Go on record; are we back?

[Surfan06001]

No, we're not back.

I think you may have misread the options in the poll

 

[CuseFan]

I for one feel so much better that we are now a competitive team. Yes its only 1 game and it was Binghamton. But we played DEFENSE! We REBOUNDED! Offense will get better and better.

 

[Yeti]

I lean yes, it’s going to be a tournament year.

But also we just look good. We’re athletic again. I watched some 2014 highlights earlier and that team had some crazy talent compared to the 2020’s so far.

 

[tptcuse]

We will know ALOT more after Vegas. If we can win one or two at Vegas. I would say yes. With the schedule before Vegas, we should be 4-0. We SHOULD win the next 5 games after Vegas pretty easily. Heading into conference play. If we win 1 or 2 out of the 3 in Vegas and head into conference play at 10-2 or 11-1. Then yes I say we are back. I think the conference schedule is REALLY good for us too. I don’t see any GLARING games the first 8-9 games of the conference where I feel it is a shoe in loss. So the schedule is honestly there for us to get off to a really damn good start. Like there’s a legit chance we could be 17-4, 16-5 or something like that after 9 games of conference play. Could be ever better than that depending on how we do in Vegas. My point is, the schedule is REALLLLLY in our favor the first 21 games of the season

A win or two would be nice, but I just want us to be in those games in Vegas.

 

[MikeSU02]

Yes, 100%

I say this as someone that is willing to run right into a wall with my fandom.

Whatever, maybe I'm wrong, but what fun is it to assume we're going to be bad after that game, ya know?

Life has enough stress in it. I'm saying top 4 seed, FF run, Kiyan becomes the feel-good story of the year. Our team is the team other fans want to root for.

 

[MikeSU02]

(Note - my measure of success for the team is making the tourney without worrying about being on the bubble. That's it.)

 

[Janner]

I think the question is, what do we mean by back? Are we talking top 10 type team like we were in 2009ish-2013ish...top 20-30 team like we were for good chunks from 1997ish-2008ish... or just an a NCAA tournament team?

 

[jncuse]

I think blowing out bad teams leads to confidence about the team (especially with the other stuff going on), but still ultimately a "not sure" conclusion.

That being said, I think we have seen enough the last few years, that scraping by bad teams like Lemoyne, Youngstown, Cornell is an extremely good indicator that your team will suck. So we have to feel good about that.

 

[RedtheGOB]

One thing not mentioned yet I don’t think. The CRYING to refs.

The staff seems to have nipped the bitching and moaning about refs not blowing the whistle that happened nonstop the last 2-3 years. Judah, Bell, really the whole crew pouting all game.

Freeman especially was just getting hacked nonstop last night and Suare too and the rest. They just got back and battled.

I was impressed at how angry Freeman got and just went after them.

 

[Sherman20]

Agreed.

Last night was encouraging, after both exhibition games were DIScouraging.

Our measuring stick won't be these creampuffs we play early, none of which are projected to finish atop their conferences -- it will be when we play some peer programs. After last night, I'm more hopeful than I was before that we might [emphasis on "might"] be able to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Houston and Kansas, and Tennessee in the ACC/SEC tournament, than I was heading into last night's game.

I hope people aren’t hanging their hats on beating #1 Houston or top 10 Kansas. I’m hoping we can put up a fight but those are gonna be heavy lifts. The program under Red still has a ways to go. I have no illusions that we’ll beat those teams. I am intrigued by our chances against Tennessee at home and that third Vegas game. If they draw UNLV or Rutgers in game 3, we better win. But what happens if they play good games against a team like Maryland or Creighton but can’t quite pull out the win? Are we gonna stick with this team as they gel ? I hope so. My feeling is that this team under Red might really start clicking at some point late in the non conference play and the ACC portion of the schedule, and we’ll knock off some of the top teams there.

 

[McCuse]

Last night was encouraging. And the defensive effort was quite refreshing!

 

[hungrychuck]

Sure, but only in a Dino way.

“Belief….”

Well, you know the rest.

 

[grepal]

Let’s hear it

I like to think so. I hope the team has the attitude that they have done nothing until they hit the goals Red sets for them. Stat hungry and prove yourself every day and night.

 

[IthacaMatt]

We're going to lose some games. I like that they're going inside, but they can't go away from it for so long at a time, especially when the inside game is working!

We have guys who can make threes, but didn't.

If I was a coach, I'd have a rule. "If you miss back-to-back threes, your next shot has to come inside, or you're sitting down for a while"

We have to play better offensively. Our defense was SO much better. They have to bring that every night. I like that Autry is playing so many guys. Lots of combinations, everybody getting some run.

 

[sufandu]

I think you may have misread the options in the poll

Oops. Guess I should have looked past the title.

 

[IthacaMatt]

A win or two would be nice, but I just want us to be in those games in Vegas.

Yeah, if we can steal a game or two in Vegas, we could have a pretty good year. I like the look of this team. We would miss JJ, if he is out for long. We could use that extra set of hands on offense.

 

[DomeHolmes]

I have to disagree. Some of our zone teams were menacing. If a ball went to the sideline and even better the corner, players were absolutely swallowed up. And, the other players knew how to rotate and get steals off of that.

Agree with this. Syracuse for years lead or was in the top two or three in both the big east and ACC in steals playing zone.

 

[Surfan06001]

We're going to lose some games.

You’re entitled to your opinion.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I believe I said in the first five minutes of the first exhibition's game thread that we would be cutting down nets, so... yes, we're back.

 

[Zelda Zonk]

Back to what, exactly?

That game didn’t demonstrate that we are back, no.

Imagine back when we didn’t have to be ‘back,’ if a game against Binghamton was a litmus test of anything.

Good sign that we could start out with intensity and beat a bad team by a good margin. Thats important. But we didn’t do a lot of things good teams do. Need to be mo betta from three. We seem to have added a play to our playbook of zero plays—a top of the key screen! Yay! Maybe for the next game, we’ll have three plays! [crossies]

 

[JeffCuse]

No.

Center and head coach still problems

 

[RF2044]

No.

Center and head coach still problems

Center?

Huh?

 

[JeffCuse]

Center?

Huh?

The big one. Stands under the basket a lot.

 

[RF2044]

The big one. Stands under the basket a lot.

Well, that's a pretty asinine take. Kyle is good, and has tremendous upside on both sides of the ball, and as a rebounder.

 

[JeffCuse]

Well, that's a pretty asinine take. Kyle is good, and has tremendous upside on both sides of the ball, and as a rebounder.

Agree to disagree. He's a jag and an undersized one at that. He's going to get destroyed vs the better centers in the conference.