I usually dislike the BBall board after a loss

[TheCusian]

It'd be a lot different if it were one game.

We've played another game that JB would call the worst he's seen offensively? Cal? Maybe?

 

[jekelish]

We've played another game that JB would call the worst he's seen offensively? Cal? Maybe?

There's only one "worst"...there have still been a lot of "bad" games.

 

[BludOrange]

Because what good did you actually see, other than being slightly less awful than Georgia Tech?

What else is there to talk about? Rak played pretty well. Gbinije was alright. Okay, we've exhausted the good.

Buss getting run and valuable minutes at crunch time with the game on the line. He played good D as well. Still won. Winning a game in an environment this team has never traveled to. Rak staying out of foul trouble. Only 12 turnovers. Shooting 44% from 3. Winning two games we could have lost. Loosely called game allowed it to be ugly. If we get more than 6 foul shots before the final three minutes would our output have been better? Many positives to be had from any game, even if game was ugly.

 

[two3zone]

Cooney is shooting better. Roberson is starting to look like a player. Silent G looks real solid at the three. And we won two close games that we would have lost a month ago. We're getting better. Is it at a rate that will help us get enough marquee wins to be tourney bound. Entirely different question.

That's not true. We beat Iowa, and played Nova, Michigan and SJU real close. Va Tech is pure garbage and Ga Tech isn't that good. We (should) beat these teams in our sleep, home or away.

Everybody keeps saying we're getting better, I'm sorry, I just don't see it. We looked excellent the first half against Nova and outside of that we've looked good against severely overmatched teams or looked poor against just bad teams. Cooney is shooting better but I guess has decided that he's Johnny Flynn now and driving to the hoop with his head down hoping for the best, he keeps this going I'm willing to bet his 3pt % ends up higher than his 2pt %. Roberson, played against the big boys today, non factor. Both his break out rebounding games were against small, bad teams. He goes against guys with size, this is the result. Even if he just had an off game, it's either 10 and 15 or it's literally nothing. G. Awesome first half, non existent second half, not the first time we've seen this show. I don't understand how somebody can look like such a complete all around player who has high basketball IQ one half then the next half do this. He did the same thing against Nova.

 

[cuseattle]

One more positive from the win - GT had a 30ish RPI entering the game.
Edit - We are around 70.

 

[Cowtown]

One of the hard things about progress is you can't always tell when it's happening. :noidea:

 

[cliftonparksufan]

One of the hard things about progress is you can't always tell when it's happening. :noidea:

That's the truth. Until this team shows some consistency for 40 let's celebrate what we have. And that is a five game win streak and first place in the ACC.

 

[Forza Azzurri]

But it's not just one game. The negatives are a very distinct trend. Yes, we've won five games in a row, but man, we're not really improving.

I actually see improvement in a lot of areas.

Unfortunately, the two areas where there hasn't been any improvement is knocking down open shots and finishing at the rim.

If you cannot put the ball in the basket, you are still going to have a tough time winning games, even if you are doing a lot of other things better...

 

[MonsterGame]

Everyone realizes this team has a lot of things to overcome and/or improve on in order to get to a high competitive level. No one is denying that.

That said, the only reason SU didn't win last night's game by close to 20 is that a lot of open shots just didn't go down. Rak had a bunch. Roberson had some. Joseph had a fair number as he usually does. CMac couldn't get anything going from the field or the foul line. All in all, it was a big off night for shooting. The team can, and will have better performances shooting than last night. Much of the night I couldn't believe how bad they were shooting. There was a fair number of turnovers as well, which hopefully they can learn from and do better with as well.

I see it as a learning experience, off-night and most importantly, a conference road win. Does the team have to keep battling to get better, absolutely. I'm happy they won though, much better than a loss.

