The defense was bad yesterday for sure but it wasn't all on the guards. It is kind of funny I was sitting there watching the fiasco unfold thinking that many are going to blame the JG3 when in reality he was the only one who really played hard, showing any signs of actually wanting to win. He played the passing lanes and got a few deflections, a few more times disrupting the flow with near deflections. He is 100 times better than he was last year, you can see the work he put in the off season and the effects of covid finally look like they have disappeared.
Now granted I was so disgusted I would at times get up and walk away to get a few other things done around the house so maybe I missed some bad things other saw, but this game came down to a couple things. Lack of overall defense for sure, and wondering how the team would win if a couple of the players were off at the same time-would the remaining be able to carry us to victory?
The answer to the second part I think is most nights yes they could. We scored 85 points on a night Jimmy and Cole were way off and Symir and Benny couldn't hit the ocean standing in the middle of a 5 ft diameter island. Unfortunately this has been a reoccurring thing with both of them-they both show flashes of what they could be, but will they get there?
The lack of defense comes down to, from what I saw, is lack of extending the defense out past the three point line. We saw this last year and we got torched a few times before adjustments were finally made and it became adequate. The entire team was packed inside and it made it easy for Colgate to simply pass the ball around until SU was so far out of position that they had an easy shot with no hand in their face- often no defender within 5 ft of the shooter. Jimmy was constantly burned by not being able to rotate back quick enough, which I think is why Benny saw extended minutes even though he didn't perform well either. JG3 and Buddy never moved off the three point line, and Colgate had shooter comfortable with shooting from 23-24 feet. This was as much on the coaches as much as the players, although maybe they were playing shorter to try and help cover the known deficiencies of our forwards. Still they both should have known who the shooters were and moved out to cover them but never did. Of course it didn't seem like it would matter, even when Colgate did have two or three sets of hands in their faces it seemed as if all they had to do was throw it in the general direction of the bucket and it would go in.
Buddy has improved tremendously over his tenure, but if he wants to seriously play at the next level he needs to do one thing- learn to rebound. Buddy I hope your reading this and take it to heart, but standing there watching shots and not actively going after rebounds is killing this team. If a rebound happens to bounce your way you may go after it, but otherwise you just watch or cut away for a fast break that never happens. Last night was the first time this year too we saw him try to forcefully take the team on his back and not be very successful. It helps though when the opposing team can really only defend two guys instead of 5, but rebound Buddy-rebound!
Not sure what Jimmy was thinking, coach blamed Edwards I think when it was Jimmy who was more disruptive to him than Colgate. I think Edwards got to where he was having to look not only where the defender was but also where Jimmy was and this was to much for him to handle in this pace of a game. Cole had another game where his offense was anemic and his defense decent, but has to learn not to foul like he does. Love his aggressiveness and desire though, I think he will be okay. Atlantis will for sure tell the tale for this team. How they respond after this loss and handle the teams they will face will show us how the season will play out. SU has a history of in season improvements, often in late February, so if we can show a defensive improvement in Atlantis I think we will be okay, and poised for a deep run in March. If we don't learn, it is going to be a very long season.
