Flush it. This group will stabilize things.

[Scooch]

I don't know how reliable Donnie Freeman is. Big talented guys are always injury risks, some more than others. Maybe he's in the latter category. He's good when he's available, but maybe he's always going to have injury issues. It happens. I'd like to see him play some games in January and February.

I like Donnie a lot. He can be a very good player when he's heathy and playing well. That being said, while he's our best guy, he's not someone who can put the team on his back. He's not Carmelo, or Wallace, or even Flynn.

I say that because I don't buy the rationalization some have put forth that we can't be expected to overcome his absence and win tough games.

This team has to learn how to win without him, because, like you suggested, I'm not convinced we're going to get him back for good this season.

 

[MikeSU02]

Our first three games of the season and the Houston game were all good games. The Monmouth game and the Kansas and ISU games were not. You have to play two halves in a game, can't hang your hat on one half.

I think our change in defensive capability is nothing short of a miracle from last year (and really the last decade give or take) when we are on.

But we are in the 300s in both 3PT% and FT% and we do not have the offensive coaching to offset that, especially with an injury to Donnie. You cannot beat that against even a decent team. We have a 200 place spread between our FTA ranking and our FT%. That just cannot be the case.

I have said this over and over, I would love for Red to be the guy. I have loved him since he was on ESPN's Scholastic Sports America show and he was featured as a Syracuse commit. He's probably in my top five or ten players at Cuse ever.

But we have to turn this thing around starting on Tuesday. We then have to take care of business with any bad team in the ACC and get a few upsets against the likes of Duke / LVille etc that Cusefan0307 and jncuse have already pointed out.

I really want Red to work. But if I had to bet on it, I wouldn't bet on it and that really bums me out.

 

[wiCuse]

Not going to go to deep, I think he's a good coach.

Intangibles... I don't think it actually looks like you said..

-The year before he got there, they made the sweet sixteen, as a matter of fact outside of a 3 year window between 2019-2021 they have made post season every year since 2012.

-Clearly they recruit the type of players for their system and have been doing so for a while

-Not sure of the actual roster turnover etc., but it doesn't seem like he stepped into a bare bone situation

-Not sure of the overall experience, age of their players but they clearly have found a balance somewhere

-Don't know what parts of the old system, returning players he has, but it matters

-Seems like he's building on what was done before to continue making them better or fully implementing his style..

So what you've saying is you know nothing about the recent history of Iowa St basketball. TJ is the opposite of Red is almost every way when it comes to coaching.

 

[RedtheGOB]

This is the way to look at it. We have no margin of error. We have to beat every bad team left on our schedule while likely beating two of Duke, Louisville, or UNC in 4 total games against them of which 3 are on the road.

Silver lining on this is that if Autry really wants to show the fanbase this is his job to keep then yeah he needs to show he can run the table in the ACC anyway because that’s what we expect anyway.

Simply put stubbing his toe just once or twice more against even really good teams will seal our tourney chances and Autrys time here as coach at the same time.

For what it’s worth go look at what some of the ACC teams are playing for a NonCon. Very few ACC teams have even sniffed playing a ranked team and very few top 10 ones or multiple ones like we will. Some barely have 1 bubble team on their resume. If I had to guess now we probably played 4 teams that could all be 2-3 seeds come March.

We are just playing a harder stretch of basketball than any other ACC team now.

Per kenpom. We played the #2, 3, 9th and 12th defenses this stretch. Outside of Duke there’s not another ACC team above 24th defensively. I’m not optimistic but maybe we’ll look like the Harlem globetrotters offensively when we just can stop playing top 10 defenses.

 

[OrangeinDC]

Awesome! Maybe the committee will look at it the exact same way come tourney time.

They won't be looking at message boards.

So what you've saying is you know nothing about the recent history of Iowa St basketball. TJ is the opposite of Red is almost every way when it comes to coaching.

What I'm saying is that I don't care about IS basketball...

