Depth...

[PeteCalvin]

I think he finally woke up and realized that he is 6'8". Glad to see him start participating in the paint. Makes a huge difference.

You know, I once woke up and realized that I was 6'8"...in the dream my alarm clock ruined. Damn the genetic code! Why couldn't my mom have pumped me full of bovine growth hormones as a kid?! I look like JoeCollege instead. Thanks a lot, mom.

 

[Rocco]

Jim has never had this many players in the past. That's why he's playing 10 guys. As long as they perform well, they will play. If the level of play drops, then Jim will limit the numbers of players playing. Recruiting has really changed the past three years and Jim has a team full of players. It doesn't look like it's going to change soon. WHY? Thank Carmelo and the Melo Center.

And the best part is that the team makes quite a few mistakes (just watch Boeheim on the sidelines), and they are still winning by 20 points a game.

 

[orangepassion]

Also, thank JB's ever growing reputation. During all the gloom when the local rag was lambasting our recruiting I always expected that our recruiting would fully blossom as JB's reputation grew, in large part based on longevity and consistency. Although Hop etc are good recruiters, what drives the bus is JB's ever growing reputation. Our recruiting will be terrific as long as JB hangs on and is still perceived as capable. At some point age will diminish his reputation but at this point I am enjoying the ride that took decades to culminate. I remember sitting in the local public radio station in the early 80's to read the ticker tape to get the scores of games in progress. I always felt certain that JB's stability would ultimately culminate in our rise to the top echelon of recruiting. I too have been a fan since the days of Manley and to finally reap the reward of decades of excellance by JB is supremely rewarding.

As a side note, over the years I've seen many questionable posts, but the truly misinformed ones were the ones that hoped for JB's early retirement. JB is going where few coaches have ever gone and Cuse fans are among the beneficiaries.

JB is a great coach. However, you can't under-estimate the value of a super-recruiter like Hop, Rob Murphy, and Troy Weaver who brought us Carmelo. JB has never had the charisma of a Pitino, Calipari, or Valvano. Without personable assistants doing the recruiting now, we wouldn't be at the recruiting level at which we are now. When JB retires, I think Hop will continue bringing in superb talent as long as we have a winning team.

 

[CusefanATL]

SU vs UConn, LVille, GTown and any other team where it is back and forth lead changes I don't see Rak or MCW playing and maybe not Dirty. JB has had the luxury of early blow outs pretty much.

Southerlamd will play in each and eveeryone of those games... Just prob not at the end. No matter how much depth a team has, there are ALWAYS the 5 best together on the court. The luxury of having depth is being able to rest your 5 best enough to always have them on the court together at the end of the game as needed.

Our 5 best are pretty clearly include dion, kris, fair, melo, and triche/scoop

If the game is close in the last 2 min, those are the 5 u will see. Has nothing to do with depth.

 

[billsin01]

Shots / offense comes and goes. Some nights you'll have it, other nights shots just won't drop.

What I'm encouraged by is that Southerland is now finding ways to contribute even when he's not hitting shots. Last year, he didn't rebound at all. That's not the case this year. And he's become a tremendous defender guarding the in-bound pass when we press. And whether the shot is dropping or not any given night, defenses need to account for him / have a guy glued to him, which helps spread the defense and opens things up for other guys.

Plus, you know that every once in awhile, he's going to get hot and have a game like he did at NC State. We're a different team when Southerland knocks down a shot or two--maybe even a national championship contender. What other team has the ability to bring three legitimate double figure scoring threats off of the bench???

I agree with the general sentiment here that there may be games where he only gets a couple token minutes and he could always play his way out of the rotation -- but as of now it's hard to imagine Southerland not getting a bit of run in basically every game.

I know what people are saying about JB never playing more than 7.5 and generally I agree. But if you consider Triche/Waiters/Scoop and Keita/Melo/Fair/KJ as locks for PT, then the 8th guy is a guy who scored at least 14 points four times in the preseason, has six games in double-figures and is averaging 8 ppg and 4.5 rpg in just 17 mpg in the two big east games (yes, blowouts and small sample size are obvious factors).

MCW is a bigger question mark and I'd generally suggest minutes will be hard to come by (in fact I believe I have suggested that on several occasions). But it is worth noting that the kid has the makings of a star and while he has played sparingly or not at all in our three "big" games (Va Tech/Stanford 2 mpg each, DNP vs. UF), it's not as if he's only getting minutes in other games after they are out of reach. He played 22 mins vs. Bucknell, 18 more vs Tulane and another 17 vs. Depaul. Even the 11 vs. the Hall is a legit amount of run.

I tend to think MCW will see the bench in close games, but it certainly does appear that JB is going to give him every chance possible to play his way into the rotation by season's end.

 

[mantonio]

I firmly believe MCW will play in every single game remaining this season. JB did not hesitate to throw him out there in the first half vs a team that was applying a difficult full court press, and he performed well. If MCW had failed today, it's possible he would have logged quite a few DNP's the rest of the way, but he passed the test with flying colors.

Unfortunately for Rak, we didn't perform at our best when he was in there. I'll chalk it up to his first BE road game as a frosh. However, he needs to improve significantly (especially on the defense and rebounding) if he expects to see more than two or three token minutes per game the rest of the year.

He may not be ready to be out there against the big boys this season. I was watching him, & he seems a bit too weak against the stronger competition.

Another year in the weight room will get him ready for next year to contribute more quality time. even so, he might be capable of logging a couple of good strategic minutes this year to give the starters a rest.

 

[Sgt Cuse]

He may not be ready to be out there against the big boys this season. I was watching him, & he seems a bit too weak against the stronger competition.

Another year in the weight room will get him ready for next year to contribute more quality time. even so, he might be capable of logging a couple of good strategic minutes this year to give the starters a rest.

I think MCW will keep seeing minutes but not for the purpose to give the starters rest. There are 3 guards ahead of him and JB could certainly maneuver their minutes for rest purposes, if he wished.

I think JB knows this guy will be good and some minutes now will help his development. And he is pretty good now and it likely won't cost him anything to do it.