Is this a tournament team? | Syracusefan.com
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Is this a tournament team?

Z

Zooper

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Hello everyone!
First time poster, long time listener.

Some people have said that they think that this year's Syracuse team has enough talent to make the NCAA tournament. Maybe so. I would like to hear why people believe that Syracuse has enough talent and the right mix of players to make the tournament.

I think that most would agree that SU has more talent than last year, but is this group of players good enough to be a top team in the ACC and compete with nationally ranked teams?

I know that it is only June and we are viewing this team with orange colored glasses. However, most CBB analysts including Joe Lunardi's way too early bracketology don't even consider Syracuse to be a bubble team.
 
Zooper said:
Hello everyone!
First time poster, long time listener.

Some people have said that they think that this year's Syracuse team has enough talent to make the NCAA tournament. Maybe so. I would like to hear why people believe that Syracuse has enough talent and the right mix of players to make the tournament.

I think that most would agree that SU has more talent than last year, but is this group of players good enough to be a top team in the ACC and compete with nationally ranked teams?

I know that it is only June and we are viewing this team with orange colored glasses. However, most CBB analysts including Joe Lunardi's way too early bracketology don't even consider Syracuse to be a bubble team.
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Regarding analyst predictions, we won’t get any love. We’ve been down for so many years at this point from what we were. Some of those down seasons came with preseason hype and we didn’t live up to it. Last season was also our worst season in 50 years. Now this roster, we have one of the best point guards in the ACC and trending possibly in the country. I still can’t believe we were able to get him. He was very good with less talent at Georgia Tech and elevated them significantly the last two seasons. JJ has so much room to be more efficient, one of the best slashers in the country. Nate Kingz is one of the most efficient 3 point shooters in the country. A healthy and older Donnie will improve defensively and be stronger around the rim. ATHLETICISM in the front court between Kyle, Souare, and White. I can keep going, didn’t even get to Anthony, Betsey, Fennell, etc. There is significantly more talent on this roster. It doesn’t even feel close. As long as coaching improves and we aren’t underestimating that many other teams also got a lot better especially with the infusion of international talent. I think we are looking at a program direction reset type of year. The roster looks that good to me, I don’t even think bad coaching can mess it up and I think a better rested and more confident Autry will help a lot and we will all forget last season. I’m very positive, but sure there are things that can derail what looks like an amazing entertaining year coming up.
 
Red will give it his all this year because he needs to make the tournament to save his job. I think there’s enough talent on the team. Biggest question is does Red have the coaching ability to assemble a competitive team and guide them to the tournament. It’s a huge unknown because he hasn’t done it before.
 
Having an ACC-caliber point guard, hopefully a healthy and stronger Donnie, JJ having less of a burden, and all around better athleticism gets us into the tournament. The staff has known for a long time that we need to be exponentially better on defense, so i expect they've been working on that and i pray it's not down to relying solely on the better athletes...

The entire staff should know it's on the hot seat, not just Red. So i hope they've been working hard at resolving all the obvious deficits.
 
Nate George is the Key. He is an unrecruited and unranked prospect that grew up in Toronto and played his way into being the starting point guard at G Tech. He has 2 years left of college ball and has got better year after year.

Below is from ESPN which as others have said has no love for SU and rightfully so lately. #24 ranked player in portal and top 10 PG depending on where you look.

Outlook with Syracuse: George was one of the best point guards in the ACC last season, leading the league in assists, and he'll stay in the conference with the Orange. He should combine with J.J. Starling to form one of the better backcourts in league, and with Kiyan Anthony and Sadiq White entering the program, those assist numbers should remain high.

Pre-commitment analysis: George is one of the highest-ceiling point guards in the portal. He averaged 12.3 points, 4.2 rebounds and 6.5 assists, leading the ACC in the latter category. He had five 20-point outings over a six-game stretch in the middle of league play.

He is the opposite of what we have had on this team at the point guard position for years. I've said many times from day 1 on campus he is the Captain and leader of this team.

The Vegas tourney is over Thanksgiving, if we go out there and Nate George is as advertised then we'll be on our way.
 
Red2003 said:
Nate George is the Key. He is an unrecruited and unranked prospect that grew up in Toronto and played his way into being the starting point guard at G Tech. He has 2 years left of college ball and has got better year after year.

Below is from ESPN which as others have said has no love for SU and rightfully so lately. #24 ranked player in portal and top 10 PG depending on where you look.

