Hate to put it all on Cooney

[OrangeYaGladi]

don't recall that at all . i do remember hearing talk he didn't want to red shirt for whatever reasons. had to know he wasn't playing.

there was RIDICULOUS hype for BJ over the summer. it was clear he needed to redshirt, but he probably wouldn't have signed on to come here in that case.

at the very least, he was expected to be a key contributor in his first year. pretty absurd.

 

[Lawrinson14]

I don't think it is entirely Cooney's fault. His shooting slump just seems more pronounced because one of his shots is worth 3 pts, whereas most everyone elses' are worth 2.

That said, him just making 2 more shots a game would have done absolute wonders during this horrid stretch.

 

[Fly Rodder]

May as well have redshirted BJ and Buss along with Chino. He and Buss have been ghosts. What a waste of a year of eligibility.

Regarding Cooney, he can't just shoot 31% and take the number of shots he does without doing something else. McNamara wasn't the best shooter, but he also drove the ball occasionally and took mid range jumpers. About 35-38% of his shots were 2s versus Cooney's 27%. Gerry was also a primary ball handler, so he gets a little more leeway with his offense.

Those long bricks, as mentioned, are liveball turnovers and because most of the team is packed around the basket, the zone doesn't get enough time to set up effectively to defend the resulting run out. In a low possession game, these are killers on both ends. I hate to jump on a guy that leads the conference in 3-point shooting, but nearly all of his success came against weaker opponents that didn't D him up as well. He's been a huge liability since conference play began.

He and Ennis are nowhere near as good defensively as MCW and Triche were. But defensively, on the whole, SU is still pretty damn good.

 

[moqui]

there is no question that his slump is seriously hurting the team. He is shooting about 20% over the last 6 games; if he was back up at 40%, the Orange probably could have reversed 2 and maybe 3 of those 4 losses.

and there is also no question that his defense has been poor, but he is not alone in that. Both he and Ennis have been consistently slow at rotating back to the shooters after allowing penetration. Cooney has been worse, but Ennis has been bad, too.

You can say that Cooney is the biggest single problem, and you might be right. But it's a system wide collapse; teams are eating us up on the inside as much or more as on the outside, and nobody is shooting the ball well. The team efficiency on both sides of the ball has fallen off the table.

 

[pfister1]

there is no question that his slump is seriously hurting the team. He is shooting about 20% over the last 6 games; if he was back up at 40%, the Orange probably could have reversed 2 and maybe 3 of those 4 losses.

and there is also no question that his defense has been poor, but he is not alone in that. Both he and Ennis have been consistently slow at rotating back to the shooters after allowing penetration. Cooney has been worse, but Ennis has been bad, too.

You can say that Cooney is the biggest single problem, and you might be right. But it's a system wide collapse; teams are eating us up on the inside as much or more as on the outside, and nobody is shooting the ball well. The team efficiency on both sides of the ball has fallen off the table.

Part of the reason that the blame falls so heavily on Cooney is because the rotation has been designed with only one real threat from outside. We need that threat to be a legitimate threat in order to make the overall offense more potent and free up makeable shots for others. Cooney is that threat. Without any real scoring from outside it becomes very very difficult for us to score consistently. You can say that its unfair that so much of this falls on Cooney, but in reality he is the only guy that is a candidate to get going from outside and relieve some of the pressure on the offense.

 

[djcon57]

Cooney's lack of production certainly is part of it.
But Cooney isn't the one drawing up the plays.

We are seeing the same damn plays game after game. It's all CJ ISO, Pick-n-Rolls into a double team, run cooney off curls which teams are jumping out on.

Then something works once like the Keita to Rak High Low or have Cooney at PG and have Ennis running off curls and we never see it again.

 

[Trueblue25]

75% of our woahs on Cooney? We lost to Ga Tech and BC at home, if you think 75% of our issues are because of one player you must not think very highly of any other player on this team.

His inability to be flexible in the offense and adapt to his shooting woahs has really, really hurt our offense.

 

[Trueblue25]

There was never any hype saying that BJ would be a one and done.

There was a thread saying that he'd be a great player, in time. Like the other freshman BJ will have his shot. We got some untapped talent on that bench between Buss and BJ.

I made that thread.

 

[orangefan13]

This team is not intimidating. They don't put pressure on opponents on either end of the ball. 40% of basketball is that. No team swagger

 

[Briancuse]

The problem is we don't get enough inside scoring to get him some good looks, teams are overplaying him right now.

 

[orangefan13]

If cooney learns to make a shot with a hand in his face, he will get alot better. Not only will he make his open jumpers more consistant when he starts making shots under pressure, but it will also open up his driving game more. He can be very underated off the dribble.

 

[Forza Azzurri]

its not fair, but since hes our only legit perimeter threat im gonna put most of it on him. if he continues to struggle we're gonna have a hard time cracking 60, period. especially with grant out. we just dont have enough to overcome his 1 for 6's and 2 for 10's and 1 for 8's. when we were at our best we had 4 legit offensive players in cj, ennis, cooney and grant. now we literally have 2 and its forced cj and ennis to jack up more shots and play more iso ball which isnt either of their games. how many times have we said, even in games we won, "if cooney knocks down a couple more we win easily". now we're losing those games so its time to start knocking them down.

heres how we turn it around. grant get 100% (obviously), and cooney has to find his shot. rak isnt all of a sudden gonna turn into a 10 and 10 guy. silent g isnt gonna turn into instant offense off the bench. we will be in a dogfight against a 15 or 14 seed in the 1st round if cooney goes 2 for 10. im not jumping ship cause cj and ennis are legit big time players but they cant do it alone. can grant get healthy and can cooney find his shot? if the answer is yes we can still get to dallas. if not we wont make it out of the first weekend.

and im not gonna mention his lazy D on the 3 in the virginia game that made it 28-27, 1 of the biggest plays of the game. oh wait i just did. or daring perrantes to shoot a 3 in the 2nd half instead of contesting it. hand down man down!

