Give Louisville some credit...

[AirForceOrange]

Gotta love the media talking heads and some posters who keep pointing out Syracuse's weaknesses. However every team in the country, even UK, has weaknesses. We played one of the top defensive teams in the country on the road. I am not at all surprised how poor our offense looked last night. Louisville is a very good defensive team, coached by someone who knows how to coach against us very well...note 7 straight losses to Pitino.

Also, give our guys credit for being able to gut it out and pull this game out. The only really glaring issue I saw last night was our poor 3-point shooting. So what if they out-rebounded us, it was only by 2 rebounds. Look closer and you will see both teams had the same amount of offensive rebounds. Plus you gotta give our defense credit for being able to change their focus against Siva and Dieng.

I think it was a good game for SU, it showed they can gut out a slogfest like this game and still win. Also, it shows they can adapt defensively.

 

[BuffOrange]

Ya I thought their defense was pretty good. The only open looks we got from 3 were in the corner, which is always a tough shot. It wasn't like we were missing wide open from the top of the key or the wing.

 

[SkanSU]

Ummm ... here's my problem. Amazing defensive game. I will give both teams credit ... altho both teams are examples of the best when it comes to defense. Now ... what I do not understand is how SU can be stymied by the use of the zone. They are the premier zone defense in the country ... ask any of the pundits etc. LVille showed how they could drive through the zone and did it pretty effectively when Siva was finding openings early. GTown showed how effectively they could bounce pass and pass into the zone. When we faced both the GTown and LVille zones we seemed limited to passing around the periphery and looked like a lot of teams that face our zone. Don't we practice against the zone ... I would think so. We have good to great ball handlers in Waiters and Scoop. Now I do not profess to be JB or any of those kids on the floor (I couldn't make it up the court 1x before falling down in complete exhaustion) but for the sake of both offensive rebounds and getting fouls against the opposing team it would seem that passing around the perimeter is not the answer but rather taking it inside against any opening ala Siva.