 

[TheCusian]

That's not true. We beat Iowa, and played Nova, Michigan and SJU real close. Va Tech is pure garbage and Ga Tech isn't that good. We (should) beat these teams in our sleep, home or away. Everybody keeps saying we're getting better, I'm sorry, I just don't see it. We looked excellent the first half against Nova and outside of that we've looked good against severely overmatched teams or looked poor against just bad teams. Cooney is shooting better but I guess has decided that he's Johnny Flynn now and driving to the hoop with his head down hoping for the best, he keeps this going I'm willing to bet his 3pt % ends up higher than his 2pt %. Roberson, played against the big boys today, non factor. Both his break out rebounding games were against small, bad teams. He goes against guys with size, this is the result. Even if he just had an off game, it's either 10 and 15 or it's literally nothing. G. Awesome first half, non existent second half, not the first time we've seen this show. I don't understand how somebody can look like such a complete all around player who has high basketball IQ one half then the next half do this. He did the same thing against Nova.

I love how this all seems so new.

A few truths:

- conference play always leads to closer games for non-elite teams. We are not elite.

- I can literally go back and find the same threads about all of our teams. College players are inconsistent. On teams that are not elite, your season often rests on one player playing well.

- we are getting better. But so are our opponents.

- basketball is a sport where the better team loses more than in other sports. Football upsets are a lot more rare. These types of games happen. We are clearly more than a point better than GTech.

- We didn't play our A game. Our B game is really ugly. It's who we are. Progress is not always pretty.

 

[Marsh01]

Is the point of playing the game to win, or to make the fans happy by the way they play?

If what you saw made you happy or optimistic about future games then I can't help you

 

[SoBristol]

...

That said, the only reason SU didn't win last night's game by close to 20 is that a lot of open shots just didn't go down. ... All in all, it was a big off night for shooting. The team can, and will have better performances shooting than last night. Much of the night I couldn't believe how bad they were shooting. ...

I expect GT fans would say much the same. Big off night for them in shooting.
Concern for us is that we have limits (talent issue) on offense, not just one game. McCullough is struggling to find ways to score -- not whether he wants to "play hard" (JB), but whether at this point he has the skills to score against ACC defenders. Roberson is inconsistent as a shooter. Joseph has a good mid-range shot, but is struggling. Patterson -- well, everyone knows he needs to drive, and not take jump shots. They can get better, but it isn't just one off night.

 

[Flight23]

I wouldn't fret much over one game... Duke, Wake, and my Wahoos all played tough games against teams we should have beaten handily last night. In UVA's case, that's 3 games in a row where the score was much closer than it should have been. It's ACC basketball, that's why it is so hard to run the table. All that matters is they get in form for the tournaments.

 

[Cusefan0307]

We won on the road and we stunk. Take it for what it's worth and be happy. Syracuse isn't the only team playing terrible offense.

The ACC was straight up garbage last night. That includes Duke. Every team played like the 94 Knicks. Bruising Defense and terrible offense.
Every game is going to be a meat grinder this year. Just win. I don't care how we get there.

 

[CuseHulk]

If what you saw made you happy or optimistic about future games then I can't help you

And if your not happy we won (Not how we won) and being 2-0 in conference both games on the road. I can't help you.

 

[Marsh01]

And if your not happy we won (Not how we won) and being 2-0 in conference both games on the road. I can't help you.

Its not about the wins and losses. These were two AWFUL teams we played. Just terrible and we barely squeaked by in both. These are games we should win. Our schedule is so back loaded we need to rack up every win we can get so starting 2-0 is great but how can anyone feel warm and fuzzy after last nights performance?

This whole argument of "we will be better come March" is a crock of chit. This team is who we thought they would be. Very mediocre and wildly inconsistent who will struggle to even make the NCAA's this year. It is what it is. The lack of consistent play from our forwards and both our PG's are holding this team back right now. We will not become a real good team this year all of a sudden. We made some improvements that will result in some good games from time to time (Villanova) but we will also throw in clunkers in and lose to anyone on our schedule and will certainly get dominated by the better teams in the league if we continue to play this way.

Aside from the Villanova game there hasnt been that improvement that I was hoping to see.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Its not about the wins and losses. These were two AWFUL teams we played. Just terrible and we barely squeaked by in both. These are games we should win. Our schedule is so back loaded we need to rack up every win we can get so starting 2-0 is great but how can anyone feel warm and fuzzy after last nights performance?

