Feel very good about Howard next year

[Orangemen]

you like 50% from the foul line, 20% otherwise? He's a practice body

As a freshman kris Joseph was a 40% free throw shooter and 27% from 3. He got better. Talented kids get better. Howard is talented.

 

[PhatOrange]

Does G share any of the blame for the Howard turnover?

 

[Czar]

Was the play of the game. It gave Pitt 2 pts and the lead when they couldn't score. But the good news, he isn't Cooney so let's not blame him. He will be a role player here. He can't shoot at all. And while he is a slick ball handler, he pounds too much and turns it over too much.

At least he has a role unlike a certain starter.

 

[Ghost]

Howard shouldn't of even had the ball. I'm not bashing Frank, he played decent for the most part, but if you're going to be a PG you can't throw the ball to the other team. That type of play there is taught in Middle school.

A kid jumped the screen, you've never seen that before? Ummmm, okay. We see our guys do it out of the zone on the regular. It's a horrible pass, but he's a little used Frosh. Mistakes like that happen. If they keep happening, have at it though.

DC, Roberson, all of the were far more engaged with Howard in the game - because the offense functions better with a distributor. Everyone complains the offense stagnates for long stretches, but the only time we have rhythm is when we're just plain hitting shots, which makes us incredibly susceptible to long droughts, or when someone like Howard opens things up by getting to the hoop. The defense has to react - there are more moving parts, more chances for cuts...

Plus, at the end of the day - that play was just stupid. G coming off the baseline? Offense was clicking with the stupid weave because we were getting to the rim. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Have G come to the ball, or have him start with the ball.

 

[Cusefan0307]

A kid jumped the screen, you've never seen that before? Ummmm, okay. We see our guys do it out of the zone on the regular. It's a horrible pass, but he's a little used Frosh. Mistakes like that happen. If they keep happening, have at it though.

DC, Roberson, all of the were far more engaged with Howard in the game - because the offense functions better with a distributor. Everyone complains the offense stagnates for long stretches, but the only time we have rhythm is when we're just plain hitting shots, which makes us incredibly susceptible to long droughts, or when someone like Howard opens things up by getting to the hoop. The defense has to react - there are more moving parts, more chances for cuts...

Plus, at the end of the day - that play was just stupid. G coming off the baseline? Offense was clicking with the stupid weave because we were getting to the rim. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Have G come to the ball, or have him start with the ball.

I'm with Dasher on this one. I'm not sold he's the PG of the future.

I agree he shouldn't of had the ball. So does Boeheim. He admitted Mike should of had it.

 

[Ward]

Get over the Cooney crap and look at why we lost. We were tied with the ball with a minute to go.

That pass was the football version of the pick 6.

Give it a break and look at things objectively. You're trying to throw it all on Howard and then when I point out flaws from Cooney you revert into protector and it immediately is labeled "bashing". It's proof of the double standard. Stop babying the guy.

 

[BlackSquirrels]

Does G share any of the blame for the Howard turnover?

Not sure what SU teaches in that situation, but I doubt it. If you're coming off a screen in that situation and you recognize your defender going over the screen, you usually fade to the corner away from the defender.

 

[Ghost]

I'm with Dasher on this one. I'm not sold he's the PG of the future.

I agree he shouldn't of had the ball. So does Boeheim. He admitted Mike should of had it.

That's fine. He might not be. Who knows!

 

[Cusefan0307]

Give it a break and look at things objectively. You're trying to throw it all on Howard and then when I point out flaws from Cooney you revert into protector and it immediately is labeled "bashing". It's proof of the double standard. Stop babying the guy.

How am I protecting Cooney? Pick one post today where I protected him. I've been as fatigued with him as anyone the last couple weeks, I just choose not to beat a dead horse and dump on the kid.

Cooney played 20 seconds the last 15 minutes of the game. You don't want to blame Howard, fine than blame JB. It was his decision to put the ball in Franks hands.

 

[Fly Rodder]

In 18 minutes Howard racked up 5 assists, that's 11 on a per 40 basis, against a team that plays a tough man defense. Syracuse wouldn't even have been in sniffing distance of Pitt had Boeheim not pulled Cooney for his lack of defense and put Howard in.

 

[MikeSU02]

I'm with Dasher on this one. I'm not sold he's the PG of the future.

I agree he shouldn't of had the ball. So does Boeheim. He admitted Mike should of had it.

If you aren't sold on FH, then you are waiting until the 17-18 season, at the earliest, for the PG of the future.

 

[cuseinseattle]

I think Howard is going to be good next year. He is such a good passer and his court vision is amazing. If he can improve his perimeter shooting to be ok then he could be a really solid PG next year in my opinion.

 

[Ward]

How am I protecting Cooney? Pick one post today where I protected him. I've been as fatigued with him as anyone the last couple weeks, I just choose not to beat a dead horse and dump on the kid.

Cooney played 20 seconds the last 15 minutes of the game. You don't want to blame Howard, fine than blame JB. It was his decision to put the ball in Franks hands.

Seriously, ok?

Get over the Cooney crap and look at why we lost. We were tied with the ball with a minute to go.

That pass was the football version of the pick 6.

