I'm sure others feel the same way

[Eric15]

In the winter, when there isn't that much to do outside of work and family stuff, Syracuse basketball is my primary source of entertainment. For the past 30-35 years that I've followed the program, I get so much joy every single day out of monitoring our RPI, Bracketmatrix, Bracketology, etc. Even during seasons when we didn't make the tourney like 1997, 2002 2007, 2008, the games were extremely important and relevant right up until the BET. We usually missed the cut by one single win.

I thought things were bad during that stretch from like 2015-2019 when we missed the tourney a couple times and then miraculously made the cut a couple times, but even then we were still part of the conversation and always within striking distance.

It's just different now, in the absolute most depressing way possible. For five out of the past six seasons, we have been completely off the bubble prior to the New Year. This year especially, the rest of the season is going to feel like a Greg Robinson football season in November, where you watch the games out of a sense of duty instead of actual excitement.

We keep saying "this is rock bottom" but then somehow, some way there's another layer below that.

 

[OttoMets]

In the winter, when there isn't that much to do outside of work and family stuff, Syracuse basketball is my primary source of entertainment. For the past 30-35 years that I've followed the program, I get so much joy every single day out of monitoring our RPI, Bracketmatrix, Bracketology, etc. Even during seasons when we didn't make the tourney like 1997, 2002 2007, 2008, the games were extremely important and relevant right up until the BET. We usually missed the cut by one single win.

...

Even during the crappy years, aberrations like Deshaun Williams notwithstanding, players were relatively normal competitors who were relatable.

I have never, to the best of my memory, seen anything like Eddie Lampkin putting his hands down on defense to clap while his man sticks a jumper in his face, as happened in the first half today.

People here are worked up about the coaching staff.

I feel bad for the coaching staff. You'd have to be a special kind of worker to a) have played college basketball at a high level and b) show up at practice every day trying to wring the best out of these salaried Insta-divas.

 

[FrancoPizza]

Even during the crappy years, aberrations like Deshaun Williams notwithstanding, players were relatively normal competitors who were relatable.

I have never, to the best of my memory, seen anything like Eddie Lampkin putting his hands down on defense to clap while his man sticks a jumper in his face, as happened in the first half today.

People here are worked up about the coaching staff.

I feel bad for the coaching staff. You'd have to be a special kind of worker to a) have played college basketball at a high level and b) show up at practice every day trying to wring the best out of these salaried Insta-divas.

I don’t feel bad for them. They built this roster!

 

[Newhouser]

Even during the crappy years, aberrations like Deshaun Williams notwithstanding, players were relatively normal competitors who were relatable.

I have never, to the best of my memory, seen anything like Eddie Lampkin putting his hands down on defense to clap while his man sticks a jumper in his face, as happened in the first half today.

People here are worked up about the coaching staff.

I feel bad for the coaching staff. You'd have to be a special kind of worker to a) have played college basketball at a high level and b) show up at practice every day trying to wring the best out of these salaried Insta-d

Eddie is into drawing attention to himself and was trying to intimidate the Frosh. Sadly the Frosh was better when it mattered.
Eddie has also mastered the useless fall aimed at showing hustle.
We need him, desperately, but he drives me crazy because he really isn't good or in shape.

ivas.

 

[OttoMets]

Eddie is into drawing attention to himself and was trying to intimidate the Frosh. Sadly the Frosh was better when it mattered.
Eddie has also mastered the useless fall aimed at showing hustle.
We need him, desperately, but he drives me crazy because he really isn't good or in shape.

Love his touch, passing, and post moves.

Can't stand almost everything else, especially his fitness. Great observation about the stage falls to feign effort.

 

[kingtidge]

I feel bad for the coaching staff. You'd have to be a special kind of worker to a) have played college basketball at a high level and b) show up at practice every day trying to wring the best out of these salaried Insta-divas.

I don't.

These are the players Red and the staff targeted and brought in to make a competitive squad.

If they can't get them to perform consistently, get them in shape, etc... or they simply aren't good enough, then we have some real problems across the board beyond just the players themselves

 

[Eric15]

In the 40 seasons between 1980-2019 we had exactly one season (1981-82) where our regular season was so bad that we had to win our conference tournament in order to make the NCAA tournament.

That has now been the case in four out of the past five seasons and this year will almost certainly make it five out of the past six seasons.

Its just a mind boggling descent.

 

[kingtidge]

In the 40 seasons between 1980-2019 we had exactly one season (1981-82) where our regular season was so bad that we had to win our conference tournament in order to make the NCAA tournament.

That has now been the case in four out of the past five seasons and this year will almost certainly make it five out of the past six seasons.

Its just a mind boggling descent.

Don't count on it.

With 3 new teams in the ACC, the worst 3 teams in the conference are now excluded from the conference tourney starting this year.

The good news is the ACC is really bad this year.

The bad news is we could very well be in the bottom of a bad barrel.

ACC tournament "bubble watch"...

