Could Christmas have been any worse?

[tbonezone]

i am not now nor have i ever been a big fan of JB's use the bench as a "penalty box" approach. more hinder than help imo. most especially when it's selectively applied to certain players and not others.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Pivotal moment in the game was with about 6 minutes left, SU down 4, MCW drives baseline, throws a great shovel pass to Christmas who should have had a wide open dunk, but instead catchs the ball with this "What-is-this-orange-spherical-object-that-was-just-thrown-to-me, and-What-am-I-supposed-to-do-with-this-orange-spherical-object-now???" look on his face, takes like 42 seconds to gather himself to go up for a shot, then gets PACKAGED. Should have been a dunk and we're down 2, plus we have uncle MO on our side. Instead, Porter hits a three in Triche's face on the next play, 5 point swing. Game over.

The bigger issue though, really, is how in the world do you recruit back-to-back-to-back McD's All-American centers and only get 0.7 total competent seasons out of these 3 players????????? None of them could play a lick as a FR, and only Flop Melo developed at all as a SO.

Isn't Mike coaching the bigs now? Bernie's gone you know.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Tough to score when your butt is firmly parked on the bench. DC averaged about five minutes a game in January. Very puzzling when you consider the woeful play of the other two guys who aren't good and are never gonna be good.

Coleman has more offensive potential - he's got the footwork to be a force inside. But he takes too long to gather himself and has low confidence after getting blocked a bunch, and now he hurries himself.

But if you look at all 3 of them, he's the only one who seems capable of pinning a defender on his back in the post (OK, Christmas knows that part, too, but does it too far up the lane to be able to make an offensive play if you DID throw him the ball).

Coleman's problem is that he is absolutely terrible on defense and hasn't picked up the zone at all. He does OK on the offensive boards, and at times he's an effective defensive rebounder. But he lets guys come down the lane without bumping or boxing them out. He gets pushed too far under the hoop when the other team shoots. He doesn't always hustle back on defense, and he gets winded when only plays about 3 minutes at a time, which is inexcusable.

 

[bpo57]

Coleman has more offensive potential - he's got the footwork to be a force inside. But he takes too long to gather himself and has low confidence after getting blocked a bunch, and now he hurries himself.

But if you look at all 3 of them, he's the only one who seems capable of pinning a defender on his back in the post (OK, Christmas knows that part, too, but does it too far up the lane to be able to make an offensive play if you DID throw him the ball).

Coleman's problem is that he is absolutely terrible on defense and hasn't picked up the zone at all. He does OK on the offensive boards, and at times he's an effective defensive rebounder. But he lets guys come down the lane without bumping or boxing them out. He gets pushed too far under the hoop when the other team shoots. He doesn't always hustle back on defense, and he gets winded when only plays about 3 minutes at a time, which is inexcusable.

Every point you make about DC is valid. But I think the flaws of the other two are just as severe or even more so. I would have preferred to cast our lot with DC and see if he can develop and work out the flaws you highlighted. The other two centers have shown minimal development over a more extended period of time. I am not confident they will ever get there.

Your best point is that DC needs to improve his conditioning and that would start by trimming 10-15 lbs.

 

[SoBeCuse]

Not excusing all these guys' lack of development but it's possible the recruitniks (and coaches) overvalued all of these players...Fab, Rak, Coleman. I don't think Coleman would've flourished at UK if say Nerlens came to SU.

 

[Sgt Cuse]

Coleman should have been given a chance. Sadly, he is ten times the offensive threat that Rak is, or ever will be. I also worry there is really no place for Rak on this team next year. Coleman, cj, grant... No way Rak should play over any of them.

Good post until you got to the bolded. No place on the team for an experienced junior, former McD AA? Are you insane? Bigs take a while to develop. Rak at the least would offer an experienced backup to DC2.

And while I am high on DC2's future too, lets try and hold back on expectations. While we can expect improvement, his defense has a long way to go.

Also if you have Rak back, it gives SU the luxury of being able to redshirt Chino (because we would have DC2, BMK and Rak at center). Remember, because I really can't say it enough, bigs take time to develop, so getting Chino more time is a another big benefit.

Make no mistake having Rak back next year would be a very good thing for SU.

 

[Orangello]

Christmas worked his ass off to get position on the block. MCW ignored him. The end.

Fixed

 

[Hoboken Cuse]

rak needs to get real angry real fast and turn this puppy into a bloody slasherfest.

Did you have a change of heart on our bigs? A couple of weeks ago, I recall you would not want anyone else but our 3 bigs.

Also there has been alot of talk here about how weak the 5 spot is this year. I do not think that is the case. In the BE, I think that the 5 is weak but elsewhere I think there are at least 10 bigs that we could run into in the tourney that could put up 20 & 10 on us without batting an eye.

 

[JOC44]

Pivotal moment in the game was with about 6 minutes left, SU down 4, MCW drives baseline, throws a great shovel pass to Christmas who should have had a wide open dunk, but instead catchs the ball with this "What-is-this-orange-spherical-object-that-was-just-thrown-to-me, and-What-am-I-supposed-to-do-with-this-orange-spherical-object-now???" look on his face, takes like 42 seconds to gather himself to go up for a shot, then gets PACKAGED. Should have been a dunk and we're down 2, plus we have uncle MO on our side. Instead, Porter hits a three in Triche's face on the next play, 5 point swing. Game over.

The bigger issue though, really, is how in the world do you recruit back-to-back-to-back McD's All-American centers and only get 0.7 total competent seasons out of these 3 players????????? None of them could play a lick as a FR, and only Flop Melo developed at all as a SO.

The Porter three was a killer. We had started doing a good job keeping tabs on him throughout the zone . . . and then our senior just completely lost him and gave him a good look from three.

 

[TBCuse11]

Good post until you got to the bolded. No place on the team for an experienced junior, former McD AA? Are you insane? Bigs take a while to develop. Rak at the least would offer an experienced backup to DC2.

And while I am high on DC2's future too, lets try and hold back on expectations. While we can expect improvement, his defense has a long way to go.

Also if you have Rak back, it gives SU the luxury of being able to redshirt Chino (because we would have DC2, BMK and Rak at center). Remember, because I really can't say it enough, bigs take time to develop, so getting Chino more time is a another big benefit.

Make no mistake having Rak back next year would be a very good thing for SU.

.. call me crazy, but this seems too much like the Paul Harris situation. Dude was beaten down so badly that he just said "F this" and went to the NBA. He had to know he wouldnt get drafted. I can see Rak doing the same. He would be a junior next year, certainly would not start, and might even be 3rd on the center depth chart. He is probably sick of getting humiliated by James Arthur game after game... cant blame him really.

Jimmy seems to have aged 10 years since the start of the season. The old man is losing it. Would rather lose, it seems, than try something new. Oh well.