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There seems to be a little confusion about what happened in the Cornell game, so I thought I'd mention a few things that stood out to me that I haven't seen mentioned in any of the discussions yet.
Syracuse came out strong scoring 20 points in the first 9 minutes of the game (a pace to score over 80 points). In the second half Syracuse scored 46 points (a pace to score over 90 points). In the last 11 minutes of the first half Syracuse only scored 6 points.
So the real question is, what happened during those bad 11 first half minutes?
The answer is, Cornell switched to an unique 2-1-2 zone. The 2-1-2 is an antiquated defense that you never see anymore, but Cornell tweaked it in some interesting and effective ways. First, they did a good job disguising it and making it look like they were playing man to man as the ball was coming up the court. Second, they had the two guards at the top of the zone extend pressure out to about 30 feet and overplay the passing lanes, while the two forwards at the bottom of the zone hedged up to try to be in a position to move in to pick off any pass, whether it was a shorter one up to around the 3 point line or a deeper on into the paint. Third, they made the switch at the perfect time, i.e. when Boeheim had all 3 subs in the game, and SU was at its least organized.
The practical effect of this defense was to almost become a mini zone press that didn't start until about 30 feet from the basket. All zone presses put pressure on the ball and then defended the most obvious outlets. They are set up to trick the opposition into turning the ball over, but they also have some major weak points that can be carved up once you know how to attack it. This is all to say the 2-1-2 defense was only ever suppose to be used for a short amount of time.
A few things extended the amount of time they played it. One, Cornell executed flawlessly. Two, SU's guard rotation consists of two freshman and a sophomore and they didn't figure things out as fast as Boeheim would have liked. Three, the times SU did manage to get open shots they missed (two wide open Girard 3's and a Hughes 3 stand out in my memory).
Half time was a blessing. SU learned their lesson, and came out ready to attack. Cornell gave up on the 2-1-2 after a just couple of possessions and went back to man to man D ... the rest was history.
Bottom line, Syracuse was 40 points better than Cornell on the night, but only won by 20 because of a really genius trick defense executed to perfection that confused all three of SU's young guards for longer than it should have. This is not a defense Syracuse is likely to see again this year, so there really isn't much to take away moving forward.
Here are some player evaluations, not from this game, but for the year so far.
Girard & Boeheim - I'm going to lump these two together, because I like what I have seen from Girard and I like what I have seen from Boeheim, but I don't think they compliment each other particularly well and I worry about how they will play against really good defensive athletic teams. My worry, fyi, is not having a lack of ball handling or too many turnovers. Its the lack of ability to create space and mismatches that lead to help D and open teammates. Also, while Syracuse's defense has put up good numbers so far I think a lot of that has been fools gold. They are giving up too many good shots right now, and sooner or later they are going to be punished for doing so.
Goodine - He's got all the tools to be really good and fill most of the holes in Girard and Boeheim's games, especially on the defensive end of the court. Right now the game is moving a little too fast for him, but that is typical for freshman guards. Remember how bad Boeheim was at the beginning of last season? Yet when the ACC started and the competition got much tougher, Boeheim was putting up 50-40-90 from the field. He's hardly alone. Devendorf also famously figured things out around January of this Freshman year. We should know in January about how good Goodine can get this year. I think we need him to become a solid 20 mpg player to reach our potential.
Carey - You can go back and look at my post during SU's first game in Italy (not that anybody will) and see that I mentioned how Carey hadn't gotten any better in the offseason. If I saw that after watching a meaningless exhibition against inferior competition, then Boeheim definitely saw it. So why did he start the year with Carey at point guard? Because Carey is such a good athlete that if everything were to click for him mentally, he'd become a superstar overnight. Boeheim wants Carey to succeed and is trying everything to help Carey succeed, but Carey was making a mistake on almost every possession and just couldn't be left on the court. Usually when a player is passed in the rotation by someone younger they think about transferring. Carey has been passed in the rotation by two guys who are younger, but I really hope he sticks around just on the off chance that everything clicks for him, because it will be glorious to see.
