Georgetown Thoughts | Syracusefan.com

Georgetown Thoughts

General20

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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.
 
Great recap. I watched Govan shoot 0-9 vs Shen in a High School and have been really impressed how he has improved his all around game. That said, I think there might be a kid on Duke who might be a little better than Govan.
Shenendehowa falls to No. 1 ranked Wings Academy in Class AA Federation boys’ basketball semifinal

Duke has a lot of talent, but I don't think anybody on their team can distort our zone the way Govan did, even if they might be able to put up similar scoring and rebounding numbers.

The way we had to guard Given made it really hard to rebound, and defend some of the lesser Georgetown players. He really affected the game a lot even on top of his efficient 22 points and 14 rebounds.
 
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.
With Howard back in the rotation you really have to wonder has there ever been another situation where JB has played the 4th guard as many spot minutes in games that were undecided? I was never one of the conspiracy theorists but buddy has not earned these kinds of minutes. Even MCWs freshman year he only saw significant action vs cupcakes or when we were significantly ahead.
 
With Howard back in the rotation you really have to wonder has there ever been another situation where JB has played the 4th guard as many spot minutes in games that were undecided? I was never one of the conspiracy theorists but buddy has not earned these kinds of minutes. Even MCWs freshman year he only saw significant action vs cupcakes or when we were significantly ahead.

No conspiracy necissary. Buddy only played 2 minutes and he only got those two minutes because Boeheim was despirate to find someone who could make an open 3. Other than this game, Buddy has only played in games where every player on the roster had played, since Howard's return.
 
No conspiracy necissary. Buddy only played 2 minutes and he only got those two minutes because Boeheim was despirate to find someone who could make an open 3. Other than this game, Buddy has only played in games where every player on the roster had played, since Howard's return.
Well why not try Braswell then? I don’t know about his numbers but he has a good stroke and his foot speed can’t be any worse.
 
Duke has a lot of talent, but I don't think anybody on their team can distort our zone the way Govan did, even if they might be able to put up similar scoring and rebounding numbers.

The way we had to guard Given made it really hard to rebound, and defend some of the lesser Georgetown players. He really affected the game a lot even on top of his efficient 22 points and 14 rebounds.

Govan has a lot of skill. No doubt. You don’t think Zion and Barrett can go right over the top of the zone? Lol. They won’t need to “distort” it. Really worried about them fouling out the frontline. Zion plays very hard each possession and he is a terrific passer. If it comes down to needing an extra pass he’ll make it. He’s a once a generation type of player. He also could beat most of the SU team down the court handling the ball if he chooses to push it. The guy can handle and obviously the others can too. He also hunts down shots from the weakside better than anybody I’ve seen in a long time. Wes Johnson was good at this but this guy is an even better leaper. He has over 20 blocks. Our bigs don’t score and/or pose a threat so he’ll be ready to tee off on Hughes/Brissett/Battle and god forbid Marek. Bolden is a good shotblocker too. We’ll be lucky to get to 50, IMO.

Lots of settles in the 1H. Shulman and Ellis would concur. SO many launches off of zero or one pass, not moving the defense, etc. Not sure what else to say about this.

I thought Georgetown fell into the trap of launching threes and settling in the 2H until their sense of urgency kicked in. They were passing side to side and launching. They finally picked it up with the loose balls/off rebounds and were able to hit guys like Malinowski for threes. Fortunately Tyus going Kobe-style saved us.
 
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Well why not try Braswell then? I don’t know about his numbers but he has a good stroke and his foot speed can’t be any worse.
Maybe because they play different positions? Maybe because Braswell has played zero minutes in high leverage situations to date?
 
I'm just curious if the OP thinks that Boeheim wants his centers essentially playing man to man and chase any bigs who can shoot out to the three point line. Seems counterintuitive.
 
Govan has a lot of skill. No doubt. You don’t think Zion and Barrett can go right over the top of the zone? Lol. They won’t need to “distort” it. Really worried about them fouling out the frontline. Zion plays very hard each possession and he is a terrific passer. If it comes down to needing an extra pass he’ll make it. He’s a once a generation type of player. Maybe even more than that. He also could beat most of the SU team down the court handling the ball if he chooses to push it. The guy can handle and obviously the others can too. He also hunts down shots from the weakside better than anybody I’ve seen in a long time. Wes Johnson was good at this but this guy is an even better leaper. He has over 20 blocks. Our bigs don’t score and/or pose a threat so he’ll be ready to tee off on Hughes/Brissett/Battle and god forbid Marek. Bolden is a good shotblocker too. We’ll be lucky to get to 50, IMO.

Completely agree.
 
You don’t think Zion and Barrett can go right over the top of the zone? Lol. They won’t need to “distort” it. Really worried about them fouling out the frontline.
They're going to foul out everyone. Syracuse is a "slappy" team which comes from their aggressive shot-blocking philosophy. I'm sure JAB will have them tone it down, but IDK, training/instinct could probably take over and slapping at the ball against Duke isn't going to stop them from scoring. It's just going to lead to a million and 1s.
 
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They're going to foul out everyone. Syracuse is a "slappy" team which comes from their aggressive blocking philosophy. I'm sure JAB will have them tone it down, but IDK, training/instinct could probably take over and slapping at the ball against Duke isn't going to stop them from scoring. It's just going to lead to a million and 1s.

