Hooville Postgame thoughts...

[Zepharus]

What does that even mean? Are you saying he should have run them off and looked for something better? Okay. Who was willing to come here? It's not like we are a NCAA tournament team and looking for a player to put us over the top. Much better chance after this year to move on from those guys once you have been around the block. I wouldn't be surprised to see all three move on after this season. Before, I don't think there would have beena chance to do that at that time.

then dont move and save your Millions. If this continues hell be gone after Y3

 

[dasher]

Starling plays worse man to man than anyone that athletic I’ve ever seen.

Benny and McCl are trying to rebound under the backboard

Bell hasn’t followed a shot ever

Taylor needs ten seconds to get his shot off

Mintz is at the point where I am expecting him to complain to the refs when fouls are called on him

I think with the last one you meant you expected him to complain even when calls are made for him. And I agree. First thing Red should do is tell him to shut his mouth. It isn't helping.

 

[dasher]

Cornell coming into the Dome Tuesday at 7-1. We need to get over this game quick or we are going to find ourselves in a game on Tuesday.

Friend of mine, close to the program, has been worried about this game for weeks.

 

[dasher]

then dont move and save your Millions. If this continues hell be gone after Y3

? What?

 

[Orangefizz]

There is a SERIOUS culture problem around the Syracuse basketball program. I thought getting a new coach would help but it has possibly become worse in the short term because Red doesn’t have the same clout with the players as JB did. Any team we play with a tough, cohesive mentality that plays together and with a purpose is going to pound what we’ve seen on the floor the last 10 years basically every time. We aren’t disciplined, we don’t play tough, we don’t play together, we seem like we lack a plan and a purpose on both ends of the floor, we don’t make plays down the stretch of close games, etc etc etc. Those things I mentioned are a sign of a positive culture around a program and we don’t have it in football or basketball and haven’t for a long time. I know it’s Red’s first year and we need to give him time, but the problem is JB held on for too long. Another crappy season or two where we can’t win a quad one game or make the big dance and this program is headed to complete irrelevance just like the football program.

The real danger is we’ll be back to the big east in basketball and an eastern independent in football if both teams suck for the next five years

 

[swish7]

Man, we ran 2 starters, and 3 6th men for a good 5+ minutes against UVAs bench and did not close the gap in any meaningful way...

Uggh

 

[Sherman20]

We played well for about the first 10 minutes—but still not nearly aggressive enough. I wanted to see us taking it to Virginia and challenging them in the half court and pushing the ball upcourt quickly after every missed shot. Instead we just lazily brought the ball upcourt. You have to take it to the other team. Then we completely collapsed the last 30 minutes. As soon as UVA started making a run and knocking down 3s, guys like Judah got frustrated and stopped playing aggressively on defense and started making stupid mistakes. I eventually had to turn it off.

 

[corpjet]

Not much to say after that performance back to the football board…..where we can look forward to Mondays press conference

 

[Sherman20]

My thought at the moment is that Syracuse will never again be what it once was.

That's just dumb.

 

[Red Holzman]

McLeod will see more double teams -can he adapt?
On D, slow reflexes and slow-footed (ie: getting across lane to defend a backside drive)
Can defend what's in front of him, but too EZ to get around -AND too EZ to move around.
Basically, a 7'4" guy that teams can game plan for and have success against.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Forget sitting them… how about setting a screen once in a while, or some implementing some motion beyond the weave?

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again… it feels like the coaches forgot to install a full strategy on an offense and defense. I’m glad they are playing man, but once they get past the initial defender or set a screen there is consistent plan. I’m seeing more motion on offense but it’s just a basic weave. Where are the back door cuts or the back screens to get someone open for a baseline 3 off of it?

I think this season is a wash… this team will be better than last years but not good enough to make the tournament unless the coaches figure out how to generate some offense with easy looks.

First 10 minutes was great motion offense. Go back and look again.

 

[Sherman20]

Starling plays worse man to man than anyone that athletic I’ve ever seen.

Benny and McCl are trying to rebound under the backboard

Bell hasn’t followed a shot ever

Taylor needs ten seconds to get his shot off

Mintz is at the point where I am expecting him to complain to the refs when fouls are called on him

Starling was out position a lot today and it's a recurring problem. He frequenly gets sucked into the lane like he's going to try and help and then loses track of his man out on the perimeter. Stay on the perimeter and on your man.

