I agree with the lethargy. And that applies to both offense and defense. No crispness of movement or passes. No motion that looks aggressive.
I think the zone complexity is being overstated just a little bit. I think as a foundation defense it is just becoming more flawed as college offenses evolve. It's getting to the point where you need freak personnel at every spot to make the zone effective 24/7. And then you need those freak athletes to stick around for at least 2 years. On top of that, sometimes even a good athlete with long arms won't "get it".
That's true. I've got no argument for that. But it's obvious at this point that zone isn't going to work with this group of players and the staff is trying to fit square pegs into round holes because they're unable to switch from their system.
Because it's a simple defense and they've been playing it for most of their lives? JAB's 2-3 zone isn't some simple defense that magically works, if it did every team would use it. It takes a lot to go right to work against good teams. When it goes right, it's a thing of beauty. No denying that. When players don't get it or understand the rotations, they're going to be hung out to dry. Look at what SU, a middling offense with good shooters, does to a crappy zone (EMU, BU, etc.). It's not magic just because it's a 2-3, but it can be great when they have the right players in the right positions. Every team can play a passable man defense with 2-3 star athletes, but SU can't with their athletic talent? Thompson played in a really competitive HS/prep league.
It didn't suddenly "break" out of nowhere. It has been bending and bending over the past few years. There is a confluence of issues contributing to this year's breaking point which has been documented in about 50 different threads. But my general theme is that if you put the 2012-13 FF personnel on this squad - the defense would certainly improve significantly but it would not be nearly as effective as it was even 4 years ago because the game and players are evolving in ways that stress zones like never before.
With two guards at the top who had A) the size and B) 3 and 5 years of experience with it, plus Malachi, a McDonald's AA who was athletic enough to cover the three on the wing (even though he had his moments). They were replaced them with a sophomore who played few minutes, a 5'9" guard from a lower D1 school, and a 5th year senior who had zero experience and didn't even get to campus until damn near September.
I think so and one of the issues is that Boeheim is head coach, but he's got an definite expiration date, which makes him a lame duck (I don't know any nicer way to say that). However, he's still recruiting for his system and he's handicapped for a multiple reasons. One of which is that he looks for very specific players to fit the zone most of the time. That eliminates a lot of potential recruits right from the start. Add in that they recruit from a limited geographic area. Eliminates another group of potential recruits. Throw in the sanctions and some really bad misses (Chino, Diagne, Kaleb, Buss, BJ, etc.) and he no longer has the players that fit his system (lanky athletes and guys with 3-4 years experience with the zone). Next season won't be better on D and then it's Hop's turn. That scares me because I want to know that SU, as a program, is bigger than one guy and a very specific defense.
Being an avid Cubs fan, now I have to comment. A better Chapman analogy would be that even though he throws a 100+mph, Chapman still throws a slider every now and then, because the guys in MLB are good enough to sit on the heater, and every now and then, hit it. The analogy to syracuse Bball would be to mix it up showing different looks. Personally, I don't think this would help this group much. I don't think it's bad players, but it appears to be a bad mix. It happens
SoBristol... your observations are spot on. When speaking of theories I'm referring to the underlying reason why they seem incapable of executing the tasks they are called upon to do. There is a plethora of observables that are obvious as to what the shortcomings are. My question is why has the staff been completely unable to get this group to coalesce into a "Syracuse zone"? Is it the kids inability to grasp the concepts of the zone? ... is it that because the 2 5th year transfers are too ingrained with the defensive precepts of their previous programs? Is it because there is bad blood between some of the players? Is it because of animosity toward JB? That's what I'm wondering about. All of those reasons have been put out there by posters here... I just wonder which if any of them hold water and to what degree.
I'm not mad that they left early. I think SU should advertise to recruits that they get kids to the NBA - including those that weren't top-20 all-American recruits. Calipari certainly does. K does. Sean Miller does. Bill Self does.
