?

I think at guard it’s a different story. Only 3 guards…and 1 that they knew was not going to challenge the starters from getting their 35 mpg.

Well, the argument about the players we should have and what we do have, are two different discussions.

 

[OrangeDW]

Well, the argument about the players we should have and what we do have, are two different discussions.

But they’re entirely related to the point I was making.

Even if Benny was as advertised right now, we’d have a nice little 8 guys with clearly defined roles(most of whom are woefully under qualified for said roles) with zero competition for PT.

That’s all well and good if you’ve got Triche, Rautins, Wes, Rick, AO, Scoop, and Joseph.

We don’t.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

You can fill out the roster though.

Unless you think Syracuse basketball is incapable of finding 12 worthy scholarship players that want to play here. and if they truly can’t…..why is that?

This roster situation is an absolute joke. If we aren’t trying to be the best, why should any fans bother caring?

That wasn’t the OP, which was to get rid of certain players

 

[Cusefan0307]

That wasn’t the OP, which was to get rid of certain players

And it won’t change sht.

Players aren’t fixing the offense. We were complaining about the same offense a decade ago.

When we were good we struggled to score in the half court. That’s why teams slowed it down on us.

The players change and JB still doesn’t run any innovative offensive sets.

 

[Alsacs]

Our offense is the same its been with JB going back for a decade.
Minus we don’t have Buddy doing what Cooney, Waiters, Rautins all are SGs have done with the curl screen to get open looks.
It’s the same ISO offense.
It’s not changing till JB retires.

The problem is we aren’t athletic on defense. So unless the shots go on offense and for the most part we have scored enough points this season.
We aren’t losing most games because of offense its we can’t stop anybody.

Put Bobby Braswell in for 25 minutes per game and cut down Jimmy’s minutes in front court and have a long guard at the top and cut down JG3 and Buddy down to 28 MPG we are good.

 

[Newhouser]

We really think that even if Benny was contributing Jimmy was ever playing 18 minutes a night?

 

[Alsacs]

We really think that even if Benny was contributing Jimmy was ever playing 18 minutes a night?

I said this preseason and was called a hater.

I knew Benny was getting the 3rd most forward minutes even if he was good.

The fact is he wasn’t ready this year and we had no backup plan at forward.
JB didn’t anticipate Benny being not ready or didn’t want to bring in another body.

We let so much forward depth leave and didn’t bother to replace it because we can’t use our bench because nobody is ever ready.

It’s clear as day what our issues defensively are.
It should be brought up JB a lot he actually put Jimmy at the 5 over Frank in a game we could have won at Wake.

That decision is just the worst decision he has ever made in game.
Just how can he rationalize that? We were playing defense with 10 seconds left up 2.
How does he decide to play Jimmy at the 5 there?

 

[AZOrange]

Do people realize you can’t take away scholarships? A coach can’t just cut a scholarship player.

I didn’t say cut anyone. We had 4 guys leave last year and a good number of them are at their 4 year mark.

 

[AZOrange]

The board is losing it. A lot of fans are placing blame in places after that game that make little sense to me. The offense doesn’t get fixed by changing the roster. Its the same offense it ever was under JB.

It might be the same offense but the guys are not playing the same caliber player in practice.
That’s the big issue. Playing Buddy against a walkon all year he probably looks All American. Iron sharpens iron. We have aluminum foil maybe

 

[AZOrange]

That's my biggest concern. Our best teams have had good bench players and by all reports intense practices, regardless of how much playing time those bench players received. Seems inconceivable to not complete a roster at a school like Syracuse in this time of immediate transfer eligibility.

It’s conceivable if the staff doesn’t want to work at keeping players happy. I mean that was Hops full time job!

 

[tptcuse]

So, I just watched the presser and let’s just say I’m confused. Fist, if your defensive game plan, that you set up and practiced before the game was to play out on the shooters, immediately doesn’t happen because of one or two of your players, why not immediately pull that offending player. And yes, I mean Jimmy. Ever notice when Jimmy doesn’t play well, he says we need more out of our forward position, but when it’s Cole messing up, hes not afraid to use the name?

Anyway, regarding the offense, he said the plan was to drive the ball, and that we did that. Does he include Buddy taking a jumper, fadeaway or not, as being a drive? Also, he needs to stop whining about Buddy not getting fouled. Buddy initiates contact on most of his drives, and frequently uses his ward arm without a call. And he rarely jumps into the defense when he’s driving. So yeah, they aren’t going to call a foul.

I thought the most interesting thing he said in that press conference was that Frank played better because he was more comfortable due to getting more minutes.

 

[Cusefan0307]

It might be the same offense but the guys are not playing the same caliber player in practice.
That’s the big issue. Playing Buddy against a walkon all year he probably looks All American. Iron sharpens iron. We have aluminum foil maybe

I don’t think you’re getting it.

The guys we are bringing in aren’t suddenly turning us into Iowa offensively.

A few of them may able to get to the rim, but we aren’t hitting water from a boat with the lack of shooting skill we are bringing in.

We need to get Judah and a ready now wing or hope JB retires if we have any shot at being good next year.

 

[AZOrange]

Love those garbage games when we score more than 80 points.

Even last night, as someone pointed out, between Joe and Buddy they shot almost 50%. Buddy with all his shots still shot 40%. Cole having a bad night, really hurt. Frank took up Jesse's scoring slack.

We have a few games where we put up a lot of points and skew averages but if you watch teams that actually play defense we struggle horrifically to get shots. People keep talking WAKE! Look at Wakes schedule. They have beaten nobody and are a cupcake. If you put any pressure on our slow footed team we literally can’t get a shot off. Only when SY is in does the offense open a little.

 

[Alsacs]

I don’t think you’re getting it.

The guys we are bringing in aren’t suddenly turning us into Iowa offensively.

A few of them may able to get to the rim, but we aren’t hitting water from a boat with the lack of shooting skill we are bringing in.

We need to get Judah, a ready now wing or hope JB retires if we have any shot at being good next year.

I am just hoping we get to 16 wins this year so we can get 1k with the sons and that helps the program.

We aren’t going to be good next year because we don’t evolve and the talent won’t be marginally different.

The team is managed the way it is for a reason and people can see it but its not wanted to be said out loud.