God help us

 

[dasher]

yeah, this is the worst. Not to pick on Carlos, but I never want to watch another Syracuse pt guard race up the court going nowhere again in my life. And the Lampkin clapping while the kid shoved a jumper down his throat should be put on sports center. I could go on.

 

[rocklloyd]

I‘m having a hard time watching this team. The minute I think we start to show and identity we do something stupid and we go back to having zero identity. How about donnie just layup and dunk every possession?

 

[Bulldog04]

Listen no one is more “in the dumps” than me. These are my friends that are coaching the team. All the practices all that stuff you believe and you buy in. You donate you help where ya can and they are 5-5. There’s nothing worse than not seeing your friends succeed but I also can take the human element out of it and understand there’s a job to be done. I shared on here with optimism what I thought the team was and could be and I have maybe seen that team for a total of 20 minutes all year. I feel for the fans. I feel for the friends of the program. But winning cures everything and we need wins

 

[hoopsupstate]

Eddie is into drawing attention to himself and was trying to intimidate the Frosh. Sadly the Frosh was better when it mattered.
Eddie has also mastered the useless fall aimed at showing hustle.
We need him, desperately, but he drives me crazy because he really isn't good or in shape.

He has the fall down on the offensive end, like Mintz to avoid getting back on defense.

 

[dasher]

Listen no one is more “in the dumps” than me. These are my friends that are coaching the team. All the practices all that stuff you believe and you buy in. You donate you help where ya can and they are 5-5. There’s nothing worse than not seeing your friends succeed but I also can take the human element out of it and understand there’s a job to be done. I shared on here with optimism what I thought the team was and could be and I have maybe seen that team for a total of 20 minutes all year. I feel for the fans. I feel for the friends of the program. But winning cures everything and we need wins

No one is blaming you. And as bad as this has been, and it has been really bad, I believe they would be 7-3 if JJ was playing the last 2. Having said that, we would still look not right. The only reason I have us winning the last 2 is that ND without Burton and G-town blow.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Eddie is into drawing attention to himself and was trying to intimidate the Frosh. Sadly the Frosh was better when it mattered.
Eddie has also mastered the useless fall aimed at showing hustle.
We need him, desperately, but he drives me crazy because he really isn't good or in shape.

Well, let's not get carried away. He scored 18 points on 8-12 shooting. So I dont think it's fair to say he isn't good. But, he does have extreme limitations. When we went inside to him, Jyare or Donnie, the team was right there. Those last six minutes, after we went up six, the team for whatever reason went a different direction, starting with Choppa's missed three and Lucas Taylor's ill-advised long two.

Lampkin never should have played 36 minutes as he was too exhausted to be effective down the stretch. Yes, it's his fault, but the coaches cant put him in that position.

 

[PeteCalvin]

Well, let's not get carried away. He scored 18 points on 8-12 shooting. So I dont think it's fair to say he isn't good. But, he does have extreme limitations. When we went inside to him, Jyare or Donnie, the team was right there. Those last six minutes, after we went up six, the team for whatever reason went a different direction, starting with Choppa's missed three and Lucas Taylor's ill-advised long two.

Lampkin never should have played 36 minutes as he was too exhausted to be effective down the stretch. Yes, it's his fault, but the coaches cant put him in that position.

Lucas Taylor should not be allowed to take a shot in crunch time unless it’s a layup or a dunk. I love Moore’s moxey on the floor, but his shot at that point was also ill advised. I really scratched my head when Red pulled Jyare and put in Donnie when he did. We should have run the high-low with Davis and Lamp against that zone all day long. We stopped going to our bread and butter and let them force us to shoot bad shots. We could have kept drawing fouls and going to the line if we stayed focused and played tough.

With Starling, we’re up 10 at half and probably pull away in the second. Even not having Starling, this was a game we should have won. Our lack of shooting really bit us in the butt today. If Bell even made three shots from beyond the arc, we could have pulled them out of that zone and let Lamp and Davis keep eating them up.

We really missed having a shot blocker today. We need to recruit someone who can alter shots at the rim because we obviously can’t keep our opponents away from it.

 

[kingtidge]

Lucas Taylor should not be allowed to take a shot in crunch time unless it’s a layup or a dunk. I love Moore’s moxey on the floor, but his shot at that point was also ill advised. I really scratched my head when Red pulled Jyare and put in Donnie when he did. We should have run the high-low with Davis and Lamp against that zone all day long. We stopped going to our bread and butter and let them force us to shoot bad shots. We could have kept drawing fouls and going to the line if we stayed focused and played tough.

With Starling, we’re up 10 at half and probably pull away in the second. Even not having Starling, this was a game we should have won. Our lack of shooting really bit us in the butt today. If Bell even made three shots from beyond the arc, we could have pulled them out of that zone and let Lamp and Davis keep eating them up.

We really missed having a shot blocker today. We need to recruit someone who can alter shots at the rim because we obviously can’t keep our opponents away from it.

Cooley's a good coach and G'town is a young team with one decent player and not very good as a team.

His late switch to zone put us into a tailspin and they simply took the game.

It wasn't coaching masterclass by any means but it was effective and Red made no adjustments and we folded with no answers.

