If 'Cuse loss was a blowout then what was Kansas loss to Baylor and..

[arbitragegls]

Oregon loss to Utah????
Understand the frustration and the disappointment with the 'Cuse play at Georgetown. However to put in proper perspective there were several top 25 teams that also lost this weekend and to much worse teams than Syracuse did.
For example:

• Kansas the #4 team lost to Baylor by 23 points. Baylor is just barely a 500 club this season.
• Oregon the #19 team lost to Utah, an under 500 team by 10 points

The point I am trying to make is that all is not lost...if 'Cuse can figure out how to hit some shots, its defense will keep it in every game and provide a spark for a win. If you look at it from a overall perspective of the season's play, 'Cuse is a tough defensive team so with some scoring the 'Cuse could be an Achiever in the NCAA's:
Pomeroy Ratings for 'Cuse:

• Defense 10th in country
• Offense is 27th in country

Games we have lost the defense still has played well:

• Georgetown has scored only 61 and 57 points against 'Cuse
• All games lost defensive gave up average of 63 points...did not include Nova as OT

Point is the season average for scoring is 72.3...so on average we should have won these games.
And don't forget, 'Cuse top scorers were 3-27...even if they shot 40% the 'Cuse could have won the game against Georgetown...so is the team really that offensively challenged, did Georgetown play that good of defense, or is 'Cuse going through a rough period where over time the season's averages come into play...if that is the case, 'Cuse is going to get it started and to be very good in the NCAA...I believe 'Cuse gets to the Elite 8.

 

[Orangefan1]

What is our offense in the Big East against quality opponents? That to me is a better indicator of what we are at this point rather than looking at the entire season. Our defense will keep us in games no matter what but Triche needs to get his mojo back.

 

[longislandcuse]

Those teams havent looked like garbage for over a month now. Also to be said is, have those teams been playing ranked opponents night in/night out? We did blow out Depaul in our only easy game. I dont know what to make of it but it certainly isnt good.

 

[arbitragegls]

What is our offense in the Big East against quality opponents? That to me is a better indicator of what we are at this point rather than looking at the entire season. Our defense will keep us in games no matter what but Triche needs to get his mojo back.

Great question and I am sure SWC could add to this and do a better job. But here goes:

• 'Cuse has played 11 games against the top teams in the BE
• All these games have been played in the last 15 games played
• 'Cuse has outscored averagely these teams by 7 points
• --59.5 to 52.5
• --'Cuse overall average in BE
• --offense: 64.1 and defensively: 57.2

Interestingly, 'Cuse has given up fewer points to the top BE teams then averagely for whole BE season
Unfortunately, 'Cuse has scored about 5 points a game less against these top teams

• If 'Cuse scored those 5 points against the top teams we have lost to, 'Cuse would have beaten: Marquette, Louisville and Nova making our BE record stand at 14-4 and tied for conference title with GT.

I do not believe the season has been lost. I do believe that the team played the most difficult schedule in the conference...did not play a bottom 1/2 team more than once. The 'Cuse schedule was brutal and all those top team games were playyed at the end of the season. Based on this analysis, feel free to take shots--hopefully scoring on some--the worry about 'Cuse may be off the mark--like most of the shots taken over the past few weeks.

 

[jdubs30]

What is our offense in the Big East against quality opponents? That to me is a better indicator of what we are at this point rather than looking at the entire season. Our defense will keep us in games no matter what but Triche needs to get his mojo back.

We have 0 bad losses. The defenses we saw against GTown, Ville, Pitt, Marquette are better than most we'll see in the tourney. How good a team is relative to the landscape that year, and the landscape just isn't very good.

I like our chances this year better than I did in 2011; I thought 2011 was the better team, but there were bettter teams around that year too.

 

[longislandcuse]

We have 0 bad losses. The defenses we saw against GTown, Ville, Pitt, Marquette are better than most we'll see in the tourney. How good a team is relative to the landscape that year, and the landscape just isn't very good.

