General20
Basketball Maven
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You hear a lot of talk about rivalries, both on this board and in the greater sports community. I find them to be stupid. The idea that you hate some team because they are located close to you, or because Babe Ruth played for them, or any other reason rivalries form is the kind of irrational group-think that I never seem to buy into. But I always buy into good basketball games, and for some cosmic reason I can't seem to figure out, Syracuse and Georgetown always seem to play great (not just good) basketball games.
Spoiler alert: Battle hit a buzzer beater, and his shot got me thinking about other SU/Georgetown buzzer beaters ... of which there have been many. Pearl had one. Billy Owens hit 2 free throws with no time on the clock to force OT which back then was even more impressive than getting a basket in the normal run of play, GMac had that famous one of course, Kris Joseph had one, and now Battle. And that doesn't even count the non-buzzer beater fantastic finish games like the 1989 overtime win that little Sherman Douglas sealed with a reverse dunk off a steal, the famous GMac Big East tourney run where he hit a million 3's (at least that's how it felt) and had that pass to Devendorf to come back from 15 down and win at the very end, the overtime win in our last ever Big East game against Otto Porter's #5 ranked Georgetown team, and of course, last year's over time win.
All these are just off the top of my head. I'm sure I'm forgetting plenty, feel free to add to the list.
Anyway, the point is, something always happens to make these games close and memorable - you won't get an explanation of what that something might be from me - I don't understand it, I am just happy to watch it.
Georgetown starts two midget freshmen guards, but compensates for them with a retinue of long athletic forwards and centers. When you try to take their midget guards to the basket, everybody else leaves their man and packs the paint, surrounding you. Its really hard to score in the paint against them. When you think about it, this was Syracuse's first game against a team that is good at protecting the rim. It took a few of our guys by surprise (especially Carey, who got embarrassed going to the rim on multiple occasions). The right way to play against this type of D, is to drive the lane and draw the swarming defense to you, then kick it out for the open 3, which Syracuse did, and I thought, did quite well. They took 14 three point shots in the first half. All of them WIDE open. Unfortunately, only one went down.
This Syracuse team has two ways of scoring. They can take you off the dribble, or they can shoot from deep. These are pretty good things to specialize in because its hard to stop both. Most teams have to choose one or the other to take away. Georgetown was good at protecting the rim anyway, and they also sold out to do it, leaving everybody open from 3. Syracuse should have hit a high percentage of the 3 point shots they took in the first half, but they didn't. Why didn't they? Its just the random nature of shooting. In the second half Syracuse shot another 14 three pointers and made 7 of them, 50%, and Georgetown played much tighter D in the second half.
With Syracuse's poor shooting first half, it was no surprise that Georgetown had a 14 point lead going into the second half. That 14 point lead evaporated in 3 minutes, which is all it took for Syracuse go on an 11-0 run. All 11 points came in transition. I've heard a lot of people on this board calling for Syracuse to "up the tempo" and "get some easy baskets" but its important to keep in mind that transition baskets can't be taken, they must be given. 100% of transition points come off mistakes. If your offense is well balanced, your players get back on D, and you don't turn the ball over, you won't give up any transition points.
Georgetown was playing 3 freshmen during this 11-0 run, and 2 of those freshmen were guards. Almost all freshmen struggle with transition D in the first two or three months of their college careers because they are still adjusting to the speed of the college game. Georgetown's midget guards looked like boys against men when tasked with trying to stop Battle from barreling down the lane. Most of these points came off turnovers, but a couple just came of rebounds, which should never happen.
At this point Ewing made the only decision he could have made, he benched both his starting guards and went with their backups for the rest of the game, and that solved the problem.
With about 10 minutes to go Syracuse had a 6 point lead, both of Georgetown's starting guards were firmly rooted to the bench, and I would have bet money that Syracuse would go on to win the game by 10, maybe even 20 points.
Then that Syracuse/Georgetown magic kicked in ...
Syracuse forced a turnover and had numbers in transition again when Carey decided to take a corner 3 with nobody around him instead of driving to the basket (maybe because every time he drove to the basket in the first half something bad happened?) he air-balled the 3 that none of his teammates expected him to take, and now Syracuse was the unbalanced team not ready to get back in transition. This lead to a Georgetown 3. So what should have been an 8 point lead, was only a 3 point lead.