Is what it is. Really poor.

We're bad.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

I don’t feel bad for them. They built this roster!

They also contribute to the problem in game. Red loves nothing better than to ICE Freeman when he is on a roll. Today he started with five points on only two shots. Red then sits has buttocks on the bench forever while the looters Bell and Carlos riot and are allowed to continue playing. Then DF comes back in and hes now cold. it shows a complete and utter lack of feel for game flow..which is SHOCKING since our coach was a damn excellent PG in his day.

 

[Idiocuse22&]

In the winter, when there isn't that much to do outside of work and family stuff, Syracuse basketball is my primary source of entertainment. For the past 30-35 years that I've followed the program, I get so much joy every single day out of monitoring our RPI, Bracketmatrix, Bracketology, etc. Even during seasons when we didn't make the tourney like 1997, 2002 2007, 2008, the games were extremely important and relevant right up until the BET. We usually missed the cut by one single win.

I thought things were bad during that stretch from like 2015-2019 when we missed the tourney a couple times and then miraculously made the cut a couple times, but even then we were still part of the conversation and always within striking distance.

It's just different now, in the absolute most depressing way possible. For five out of the past six seasons, we have been completely off the bubble prior to the New Year. This year especially, the rest of the season is going to feel like a Greg Robinson football season in November, where you watch the games out of a sense of duty instead of actual excitement.

We keep saying "this is rock bottom" but then somehow, some way there's another layer below that.

I am right there with you and for about the same amount of time. The decline was slow, gradual, had built-in excuses and making a couple little runs in March disguised and prolonged the descent into the depression era of Syracuse Basketball.
Im optimistic to a fault in regards to my teams. So in my mind there is still a possibilty to have a successful season. However, my optimism is in free fall mode and has never been worse.
I am always able to find something positive to make me think theres a chance. I gotta dig really deep here and Im struggling to find anything.

To me it seems the players, at least most of them, are not all in. The coaches seem frustrated by this ànd don't have an answer right now. Seems like some of the players are just coasting through the season.

Seems everyone is hatin on Jaquan and Im not a huge fan but take Jaquan out and we will be getting full court pressure. I have no faith that we have the guys to break a press especially without JJ. I see where coach is coming from there.

 

[FloridaCuse]

In the 40 seasons between 1980-2019 we had exactly one season (1981-82) where our regular season was so bad that we had to win our conference tournament in order to make the NCAA tournament.

That has now been the case in four out of the past five seasons and this year will almost certainly make it five out of the past six seasons.

Its just a mind boggling descent.

But this year we won't even make the conference tournament.

 

[mark79]

Losing to Georgetown at home is just awful awful awful. I’m not sure I understand the culture of this team. With Fran, you know the culture, he oozes the culture, and you buy in or you’re out. Not sure I know what this team’s culture is.

I also think part of the problem is that JB played “bad cop” while all of the assistants played “good cop”. So now we have what seems to be a program lacking identity full of “good cops” to run it. I know that is overly harsh, but I’m frustrated.

I am a “glass half full” kind of guy but right now I’m not sure there is really anything in the glass. Dang, I just realized I use a lot of metaphors.

 

[Red2003]

Losing to Georgetown at home is just awful awful awful. I’m not sure I understand the culture of this team. With Fran, you know the culture, he oozes the culture, and you buy in or you’re out. Not sure I know what this team’s culture is.

I also think part of the problem is that JB played “bad cop” while all of the assistants played “good cop”. So now we have what seems to be a program lacking identity full of “good cops” to run it. I know that is overly harsh, but I’m frustrated.

I am a “glass half full” kind of guy but at least right now I’m not sure there is really anything in the glass. Dang, I just realized I use a lot of metaphors.

This 100%. The good cop bad cop is kindergarten stuff but it really works especially with a roster full of kids that are not mentally tough.

 

[Toga]

Eddie is into drawing attention to himself and was trying to intimidate the Frosh. Sadly the Frosh was better when it mattered.
Eddie has also mastered the useless fall aimed at showing hustle.
We need him, desperately, but he drives me crazy because he really isn't good or in shape.

The useless fall. Lol

 

[ClamOtto]

Before this game I was trying to think of another once-dominant team that had fallen into such prolonged mediocrity. The only other one I could come up with was Georgetown, but maybe they're on their way out. UCLA, Indiana, Louisville, Texas, UConn have all had down stretches but not a decade. Nova could be headed to Syracuse territory but it's too early to tell. Am I forgetting anyone?

 

[Sherman20]

No one is blaming you. And as bad as this has been, and it has been really bad, I believe they would be 7-3 if JJ was playing the last 2. Having said that, we would still look not right. The only reason I have us winning the last 2 is that ND without Burton and G-town blow.

This is not a great roster. But we lost close games to Texas, Gtown and ND. It feels like with better coaching and effort, we could have won all three and beat the mid majors by more.

 

[Trueblue25]

I do not feel bad for the program or staff lol what are these guys paid? Its unbelievable. It is their players and product on the floor. You bring in players that fit your “plan” and coach them.