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Message: [QUOTE="OrangeFoo, post: 5579115, member: 210"] I'll reserve final judgement until after Tennessee but my summarised thoughts on this season are this... Coming into the season we didn't know whether Autry could put together a roster and whether he could coach that roster or not. Roster - I give Autry an B for roster development. It goes 11 deep in legit players and there are a lot of complementary pieces. This is a good team with a high floor. It's clear that Autry has a vision for what he wants his teams to look like and how they should play and most importantly can execute that vision from a recruitment perspective. Also many bonus points for improving the strength and conditioning of the team and the general intensity. Unfortunately, he couldn't control the injury to Donnie. The only reason this isn't an A is that there is no legit elite game breaking talent on the team Coaching - I give Autry a solid C for coaching... for the record last year he was the later after E and before G so a C is huge improvement. Most importantly for me, the team clearly is buying into what he wants to do and is trying their hardest to execute it. This is a well coached team... they know what they want to do and they execute it. Also I did see Autry yank JJ for bad play on O and on D so he is trying to hold them accountable. But when the team literally can't score... he needs his best offensive threats in the game so I get why JJ was in. I also disagree with those who say the rotation doesn't make sense... I think generally it does, although I do agree that the Zephir subs when you need offense is weird. Generally speaking this is a fun team that plays hard and is a pleasure to support. On defense Autry gets an B. We will be one of the best defensive teams in Syracuse history and I think one of the the better teams in the country. Last year the D strategy was stay in front of your man and if that didn't work it was an easy path to the basket because there was absolutely no rotations or secondary help strategy that I can see. This year there is still the tight man to man emphasis, but there are also fun traps and hedges thrown in and the is a secondary help strategy. Most importantly, Autry has recruited really good players for his system. Only reasons this isn't a B is that I don't like the token full court pressure approach... either do it or not. I think they should do it to get much needed easy baskets. The other issue is the rebounding stinks. On offense Autry gets a D. As man have pointed out the offensive strategy does not get guys shots in rhythm. It's basically a vanilla offensive strategy predicated on beating your man... much like the D was last year. I think because the lack of a strategy proven guys like George and Kingz are not looking great. They didn't just all of the sudden forget how to play offense. Unfortunately the lack of offense is going to tank the team unless this gets fixed. I think the easiest fix to push the tempo so they avoid the half court sets at all costs... I'm not sure why Autry doesn't do this more. What does this mean for Autry? As of now I say bring him back. If we see the same improvement on O next year that we saw on D and roster construction this year we will have a really strong coach. Should we have paid Autry 3mm a year to learn on the job? Probably not. But I don't think we should burn it all down... I see the vision and I see the strategy. He needs to prove he can execute. I'm excited to see what the rest of the year brings and I can honestly say that's the first time I could say that in a 5+ years. [/QUOTE]

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