Washington - I don't have much to say here. He seems like a great kid, and he's got a fun old school point guard style, but he's not going to crack our rotation.
Hughes - played more "point forward" against Cornell than at any other time. I'd say about a third of SU's plays right now have Hughes initiating the offense. It will be fascinating to see if that number grows or shrinks as the season goes on. Probably the more that number grows the higher Syracuse's potential becomes.
Dolezaj - I have come to think of him as Syracuse's point guard in the paint (while Girard is the point guard outside of the paint). Dolezaj has become incredibly important to the way Syracuse plays. The shooters we have spread the court. Dolezaj needs to take advantage by scoring, shooting and passing aggressively in the openings they create. He had a terrible shooting game against Virginia, and even though it felt like we lost to them in a blow out, I think if Dolezaj could have hit 3 or 4 of the open shots he missed Syracuse would have won the game. That is how important he's become.
Guerrier - He is the most important player on this team, full stop. This Syracuse team has a lot of skill, and a lot of shooters, but it is short on athletes. Guerrier is our best athlete. Because our shooters can't be left open we are in the unique position of having our best athlete get 1 on 1 situations (with little to no help D) all year long. He needs to win those battles and score tons of points. If he does, Syracuse is going to be tough to stop on offense. We also need him on the boards where we are weak. If you saw either of the last two games you saw how different (and unguardable) Syracuse is when you combine Guerrier scoring down low with Girard, Boheim, and Hughe's shooting. Guerrier is prone to making some rookie mistakes, but I think he looks pretty good offensively overall. His problem is on the defensive side of the ball where he makes a lot of mistakes and drifts into no man's land way too often. That said, I'm fairly confident that Boeheim will develop Guerrier quickly and by the end of the season he will become one of our leading scorers. I especially like the Dolezaj, Guerrier, Hughes, Boeheim, Girard line up, if Guerrier can play solid D and rebound great, because very few defenses will be able to stop that team from scoring.
Braswell - He became a fan favorite in the exhibition games, but he was the worst player on the court for either team against Colgate. 4 times rebounds came straight to Braswell and all four times a short Colgate back up pushed him out of the way and stole the rebound from him. There has been some talk about Braswell having leg problems and that might explain his play,so lets hope that can be fixed and it will make a big difference in his game, but from just what I've seen on the court, Braswell is a long way away from being able to contribute.
Sidibe - He can score a little bit and he's good on the boards, but overall I have been disappointed in Sidibe, and his defense is the reason why. Far too often he has let opposing players go right by him for layups. That needs to change. I can't figure out if the problem is mental or physical (i'd love to hear opinions on this) so I don't know if it can be fixed, but Syracuse needs it to be fixed.
Edwards - They are clearly grooming him to become the emergency 8th man off the bench. He's got some clear talent, but freshman center are almost never good, and I don't expect Edwards to be the exception. I already can't wait for next year to start so I can see how much he progresses between now and then.
Ajak - Got his redshirt. This is a big deal because you don't want a stiff to take up 5 scholarship years. They must think he's got some really good potential. I look forward to seeing it.
Quick note on our rotation. Expect us to go 7 deep. Lots of people seem to hate 7 man rotations, but I think they are great so long as all 7 players are of starting quality. In 2010 SU played a 7 man rotation (Jardine, Rautins, Triche, Johnson, Joseph, Jackson, Onuaku) all the way to a #1 seed. This team needs Goodine and Guerrier to get up to the necissary level. You already see Guerrier making steps in this direction so I think we are set there. As mentioned above I think we need Goodine to develop into a starting quality point guard to reach our potential. He's got all the tools necessary, it should be fun to watch him develop.
Other things I'll be watching closely moving foward:
#1) Guerrier, Guerrier, Guerrier - need him to score, rebound, and play D
#2) Sidibe's D
#3) How often is Hughes playing point forward?