I like our chances this year better than I did in 2011; I thought 2011 was the better team, but there were bettter teams around that year too.

Plus GTown, Ville, Pitt and Marquette all know us. I dont think you can just throw a crap zone against us and expect us to play as bad as weve been playing. These zones were seeing are effective because A) The teams were playing are good, B) They know us and C) We're slumping collectively as a team. Not just Triche, Not just Southerland, the whole team aside from Fair is completely lost "at the moment". Hopefully we can beat a good team in the Big East Tourney to get us some confidence again because obviously blowing out a bad Depaul team didnt do that.

 

[jdubs30]

Plus GTown, Ville, Pitt and Marquette all know us. I dont think you can just throw a crap zone against us and expect us to play as bad as weve been playing. These zones were seeing are effective because A) The teams were playing are good, B) They know us and C) We're slumping collectively as a team. Not just Triche, Not just Southerland, the whole team aside from Fair is completely lost "at the moment". Hopefully we can beat a good team in the Big East Tourney to get us some confidence again because obviously blowing out a bad Depaul team didnt do that.

Exactly. I always think the zone is more effective against teams that haven't seen it before. If we are seeded at 5, we won't see a team better than GTown/Ville/Marquette till the Sweet 16, and it's very possible by then our offense has come out of it's slump. Do I like our chances in a 7 game series with Gonzaga or IU? No .Do I like our chances in a 1 game tournament setting? Yes.

 

[Knicks411]

We have 0 bad losses. The defenses we saw against GTown, Ville, Pitt, Marquette are better than most we'll see in the tourney. How good a team is relative to the landscape that year, and the landscape just isn't very good.

Would just edit this a little. We have 0 losses to bad teams. We have had a few bad losses this year. (I knew what you meant, obviously).

Yesterday's game was awful, obviously. Losing close games to Lville and Marquette is far from the end of the world, but we completely got bitchslapped yesterday. No way to make it look good.

The tournament is all about matchups. We could go out in round 1, we could make a run to the elite 8. Either one would be equally likely at this point, it seems.

 

[jdubs30]

Would just edit this a little. We have 0 losses to bad teams. We have had a few bad losses this year. (I knew what you meant, obviously).

Yesterday's game was awful, obviously. Losing close games to Lville and Marquette is far from the end of the world, but we completely got bitchslapped yesterday. No way to make it look good.

The tournament is all about matchups. We could go out in round 1, we could make a run to the elite 8. Either one would be equally likely at this point, it seems.

Yeah you're right, obviously we've had some putrid games, but he haven't had a loss to a "What" team like a lot of other top teams.

People have mentioned before, but we've had a few tough breaks the past few years in the tourney (No Fab, Marquette in the 2nd round, no AO, Blake Griffin), maybe this will be the year that things kind of open for us (like UConn got in 2011 and Duke in 2010)

 

[OrangeDW]

Other teams sucking doesn't make me feel any better about us. We just aren't playing good ball. Though UConn 2011 is a good example of how anything can happen in the current, watered down college hoop landscape. They sucked, and Butler really sucked and that was the title game. So even though I think we suck right now, I guess we still have a chance.

 

[Shenexon]

While I love the optimism and want the team to turn it around and make a good run, it just seems to me that we're a team that is struggling mightily at exactly the wrong time.

Our offensive output yesterday was our very worst conference showing since the Big East was formed. That's a thought that hasn't gotten better no matter how I've tried to reconcile it. With a very talented group of players, we played our worst offensive conference game in our very last regular-season BE game ever.

That isn't a sign of a team preparing to make a run in the BET or NCAA. Our defense is healthy, but our team offense is sick. I expect we're well enough to win some early round games in both tournaments, but we'll have to play good teams, and win, to make a run. After losing 4 out of 5 games to finish the season with losses to all of the good teams we played in that stretch, I'm not confident we can turn things around this year.

 

[swish7]

So basically, all is not lost if we start winning. Got it.