General20
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My first impression of this game was, wow Eastern Michigan is very tall and very athletic. My second impression was, wow Eastern Michigan is a terrible offensive team - this was when they were up five early and before SU started to press. Once Syracuse put the press on I realized that my second impression about Eastern Michigan being a terrible offensive team didn't go nearly far enough.
From Syracuse's perspective, Eastern Michigan was never going to score enough points to mount a serious challenge. So when Syracuse's press took them from down five to up ten in the blink of an eye, Jim Boeheim decided to . . . keep the press on. Then when the Syracuse press raised the lead to twenty, Boeheim decided to . . . keep the press on. When the lead ballooned to thirty and then forty, Boeheim, you guessed it . . . kept the press on.
I never bet on games, but I do like to guess the outcome of each game against the spread just to test my predictive abilities. I had picked every game correctly until this one. If I was a betting man I would have confidently taken Eastern Michigan and the 25 points they were getting, and I probably would've been right if Boeheim hadn't chose to press the entire game. I didn't even have money on the line and I was starting to feel personally offended that Boeheim kept pressing long after the outcome was no longer in doubt. Imagine how Rob Murphy felt.
I was actually wondering if Boeheim was trying to rub it in against his former assistant until I saw his post game interview. I haven't watched any of the press conferences yet this year and watching this one made me sorry that I've missed them. I learned a lot. Out of nowhere Boeheim started talking about the arrogance of people who think Syracuse is going to have an easy time of their out of conference schedule. It was obviously a comment made towards his team. To me, it seems like Boeheim knows Syracuse has a long way to go, but he also knows they have all the talent they need to go far . . . so he is going to ride them hard, both in the media and in practices (its always the teams Boeheim is most complimentary of that scare me the most).
After hearing the press conference, I knew why Boeheim pressed the whole game. It was a learning tool. He wants his guys working hard. Now he can tell them that without the press they would have lost, and he can teach them as if they lost - even though they won by almost forty.
I want to break this one down player by player.
Carter-Williams - You know how every time Syracuse plays a team with a rookie point guard you get excited? Because just about all rookie point guards struggle against our zone no matter how good they are. Yea, well, Eastern Michigan plays that very same zone and it was no big surprise to me that Carter-Williams struggled against it. To his credit he still nearly put up a triple double. It has been a trend so far this year, though, that Carter-Williams plays fantastic against man to man D and mediocre against zone D. The problem might be that he's forcing penetration because he hasn't had a jump shot come remotely close to going in this year.
Triche - I'd love to watch every Eastern Michigan game, just to see how Rob Murphy tinkers with the Boeheim's model. Time Warner Sports plays things like high school women's field hockey. No disrespect to that sport, but if they can find time to run that, surely they can play one or two Eastern Michigan games a week. From this one sighting, it seems like Eastern Michigan is more aggressive in their zone than Syracuse typically is, leaving more openings to score, but also creating more turnovers. For obvious reasons Murphy had Syracuse very well scouted, and knew where to be aggressive and where to back off. In general, he was mostly aggressive. Specifically, he backed off Triche. Triche had a wide open look from three basically all game, and that was given to him by design, by a head coach more familiar with SU's personnel than most. I found that very interesting. I wonder if other coaches will pick up on this and start doing the same? In general I think it worked. In the first half Triche made some turnovers trying to drive the lane when there was nothing there. In the second half he got a few three's to fall. I would have liked him to call Murphy's bluff and shoot a few more of those open threes.
Christmas - I took a close look at him to see if he showed any signs of a nagging injury, and he seemed perfectly healthy to me. Running the floor well and getting up high for both alley-oops that he converted and alley-oops he didn't convert. Although healthy, he did seem to be the one guy most bothered by DaShante Riley's size, which is not a good sign. For me, some of Christmas's early season luster has worn away. Some guys play better when the competition gets better, some guys play worse. I dont get the impression that Christmas is going to play better as things get tougher, but I do get the impression that Boeheim is going to work as hard as possible to wring every drop of potential out of him. Will be interesting to see how he turns out.
