Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Cusefaninvirginia, post: 282408, member: 1857"] yeah, a couple of good points here. SWC, yeah it makes a lot of sense that when both christmas and coleman are on the court at the same time, Christmas could play center on defense, while Coleman could play more like the center on offense. I agree this is the best case scenario which takes best advantage of each of their respective skill sets. but like i was saying before, this is contingent on Coleman being able to play the 4 on defense and be quick enough to defend out to the 3 pt line. That seems like a 50-50 shot to me, even with Coleman working on his conditioning all summer. I still think the most likely scenario is christmas and coleman will both start, but that there'll be a short leash on one or the other, and we'll see Fair/Southerland/Grant logging a lot of minutes at the 4. and i completely agree with the people pointing out that Rak's best suited to play the 4 at the next level, and so it would be good for him to learn to play the 4 effectively at SU. but i think we also might be getting a little ahead of ourselves here. what i'd like to see first happen is christmas build some real confidence as an elite player and really take his game to the next level - at whichever position he can do it at the quickest. And I think that's clearly center. if he plays a lot of center this year, i think that can happen by the end of the year - in which case we'd likely go into the tournament next year with a signicantly better defense than we did going into the tournament this past year without fab melo. After Rak's built that kind of confidence at the 5, it might be easier for him to transition into playing some 4 a little later in his college career. Besides that's kind of the traditional route for a lot of college centers anyway - to play the 5 in college and then later slide to the 4. I'd rather see that than SU not being as good as we possibly can be this year because we're patiently giving Christmas siginificant minutes at the 4 while he struggles to play effective minutes in the hope that at some point in the next year or two Christmas can have a Rick Jackson-style break-out season as an upperclassman. (Besides, who's to say -Coleman also might be better suited to play the 4 in the NBA.) But yeah this will be an interesting question once we get into the fall. Hopefully Boeheim will be able to find a lineup that includes both christmas and coleman able to play effective minutes together on the court at the same time with each other. If that can happen, I think we have a chance to challenge Louisville for the BE this year. But even if it doesn't happen because it turns out neither Rak or DaJuan are able to play effectively at the 4 this year, it's still nice having the option of playing a lot of Fair/Southerland/Grant at the 3 and 4 at the same time as an insurance policy. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?