If Buddy hadn't figured some things out

[albanycuse]

Buddy has been great shooting the ball. If it wasn’t for him knocking down shots we could of easily lost a few of our recent games. It’s amazing how much your game changes once you feel comfortable and confident out there.

 

[AlaskaSU]

...and for the last few games they are leaving him open to shoot. Hopefully he will have a breakout game real soon and things will change. Seems to me all his 2 point shots are hitting the front rim while his 3 point shots are either hitting the back rim or completely missing. Where is the shot doctor. More likely in his head.

He was being more aggressive against BC. Most of his misses were pull-ups where he penetrated a bit. He made those pull ups last year but he is just beginning to try them this year after being primarily a 3 point set shooter earlier in the year. I think that he is slowly coming around but have no idea if he will get back to last year. I suspect that his injury was far worse than we know. It is most unusual to see a player regress.

 

[Sherman20]

I think the lead of the OP is misleading... I don't think Buddy figured anything out, he was given enough playing time to adjust to the speed of the D1 hoops. The reason I bring this up is that most Syracuse freshmen are not allowed the time to adjust to a new level and are expected to "figure it out" from the bench and practices. For the record I'm not accusing JB of nepotism... we are desperately in need of a 3 pointe shooter so Buddy has been given the opportunity to adjust on the court. But this highlights one of my biggest frustrations with JB... unless we are in desperate need of a freshman's skillset he is not going to be given the opportunity to adjust.. he just needs to figure it out.

Not meant as a knock on the OP either... I agree without Buddy we'd be firmly on the NIT bubble.

If you listen to the game announcers, they spend time watching practice and talking with the coaches. A few games ago, one of them said Buddy was basically making everything in practices, he wasn’t missing any 3s (a change from early season practices), so the staff knew they needed to get him more time on the court to see what he could do in actual games. And voila, he has responded by knocking down shots at a high rate and being a huge help to the team. What’s happening in practice absolutely informs the staff’s decisions about playing time in games. Carey has probably struggled a bit in practice, too, or he would get more playing time. It’s really as simple as that.