Cuse House
All American
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2013
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Ultimately, we all knew we had at best a 50/50 shot to get in. All I can say is c'est la vie. Regardless, the program will move forward and soon we will be talking about next season. I think this season has given JB and Hopkins a lot to ponder. I hope this is an eye opener for the staff with their biggest takeaways coming in the area of recruiting and style of play. This mainly goes for Hopkins going forward, but hear me out..
As far as recruiting has gone, we have gotten complacent. We have always been able to pull top 10 classes doing things the "old way." We'd show interest before anyone else and coast to signing day. The recruiting game has changed and recruits want that consistent love and contact from the staff. The approach we have taken will no longer work in today's social media age.
It is time to get back to program guys who we develop and win with. If there is one thing I have learned from the day of the one and done it is that you either have to be great at it and get guys in the top 20 consistently, or you have to in a sense ignore them and find guys who are undervalued and who can develop into great players. Being in the middle gets you killed. Syracuse has been in the middle, and we have put ourselves in a bad situation when guys leave early. I prefer the Brissett and Sidibe type of recruits who are top 100 but will be here at least 2-3 years.
I don't want to consistently be in the position where we have to bring in graduate transfers and teach them our system. I am thankful for White and Gillon this season, and without them we were screwed, but its tough to plug and play in division 1 basketball, and now they are gone and we are back at it again. I am not saying that we shouldn't go for top 15 players, but lets not throw all our eggs in one basket. I think the staff has taken the hint already and will be offering a wider array of players.
As far as style of play, I will keep this short. I think Hopkins has mentioned he will scrap the exclusive zone, and all I can say is this season is the perfect example of why we need to do so. We can't rebound out of the zone, we can't get out in transition that often, and we also give up our athletic advantages and allow less athletic teams to get decent shots. The ISO offense also needs to go, its painful to watch. It looked okay at times this year because we had so many shooters, but we aren't going to have 4 three point shooters who play at the same time very often.
Bottom line, our success going forward is all about changing our approach in both areas of recruiting and in game play style. We can't continue down the path we are on, and I like to think Hopkins is taking notice and isn't being blinded by being JB's sidekick for so long.
As far as recruiting has gone, we have gotten complacent. We have always been able to pull top 10 classes doing things the "old way." We'd show interest before anyone else and coast to signing day. The recruiting game has changed and recruits want that consistent love and contact from the staff. The approach we have taken will no longer work in today's social media age.
It is time to get back to program guys who we develop and win with. If there is one thing I have learned from the day of the one and done it is that you either have to be great at it and get guys in the top 20 consistently, or you have to in a sense ignore them and find guys who are undervalued and who can develop into great players. Being in the middle gets you killed. Syracuse has been in the middle, and we have put ourselves in a bad situation when guys leave early. I prefer the Brissett and Sidibe type of recruits who are top 100 but will be here at least 2-3 years.
I don't want to consistently be in the position where we have to bring in graduate transfers and teach them our system. I am thankful for White and Gillon this season, and without them we were screwed, but its tough to plug and play in division 1 basketball, and now they are gone and we are back at it again. I am not saying that we shouldn't go for top 15 players, but lets not throw all our eggs in one basket. I think the staff has taken the hint already and will be offering a wider array of players.
As far as style of play, I will keep this short. I think Hopkins has mentioned he will scrap the exclusive zone, and all I can say is this season is the perfect example of why we need to do so. We can't rebound out of the zone, we can't get out in transition that often, and we also give up our athletic advantages and allow less athletic teams to get decent shots. The ISO offense also needs to go, its painful to watch. It looked okay at times this year because we had so many shooters, but we aren't going to have 4 three point shooters who play at the same time very often.
Bottom line, our success going forward is all about changing our approach in both areas of recruiting and in game play style. We can't continue down the path we are on, and I like to think Hopkins is taking notice and isn't being blinded by being JB's sidekick for so long.