Syracuse came out strong scoring 20 points in the first 9 minutes of the game (a pace to score over 80 points). In the second half Syracuse scored 46 points (a pace to score over 90 points). In the last 11 minutes of the first half Syracuse only scored 6 points.
So the real question is, what happened during those bad 11 first half minutes?
The answer is, Cornell switched to an unique 2-1-2 zone. The 2-1-2 is an antiquated defense that you never see anymore, but Cornell tweaked it in some interesting and effective ways. First, they did a good job disguising it and making it look like they were playing man to man as the ball was coming up the court. Second, they had the two guards at the top of the zone extend pressure out to about 30 feet and overplay the passing lanes, while the two forwards at the bottom of the zone hedged up to try to be in a position to move in to pick off any pass, whether it was a shorter one up to around the 3 point line or a deeper on into the paint. Third, they made the switch at the perfect time, i.e. when Boeheim had all 3 subs in the game, and SU was at its least organized.
The practical effect of this defense was to almost become a mini zone press that didn't start until about 30 feet from the basket. All zone presses put pressure on the ball and then defended the most obvious outlets. They are set up to trick the opposition into turning the ball over, but they also have some major weak points that can be carved up once you know how to attack it. This is all to say the 2-1-2 defense was only ever suppose to be used for a short amount of time.
A few things extended the amount of time they played it. One, Cornell executed flawlessly. Two, SU's guard rotation consists of two freshman and a sophomore and they didn't figure things out as fast as Boeheim would have liked. Three, the times SU did manage to get open shots they missed (two wide open Girard 3's and a Hughes 3 stand out in my memory).
Half time was a blessing. SU learned their lesson, and came out ready to attack. Cornell gave up on the 2-1-2 after a just couple of possessions and went back to man to man D ... the rest was history.
Bottom line, Syracuse was 40 points better than Cornell on the night, but only won by 20 because of a really genius trick defense executed to perfection that confused all three of SU's young guards for longer than it should have. This is not a defense Syracuse is likely to see again this year, so there really isn't much to take away moving forward.
Here are some player evaluations, not from this game, but for the year so far.
Girard & Boeheim - I'm going to lump these two together, because I like what I have seen from Girard and I like what I have seen from Boeheim, but I don't think they compliment each other particularly well and I worry about how they will play against really good defensive athletic teams. My worry, fyi, is not having a lack of ball handling or too many turnovers. Its the lack of ability to create space and mismatches that lead to help D and open teammates. Also, while Syracuse's defense has put up good numbers so far I think a lot of that has been fools gold. They are giving up too many good shots right now, and sooner or later they are going to be punished for doing so.
Goodine - He's got all the tools to be really good and fill most of the holes in Girard and Boeheim's games, especially on the defensive end of the court. Right now the game is moving a little too fast for him, but that is typical for freshman guards. Remember how bad Boeheim was at the beginning of last season? Yet when the ACC started and the competition got much tougher, Boeheim was putting up 50-40-90 from the field. He's hardly alone. Devendorf also famously figured things out around January of this Freshman year. We should know in January about how good Goodine can get this year. I think we need him to become a solid 20 mpg player to reach our potential.
Carey - You can go back and look at my post during SU's first game in Italy (not that anybody will) and see that I mentioned how Carey hadn't gotten any better in the offseason. If I saw that after watching a meaningless exhibition against inferior competition, then Boeheim definitely saw it. So why did he start the year with Carey at point guard? Because Carey is such a good athlete that if everything were to click for him mentally, he'd become a superstar overnight. Boeheim wants Carey to succeed and is trying everything to help Carey succeed, but Carey was making a mistake on almost every possession and just couldn't be left on the court. Usually when a player is passed in the rotation by someone younger they think about transferring. Carey has been passed in the rotation by two guys who are younger, but I really hope he sticks around just on the off chance that everything clicks for him, because it will be glorious to see.