 

[hoopsupstate]

I’ve been watching UCONN and Illinois and the Huskies are putting a clinic on. UCONN gets so many buckets with guys cutting to the basket, not off the dribble, but passing. When there’s a miss shot, they always have someone near the basket for offensive rebounding position. Their off the ball movement makes the defense move and their cuts will eventually lead to an open cut to the basket or wide open three. Our coaches could learn a lot by watching this game.

 

[sufan59]

I’ve been watching UCONN and Illinois and the Huskies are putting a clinic on. UCONN gets so many buckets with guys cutting to the basket, not off the dribble, but passing. When there’s a miss shot, they always have someone near the basket for offensive rebounding position. Their off the ball movement makes the defense move and their cuts will eventually lead to an open cut to the basket or wide open three. Our coaches could learn a lot by watching this game.

UConn isn’t even that much more talented on paper than Syracuse. The coaching, preparation, and scouting though is where the biggest difference is right now. We are capable talent wise with the athleticism to do a lot of the things that UConn does and we sometimes do. But we have physical and mental energy dips that they just don’t have and if they do, they are usually short lasted.

 

[EnviroSciGuy]

UConn isn’t even that much more talented on paper than Syracuse. The coaching, preparation, and scouting though is where the biggest difference is right now. We are capable talent wise with the athleticism to do a lot of the things that UConn does and we sometimes do. But we have physical and mental energy dips that they just don’t have and if they do, they are usually short lasted.

UConn made their leap after hiring Luke Murray to modernize the offense. Based on how the Cuse D has improved, that could be one of the biggest pieces needed for Red to be successful. This team actually reminds me of some of those early Hurley teams at UConn.

 

[FrancoPizza]

We were a play away from beating a top 5. leading vs Kansas under 4min, and leading vs ISU at the half.

Sure, they failed late but that's like hitting approaches to 10ft and not making the putts. Give yourself chances and learn. ISU played a lights out 2nd half.

We played 6 halfs vs good teams and had 1 bad one. Thats a win

I don’t recall leading Kansas under 4 min… and pretty sure we were trailing ISU at the half. But don’t let facts get in the way…

 

[Blanko97]

We were a play away from beating a top 5. leading vs Kansas under 4min, and leading vs ISU at the half.

Sure, they failed late but that's like hitting approaches to 10ft and not making the putts. Give yourself chances and learn. ISU played a lights out 2nd half.

We played 6 halfs vs good teams and had 1 bad one. Thats a win

Just to note we never lead against Kansas in the second half and we were trailing ISU at the half as well

 

[FrancoPizza]

UConn made their leap after hiring Luke Murray to modernize the offense. Based on how the Cuse D has improved, that could be one of the biggest pieces needed for Red to be successful. This team actually reminds me of some of those early Hurley teams at UConn.

Send Gus Fring to Bill Murray’s house, and suddenly Luke will gladly be an assistant here.

 

[CardiacCuse]

First off, can I say.. It's good to talk hoops and not just I hate Red (not saying that's you).

Here are my thoughts on your points.

1) This depends on what the Coache's objectives are, if it's big picture, you wanna push them to their limit, like training a muscle, especially with a new team, 5 games into the season and missing top player, that's a legitimate approach if you think your team has good potential. If it's just for the game, you manage what's in front of you. Don't agree with Red being the only coach that uses this approach.

2) I didn't see anyone beat us purely with x's and o's outside that stretch second half of Iowa state, I agree, every coach has to figure their strategy, but for me, if I'm building a team I "expect" to develop them over the course of the season, I don't expect them to have a season worth of experience etc in game 5, that's coaching to me. Building an identity is just that.. building.

3) I don't agree with this. Having every detail and scheme ironed out by game 1 isn't realistic with a team of 9 new players including several freshmen. Everyone is learning their roles, limits and how the react and play under pressure, no way that's done game 1.

4) If you ever want to build a team, you start with defense, period. Schemes etc. take time, however heart hustle, energy and effort don't.

