First Impression of the season. Wasn’t too far off.

[HyattsCuse]

UBuffalo Wild Wings Postgame

Now that the regular season is over, I went back and looked at my first post game post of the season after the Buffalo exhibition game.

Sadly, my first impression was pretty accurate.

 

[LpoolNative]

The exhibitions didn’t show anyone that we’d end up 15-16. We started off the season great

 

[phsyra]

The exhibitions didn’t show anyone that we’d end up 15-16. We started off the season great

We were never a good basketball team at any point this season. Inneficiency is our specialty at bothe ends of the court.

 

[Blanko97]

The exhibitions didn’t show anyone that we’d end up 15-16. We started off the season great

“ We started off the season great”

That and a dollar gets you a cup of coffee at McDonald’s

 

[sdhall01]

“ We started off the season great”

That and a dollar gets you a cup of coffee at McDonald’s

It doesn’t make it less true. We were all pretty excited until Hofstra

 

[PoppyHart]

UBuffalo Wild Wings Postgame

Now that the regular season is over, I went back and looked at my first post game post of the season after the Buffalo exhibition game.

Sadly, my first impression was pretty accurate.

You do impressions? I thought your training was in psychiatry.

 

[Blanko97]

It doesn’t make it less true. We were all pretty excited until Hofstra

That is right, but also doesn’t make my point wrong

 

[OrangeFoo]

It doesn’t make it less true. We were all pretty excited until Hofstra

The issues on offense were there from the jump:
- JJ is the only one who can create for himself consistently… but his ability finish and shoot isn’t good enough for him to be the number 1 option
- Donnie is the closest we have to a number 1 option but he is the classic 3/4 tweener so he only was able to sporadically take over games
- Kingz never got enough shots
- George either got worse in the offseason or was not set up for success in this offense because he does very little to pressure the defense
- Kiyan was getting big boyed even in exhibition games but his he kinda could make it work against lower caliber athletes

On defense there was some hope but even then it was fairly obvious that the better D was a because of improved intensity and better athletes and not that much because the system was better. The open question was whether the intensity would hold up all season and it turns out the intensity barely made it to the new year.

So in summary, yeah all the signs were there.
My biggest criticism of Autry is that he wanted the identity of the team to be intensity and they quit on him very early on in the season. They didn’t believe in him and that’s the worst thing to happen to a leader.

 

[rocklloyd]

How about can’t shoot, lack of desire to get rebounds and play consistent defense, and the most in excusable of all (with exception of yesterday), cant make free throws. Lots of flaws with the team seen very early.

 

[FrancoPizza]

UBuffalo Wild Wings Postgame

Now that the regular season is over, I went back and looked at my first post game post of the season after the Buffalo exhibition game.

Sadly, my first impression was pretty accurate.

Holy crap that was spot on.

 

[Chip]

You do impressions? I thought your training was in psychiatry.

Underrated cameo by Dean Wormer.

 

[Scooch]

I think the first third of the season was a Rorschach test where, for the most part, people's pre-existing opinion about Red led them to see what they wanted to see.

Personally, I was very optimistic for the first 3 games. I wasn't nearly as sold on the moral wins vs. Houston and Kansas as others. I could see the wheels coming off post-Tennessee.

After Clemson I knew we were sunk. That was such a horribly coached game.

 

[CuseIsGodsTeam]

Hofstra was a mortal wound. BC was the death blow and the Pitt loss at home was the corpse kicking.

Syracuse basketball 2025-2026

“We almost beat Houston.”

 

[Dcuse]

Hofstra was a mortal wound. BC was the death blow and the Pitt loss at home was the corpse kicking.

Syracuse basketball 2025-2026

“We almost beat Houston.”

Perfect review of the year.

 

[SBU72]

Any team that shoots FT as bad as SU did was never going to finish above 500. Aren't coaches suppose to correct such obvious bad techniques?

 

[Eric15]

It doesn’t make it less true. We were all pretty excited until Hofstra

Eh, sort of. It seemed like we all felt respectable after Houston, a little blah after Kansas, and extremely dejected after Iowa State outscored us by like 30 in the second half. And our game against Monmouth just prior to Vegas was a two point game with only 20 seconds left.

Obviously Tennessee was a nice win. For me personally, the only time this season I actually felt like we had the chance to make the tournament was mid-second half against BC when we had just beat GT/Pitt/FSU and looked to be racking up some wins. Then the wheels came off.

 

[newmexicuse]

Gotta confess, though I never thought we would be a lock to go Dancing, pre-season my expectation was that we would at least be on the bubble.

Lots of questions about the season.

What happened to Starling the last five games or so ? He is a player with plus athleticism who should have been capable of carrying us for spurts at a time.

Why didnt Donnie take the next step and become a legit star ? He seemed to get less confident and less effective as the season wore on.

Why did George have so many TOs for much of the season, though he seemed to improve in that regard near the end.

In hindsight, Kingz was easily our best player, why wasnt that recognized earlier. He could have been a borderline star.

Kyle seemed to be our early season MVP, but unfortunately, as the season wore on all he could do was make the spectacular play from time to time.

Why couldnt Betsey do anything more than shoot an open trey ?

Why wasnt it recognized that White needed more run ?

Kiyan simply wasnt physically ready.

Plenty of blame to go around between poor coaching and poor performance by most of the players.