Fab's impact

[iommi]

The loss of Fab is huge for a variety of reasons:

1) On defense. He seems to be in position more often than not. More importantly, he's a presence. Hi shot blocking ability is a deterrent. Guys aren't so quick to enter the lane. Without him, the guys in there are the total opposite. Rak is NEVER in position and he's soft as Charmin. Baye is smart and tries to be in position but he too is soft and is not a shot blocking threat,. Guys go to the hoop without fear against Baye. With the middle no longer imposing, teams can run their offense easier and our guards and forwards cannot extend. This obviously makes it easier to hit threes.

2) On offense. Fab is not a polished player. We all know that. But again, he's a presence. He's a big target that needs to be defended. The pick and roll was a big part of our offense. Scoop, in particular, was very adept at passing to Fab off the pick and roll. Fab also was at the receiving end of 2-3 alley oops a game. Easy offense. When a team like ours struggles in the half court, those easy baskets are huge.

3) Fouls. Let's face it. Having 5 more fouls to give is not a small factor.

I'll repeat: I hope Fab Melo comes back this year. If he doesn't, kiss a special season goodbye. Fab would become one of the biggest goats in SU hoops history. I'm really pissed because the girlfriend incident should've served as his wakeup call. So much for that.

 

[Marsh01]

The loss of Fab is huge for a variety of reasons:

1) On defense. He seems to be in position more often than not. More importantly, he's a presence. Hi shot blocking ability is a deterrent. Guys aren't so quick to enter the lane. Without him, the guys in there are the total opposite. Rak is NEVER in position and he's soft as Charmin. Baye is smart and tries to be in position but he too is soft and is not a shot blocking threat,. Guys go to the hoop without fear against Baye. With the middle no longer imposing, teams can run their offense easier and our guards and forwards cannot extend. This obviously makes it easier to hit threes.

2) On offense. Fab is not a polished player. We all know that. But again, he's a presence. He's a big target that needs to be defended. The pick and roll was a big part of our offense. Scoop, in particular, was very adept at passing to Fab off the pick and roll. Fab also was at the receiving end of 2-3 alley oops a game. Easy offense. When a team like ours struggles in the half court, those easy baskets are huge.

3) Fouls. Let's face it. Having 5 more fouls to give is not a small factor.

I'll repeat: I hope Fab Melo comes back this year. If he doesn't, kiss a special season goodbye. Fab would become one of the biggest goats in SU hoops history. I'm really pissed because the girlfriend incident should've served as his wakeup call. So much for that.

Fab also has shown the ability to block a shot if he does get beat. How many times this year has he blocked a shot from behind this season? 6-10 times? He also is just so much stronger than BMK and Rak and it is much harder to get position when he is in there. Tonight Cooley had cart blanche and was in perfect position every time down the floor.

I agree offensively. I mean we dont even look at Rak or BMK when they are in there. The one time Scoop passed it to BMK he wasnt ready for it and traveled (and of course made the shot)

 

[Cusefannotindc]

We were definitely weak on the offensive boards tonight, based on our average we should have had 13-14 ORs, we had 7, that probably cost us 4-5 points, but does Fab being on the court at 6 more ORs?

 

[alibrat66]

Bees said a couple of weeks ago that Fab was the one player we could not lose this year to injury or whatever (the whatever seems to be academic problems). I have felt the same way. We simply have no backup for Fab. Keita, though a gamer, just doesn't have it. RAK isn't ready; for a guy who came in with the reputation of being a shotblocker and rebounder, he doesn't show much of either. The Notre Dame game exposed this reality to the sporting world. How much Fab has improved this year is easily explained by how last year we considered Fab and Keita interchangeable; Melo has showed quantum improvement in his game; Keita has remained the same, or even regressed.

This is going to be one of JB's most challenging coaching problems, maybe ever. Not trying to be presumptuous, and assuming Melo is gone, I'd venture a guess as to the following:

Southerland and KJO should start at the forward positions. CJ (simply can't hold his own underneath against power forwards) should spell KJ. RAK, when he is not playing center, can spell Southerland. Keita can come in for RAK when RAK slides to power forward.

Unless JB solves the center mystery, and these guys show improvement, in my opinion the top 25 is going to be in our rearview mirror. We'll be a guard-oriented, perimeter team, and a streaky one at that. Over and over against ND, we penetrated and passed off to RAK, Keita, or CJ. Almost everytime they fumbled the pass, or missed a bunny. That is one of Fab's strengths; he has good hands. The three I mentioned don't--for different reasons; CJ's being that he plays soft and get knocked around, so the ball is a moving target for him; Keita plays like he's wearing boxing gloves; and RAK is just too raw and is out of position most of the time. And this is only on offense. We're a disaster underneath on the defensive end.

The guard positions remain our strong point. However, they are only as strong as what we can offer down low.

JB doesn't solve this one--and the requisite players up front don't step up big time, including learning the pick and roll, how to finish, and the ability to pass--the balance of the season is going to be mostly a replay of last night. We're going to struggle against even mediocre teams, and we don't have too many of those left on our schedule.

 

[HoustonCuse]

The other factor is that the guards have said repeatedly that Fab's presence inside is what allows them to be so aggressive at the top of the zone. You saw what the opposite of that was tonight. A Vermont-like performance of allowing a guy to comfortably dribble the ball for 31 seconds before heaving up a desperation 3 that went in at a 75% clip.

 

[iommi]

The other factor is that the guards have said repeatedly that Fab's presence inside is what allows them to be so aggressive at the top of the zone. You saw what the opposite of that was tonight. A Vermont-like performance of allowing a guy to comfortably dribble the ball for 31 seconds before heaving up a desperation 3 that went in at a 75% clip.

Absolutely. With Fab looming in the middle, our zone was like a Venus Fly Trap.

 

[HoustonCuse]

Also, them hitting their first three 3's just killed the game because you can't run that burn offense from behind and we never led... Game was doomed from Scoops first missed layup with 19:50 on the clock.

 

[JJReddawg]

I held out on the "20-0" shirt to get the "F*** Fab Melo" shirt, pending the appeal of course. If he plays again (even if we lose in the regular season) all is forgiven.