I've been accused of being negative...

[44cuse]

Fine. we're not playing to our ability. The negativity in the chat room is over the top. Period.

Then don't go to the chat room. Pretty simple.

44cuse

 

[cuseorange2828]

...but that chatroom was just unbelievable. It's one thing to have legitimate criticism's but wow...

You mad bro? Do you think JB ever says things in the heat of the game that might be crazy? It is called emotions.

 

[DoctorBombay]

When I watch a game, I make sure I'm alone in my man-cave so that I can scream curse and yell to my heart's content.
My family hates me during games...I'm not a nice person.
I can definitely understand when folks go over the top- but when the game's over, its back to reality. If someone is overly sensitive, then don't participate in the chat-room, plain & simple.
We're FANS...short for FANATICS. I seriously don't see what the big deal is.

 

[pfister1]

It's been brutal lately. 26-1 and half our fans think we suck.

Its tough for our fan base, for 30+ years JB teams have been much better offensively than defensively. Now that we are probably a much better defensive team than offensive team fans don't know how to react.

 

[cto]

About the chat room.....

I was there all night. It was not much different from most games there in the past 12 years (aside from the ones that are blowouts for 40 minutes). The chat room is a place for fans to share the games with other fans and to rejoice (and vent). Sometimes it gets ugly, but the Mods have a way to deal with that. Our theory is that a chat room is a much better place to share in-game emotions than via hundreds of random emotional posts on the board.

As most of you know, I am probably the biggest pollyanna on this forum. But I can deal with what goes on in the chat room ... because it sounds like what you would hear at your neighborhood sports bar in similar circumstances. It is stuff said in the heat of the moment. At the end of the game, it was a Cumbaya (sp?) moment. Just as it would be at the Dome or at your neighborhood bar.

 

[iommi]

good post, cto. I get very emotional in the chat room and post out of my arse there. It's my way of venting.

 

[BostonOrange]

You mad bro? Do you think JB ever says things in the heat of the game that might be crazy? It is called emotions.

Nope not mad people can say whatever they want. I was more amused\surprised by the amount of "YOU SUCK KJ" and "WHY IS EVERY SU TEAM SO LAZY\SOFT\STUPID!!!" comments. The only player who consistently got positive comments was MCW...who was flawless last night...

My post wasn't meant to be a complaint, just an observation.

 

[Alsacs]

It's almost unbearable. Seriously, criticize the play - that's completely fair. But the personal attacks on the players who are giving us an amazing season, is pathetic. Presumably grown men and women that personally attack a bunch of kids over a freaking basketball game need to get a life.

I agree I can't the stand the negativity in those chats. The game was NEVER over at all the most we were down was 7 and people were calling ballgame NUMEROUS times. I was calling out the negativity. We were 25-1 and people are acting like we have to beat everybody by 20 and make every shot the players and team suck.

 

[Marsh01]

1. We are regressing/slumping in multiple areas
2. Other teams are getting better and we are not


44cuse

Name me one team other than Kentucky that hasnt regressed a little or hasnt laid an egg over the past month? UNC, Duke, Ohio St, Baylor, Kansas...all have had their moments. Sure we are struggling but think about it. We just played 3 pretty damn good teams in a 6 day span. One was our arch rival and we struggled. One was a DESPERATE team who really had to win and we struggled. One was a ranked team we had not beat in 7 tries and we struggled. Yet we won all 3 games.

There are no style points in college basketball. I am so impressed that we are finding ways to win when we dont play particularly well. This will only help us IMO going forward. Last night was case in point. No way in hell we win that game last year, the year before, etc.

26-1 is all that matters. Win, keep winning and move on to the next game. All this talk of regressing is just plain silly.

 

[44cuse]

Name me one team other than Kentucky that hasnt regressed a little or hasnt laid an egg over the past month? UNC, Duke, Ohio St, Baylor, Kansas...all have had their moments. Sure we are struggling but think about it. We just played 3 pretty damn good teams in a 6 day span. One was our arch rival and we struggled. One was a DESPERATE team who really had to win and we struggled. One was a ranked team we had not beat in 7 tries and we struggled. Yet we won all 3 games.

There are no style points in college basketball. I am so impressed that we are finding ways to win when we dont play particularly well. This will only help us IMO going forward. Last night was case in point. No way in hell we win that game last year, the year before, etc.