At this point Georgetown switched from man to a 2-3 zone, and with their bigger/older back up guards in the game, their zone looked really good.
Hughes stepped up and buried a 3 on the first possession against Georgetown's zone, which is enough to force most coaches to give up on it, but Ewing stuck with it, and that was smart.
By getting back on transition and playing really tough zone defense Georgetown made it hard to score. Luckily they randomly pressed a couple times, and Syracuse got 4 easy points off that press ... we would need ALL those points.
From this point on, Georgetown's back up guards starting draining 3's ... even Blair who had been 0-8 or something like that, made a tough one. Then Chukwu fouled out and Govan had his way with Dolezaj inside, and before you knew it Georgetown had a one point lead and the ball with only seconds left on the clock.
Syracuse's D did a great job harassing Georgetown's ball handlers (Remember these are the back up guards! The starters may have fared better) and a frazzled Georgetown guard drove the lane too early in the shotclock and turned the ball over when Dolezaj hustled to the spot and drew a charge.
Then Battle did his thing ... which is absolutely unstoppable, and which he never seems to miss with the game on the line.
The great defense and clutch offense of the last two plays of the game show Syracuse's championship potential. The 1-14 on wide open threes in the first half shows how much improvement Syracuse still has to make. It was that kind of a game. The result, another classic Syracuse/Georgetown match up. It just had to be this way.
One last note on SU's defense against the last second shot. I saw the thread with a lot of opinions about it, but I didn't see anybody actually looking into the circumstances or the strategy of the situation.
First, the inbounds came off a made basket, so the inbounder could move up and down the baseline, making it harder to harass him. Second, Georgetown was only down 1 point and in the double bonus, so they had every incentive to make a long pass and try to drive to the basket and force a foul.
Syracuse needed to press, but it was imperative that they stay behind Georgetown and not allow any long passes to be completed. Add to that the fact that putting a defender on the inbounder means less when the inbounder can move and wants to throw a long high pass, and you can see why Boeheim chose to have an extra "free safety" rather than put a guy on the inbounder.
The result was good. Georgetown had to take a double pump half court shot, that was thrown to the basket one handed almost the way you'd throw a football. It came close to going in, but if you're Syracuse you've got to take that shot 100 times out of 100.
Onto some quick individual assessments:
Howard - He lead SU to 6 quick transition points in the second half before leaving with foul trouble, and scored twice in the first half driving the lane (when nobody else was able to do that). I'll call this a small step in the right direction. This week off is coming at the perfect time for Howard, and I'm hopeful that it makes a big difference in his play.
Battle - Last year he wasn't good in transition. In this game he looked unstoppable. Granted, Georgetown didn't do much to stop him. Still, I think this is a good sign.
Hughes - Shot 4 for 10 from three, which you'll take every day, but he hit all the tough three's he took, and missed almost all the wide open ones. Weird. Struggled on the boards, but had to play for his O.
Brissett - Did what he does. Had an okay game. Couple tough rebounds, got to the line, hit a 3.
Chukwu - Played great, I thought. He was all over Govan, and made his life tough. People complained about his lack of boards, but he had to follow Govan all the way out to the three point line, which distorted our zone, and made it tougher to board. Luckily we won't go up against anybody else like Govan this year, he's really good.
Carey - Did more bad than good, but had a few nice passes, hit a 3 and got a nice block. I'm hoping this game is a learning experience for him.
Dolezaj - Govan did most of his damage with Dolezaj in at center, but Boeheim played him there a lot (I think) because we needed the offense. This was a game where our lack of offense hurt our defense - we went with a lot of Dolezaj at center and Hughes at forward who both struggled defensively - because we needed their offense. But it was also a game where our offense helped our defense, because Battle killing Georgetown in transition forced them to bench their starting guards, and a late mistake by a backup guard cost them the game. Kind of cool when you think about it.
Sidibe - I thought he played really well. Grabbed several tough rebounds in traffic and made life tough for Govan. I think he might have played more if we were scoring more easily.