Coleman - This was his best game, and the biggest difference between this game and all the others is that he ran the court twice as fast. Clearly Coleman learned a valuable lesson about the speed of the college game when we played Arkansas, and that alone makes the Arkansas game a triumph. Running the court helps Coleman get in position on both ends of the court. Coleman is a guy who needs to establish inside position. His shots seem to be coming closer and closer to the basket, and that's a good thing.
Cooney - Going into the game, I most wanted to see a good game by Cooney. Going against a team that was going to zone exclusively and assuming he would get a lot of playing time, a "good game" to me meant making at least three from behind the arc. Well, Cooney only made two, but they were the last two, and they were something to get excited about. Everyone had the feeling that once Cooney got one to go the rest would come. Apparently Boeheim did too. He ran a play for Cooney right after he drained his first, allowing Cooney to dribble through a screen and bury a wide open shot. The best part about that, when is the last time Syracuse had a guy that could create his own open three by dribbling through a screen? McNamara? Its a rare skill in the college game. Most of the shooters are stand still jump shooters.
Southerland - Suffered from what I call "the law of averages." Whenever anyone has a 30 point game their next game is terrible. I swear it happens every time. My dream is to see Syracuse play in the national championship against a team whose best player scored over thirty points in the final four game. Southerland will be fine. He was a big focus of Eastern Michigan's defense. When that is the case its up to the other guys to step up.
Fair/Grant - In the early stages of the game when Eastern Michigan was able to take the lead, the majority of Syracuse's offense consisted of getting the ball to Fair down low and watching him fail to convert. He struggled to score inside against Eastern Michigan's size and he didn't hit anything from mid-range. Its clear that Fair worked hard over the summer on his ball handling and three point shooting. I'm glad he can handle the ball confidently now, but I'm not so sure I want him shooting threes. He would have been better off rededicating himself to his mid range game, and that is what I hope he does from this point forward. As I was watching Fair struggle to score I thought to myself that Jeremi Grant might do a better job in his place. Sure enough, Grant came in and looked fantastic. Unlike Fair he was not bothered at all by Eastern Michigan's size. He is just so long and athletic that not many are going to be able to stop him around the basket. We haven't had this combination of athleticism and length since Warrick. To clarify, I dont think Grant will be anywhere near the scoring machine Warrick was, and, frankly, I expect Grant to be riding the bench when things get serious this year. But in the future he is going to be a good one for us, and for this one game he was far superior to CJ Fair.
From Syracuse's perspective, Eastern Michigan was never going to score enough points to mount a serious challenge. So when Syracuse's press took them from down five to up ten in the blink of an eye, Jim Boeheim decided to . . . keep the press on. Then when the Syracuse press raised the lead to twenty, Boeheim decided to . . . keep the press on. When the lead ballooned to thirty and then forty, Boeheim, you guessed it . . . kept the press on.
I never bet on games, but I do like to guess the outcome of each game against the spread just to test my predictive abilities. I had picked every game correctly until this one. If I was a betting man I would have confidently taken Eastern Michigan and the 25 points they were getting, and I probably would've been right if Boeheim hadn't chose to press the entire game. I didn't even have money on the line and I was starting to feel personally offended that Boeheim kept pressing long after the outcome was no longer in doubt. Imagine how Rob Murphy felt.
I was actually wondering if Boeheim was trying to rub it in against his former assistant until I saw his post game interview. I haven't watched any of the press conferences yet this year and watching this one made me sorry that I've missed them. I learned a lot. Out of nowhere Boeheim started talking about the arrogance of people who think Syracuse is going to have an easy time of their out of conference schedule. It was obviously a comment made towards his team. To me, it seems like Boeheim knows Syracuse has a long way to go, but he also knows they have all the talent they need to go far . . . so he is going to ride them hard, both in the media and in practices (its always the teams Boeheim is most complimentary of that scare me the most).
After hearing the press conference, I knew why Boeheim pressed the whole game. It was a learning tool. He wants his guys working hard. Now he can tell them that without the press they would have lost, and he can teach them as if they lost - even though they won by almost forty.
I want to break this one down player by player.
Carter-Williams - You know how every time Syracuse plays a team with a rookie point guard you get excited? Because just about all rookie point guards struggle against our zone no matter how good they are. Yea, well, Eastern Michigan plays that very same zone and it was no big surprise to me that Carter-Williams struggled against it. To his credit he still nearly put up a triple double. It has been a trend so far this year, though, that Carter-Williams plays fantastic against man to man D and mediocre against zone D. The problem might be that he's forcing penetration because he hasn't had a jump shot come remotely close to going in this year.