26-1 is all that matters. Win, keep winning and move on to the next game. All this talk of regressing is just plain silly.

That's what makes watching games great. I completely agree with you that finding a way to win is important. No doubt that it says something about this team. And the fact that we just beat G'Town, UCONN, and Louisville back-to-back-to-back is awesome. But the point of the post was in defense (explanation?) of why fans can have a rightful position of frustration even though we are winning. So the categories I laid out don't necessarily have to be large margins...they could be small margins...and when you have high expectations (that comes with the start we had/have, the hype we were getting from the press/media, and the way we were playing), it only takes a small dip because the margin on error becomes that much less.

I'll hopefully have some time to go run the #'s on 3pt%, Reb Margin, Def/Off Reb, and shooting % later today by point in the season and then we'll actually know whether we have regressed or not. I don't know the answer hence why I threw out two POTENTIAL options.

Personally, I fall in the 2nd camp. Whether or not you agree with it is fine. People can disagree. But I believe Kentucky has gotten better and I think UNC has gotten better. I think this SU team would struggle with Kentucky, UNC and potentially Duke and I have not seen enough of Missouri to really know. But ultimately I think we were playing (much?) better prior to ND, but, have also been getting better the past few games.

But when I look at a team that made 1 basket outside of the paint last night (and I am the guy who bitches about not enough post scoring and our guards year in and year out having poor entry-passing skills) and combined with the well publicized rebounding issues...it's frustrating.

I don;t care what anyone says because the inevitable "you take it too seriously" posts will come...but fans (myself certainly included) have a lot emotionally invested when a team is this good. And therefore an early flame out in the tournament would be awful. The second (not minute, not hour, not day) AO went down was a very bad moment. You have to make the most of your opportunities when you have them and (back to that margin of error) I believe this team can play better (and with more emotion/confidence) than it has.

Earlier in the season I believed we were the best team in the nation. I do not believe that right now. I think we have the potential to be (again), but right now we are not.

44cuse

 

[Marsh01]

That's what makes watching games great. I completely agree with you that finding a way to win is important. No doubt that it says something about this team. And the fact that we just beat G'Town, UCONN, and Louisville back-to-back-to-back is awesome. But the point of the post was in defense (explanation?) of why fans can have a rightful position of frustration even though we are winning. So the categories I laid out don't necessarily have to be large margins...they could be small margins...and when you have high expectations (that comes with the start we had/have, the hype we were getting from the press/media, and the way we were playing), it only takes a small dip because the margin on error becomes that much less.

I'll hopefully have some time to go run the #'s on 3pt%, Reb Margin, Def/Off Reb, and shooting % later today by point in the season and then we'll actually know whether we have regressed or not. I don't know the answer hence why I threw out two POTENTIAL options.

Personally, I fall in the 2nd camp. Whether or not you agree with it is fine. People can disagree. But I believe Kentucky has gotten better and I think UNC has gotten better. I think this SU team would struggle with Kentucky, UNC and potentially Duke and I have not seen enough of Missouri to really know. But ultimately I think we were playing (much?) better prior to ND, but, have also been getting better the past few games.

But when I look at a team that made 1 basket outside of the paint last night (and I am the guy who bitches about not enough post scoring and our guards year in and year out having poor entry-passing skills) and combined with the well publicized rebounding issues...it's frustrating.

I don;t care what anyone says because the inevitable "you take it too seriously" posts will come...but fans (myself certainly included) have a lot emotionally invested when a team is this good. And therefore an early flame out in the tournament would be awful. The second (not minute, not hour, not day) AO went down was a very bad moment. You have to make the most of your opportunities when you have them and (back to that margin of error) I believe this team can play better (and with more emotion/confidence) than it has.

Earlier in the season I believed we were the best team in the nation. I do not believe that right now. I think we have the potential to be (again), but right now we are not.

44cuse

Aside from maybe Kentucky, I dont know who the second best team in the nation is. That was really my point. Every team has issues. Duke doesnt play any defense and relies way too much on the 3 point shot. Carolina has mental lapses on defense big time and doesnt have the perimeter shooters that duke has. Ohio State with Sullinger as banged up as he is also has issues. Every team has flaws.

