Exhibition thoughts

[IthacaMatt]

I would add that he’s gritty, sneaky athletic, and plays like his dad was his coach.

He's a poor man's Chris Mullen. Not a pure PG, but can pick a nice pass. Uses his body well on the drive to protect his release - a benefit of being a big guard. And he can sure nail the three. This kid is going to be really good in a couple years.

 

[billsin01]

I'm not as big a Fennel fan as many on this board, but he is a 6'6" point guard. He will almost always look less athletic than the opposing player, but should more than make up for that with length.

I don't think he played all that well against Buffalo, but I did notice that the ball movement and tempo improved when he was in the game.

Yeah, it was an uneven performance but I really liked the vision and tempo he played with. He was a bit out of control but I'd rather have it be something where you have to get him to dial back the creativity. Is he a high-end player right now? No, but I think he has something going forward. Might be more of a next year thing, but I do like how he plays.

 

[billsin01]

I think that might be our best offensive lineup, but Freeman will struggle to guard more physical centers, and Betsey might not be big enough to help with that.

Also, Freeman is a great defensive rebounder, but Betsey hasn't established himself that way yet. He only had 3 against Buffalo, and has a career DRB% of only 10%. For reference, Freeman was at 30% last season (an elite number) and Kyle is at 13.5% last season (a number which worried me, somewhat alleviated by his 9 boards against Buffalo).

I think we are putting a lot of pressure on Freeman to both guard the other team's center and get all the rebounds with your proposed lineup. I think this is going to get Freeman in unnecessary foul trouble. When Kyle is on the bench, I hope either Souare or White are out there to keep the size up.

When Kyle is on the floor, we can play small with 3 guards, but I would avoid that without Kyle.

I think I will grow to love the Freeman, White, Betsey, Starling/Kingz, George lineup when Kyle needs a rest, but a lot depends on White living up to his high school highlights and preseason hype.

Don't know that I know enough about these guys to understand yet what lineups work, but I would say that when Kyle is out, that lineup is probably in a bit of flux. My guess is one game Souare might be the best option and then the next maybe it's Betsey and White with Freeman. I'd guess it'll be a bit fluid.

 

[billsin01]

Headline for this game will be: pedestrian 10 point win against a bad Buffalo team, and I wouldn't disagree with any of that.

However we need to keep in mind that this is an exhibition, they look different than regular season games do because they are played differently than regular season games are.

The thing that really stood out to me was Red's decision to have Kyle setting screens for George - over and over. And over and over again Buffalo correctly decided to double George off the screen and force the ball out of his hands, leaving us with Kyle in speace around the free throw line.

This worked pretty okay for most of the game because SU hit around 40% of their 3's which kept the lead around 15. Still it seemed to me like something they would never schematically try during the regular season. Why keep putting the ball in the hands of your least creative player and worst shooter? Especially when it pushed Freeman to periphery and made him completely invisible.

With about 3 Minutes left in the game we saw something closer to our real offense, I think. Buffalo hit four straight 3s and cut the lead down to single digits. All of a sudden Kyle stopped screening for George and Feeeman started doing it instead. All of a sudden SU started scoring down low instead of relying on 3s, and all of a sudden the offense (to my eyes) looked a lot better. They ended up winning by 10 despite Buffalo hitting a fifth 3 in a row.

It would take someone smarter than me to tell you how good Syracuse is going to be this year. What I can tell you is the team we saw in this exhibition game wont look much like the regular season team schematically speaking.

Individually speaking, I saw a pretty nice 8 man rotation of George, Starling, Anthony, Kingz, Freeman, Betsy, Kyle, and Souare.

Buffalo is a mid-major who looks like a mid major, by that I mean they are both undersized and also not particularly athletic. Even against them Fennell looked like a mid-major type athlete. He's not going to be ready for a while. Same with Womack. Zephir, is like Chaz Owens, a glorified walk-on.

White is, of course, the unknown not having played yet. He is a highly rated recruit, but I think will have trouble taking minutes from Freeman, Kingz, and Betsey. He might have an easier time earning minutes as a small ball 5. We will see.