I don't blame the loss today on Cooney or Howard. They both made bad plays down the stretch but I don't think that's why we lost. I think JB has to take a huge chunk of responsibility.

Why take the press off? You have to know Pitt is going to do everything they can to deny Gbinije the ball so why start him that close to the baseline with no screen to help him get open? Why put Cooney back in when he's cold from sitting for the last ~30 mins of real time? Why decide at that point to have Frank bring the ball up and take it out of Gbinije's hands? Why have Malachi probably our second best guy at taking it the basket be the inbounder?

Terrible job by JB coaching down the stretch.

 

[mayselc]

He tried to make things happen and win the game. He's a freshman. Not to mention our offense looked SO MUCH BETTER with him distributing.

He is the only guy on the team that can deliver a good, quick pass on a pick and roll. And when half our offensive sets are run off pick and rolls, that's pretty sad. Hopefully Battle has that skill mastered as well.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Was the play of the game. It gave Pitt 2 pts and the lead when they couldn't score. But the good news, he isn't Cooney so let's not blame him. He will be a role player here. He can't shoot at all. And while he is a slick ball handler, he pounds too much and turns it over too much.

This will be a great bump in a couple of years.

 

[Ghost]

In 18 minutes Howard racked up 5 assists, that's 11 on a per 40 basis, against a team that plays a tough man defense. Syracuse wouldn't even have been in sniffing distance of Pitt had Boeheim not pulled Cooney for his lack of defense and put Howard in.

Yeah, and he drew a bunch of fouls - honestly two in a row were ticky-tack ones where DC would have had an easy dunk, and Roberson would have had an easy basket. Those came on back-to-back possessions, and cost us baskets if anything.

They came during that weird stretch where they called like 4 quick fouls on Pitt, then didn't call the harder foul on Mali's drive, or the incredibly obvious over-the-back on Pitt that JB was yelling about.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Looking at what we have next year I think he will be a 15-20 min a game guy. Unless he makes a big improvement. I think the two centers will split time relatively evenly. I think Roberson and Moyer will split time at one forward spot. Lydon will get major minutes at the other forward with spells from either Malachi or Battle to replace him. Malachi and Battle will get the major minutes as guards with Howard making up the rest of the time.

Personally I rather have Malachi and Battle playing forward more but we have no real guards on the team for like the 5th year in a row. Unless Howard or Joseph make major improvements, we will have guys pretending to be guards.

 

[Ghost]

Does G share any of the blame for the Howard turnover?

I mean, let's not forget G's strange shovel-type pass at Lydon's feet that led to a scrum and Lydon getting kicked, and the subsequent breakout for Pitt. And Lydon was wide open on that pass.

Bad passes happen. Howard's pass sucked, especially the timing...but nevertheless, seems like a stretch to indict him for that one play. Or G for that crap pass in a key stretch...Especially since Lydon, for whatever reason on that play, appeared to step out of the way of setting the screen. That certainly didn't help things.

 

[Kowbelkat]

Howard creates and he has vision. I look forward to him next year. Hopefully he improves his ability to finish at the rim and works on at least needing to be held accountable from deep. It's a shame it took until the ACC freaking Tournament for him to actually get run.

Like when he threw it into the first row after the timeout or thinking Robinson changed teams with a minute to play

 

[jdubs30]

Does G share any of the blame for the Howard turnover?

No. G didn't lose a fight for the ball, Robinson took such a good angle to the ball that G couldn't even have fouled him if he tried. There's something to be said about coming back to the ball, but even if G comes back to the ball hard, Robinson still gets a clean steal

 

[NineOneSeven]

No. G didn't lose a fight for the ball, Robinson took such a good angle to the ball that G couldn't even have fouled him if he tried. There's something to be said about coming back to the ball, but even if G comes back to the ball hard, Robinson still gets a clean steal

It was just a very predictable play

 

[Kowbelkat]

It was just a very predictable play

What we call our offense is very predictable

 

[CuseNickens]

The last 1:30 of the game for Frank was one of the worst stretches I have ever seen from any one player. He left the man on his wing wide open on an in bounds play with 6 seconds on the shot clock with the game tied, had a loose ball slip through his hands that went right to him on a rebound (got lucky that we had the arrow on the tie up), threw a pass right to the defender for the run out, not foul that player on the run out, leave his responsibility open on the press with no one behind him, and a half ass challenge on the walk by Robinson to put pitt up 4. Brutal stretch.

I like him though.

 

[Ghost]

The last 1:30 of the game for Frank was one of the worst stretches I have ever seen from any one player. He left the man on his wing wide open on an in bounds play with 6 seconds on the shot clock with the game tied, had a loose ball slip through his hands that went right to him on a rebound (got lucky that we had the arrow on the tie up), threw a pass right to the defender for the run out, not foul that player on the run out, leave his responsibility open on the press with no one behind him, and a half ass challenge on the walk by Robinson to put pitt up 4. Brutal stretch.

I like him though.

Every time I watch the recovery after that steal I'm shocked G didn't go for the block. He had a midget going to the hoop, he was already doing the bounce-step after avoiding FH's steal attempt, he was coming from behind - seemed like the perfect-storm for an easy rejection.

 

[orangenirvana]

NIT might be the best thing for Howard's development. Give him 35 minutes per game going forward.