Boeheim - Cost us 5 points in 2 minutes of playing time. Here is how his time on the court went ... took a 3 and air balled it - - missed a rotation allowing Georgetown to hit a 3 - turned the ball over - got driven past for 2 points. Subbed out, never to be seen again. Disaster.
Spoiler alert: Battle hit a buzzer beater, and his shot got me thinking about other SU/Georgetown buzzer beaters ... of which there have been many. Pearl had one. Billy Owens hit 2 free throws with no time on the clock to force OT which back then was even more impressive than getting a basket in the normal run of play, GMac had that famous one of course, Kris Joseph had one, and now Battle. And that doesn't even count the non-buzzer beater fantastic finish games like the 1989 overtime win that little Sherman Douglas sealed with a reverse dunk off a steal, the famous GMac Big East tourney run where he hit a million 3's (at least that's how it felt) and had that pass to Devendorf to come back from 15 down and win at the very end, the overtime win in our last ever Big East game against Otto Porter's #5 ranked Georgetown team, and of course, last year's over time win.
All these are just off the top of my head. I'm sure I'm forgetting plenty, feel free to add to the list.
Anyway, the point is, something always happens to make these games close and memorable - you won't get an explanation of what that something might be from me - I don't understand it, I am just happy to watch it.
Georgetown starts two midget freshmen guards, but compensates for them with a retinue of long athletic forwards and centers. When you try to take their midget guards to the basket, everybody else leaves their man and packs the paint, surrounding you. Its really hard to score in the paint against them. When you think about it, this was Syracuse's first game against a team that is good at protecting the rim. It took a few of our guys by surprise (especially Carey, who got embarrassed going to the rim on multiple occasions). The right way to play against this type of D, is to drive the lane and draw the swarming defense to you, then kick it out for the open 3, which Syracuse did, and I thought, did quite well. They took 14 three point shots in the first half. All of them WIDE open. Unfortunately, only one went down.
This Syracuse team has two ways of scoring. They can take you off the dribble, or they can shoot from deep. These are pretty good things to specialize in because its hard to stop both. Most teams have to choose one or the other to take away. Georgetown was good at protecting the rim anyway, and they also sold out to do it, leaving everybody open from 3. Syracuse should have hit a high percentage of the 3 point shots they took in the first half, but they didn't. Why didn't they? Its just the random nature of shooting. In the second half Syracuse shot another 14 three pointers and made 7 of them, 50%, and Georgetown played much tighter D in the second half.
With Syracuse's poor shooting first half, it was no surprise that Georgetown had a 14 point lead going into the second half. That 14 point lead evaporated in 3 minutes, which is all it took for Syracuse go on an 11-0 run. All 11 points came in transition. I've heard a lot of people on this board calling for Syracuse to "up the tempo" and "get some easy baskets" but its important to keep in mind that transition baskets can't be taken, they must be given. 100% of transition points come off mistakes. If your offense is well balanced, your players get back on D, and you don't turn the ball over, you won't give up any transition points.
Georgetown was playing 3 freshmen during this 11-0 run, and 2 of those freshmen were guards. Almost all freshmen struggle with transition D in the first two or three months of their college careers because they are still adjusting to the speed of the college game. Georgetown's midget guards looked like boys against men when tasked with trying to stop Battle from barreling down the lane. Most of these points came off turnovers, but a couple just came of rebounds, which should never happen.
At this point Ewing made the only decision he could have made, he benched both his starting guards and went with their backups for the rest of the game, and that solved the problem.
With about 10 minutes to go Syracuse had a 6 point lead, both of Georgetown's starting guards were firmly rooted to the bench, and I would have bet money that Syracuse would go on to win the game by 10, maybe even 20 points.
Then that Syracuse/Georgetown magic kicked in ...
Syracuse forced a turnover and had numbers in transition again when Carey decided to take a corner 3 with nobody around him instead of driving to the basket (maybe because every time he drove to the basket in the first half something bad happened?) he air-balled the 3 that none of his teammates expected him to take, and now Syracuse was the unbalanced team not ready to get back in transition. This lead to a Georgetown 3. So what should have been an 8 point lead, was only a 3 point lead.
At this point Georgetown switched from man to a 2-3 zone, and with their bigger/older back up guards in the game, their zone looked really good.