 

[phil77]

Turned the roster over how? It isn't not only easy, but is it actually doable? So, we run guys off and hope we land better fits? We did that with Joe G. how has that worked out so far?

Portal? After watching last year on the bench there is no way Red should have brought in the same set of forwards. He made changes to the guard rotation bringing in JJ and Cuffe but left the forwards the same. I would argue last year that was by far the position that was the weakest on our team and not to address that in the offseason was a terrible mistake by Red. People said after we got JJ that JAB was holding Red back from recruiting better players but he failed to upgrade the roster in his first offseason again, especially at the forward position.

 

[Sherman20]

Have you looked at JJs defensive analytics and compared them to Joe’s? They’re very close, and I’ll take Joe’s random great games rather than JJs one decent game every 5.

I mean, one guy is a 5th year senior and another is a sophomore only a few games into his second year. Big difference in experience. JJ is really athletic, but it's going to take time for him to become a good player, which is not unusual. But they've got to fix his shot and get it back to where it was in high school.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Starling plays worse man to man than anyone that athletic I’ve ever seen.

Benny and McCl are trying to rebound under the backboard

Bell hasn’t followed a shot ever

Taylor needs ten seconds to get his shot off

Mintz is at the point where I am expecting him to complain to the refs when fouls are called on him

Sorry to disagree, but Judah is the worst defender by far on this team.

 

[phil77]

There is a SERIOUS culture problem around the Syracuse basketball program.

Hard to change the culture of the team when you hire from within.

 

[Zepharus]

? What?

If i were AA i would live like a middle-class sload and save my millions (acquired by Year 3) then I in good shape after my term. If this team doesn't improve by then

 

[two3zone]

I mean, one guy is a 5th year senior and another is a sophomore only a few games into his second year. Big difference in experience. JJ is really athletic, but it's going to take time for him to become a good player, which is not unusual. But they've got to fix his shot and get it back to where it was in high school.

What does that have to do with Jesse and Joe? It’s insane to think we’re worse with them.

 

[NorSyr66]

Almost impossible to believe.

I agree with you but my eyes are telling me it happened!

 

[Sherman20]

What does that have to do with Jesse and Joe? It’s insane to think we’re worse with them.

I didn't read your whole back and forth with the other poster. I agree with you on Jesse and Joe. Totally. Obviously we'd be better with them. My response to your post is that, yes, Starling isn't making the impact that many of us thought (and probably not what the coaches thought he'd be either), but he's only a sophomore (while Joe is a 5th year senior), and players get better over time. Just like Jesse and Joe did during their four years here. So we will clearly need to give him more time to develop, because he's not yet what we thought he was going to be.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Exactly. We have two top 45 recruits in the back court. Look, right now, there is nothing we do well that is good. We don't shoot well. We don't handle the ball well. We don't rebound well. We have played 3 good team and been trucked by all three. We aren't well coached either. Red is trying to find his way. And his style may indeed work. But not with this team. He seems to sub to sub. No real reason to it. This is going to be a long fruitless season. I'm not even sure we are going to get better as the season goes on. We should. But we will see.

The highest rated guy on their team almost redshirted this season. Ryan Dunn was right on our prime recruiting territory, but we have a guy ranked over 100 spots ahead of him in HS that barely has played because he stinks and is a head case.

 

[sweetpea]

My thought at the moment is that Syracuse will never again be what it once was.

So true. It's a bit depressing to think about. Our guys aren't nearly good enough. We need a guy to come out of nowhere like Sir Lawrence Moten. Someone who knows how to play.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Inbounding under the hoop and defending opponent inbounding have been both clear problems. That is coaching.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I didn't read your whole back and forth with the other poster. I agree with you on Jesse and Joe. Totally. Obviously we'd be better with them. My response to your post is that, yes, Starling isn't making the impact that many of us thought (and probably not what the coaches thought he'd be either), but he's only a sophomore (while Joe is a 5th year senior), and players get better over time. Just like Jesse and Joe did during their four years here. So we will clearly need to give him more time to develop, because he's not yet what we thought he was going to be.

I’m really concerned about JJ. Everyone here thought Joe wasn’t good his freshman and sophomore years, but he was better than what JJ has been at this point in their careers. I get he’s fast, but it’s real ugly so far even with the 16 points today.

 

[SkyTopBus44]

My take on this game is I am excited for the hire of Fran Brown

Wildhack selects good candidates?