Is anyone confident we can have a winning team under Red next year?

[Sdot]

I've been consistent in saying that, on paper, the talent is better than last year.
I've said it recently, too. We have the talent of a mid-level ACC team.

Don't forget, we have 2 Mc-D's AAs, one of the best pure shooters in the country, and guys who were stars on their mid-major teams. We just got a 4 star freshman guard who was one of the best shooters in HS last year.

Other teams collect this kind of talent and get much, much better results.

It is impossible not to notice that these kids don't play any defense AT ALL, and that is our primary problem. Defense is all about coaching, execution, effort - and DISCIPLINE.

We lack all of those necessary elements for a functional defense.

And I'm not even talking about his changes in player rotations, player snubs, failures to call timeouts when needed, not really have any patterns of play on offense. Those things are all obviously problems, too.

What are they working on in practice? Seriously.

The one thing I gotta disagree on is the talent part. Judah is one of the most underrated players on this board. His talent alone was what won us at least 7-8 games last year. Factor in what Brown did for us on defense. I think us playing 10 guys this year compared too 6-7 guys last year makes it look like more talent but really it’s us trying to find guys who are on a hot hand and not all 10 guys being really talented.

 

[Scooch]

I've been consistent in saying that, on paper, the talent is better than last year.
I've said it recently, too. We have the talent of a mid-level ACC team.

Don't forget, we have 2 Mc-D's AAs and guys who were stars on their mid-major teams. We just got a 4 star freshman guard who was one of the best shooters in HS last year.

Other teams collect this kind of talent and get much, much better results.

It is impossible not to notice that these kids don't play any defense AT ALL, and that is our primary problem. Defense is all about coaching, execution, effort - and DISCIPLINE.

We lack all of those necessary elements for a functional defense.

And I'm not even talking about his changes in player rotations, player snubs, failures to call timeouts when needed, not really have any patterns of play on offense. Those things are all obviously problems, too.

What are they working on in practice? Seriously.

I checked out of following hoops from the end of the season last year until basically October. The only thing that broke through to me was the Lampkin signing.

As others here can attest, I hopped on the ol' Cuse.com in October to bone up on our new players. And I started scratching my head as to why we seemed to have loaded up on LOW major transfers.

Hofstra, Delaware, Georgia State. I wouldn't call those mid-majors. To me a mid-major comes from the A-10, American or Mountain West. We got guys from the Colonial and Sun Belt.

So I'm not surprised that those guys appear to be deficient. Not many low major players, even all-conference guys, can easily translate to power conference ball.

Now, it is puzzling why our highly touted HS guys have underperformed. But that's happened for decades. Making a big impact as a frosh is really hard to do.

It's impossible to know what share of our on court dysfunction is due to coaching and what's due to inherent limitations of the team. But it is both.

 

[IthacaMatt]

The one thing I gotta disagree on is the talent part. Judah is one of the most underrated players on this board. His talent alone was what won us at least 7-8 games last year. Factor in what Brown did for us on defense. I think us playing 10 guys this year compared too 6-7 guys last year makes it look like more talent but really it’s us trying to find guys who are on a hot hand and not all 10 guys being really talented.

We all would have predicted that Starling would get better without Judah hogging the ball, and he has, much better.

Maliq Brown was a talented player, but couldn't defend the post once we got to ACC play, after we lost our 2 centers and Benny Williams.

This year's team doesn't have to play Justin Taylor at PF. Petar is clearly better than J. Taylor Knoblauch. We had Donnie until recently at PF too. Better offensive player than any forward on last year's team.

One would have suspected Chris Bell to develop more of an overall game to complement his great shooting. He has kind of failed at that - moments, yes, but basically he's a head case this year. That wasn't predictable. No question he should be playing better.

Eddie gives us better defensive rebounding that Maliq did, but Maliq was better at pretty much everything else and didn't turn the ball over so much.

At guard, Copeland was a talent. So far, he looks better than Choppa Moore. Moore could be doing better, though. Wouldn't you agree? Copeland was supposed to be a chemistry problem. Addition by subtraction, everyone said.

