JB's Presser after St Johns

[two3zone]

OK. Let's be "honest".You can start off.

What did you think about tonight's game?

 

[We Are Syracuse]

OK. Let's be "honest".You can start off.

There it is. JB is that you?

 

[CuseFaninVT]

This is what happens when loyalty doens't matter. You bring in 2 free agents who obviously, don't care about being loyal to the two programs they left behind. Then you give them the reigns and you forget about the players you recruited and put time in to the program. It's pretty easy to lose control of the ship. When you're weak at guard and Gillon and Howard have the ball in their hands for the majority of the game, you're in trouble. Gillon didn't run any offense, just dribbled all night. When Howard came back in all he did was jack jump shots and try a hot dog dunk move. Howard is a problem on this team. He only cares about himself. This team may not win 10 games this year. Athletic teams will take them apart defensively and completely stop our offense. Whitlock better think twice about the price plan he has in place for basketball tickets next year.

Those Howard plays are well after the game being decided. They don't count. They were awful and he should be coached out of doing them, but trash time was on.

 

[jdubs30]

This is what happens when loyalty doens't matter. You bring in 2 free agents who obviously, don't care about being loyal to the two programs they left behind. Then you give them the reigns and you forget about the players you recruited and put time in to the program. It's pretty easy to lose control of the ship. When you're weak at guard and Gillon and Howard have the ball in their hands for the majority of the game, you're in trouble. Gillon didn't run any offense, just dribbled all night. When Howard came back in all he did was jack jump shots and try a hot dog dunk move. Howard is a problem on this team. He only cares about himself. This team may not win 10 games this year. Athletic teams will take them apart defensively and completely stop our offense. Whitlock better think twice about the price plan he has in place for basketball tickets next year.

Maybe I'm just being a grouch, but Howard retweets A LOT of stuff on twitter - if the Cuse basketball account posts a stat about him, he retweets it, if they post a highlight of a play he made, he retweets it - that's always kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Lydon doesn't use Twitter at all during the season - Robey doesn't use it - AW3 doesn't use it during the season, which I prefer. Then Gillon goes off on his rant the other day about the fans criticizing him. I don't know, maybe i'm being picky, but to me these guys don't have their focus in the right places.

 

[Cuse_1999]

Maybe but in my mind I keep going back to his glowing preseason comments. Something happened.

That was based on playing against our zone in practice

 

[Ozcuse]

Then he has no clue what he was watching this pre season then, he thought this was one of his all time best teams.

I doubt he really thought that. He tends to undervalue his good teams to keep them sharp and give them a chip on their shoulder and oversell his poorer teams to give them confidence.

He hasn't been able to coach this team up this year. Too many weaknesses, players that either aren't getting it or not buying in, or both.

 

[two3zone]

I doubt he really thought that. He tends to undervalue his good teams to keep them sharp and give them a chip on their shoulder and oversell his poorer teams to give them confidence.

He hasn't been able to coach this team up this year. Too many weaknesses, players that either aren't getting it or not buying in, or both.

He is not one to say a team is better than it is, again, something I've never seen or heard about in his 40 years of coaching. When you say this team is great and compare it to a team that lost ONE regular season game in a great Big East you are saying a lot.

 

[manleyzoo]

This is what happens at some point when you insist on playing dino ball as Igor said years ago. One defense, one offense, zero in on one recruit, have only alums on your staff, recruit only in one geo, etc. We got some karma twice but the program's been headed here for a number of years now.

 

[Madbiker]

That would be shocking since he waxed poetic about this team before the season.

JB's had ample time and viewing now to change his mind. He's not blind.

 

[Townie72]

There it is. JB is that you?

When some one says "Let's be honest about the coaching staff" they should be asked to start off with what they think is honest.

Seems like a simple request to me. They obviously have an opinion.

It couldn't possible be a "I don't know what's wrong but let's fire everyone" suggestion, could it?

 

[Townie72]

What did you think about tonight's game?

Awful.

But I'm trying to be mature about it. And you?

 

[CuseFaninVT]

When some one says "Let's be honest about the coaching staff" they should be asked to start off with what they think is honest.

Seems like a simple request to me. They obviously have an opinion.

It couldn't possible be a "I didn't know what's wrong but let's fire everyone" suggestion, could it?

No. It means let's evaluate them on their performance in recent years and not let the past history dictate our impression of their efforts. Can you do that?

Recent history evaluations tell me we are not able to live up to the standards set over those many years. Because maybe their have been too many years.

 

[AZOrange]

OK. Let's be "honest".You can start off.

Look I'm probably one of the biggest JB defenders in here but we are not in a good place. The downturn on offense has been happening for some time (at least since 2012). Thankfully we overcame that with tremendous defense even though last year that started to slip also. This year both are abysmal.

Recruiting has hit an odd cycle, if not for Battle reconsidering it would look a lot more bleak. Thompson was a nice get but we're short on good players and I think the staff has whiffed on some evals for guys we passed on (see, Murray) and guys we have that can't play (see Joseph, Chukwu). The caliber is just not where it was from late 2000s through 2013 or so.