Triche - I'd love to watch every Eastern Michigan game, just to see how Rob Murphy tinkers with the Boeheim's model. Time Warner Sports plays things like high school women's field hockey. No disrespect to that sport, but if they can find time to run that, surely they can play one or two Eastern Michigan games a week. From this one sighting, it seems like Eastern Michigan is more aggressive in their zone than Syracuse typically is, leaving more openings to score, but also creating more turnovers. For obvious reasons Murphy had Syracuse very well scouted, and knew where to be aggressive and where to back off. In general, he was mostly aggressive. Specifically, he backed off Triche. Triche had a wide open look from three basically all game, and that was given to him by design, by a head coach more familiar with SU's personnel than most. I found that very interesting. I wonder if other coaches will pick up on this and start doing the same? In general I think it worked. In the first half Triche made some turnovers trying to drive the lane when there was nothing there. In the second half he got a few three's to fall. I would have liked him to call Murphy's bluff and shoot a few more of those open threes.
Christmas - I took a close look at him to see if he showed any signs of a nagging injury, and he seemed perfectly healthy to me. Running the floor well and getting up high for both alley-oops that he converted and alley-oops he didn't convert. Although healthy, he did seem to be the one guy most bothered by DaShante Riley's size, which is not a good sign. For me, some of Christmas's early season luster has worn away. Some guys play better when the competition gets better, some guys play worse. I dont get the impression that Christmas is going to play better as things get tougher, but I do get the impression that Boeheim is going to work as hard as possible to wring every drop of potential out of him. Will be interesting to see how he turns out.
Coleman - This was his best game, and the biggest difference between this game and all the others is that he ran the court twice as fast. Clearly Coleman learned a valuable lesson about the speed of the college game when we played Arkansas, and that alone makes the Arkansas game a triumph. Running the court helps Coleman get in position on both ends of the court. Coleman is a guy who needs to establish inside position. His shots seem to be coming closer and closer to the basket, and that's a good thing.
Cooney - Going into the game, I most wanted to see a good game by Cooney. Going against a team that was going to zone exclusively and assuming he would get a lot of playing time, a "good game" to me meant making at least three from behind the arc. Well, Cooney only made two, but they were the last two, and they were something to get excited about. Everyone had the feeling that once Cooney got one to go the rest would come. Apparently Boeheim did too. He ran a play for Cooney right after he drained his first, allowing Cooney to dribble through a screen and bury a wide open shot. The best part about that, when is the last time Syracuse had a guy that could create his own open three by dribbling through a screen? McNamara? Its a rare skill in the college game. Most of the shooters are stand still jump shooters.
Southerland - Suffered from what I call "the law of averages." Whenever anyone has a 30 point game their next game is terrible. I swear it happens every time. My dream is to see Syracuse play in the national championship against a team whose best player scored over thirty points in the final four game. Southerland will be fine. He was a big focus of Eastern Michigan's defense. When that is the case its up to the other guys to step up.
Fair/Grant - In the early stages of the game when Eastern Michigan was able to take the lead, the majority of Syracuse's offense consisted of getting the ball to Fair down low and watching him fail to convert. He struggled to score inside against Eastern Michigan's size and he didn't hit anything from mid-range. Its clear that Fair worked hard over the summer on his ball handling and three point shooting. I'm glad he can handle the ball confidently now, but I'm not so sure I want him shooting threes. He would have been better off rededicating himself to his mid range game, and that is what I hope he does from this point forward. As I was watching Fair struggle to score I thought to myself that Jeremi Grant might do a better job in his place. Sure enough, Grant came in and looked fantastic. Unlike Fair he was not bothered at all by Eastern Michigan's size. He is just so long and athletic that not many are going to be able to stop him around the basket. We haven't had this combination of athleticism and length since Warrick. To clarify, I dont think Grant will be anywhere near the scoring machine Warrick was, and, frankly, I expect Grant to be riding the bench when things get serious this year. But in the future he is going to be a good one for us, and for this one game he was far superior to CJ Fair.