Hughes stepped up and buried a 3 on the first possession against Georgetown's zone, which is enough to force most coaches to give up on it, but Ewing stuck with it, and that was smart.
By getting back on transition and playing really tough zone defense Georgetown made it hard to score. Luckily they randomly pressed a couple times, and Syracuse got 4 easy points off that press ... we would need ALL those points.
From this point on, Georgetown's back up guards starting draining 3's ... even Blair who had been 0-8 or something like that, made a tough one. Then Chukwu fouled out and Govan had his way with Dolezaj inside, and before you knew it Georgetown had a one point lead and the ball with only seconds left on the clock.
Syracuse's D did a great job harassing Georgetown's ball handlers (Remember these are the back up guards! The starters may have fared better) and a frazzled Georgetown guard drove the lane too early in the shotclock and turned the ball over when Dolezaj hustled to the spot and drew a charge.
Then Battle did his thing ... which is absolutely unstoppable, and which he never seems to miss with the game on the line.
The great defense and clutch offense of the last two plays of the game show Syracuse's championship potential. The 1-14 on wide open threes in the first half shows how much improvement Syracuse still has to make. It was that kind of a game. The result, another classic Syracuse/Georgetown match up. It just had to be this way.
One last note on SU's defense against the last second shot. I saw the thread with a lot of opinions about it, but I didn't see anybody actually looking into the circumstances or the strategy of the situation.
First, the inbounds came off a made basket, so the inbounder could move up and down the baseline, making it harder to harass him. Second, Georgetown was only down 1 point and in the double bonus, so they had every incentive to make a long pass and try to drive to the basket and force a foul.
Syracuse needed to press, but it was imperative that they stay behind Georgetown and not allow any long passes to be completed. Add to that the fact that putting a defender on the inbounder means less when the inbounder can move and wants to throw a long high pass, and you can see why Boeheim chose to have an extra "free safety" rather than put a guy on the inbounder.
The result was good. Georgetown had to take a double pump half court shot, that was thrown to the basket one handed almost the way you'd throw a football. It came close to going in, but if you're Syracuse you've got to take that shot 100 times out of 100.
Onto some quick individual assessments:
Howard - He lead SU to 6 quick transition points in the second half before leaving with foul trouble, and scored twice in the first half driving the lane (when nobody else was able to do that). I'll call this a small step in the right direction. This week off is coming at the perfect time for Howard, and I'm hopeful that it makes a big difference in his play.
Battle - Last year he wasn't good in transition. In this game he looked unstoppable. Granted, Georgetown didn't do much to stop him. Still, I think this is a good sign.
Hughes - Shot 4 for 10 from three, which you'll take every day, but he hit all the tough three's he took, and missed almost all the wide open ones. Weird. Struggled on the boards, but had to play for his O.
Brissett - Did what he does. Had an okay game. Couple tough rebounds, got to the line, hit a 3.
Chukwu - Played great, I thought. He was all over Govan, and made his life tough. People complained about his lack of boards, but he had to follow Govan all the way out to the three point line, which distorted our zone, and made it tougher to board. Luckily we won't go up against anybody else like Govan this year, he's really good.
Carey - Did more bad than good, but had a few nice passes, hit a 3 and got a nice block. I'm hoping this game is a learning experience for him.
Dolezaj - Govan did most of his damage with Dolezaj in at center, but Boeheim played him there a lot (I think) because we needed the offense. This was a game where our lack of offense hurt our defense - we went with a lot of Dolezaj at center and Hughes at forward who both struggled defensively - because we needed their offense. But it was also a game where our offense helped our defense, because Battle killing Georgetown in transition forced them to bench their starting guards, and a late mistake by a backup guard cost them the game. Kind of cool when you think about it.
Sidibe - I thought he played really well. Grabbed several tough rebounds in traffic and made life tough for Govan. I think he might have played more if we were scoring more easily.
Boeheim - Cost us 5 points in 2 minutes of playing time. Here is how his time on the court went ... took a 3 and air balled it - - missed a rotation allowing Georgetown to hit a 3 - turned the ball over - got driven past for 2 points. Subbed out, never to be seen again. Disaster.