Outlook with Syracuse: George was one of the best point guards in the ACC last season, leading the league in assists, and he'll stay in the conference with the Orange. He should combine with J.J. Starling to form one of the better backcourts in league, and with Kiyan Anthony and Sadiq White entering the program, those assist numbers should remain high.

Pre-commitment analysis: George is one of the highest-ceiling point guards in the portal. He averaged 12.3 points, 4.2 rebounds and 6.5 assists, leading the ACC in the latter category. He had five 20-point outings over a six-game stretch in the middle of league play.

He is the opposite of what we have had on this team at the point guard position for years. I've said many times from day 1 on campus he is the Captain and leader of this team.

The Vegas tourney is over Thanksgiving, if we go out there and Nate George is as advertised then we'll be on our way.
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Agree with this.

Which leads me to my second point which is I still don't think we have a legitimate backup point guard. Starling makes me very uneasy as a PG. And after watching Fennell yesterday he is not a PG either.
 
We brought in some experienced players who should be much better than those we picked up last year. Most importantly, we have a legitimate point guard who showed that he can play in the power conference. We also now have multiple options for scoring down the stretch instead of relying on JJ to go one on one, which should make JJ more efficient. Lastly, Freeman played hurt last year and missed a good part of the season. As a top 10 player with a year under his belt, he should take a significant leap forward. A lot of shoulds, but Red and his team did a much better job in the portal, so let’s see how everything plays out as Red is under pressure to right the ship.
 
I like the optimism and agree that this year's team has more talent and should be much better than last year's team. But just comparing this year's team to last year's team does little to qualify this team are a "tournament team" much beyond the eye-test and our memory of past Syracuse tournament teams.

I think that a better judge of the quality of this year's team and it's ability to make the tournament is to look at how they comare to their competition, not their past. While this too is all speculation at this point, it seems like a reasonable discussion.

Comparing Syracuse to other ACC teams, particularly the teams "predicted" to make the tournament seems like a place to start. ESPN and odds makers seem to think that Duke, Louisville, UNC and NCS are likely making the tournament while Clemson, Miami, SMU and Virginia are likely bubble teams. How does SU's roster compare against these teams?
 
These are the guys we need to be productive and shoulder the load - Starling, Freeman, Kings, George and Betsy.

2nd level group of which we will need 2 to 3 guys to step up on any given day - Anthony, Fennell, White, Kyle and Souare.
 
They have yet to play game #1; it’s way too early for any declarations of tournament readiness. Otherwise, have at it!
 
I think we have the talent to be a tournament team, and we'll know pretty early on if we are. We need to perform well OOC. I don't think the ACC helps us much this season.

The good news is I think our limitations at point guard last season really held us back. George upgrading our production at point guard is going to be transformational.
 
OttoinGrotto said:
I think we have the talent to be a tournament team, and we'll know pretty early on if we are. We need to perform well OOC. I don't think the ACC helps us much this season.

The good news is I think our limitations at point guard last season really held us back. George upgrading our production at point guard is going to be transformational.
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ACC should be a lot better. 7 or 8 of the top 25 newcomer classes are within the conference. If it’s not better a lot of coaches need to be fired.
 
Cusefan0307 said:
ACC should be a lot better. 7 or 8 of the top 25 newcomer classes are within the conference. If it’s not better a lot of coaches need to be fired.
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Let's hope so. Not that we've pulled our own weight, but joining the ACC was supposed to mean a juggernaut basketball conference.

That's... not where things are atm.
 
walsh2012 said:
Who is never wrong
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Hey he picks most teams correctly 10 seconds before the bracket is revealed. Who cares that my deceased grandmother can do that between all the autobids and obvious at-large teams, Joey Brackets is a savant!!
 
OttoinGrotto said:
I think we have the talent to be a tournament team, and we'll know pretty early on if we are. We need to perform well OOC. I don't think the ACC helps us much this season.

The good news is I think our limitations at point guard last season really held us back. George upgrading our production at point guard is going to be transformational.
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Yes our hideous OOC performance the last several years had us dead by the end of December, we have to get a couple of quality wins and avoid bad mid-major losses to the Colgate’s of the world
 
Hopkins16 said:
These are the guys we need to be productive and shoulder the load - Starling, Freeman, Kings, George and Betsy.

2nd level group of which we will need 2 to 3 guys to step up on any given day - Anthony, Fennell, White, Kyle and Souare.
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Kyle needs to be on that top list
 
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