This whole argument of "we will be better come March" is a crock of chit. This team is who we thought they would be. Very mediocre and wildly inconsistent who will struggle to even make the NCAA's this year. It is what it is. The lack of consistent play from our forwards and both our PG's are holding this team back right now. We will not become a real good team this year all of a sudden. We made some improvements that will result in some good games from time to time (Villanova) but we will also throw in clunkers in and lose to anyone on our schedule and will certainly get dominated by the better teams in the league if we continue to play this way.

Aside from the Villanova game there hasnt been that improvement that I was hoping to see.

Stop being a debbie downer you pessimist. You hate Syracuse. Go root for another team.

 

[CuseHulk]

Its not about the wins and losses. These were two AWFUL teams we played. Just terrible and we barely squeaked by in both. These are games we should win. Our schedule is so back loaded we need to rack up every win we can get so starting 2-0 is great but how can anyone feel warm and fuzzy after last nights performance?

This whole argument of "we will be better come March" is a crock of chit. This team is who we thought they would be. Very mediocre and wildly inconsistent who will struggle to even make the NCAA's this year. It is what it is. The lack of consistent play from our forwards and both our PG's are holding this team back right now. We will not become a real good team this year all of a sudden. We made some improvements that will result in some good games from time to time (Villanova) but we will also throw in clunkers in and lose to anyone on our schedule and will certainly get dominated by the better teams in the league if we continue to play this way.

Aside from the Villanova game there hasnt been that improvement that I was hoping to see.

Our 2 conference wins thus far (2-0) @ Virginia Tech, and @ Georgia Tech.
_____
If we win these guys (Teams we are and should be clearly better than) Florida State, Wake Forest, @ Clemson, Boston College, Virginia Tech, @ Boston College.

Then win most of the games against the teams we are on par with. Miami, @ Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, @ NC State.

Then maybe pull 1 upset (which I think we will) of the following who are and should be better then us @ North Carolina, Duke, Louisville, @ Notre Dame, @ Duke, Virginia.

We will be in the tournament. Might have to win a game in the Conference tournament to be safe.

 

[GardenOrange]

I think the people that are watching these games see how poorly the team is playing despite the result on the scoreboard. JB said it earlier this year, but the team is struggling to do simple things right. Grabbing rebounds, picking up loose balls, bounce passes, lay-ups. The team's inability to do basic fundamental things right is making for some ugly ugly basketball out there. That win last night was only because Tech was more mind-numbingly ineffective than SU. It's getting more difficult by the game to envision this team somehow putting it together before the season ends. Too many players performing at below average level. Maybe SU fans are spoiled. Maybe we should expect better from this group and coaches. Either way it's way below the standard for SU basketball.

 

[CuseHulk]

But now I have to see SU fans complain, moan and spew after a win too? It's bizarre and disheartening.

Ooh Thank god we won. God help us and this board had we lost.

 

[Marsh01]

I think the people that are watching these games see how poorly the team is playing despite the result on the scoreboard. JB said it earlier this year, but the team is struggling to do simple things right. Grabbing rebounds, picking up loose balls, bounce passes, lay-ups. The team's inability to do basic fundamental things right is making for some ugly ugly basketball out there. That win last night was only because Tech was more mind-numbingly ineffective than SU. It's getting more difficult by the game to envision this team somehow putting it together before the season ends. Too many players performing at below average level. Maybe SU fans are spoiled. Maybe we should expect better from this group and coaches. Either way it's way below the standard for SU basketball.

At least someone gets it.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Marsh, hoping you picked up my sarcasm

 

[Marsh01]

Marsh, hoping you picked up my sarcasm

Of course I did.

 

[Eric15]

I wouldn't fret much over one game...

We aren't fretting over one game, we are fretting over the majority of the 15 games we have played.

 

[jekelish]

Marsh, hoping you picked up my sarcasm

I think the only person who didn't pick up on it was CuseHulk, since he threw you a like.