These are TOUGH games we are winning. I would venture a guess that only a handful of teams would have gone 3-0 against these 3 teams we just beat. And we did it by really not playing 1 complete game. Some could argue that we played 2 awful games and 1 semi-decent game.

I think we will peak at the right time (are peaking now) and will make a deep run into the NCAA's.

 

[AZOrange]

Actually, what we haven't proven is that we can dictate tempo. I'd like to see us dictate tempo for a change.

44cuse

We are 26-1. I am pretty sure we have dictated our fair share of tempo this year.

 

[Chibalotte]

I don't buy this. Not one bit.

I think our fans think we have a legitimate chance to win the National Championship and we are not playing to our ability. The fans are frustrating because 1 of 2 things has happened:

1. We are regressing/slumping in multiple areas
WRONG

2. Other teams are getting better and we are not
WRONG

But I don;t think a single SU fan thinks we suck. In fact, it's the exact opposite. They have high expectations because we deserve to have them. Improved DEF rebounding, a bit more energy, and better shooting and this team is as good as anyone in the country.

44cuse

Where are we regressing, You really think the team isn't getting better? Fair and Melo have gotten much better since the begining of the year. :bat:

 

[kd bart]

And as great as Kentucky is suppose to be they did blow a 13 point halftime lead at unranked Vanderbilt the other night and were trailing by 2 with 4 minutes left. Kentucky scored the last 8 points of the game to win by 6.

 

[44cuse]

Actually, I don't disagree with any of that outside of who #2 is. I just don't think it's us and haven't for a couple of weeks (and posted so in the couple of threads that were about the rankings). I'm really not trying to be a di^&, it's just honestly the way I see it. I agree with you...I don't know who the #2 is (it could be us) but right now I would probably put us 3 and certainly no worse than 4 (the Missouri...or lack of seeing Missouri enough...factor).

Something you mentioned that I had not thought about (which I think supports exacty what we are both essentially saying) was just which teams would have come in and won these three games? Those were pretty good shots that Louisville, UCONN, and Georgetown gave us and aside from a couple of teams...I agree, it's hard to see others going 3-0.

The one thing I will disagree with you on...definitely not peaking right now. You can't make one shot from outside the paint and truly believe we are peaking. That part where I do agree with you is that I have always believed that teams go in waves throughout the season. If we are going through a slump (or coming out which I do believe we are), now is the right time. Start strong, take some lumps along the way, finish strong.

RF has another thread going about the value of close games. I agree with that 100%...I would just like to see us: dictate tempo a little better, better position on DEF rebounds, and shoot a bit better. Then I would feel more confidant about saying that we are the #2 team in the country and in fact would probably say we are the best team in the country (as I was earlier in the season).

44cuse

 

[44cuse]

Where are we regressing, You really think the team isn't getting better? Fair and Melo have gotten much better since the begining of the year. :bat:

I didn;t say which one I thought. I said that is the reason fans are frustrated.

For the record, I think it's #2. No way we have improved as much as Kentucky has and that is who the fans have compared us to all season long.

44cuse

 

[44cuse]

Act

We are 26-1. I am pretty sure we have dictated our fair share of tempo this year.

I'd like to know the answer to that and don;t have the time to run the numbers. If you have the time, please do it...I'd love to know the answer. I don't think you will like what you find though (just a guess as I said, I don't know the answer).

What I do know is that we have proven we can win at multiple tempos which, in the end, is all that matters. But ultimately I think we know we are not a great shooting team with a low ceiling in the half court set. We are far better when we are turning people over and getting out in transition. You accomplish that by:

1. Defensive Rebounding (not a core strength of this team)
2. Pressure defense (a core strength of this team)

Combine two with depth (which we know we have) and you have a very significant weapon. The result of that is an up-tempo game. IMO, I think JB knows this team can turn people over and can press and can trap in the half court and has purposefully gone away from that for two reasons:

1. This team is very good at it and knows they can do it
2. Wants the team to fight through and win close games trial by fire in a half court game

It may be frustrating, but I believe JB has a method and a plan to the flow of the entire season. I expect that come tourney time, we'll see more pressure (both in the full court and trapping more aggressively out of the zone).

44cuse

 

[realorange]

I wonder how many of the posters on the chat board were of an age where their parents berated referees, teammates and coaches in peewee and high school games because they were not doing what they (the parents) thought they should be doing? Just a thought.