Agree. I thought Chewy fouled out because he was out of position on those plays where he was trying to stop a dunk. Zion will put those in and get the free throw after.
 
The definition of terrifying is Marek trying to take a charge from Zion!

That's a 105 pound difference, correct? If I were Marek, I'd do that pretend run under that Carey did at the end of the game Saturday. No need to be a hero for one play and sit out hurt the rest of the year.
 
I don’t get why people seem to have the night sweats over Duke and Williamson? We aren’t the type of team that can matchup well with every team on our schedule, and any objective observer knew from day 1 that Duke isn’t a winnable game for us on paper.

Now, maybe the circumstances of the game as it plays out will allow us to pull an upset, but if you are looking for “on paper” arguments that we can match up with Duke, you are wasting your time.
 
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.

As a veteran journalist not given to superlatives (a story is a story is a story with few exceptions). I'm particularly attuned to axe-grinding -- it's hard to write a strong analysis without separating what you believe from what you see. They're not the same -- it's the latter than distinguishes good writing. This is that with one note. One part of a rivalry is the quality of the games and the history of the two teams. But another is the high stakes at risk when they do play each other, more than just bragging rights. There are many great rivalries but only a few with league titles repeatedly at stake like our's was with GT. Now it's just playing for history's sake.
 
Duke has a lot of talent, but I don't think anybody on their team can distort our zone the way Govan did, even if they might be able to put up similar scoring and rebounding numbers.

The way we had to guard Given made it really hard to rebound, and defend some of the lesser Georgetown players. He really affected the game a lot even on top of his efficient 22 points and 14 rebounds.

How is he still in college? Is there an actual answer to that question? I mean he’s going to be a good pro, right? The nba is so confusing to me. Love that kids game.

As an aside, there were obviously a ton of things that played into the outcome of the game and I think Ewing is doing a nice job there, but those two possessions of press were a brutal example of overcoaching.

They had us way out of sorts with their zone and then essentially handed us two buckets at a big moment late. Ouch.
 
I don’t get why people seem to have the night sweats over Duke and Williamson? We aren’t the type of team that can matchup well with every team on our schedule, and any objective observer knew from day 1 that Duke isn’t a winnable game for us on paper.

Now, maybe the circumstances of the game as it plays out will allow us to pull an upset, but if you are looking for “on paper” arguments that we can match up with Duke, you are wasting your time.

I’m more in the appreciation mode of Zion’s game. He’s sick. Maybe we get lucky and the Duke players are up late the night before smoking tons of chronic.

But, we had some posters say preseason that they are too small to handle our size inside among other things, lol. Most recently a take showed up suggesting GTown challenges us more than Duke because of Govan. Bizarre.
 
Zion will be a nightmare for us. Hes a nightmare for anyone playing them. I do think our defense (the good one when we show up and play the right way) has a chance to give them a hard time compared to most teams they will play this year. It's going to interesting. The way I see it the game can go 3 ways...we win a close one, they win a close one or they smack the crap out of us.
 
you should call into his show & ask him. i'm serious; put him on the spot. it would be great radio. might even go viral
As I say to my youngest daughter, when she's pushing to get her sister to do something wrong, "You are a nudge." Well done.
 
The point about our only being able to run if the other team made mistakes. I decided to look at two things. The first was the famous Syracuse "Dunk Tape" of action from the late 80's, when we were at the peak of our talent. Its been posted many times before but I think every Syracuse fan should watch it at least once a season to remember how we played back in the day:


Observations: Firstly, teams were clearly not as focused at "getting back" as they are now. Saturday, Georgetown typically had four guys at least at mid-court when we made our outlet passes. But our passes were also different with many "home runs" down the length of the court and a lot of alley oops. the guy who put the ball in typically received the ball very near the basket and the passer was typically away from the basket, sometimes far away. These days a fast break often involves one guy trying to thread his way through the defense to score himself. he might dish the ball once but to another guy far enough away that eh still has to drive to the basket. We also shared the ball more in the old days. If a guy got the ball, he first looked to pass and dribbled the ball only if no one was open - and even then he was still looking for someone to get open. getting back to prevent the fast break involves a mentality that you are going to do it but I think running does to. those later 80's teams viewed every possession as an opportunity to beat the other team downcourt and that's why they did it so often. They weren't just hoping the other team would make a mistake.
 
Zion will be a nightmare for us. Hes a nightmare for anyone playing them. I do think our defense (the good one when we show up and play the right way) has a chance to give them a hard time compared to most teams they will play this year. It's going to interesting. The way I see it the game can go 3 ways...we win a close one, they win a close one or they smack the crap out of us.

I assume K will have Zion roaming the wings as opposed to out top. They will want to lob it frequently and offensive rebounds will be a major issue. The one advantage we have is that Duke let's guards turn the corner frequently. Our guards should be able to get into the lane, draw the second defender and thus Oshae should have room to operate and get put backs. Duke also is slow getting out to shooters so if Elijah isn't laying bricks he should get plenty good looks. I presume it will be a wild open game like vs Gtown. The game will hinge on Duke from 3. If they go out and hit 10-12 three, we aren't beating them.
 

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