Cuffe is better than last year. McLeod is worse. Red is reluctant to play them both, when (1) he says he doeesn't have a back-up PG, and (2) he doesn't have a rim protector. <Sigh>

Who is better - Lucas Taylor vs. Copeland; Jyare Davis v. Benny Williams; Petar v. Carey, or the other guy who barely played last year and transferred?

This team, on paper, is not so much worse than last year. In some ways it looks better, especially inside. But we play no defense. That's the problem.

 

[Sdot]

We all would have predicted that Starling would get better without Judah hogging the ball, and he has, much better.

Maliq Brown was a talented player, but couldn't defend the post once we got to ACC play, after we lost our 2 centers and Benny Williams.

This year's team doesn't have to play Justin Taylor at PF. Petar is clearly better than J. Taylor Knoblauch. We had Donnie until recently at PF too. Better offensive player than any forward on last year's team.

One would have suspected Chris Bell to develop more of an overall game to complement his great shooting. He has kind of failed at that - moments, yes, but basically he's a head case this year. That wasn't predictable. No question he should be playing better.

Eddie gives us better defensive rebounding that Maliq did, but Maliq was better at pretty much everything else and didn't turn the ball over so much.

At guard, Copeland was a talent. So far, he looks better than Choppa Moore. Moore could be doing better, though. Wouldn't you agree? Copeland was supposed to be a chemistry problem. Addition by subtraction, everyone said.

Cuffe is better than last year. McLeod is worse. Red is reluctant to play them both, when (1) he says he doeesn't have a back-up PG, and (2) he doesn't have a rim protector. <Sigh>

Who is better - Lucas Taylor vs. Copeland; Jyare Davis v. Benny Williams; Petar v. Carey, or the other guy who barely played last year and transferred?

This team, on paper, is not so much worse than last year. In some ways it looks better, especially inside. But we play no defense. That's the problem.

Would you agree if I said the starting 5 of
Judah
Starling
Bell
Benny/copeland
Brown

Has more talent then the starting 5 this year.

 

[wiCuse]

The goal posts continue to move. How can anyone dismiss coaching. Yes, talent is vital. Some are saying if we had Louisville's players we win. Probably true. We were 8pt dogs at home. With minimal coaching that game should have been competitive until the final buzzer.

If it's only about the Jimmy's and the Joe's why doesn't everyone pay the minimum for a coach? It's starting to become sad reading this board...

 

[Red2003]

I've been consistent in saying that, on paper, the talent is better than last year.
I've said it recently, too. We have the talent of a mid-level ACC team.

Don't forget, we have 2 Mc-D's AAs, one of the best pure shooters in the country, and guys who were stars on their mid-major teams. We just got a 4 star freshman guard who was one of the best shooters in HS last year.

Other teams collect this kind of talent and get much, much better results.

It is impossible not to notice that these kids don't play any defense AT ALL, and that is our primary problem. Defense is all about coaching, execution, effort - and DISCIPLINE.

We lack all of those necessary elements for a functional defense.

And I'm not even talking about his changes in player rotations, player snubs, failures to call timeouts when needed, not really have any patterns of play on offense. Those things are all obviously problems, too.

What are they working on in practice? Seriously.

Yes. There’s a reason I think we’re going to lose by double digits to a blah team tomorrow. We’re allergic to guarding the 3 point line and the rim.

I’m not defending the staff cuz it’s on them. I do put a lot of blame on the players in practice tho too. Guess why we suck at 3 point defense let’s think about what they see in practice.

Bell standing in the corner waiting. Carlos at the top of the key laying bricks at 22%, JJ and the rest shooting 3’s at 25%.

Next let’s talk about why we seem to have missed a hundred layups this season. Prob cuz in practice Eddie is sleeping under the rim and who knows what McLeod is doing. They get to real games with a rim protector and are a mess.

Sure there were injuries but that’s all the more reason to call some of these guys a bust. Instead of stepping up they just said whatever.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Would you agree if I said the starting 5 of
Judah
Starling
Bell
Benny/copeland
Brown

Has more talent then the starting 5 this year.

