I don’t think there is a way we don’t suck next year. Unless someone has a leap and turns into Carmelo, or we bring in someone who has a Wes Johnson impact there isn’t much too get excited about.
Haley’s comet is what you’re pining for
BC, Miami, and VT were rarely good in the Big East though. And ND was always middle of the pack.
Need 2 6’5 guards with 7 foot wingspans who are athletic, can handle, pass, shoot, and defend. Need two 6’8-6’9 forwards with 7’5 wingspans who are athletic, can defend, run the floor and dunk, and at least one of them needs point forward skills and at least one of them needs to be able to shoot. And need a 7 foot center with an 8 foot wingspan who can run to the corners and block jump shots, defend the rim, defend the high post, catch the ball, dunk, set ball screens 25 feet from the hoop, and catch and finish on rim runs.
7 foot wingspans would have been fine in 2010. Now we need 13 feet of length.
We either need Jesse back or a bigtime transfer C to be any good next year. Hima is fine as a backup, but rolling with him and Carey as our centers would be an absolute joke. That’s bottom feeder ACC program level stuff.
I forget to include that they all have to play together for 2-3 years too!
I whole heartedly agree. There are so many aspects to this decline that to chose 1 is difficult at best. I agree that the program would have been better off if JB had followed through with leaving. (So in that case blame Hopkins!) but to say bringing in a new coach will solve everything is very naive. I personally don't think that SU can bring in the brilliant young up and coming coach every body thinks they can.
They also need eyes in the back of their head so they see when the wing is cutting to the hoop behind them.
Devo's podcast from last week has me concerned. He was talking to JT about next year and said that Hima could be a good rim-protecting center and he thinks there'll be enough scoring around him that it would work. Obviously Devo doesn't make the decisions, but he talks to the staff and I wonder if they're talking about Hima taking over next year. Hima was recruited on the pitch to come in and train with Jesse for a year and then compete for the starting spot. We'll find out in a few months.
Hima splitting the spot with a transfer that can play and Hima splitting the spot with Carey are two very different things to me.
He might foul out in 20 minutes. We need someone. And for the record, I like Hima a lot and think he has a high ceiling. But I agree with your assessment.
17-18, oddly enough, we just couldnt score
I understand and respect your position on this, but strongly disagree. Leadership tone is set at the top. While we all see the AD as the top here, we know JB had more leverage/pull on the hill than just about everyone. Given it’s the second set of sanctions, I think there’s pretty clear indication that the tone of the program at the top was not where it needed to be. Negligence is not an appropriate defense in my opinion.
That team epitomized the fact we need to give up offense to be good defensively in the zone. A center who had really long arms, but terrible hands and no offensive skill. Two long guards whose favorite shots were long twos and couldn’t setup others. One forward who had long arms, but weighed 180 pounds and another that had the worst shooting percentage at the rim of any player probably in Syracuse history.