Washington - I don't have much to say here. He seems like a great kid, and he's got a fun old school point guard style, but he's not going to crack our rotation.
Hughes - played more "point forward" against Cornell than at any other time. I'd say about a third of SU's plays right now have Hughes initiating the offense. It will be fascinating to see if that number grows or shrinks as the season goes on. Probably the more that number grows the higher Syracuse's potential becomes.
Dolezaj - I have come to think of him as Syracuse's point guard in the paint (while Girard is the point guard outside of the paint). Dolezaj has become incredibly important to the way Syracuse plays. The shooters we have spread the court. Dolezaj needs to take advantage by scoring, shooting and passing aggressively in the openings they create. He had a terrible shooting game against Virginia, and even though it felt like we lost to them in a blow out, I think if Dolezaj could have hit 3 or 4 of the open shots he missed Syracuse would have won the game. That is how important he's become.
Guerrier - He is the most important player on this team, full stop. This Syracuse team has a lot of skill, and a lot of shooters, but it is short on athletes. Guerrier is our best athlete. Because our shooters can't be left open we are in the unique position of having our best athlete get 1 on 1 situations (with little to no help D) all year long. He needs to win those battles and score tons of points. If he does, Syracuse is going to be tough to stop on offense. We also need him on the boards where we are weak. If you saw either of the last two games you saw how different (and unguardable) Syracuse is when you combine Guerrier scoring down low with Girard, Boheim, and Hughe's shooting. Guerrier is prone to making some rookie mistakes, but I think he looks pretty good offensively overall. His problem is on the defensive side of the ball where he makes a lot of mistakes and drifts into no man's land way too often. That said, I'm fairly confident that Boeheim will develop Guerrier quickly and by the end of the season he will become one of our leading scorers. I especially like the Dolezaj, Guerrier, Hughes, Boeheim, Girard line up, if Guerrier can play solid D and rebound great, because very few defenses will be able to stop that team from scoring.
Braswell - He became a fan favorite in the exhibition games, but he was the worst player on the court for either team against Colgate. 4 times rebounds came straight to Braswell and all four times a short Colgate back up pushed him out of the way and stole the rebound from him. There has been some talk about Braswell having leg problems and that might explain his play,so lets hope that can be fixed and it will make a big difference in his game, but from just what I've seen on the court, Braswell is a long way away from being able to contribute.
Sidibe - He can score a little bit and he's good on the boards, but overall I have been disappointed in Sidibe, and his defense is the reason why. Far too often he has let opposing players go right by him for layups. That needs to change. I can't figure out if the problem is mental or physical (i'd love to hear opinions on this) so I don't know if it can be fixed, but Syracuse needs it to be fixed.
Edwards - They are clearly grooming him to become the emergency 8th man off the bench. He's got some clear talent, but freshman center are almost never good, and I don't expect Edwards to be the exception. I already can't wait for next year to start so I can see how much he progresses between now and then.
Ajak - Got his redshirt. This is a big deal because you don't want a stiff to take up 5 scholarship years. They must think he's got some really good potential. I look forward to seeing it.
Quick note on our rotation. Expect us to go 7 deep. Lots of people seem to hate 7 man rotations, but I think they are great so long as all 7 players are of starting quality. In 2010 SU played a 7 man rotation (Jardine, Rautins, Triche, Johnson, Joseph, Jackson, Onuaku) all the way to a #1 seed. This team needs Goodine and Guerrier to get up to the necissary level. You already see Guerrier making steps in this direction so I think we are set there. As mentioned above I think we need Goodine to develop into a starting quality point guard to reach our potential. He's got all the tools necessary, it should be fun to watch him develop.
Other things I'll be watching closely moving foward:
#1) Guerrier, Guerrier, Guerrier - need him to score, rebound, and play D
#2) Sidibe's D
#3) How often is Hughes playing point forward?