You aren't putting it all on Cooney. Say it differently.

With Grant out, Fair, Ennis and Cooney ALL have to play (and by play well, I really mean shoot well) in order for us to have a chance to win games, even against mediocre competition. Fair and Ennis played well last night and Cooney did not. That is why it appears to all be on Cooney, but it is really on all three.

 

[Col. Bleep]

Look...Cooney showed huge improvement earlier this season.
Who knew he'd blossom into the best guy we've ever had at missing open 3's.

That's most of his game.
Live by the 3...die by the 3.
Right now he's dying and so are we.

Our offense...such as it is...is predictable and easy to defend.

1. Hedge the ball screen and keep TE out of the lane.
2. Keep a guy in Cooney's shorts...or now let him shoot since it doesn't seem to matter.
3. Do the best you can to pressure CJ.
If CJ's on from midrange then you are in trouble.
If he's not you'll likely get the rebound.
If Baye grabs it you're ok because he can't finish and may turn it over. Best case he throws it back out and the scenario repeats.

We need a healthy Jerami Grant.

 

[rrlbees]

Trevor thanks everyone for giving him the majority of the credit for our 26 wins.

 

[Millhouse]

Trevor thanks everyone for giving him the majority of the credit for our 26 wins.

You are really stepping up as his spokesperson. Usually you are more subtle

 

[rrlbees]

You are really stepping up as his spokesperson. Usually you are more subtle

That is subtle. 1/2 the people won't even understand the point.

 

[Cusefan0307]

You aren't putting it all on Cooney. Say it differently.

With Grant out, Fair, Ennis and Cooney ALL have to play (and by play well, I really mean shoot well) in order for us to have a chance to win games, even against mediocre competition. Fair and Ennis played well last night and Cooney did not. That is why it appears to all be on Cooney, but it is really on all three.

Good post, not the reason i copied it, but I love the syracuse.com reference in your footer.

 

[anomander]

The highlighted statement is ridiculous. Granted that he hasn't had his shot in recent games, but nobody works harder on defense and he is second in the ACC in steals. Do you see BJ getting any court time?? There is a reason for that and it's not because he's better than Trevor.

I totally disagree with this. Cooney is far from a liability on defense, but he is not great either. The top of the zone is leap and bounds behind last year. Cooney has a real hard time cutting off penetration, isn't quick enough on getting out on shooters, and doesn't have the length to overcome that. He is pretty good at anticipating, and works hard, but defense is far from a strength. In fact when he isn't hitting shots he really doesn't provide enough in other areas to really be able to help us.

 

[tino]

I wish we could set a good pick for him to get him better looks

Ihave seen him take it with plenty of good looks but it is what it is

 

[realorange]

I totally disagree with this. Cooney is far from a liability on defense, but he is not great either. The top of the zone is leap and bounds behind last year. Cooney has a real hard time cutting off penetration, isn't quick enough on getting out on shooters, and doesn't have the length to overcome that. He is pretty good at anticipating, and works hard, but defense is far from a strength. In fact when he isn't hitting shots he really doesn't provide enough in other areas to really be able to help us.

Tell it to JB.

 

[Ghost]

It's not Cooney fault I guess, he is what he is - and my god I thought he was better than this, but our production from shooting guard is killing us. So, in a roundabout way I'll put it mostly on Cooney as well.

The defense is subpar, the shooting is atrocious of late, and nothing is being created from that spot. I always had my issues with Triche as a shooting guard, but the kid at least showed a propensity for getting to the hoop and could get in the lane and create a little.

Take a guess where Cooney places on assists per game on this team - yeah, tied for fourth. Behind Grant, and Fair, and tied with G.

The two best assists we've probably had this month were Fair's lob to Christmas against UVA, and Roberson hitting a cutting Ennis for a layup last night. Ugh.

If you can't create, you better score from that position. It's like starting your crappy utility infielder at DH in the American League. You're making life so much harder on yourself than it should have to be...

 

[anomander]

Tell it to JB.

Well he does sub Gbinijle for Cooney in defensive situations so what does that tell you?

 

[Opus]

It's not Cooney fault I guess, he is what he is - and my god I thought he was better than this, but our production from shooting guard is killing us. So, in a roundabout way I'll put it mostly on Cooney as well.

The defense is subpar, the shooting is atrocious of late, and nothing is being created from that spot. I always had my issues with Triche as a shooting guard, but the kid at least showed a propensity for getting to the hoop and could get in the lane and create a little.

Take a guess where Cooney places on assists per game on this team - yeah, tied for fourth. Behind Grant, and Fair, and tied with G.

The two best assists we've probably had this month were Fair's lob to Christmas against UVA, and Roberson hitting a cutting Ennis for a layup last night. Ugh.

If you can't create, you better score from that position. It's like starting your crappy utility infielder at DH in the American League. You're making life so much harder on yourself than it should have to be...

Well I did like Cooney's pass down the lane while he was sitting on his butt facing center court near the end line but I get your point.

 

[jdubs30]

Defenses are STILL selling out to stop Cooney from 3. Obviously he's in a massive funk right now, but teams are still respecting his shooting ability and he draws defenders. Everyone acts like defenses are packing the paint and daring Cooney to beat them and it's preventing everyone else from scoring.

We need Cooney, just like we need Ennis and Fair and Rak. But you can't put everything on him.

 

[realorange]

Well he does sub Gbinijle for Cooney in defensive situations so what does that tell you?

Tells you that G is bigger and taller and can protect more ground.