Starling was terrible last year. He's a different player this year.

Benny was terrible last year and only lasted half the season.

What can you say about Bell's regression? In other sports they talk about man management when players are in slumps. We are halfway through the year, and Bell hasn't gotten back on track. He's on the bench.

Maliq Brown was better than our PFs this year, but can't defend the post or get defensive rebounds as well as this year's guys. It's a fact that we are a much better defensive rebounding team this year. We do miss Maliq on the offensive rebounds, and then finding open shooters.

I liked Copeland, but he left.

I think the combination of Jyare Davis, Elijah Moore, Lucas Taylor, Petar Majstorovic and this year's Kyle Cuffe are superior to last year's bench.

It goes without saying that Donnie Freeman is better than Benny Williams.

 

[Goin' Deep]

Well, we're 49 games into the Red Era.
Does the team have a culture/attitude?
What is Red's DART?
Does Red own the locker room? Does the team play hard?
What is the tone of the Orange offense? Run and gun or Hoosiers, 5 passes before you take a shot?
Do we press or trap...give the other team something THEY have to adjust to?
Is there a "there" there?

I see no intensity/attitude except for Cuffe...
9000 for an ACC home game...and Mr. Kline can/will fix this.
Might's well give it a shot in year 3... year 2 is toast.

 

[djcon57]

Maliq Brown was better than our PFs this year, but can't defend the post or get defensive rebounds as well as this year's guys. It's a fact that we are a much better defensive rebounding team this year.

Maliq Brown last year:
4.0 DBPM
4.2 STL%
3.2 BLK%
18.2 DRB%
As a team we allowed 75.6 pts
Opponent 2pt% = 52.7%

Lampkin this year:
0.7 DBPM
2.1 BLK%
19.4 DRB%
As a team we allow 78.1 pts
Opponent 2pt% = 53.2%


We are a better rebounding team. Agree. It's more about Freeman and Davis vs Taylor and Bell than Maliq vs Lampkin.

Overall this idea that we defend better in the post is a complete fallacy. Both years were below average. I'd argue if you swapped Maliq in for Lampkin and give him Freeman/Davis vs Taylor/Bell our numbers would be better than they are.

Doesn't really matter much, but the whole idea Lampkin would help on D as presented all offseason was laughably stupid.

 

[Cuse117]

I admittedly skimmed over some of the posts, but I am really getting tired of people blaming "lack of talent" as a reason we stink. Do we have early 2010s talent of course not, but are we forgetting JJ and Donny are both McDonalds All Americans, Cuffe was at Kansas at one point. Lampin, Davis and Taylor were all decent last year, granted 2 were at small schools (the same type of schools we could barely beat early in the season so, they should be more then good enough to whoop teams like that). Then you have Moore who was playing well (granted terrible defender) early in the season. Our talent may not be great but it SHOULD be more than enough to be better then the absolute garbage we see every single game.

Our coaching staff is, maybe the worst in college basketball and THAT is the problem, not the talent.

 

[tptcuse]

I think the university whether it’s the BOT,Chancellor,ADJW, or any of the media for the school, handles this stuff poorly. I truly believe if they were more open and honest with some of these problems and try too connect with the fanbase, there would be a lot more productive things happening.

Instead they keep people in the dark and you get these crazy assumptions and arguments from fans against each other about what’s going on, and it turns into a free for all.

I think we posters on this board underestimate this. When things are going as poorly as they are and there is a complete lack of a message other than "You're bad fans!", the void will be filled. That has happened and it isn't pretty.

 

[Sdot]

I think we posters on this board underestimate this. When things are going as poorly as they are and there is a complete lack of a message other than "You're bad fans!", the void will be filled. That has happened and it isn't pretty.

I get why us fans disagree and go back and forth and I think it’s funny and like the difference of opinions. But what I don’t think about 70% of cuse fans get is that Syracuse does not handle situations good, the higher ups at Cuse never take any blame. Just seems we’re always 1 step behind these other P4 schools.