Good post. I don't quite know what the benefit of running those screens with Kyle would be in terms of teams scouting this team, but perhaps you're right. I thought one thing that frustrated me was the possession at the end of the first half. Dribbling away 24 seconds and ending up with freeman trying to beat a smaller defender off the dribble from 40 feet is the lack of attention to detail that has only made matters worse (albeit with lesser rosters) the past couple years.

This team won't be perfect, so I can live with mistakes, especially early. But that feels like a symptom of what's been going on the past couple years.

 

[Niastri]

Yeah, it was an uneven performance but I really liked the vision and tempo he played with. He was a bit out of control but I'd rather have it be something where you have to get him to dial back the creativity. Is he a high-end player right now? No, but I think he has something going forward. Might be more of a next year thing, but I do like how he plays.

I remain unconvinced, I thought the speed of the game was a bit much for him. That is a little concerning when you consider that Buffalo wasn't particularly fast...

I will defer to the greater number of posters who disagree with me and await more evidence.

 

[billsin01]

I remain unconvinced, I thought the speed of the game was a bit much for him. That is a little concerning when you consider that Buffalo wasn't particularly fast...

I will defer to the greater number of posters who disagree with me and await more evidence.

I’m always sucker for kids with vision who move the ball. Add in the length and I’ll be optimistic to the end. I still rank guys like Andy rautins and mcw way too high on my list of best players for that very reason.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

I would add that he’s gritty, sneaky athletic, and plays like his dad was his coach.

Well, he was a gym rat, plus he’s highly intelligent and a scrapper.

 

[Surfan06001]

Well, he was a gym rat, plus he’s highly intelligent and a scrapper.

Brings his lunch box to every game

 

[Giants1973]

Its a exhibition game. Im sure are rotation will be 8- 9 players. If Donnie, JJ and George have good yrs and they good defense they will make the tournament.

 

[sutomcat]

Never saw him play until sat, was very impressed. The announcer didnt seem to think he was going to be a good outside shooter, Ive seen some posts on hers seem to think otherwise. What do you guys think?

Betsey was a very good outside shooter in HS but shot poorly from the outside his frosh year at UC. He put on like 45 pounds in one year and that might have played a role in his shooting issues.

I think he is a legit outside shooter who will shoot in the 35-38% range from 3 this year.

But I am an optimist. To my eyes, he appears to have very good shooting form…..

It will be interesting to be how the team does shooting from the 3 point circle.

Expecting Kingsz to shoot over 40%.

Betsey in the 35-38 range.

George shot much better from 3 late last season. Thinking he shoos 33-35 percentage from 3.

Freeman did well from 3 last season. His form is nice. Hoping he can shoot 40% from 3. I don’t mind his taking 3s if he makes that many.

Fennell has terrific form and should be a really good outside shooter at some point. Lots of frosh struggle shooting from the outside though (like Betsey). Can he be a reliable shooter right away? I think this is going to play a big role in how much PT he gets early. Hoping for 35% from him. Kind of expecting 25%.

Anthony is probably going to take 80-90% of his shots from the 3 point circle. He score some in transition and might bust a move or post up a smaller guy a little bit he appears to be a perimeter player right now. Again, you never know how a freshman is gojng to shoot from the 3 point circle. I don’t think he shot great in HS and AAU. Probably under 35% from what I have seen. Would be surprised if he can manage 35% as a frosh. But if anyone is going to step up and surprise here, it is probably Kiyan.

Zephir snd Womack are not going to play much and neither is a major outside shooting threat. That might change with Womack down the road. He has nice form.

That leaves JJ. Pretty sure he is going to take the most 3s on the team. One of the keys for our season is how things go here. Either he needs to make at least 33-35% from 3 or he needs to stop shooting from there. That might be a problem for Red to enforce but nice guys finish last. JJ needs to be efficient for us on offense. Same applies to the shots he takes inside 3. He needs to get his shooting percentage up considerably or lower his volume considerably.

Hope our senior leader steps up and plays like a senior leader should. I am cautiously optimistic he will.