But my biggest issue is what happened tonight. The team quit. That's on the coaches. There are a lot of levers to pull with players at times, but when you lose your team you've pulled all the wrong ones. Quitting is an indictment of a coaching staff.

 

[Townie72]

No. It means let's evaluate them on their performance in recent years and not let the past history dictate our impression of their efforts. Can you do that?

Recent history evaluations tell me we are not able to live up to the standards set over those many years. Because maybe their have been too many years.

College basketball is cyclical.

Sometimes when you change things it gets better not worse.

PS - I don't understand either of these sentences you wrote. The first is not in English. Must be Technical Writing.

 

[cuseguy]

IMO he knows this team is awful. Lacks talent. The guard play is atrocious. Is headed for a losing conference record and will miss the tourney field. And he's taking the bullet to shield some kids and Hopkins.

Yet he thought this team would be one of his better teams.

I'm not sure what he was seeing -- and maybe that's part of the problem here.

 

[Townie72]

Look I'm probably one of the biggest JB defenders in here but we are not in a good place. The downturn on offense has been happening for some time (at least since 2012). Thankfully we overcame that with tremendous defense even though last year that started to slip also. This year both are abysmal.

Recruiting has hit an odd cycle, if not for Battle reconsidering it would look a lot more bleak. Thompson was a nice get but we're short on good players and I think the staff has whiffed on some evals for guys we passed on (see, Murray) and guys we have that can't play (see Joseph, Chukwu). The caliber is just not where it was from late 2000s through 2013 or so.

But my biggest issue is what happened tonight. The team quit. That's on the coaches. There are a lot of levers to pull with players at times, but when you lose your team you've pulled all the wrong ones. Quitting is an indictment of a coaching staff.

The team played poorly.

I didn't see any evidence that anyone quit.

You're saying they quit, doesn't make it so.

 

[two3zone]

The team played poorly.

I didn't see any evidence that anyone quit.

You're saying they quit, doesn't make it so.

When a team as crappy as St Johns is able to do what they did during that stretch of 5 or 6 dunks, I don't know how it could be viewed as anything but quitting.

For a minute Battle and Howard were taking turns chucking up shots as well.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

College basketball is cyclical.

Sometimes when you change things it gets better not worse.

PS - I don't understand either of these sentences you wrote. The first is not in English. Must be Technical Writing.

Obnoxious till the end. Have to respect that about you. Flailing at all the "JB haters" is most certainly going to wear you out tonight.

 

[pearl31]

The team played poorly.

I didn't see any evidence that anyone quit.

You're saying they quit, doesn't make it so.

oh come on man, I'm as pollyana and JB-backing as they come and the team tonight most definitely quit - they went from playing like sh__ to not playing at all

 

[Ozcuse]

The team played poorly.

I didn't see any evidence that anyone quit.

You're saying they quit, doesn't make it so.

You weren't watching the same game then. St. John's had a stretch where they had back to back to back to back dunks where we just looked disinterested in playing defense. That's effort. Team quit tonight.

 

[NKR1978]

The team played poorly.

I didn't see any evidence that anyone quit.

You're saying they quit, doesn't make it so.

We lost by 35. At home. To a truly awful team. A truly awful team that lost by 48 on to Penn State on Sunday. If watching a dunk drill isn't quitting, I don't know what is.

 

[cuseguy]

I doubt he really thought that. He tends to undervalue his good teams to keep them sharp and give them a chip on their shoulder and oversell his poorer teams to give them confidence.

He hasn't been able to coach this team up this year. Too many weaknesses, players that either aren't getting it or not buying in, or both.

There's a few issues:

This team was way overrated in the eyes of many, including JB.

JB's scheme has lost its way.

 

[Townie72]

Yet he thought this team would be one of his better teams.

I'm not sure what he was seeing -- and maybe that's part of the problem here.

Well he couldn't have meant it was one of his better TEAMS because the TEAM really hadn't played together yet. I think he was commenting on the players.

But as we have seen, talented players don't always translate to a good team.

 

[Townie72]

We lost by 35. At home. To a truly awful team. A truly awful team that lost by 48 on to Penn State on Sunday. If watching a dunk drill isn't quitting, I don't know what is.

So what you are saying is that because SJU had all those easy baskets the team must have quit. That apparently is the only answer that you could come up with, right?

I would imagine that if you are down by 25 with 6 minutes to go it is hard to muster up maximum effort.

At what point in the game did they quit? According to you, that is.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

There's a few issues:

This team was way overrated in the eyes of many, including JB.

JB's scheme has lost its way.

“We wanted to keep the ball out of the high post. We changed our defense a little bit to do that, then we didn’t do it. Once it got in there, that’s when we get hurt. Everybody that’s gotten in there – that’s when we get hurt. We’re not totally set in there, but the guys that are supposed to not get in there get in there and that’s it. That’s what happened."

Is that a scheme problem, or a personnel problem?