5) I think Red knows the style and system he wants to play; however you have to get there with the players, coaching and it's gonna take some time.

Just my thoughts.. Some of the stuff I didn't get into because I think it's more of personal preference which is ok.

the other teams play with bball iq...kansas does not have a wow factor roster but they simply play smart basketball as a team...that doesnt just happen by accident. listen to bill self talk basketball. in his press conferences he actually references bball knowledge and wisdom beyond "level 5 intensity" and vague aphoristic jargon. listening to him talk about bidunga after the SU game made me envious...he talked about technique of how he can seal off opponents in the post etc...types of comments red would simply never make (because i think he literally doesnt even have that kind of bball knowledge)

you didnt see how the opponents blitze kiyan and got him to play like a shell of himself from previous games? you didnt see how opponents had a good gameplan to stop george and cause him to also play terribly? you didnt see how houston used smarts to get to the foul line? you didnt see how kansas used ball movement to get good shots and wide open plays?

kansas was without their leading scorer and star player and they changed their lineup ...and they will be much better in feb or march then they are now. they are clearly working on things too.

i NEVER would expect everything to be worked out from day 1. my point is that their baseline...and the baseline that most teams seem to start from game 1...like a colgate or even schools like that...is they start the season running plays and playing with high bball IQ whereas Syracuse DOES NOT. the offense is like 10% installed...they just stand around and jack 3s and kinda run picks at the top of the key sometimes...red has worked on the defense and not done much on offense yet...as if thats enough! it is not!!!!!

"its gonna take some time" is NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!!! ...lose to tennessee and they will have a very low chance of making the NCAAT...this isnt the 90s anymore!!!!


its not okay anymore to use the non con to lose every game and figure things out...thats not how it works now. JB did that and it was fine bc it was a different era. non con didnt matter, big east play was all that did then.

this era is different.

 

[powdersmack]

They won't be looking at message boards.

 

[OrangeinDC]

the other teams play with bball iq...kansas does not have a wow factor roster but they simply play smart basketball as a team...that doesnt just happen by accident. listen to bill self talk basketball. in his press conferences he actually references bball knowledge and wisdom beyond "level 5 intensity" and vague aphoristic jargon. listening to him talk about bidunga after the SU game made me envious...he talked about technique of how he can seal off opponents in the post etc...types of comments red would simply never make (because i think he literally doesnt even have that kind of bball knowledge)

you didnt see how the opponents blitze kiyan and got him to play like a shell of himself from previous games? you didnt see how opponents had a good gameplan to stop george and cause him to also play terribly? you didnt see how houston used smarts to get to the foul line? you didnt see how kansas used ball movement to get good shots and wide open plays?

kansas was without their leading scorer and star player and they changed their lineup ...and they will be much better in feb or march then they are now. they are clearly working on things too.

i NEVER would expect everything to be worked out from day 1. my point is that their baseline...and the baseline that most teams seem to start from game 1...like a colgate or even schools like that...is they start the season running plays and playing with high bball IQ whereas Syracuse DOES NOT. the offense is like 10% installed...they just stand around and jack 3s and kinda run picks at the top of the key sometimes...red has worked on the defense and not done much on offense yet...as if thats enough! it is not!!!!!

"its gonna take some time" is NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!!! ...lose to tennessee and they will have a very low chance of making the NCAAT...this isnt the 90s anymore!!!!


its not okay anymore to use the non con to lose every game and figure things out...thats not how it works now. JB did that and it was fine bc it was a different era. non con didnt matter, big east play was all that did then.

this era is different.

I hear ya.. We just agree to disagree on a few things, and I respect that.

 

[upperdeck]

I don’t recall leading Kansas under 4 min… and pretty sure we were trailing ISU at the half. But don’t let facts get in the way…

A play away is they key here

 

[Blanko97]

A play away is they key here

Then the “.” Probably shouldn’t be there

 

[EnviroSciGuy]

Vegas was just a bad set of circumstances. We're taking the ACC.