Lets be honest the issue isn't that we lost or even that we lost to BC.

[JeremyCuse]

Its that our offense (or lack thereof) has been a dumpster fire for the better part of a month and a half. Outside of the Duke game this team hasnt score over 61 points in three weeks and hasnt topped 70 since I believe early January, for a Syracuse team these are unheard of numbers. Even last years team as bad as they looked against Gtown (39pts) at least "exploded" for 70 + points on multiple occassions: Rutgers, Prov(X2), Nova, St. Johns, Seton Hall(X2), Marquette, Depaul. For this years team outside of maybe a game against RU or Depaul do you have any faith they could top 70 from what we have seen since conference play began? This is a great defensive team with clutch players who have been able to hide our offensive efficiency's for a while. Myself and a few others got massacred a few weeks back when we brought up the fact this isnt a great offensive team and it has serious flaws that we will need to work through, unfortuately it finally caught up with us.

This teams Defense, Rebounding (for the most part), coaching, intangibles are all of the charts and were the reason we were 25-0. That said all of those things wont save this team from an early exit if we dont get this offense re-sparked because at this point what were seeing isnt an anomaly, anomalys dont last a month and a half.

So where do we go from here? Unfortunately the answer to that isnt so easy. For me personally I thought the lack of any sort of a second shooter was an issue from the start of the year, puts way to much pressure on Cooney and leaves us in desire straights if he is having an off night. Right now there isnt a second shooter for us to rely on and there may not even be one on the roster. This team misses Southerland in the worst way, we dont have that usual stretch 3/4 hybrid that we usually have ie Southerland, Kris Joseph, etc. Its always easy to play MMQB but imagine this team if we had a 5th year Southerland on the roster, one of the few bad decisions by the staff in regards to redshirts.

Since Southerland isnt coming back heres my thoughts on what we can do moving forward.
Ennis and Silent G need to keep and or start shooting. Ennis continues to give up 3-4 wide open 3 looks a game, HE NEEDS TO SHOOT THAT. With Cooney covered tighter then a childs medium shirt on a sumo wrestler other people have to shoot some 3's to open things up. With Fair's jump shot completely shot, Ennis and Silent G have to shoot for us to generate some offense from 3.

Fair needs a complete rebuild. Not sure what the staff can do but whether its a few minutes on the bench, watching film or running some different sets we have to try and re-start him so to speak. The current version of CJ is a shell of what he was in Maui and games against St. Johs, Nova, Indiana, UNC etc. Go back and watch those games, CJ and that mid range jumper were absolute money. He single handidly beat Baylor and St. Johns on jumpers late with guys right in his face. Now I am not sure he could hit that shot in warmups by himself, everything seems to hit the back rim and hes missing shots that he almost never missed in his career here at least not at this clip. Even his in close shots on drives just look horrific, multiple air balls and then shots off the glass that dont even hit the rim. No idea whats wrong but he looks completely shot. I would like us to run him off more screens for pick and pop shots, we did a lot of that in Maui and he was deadly, but now everything seems to be giving him ISO looks.

Getting Cooney some better looks - Again not a newsflash but we have to find other ways to get Cooney a shot besides him running around like hes on meth for 20 seconds and then launching an NBA range three fading to the side. He was 1-6 yesterday and nearly all of them were rushed shots with him fading. We need to try and find him better in transition and utilizing the inside out offense teams keep using against us. Several times Jerami and CJ had the ball down low yesterday with Cooney wide open and I dont think he got one pass, we need to be looking to kick it out more.

Have to get Roberson/Keita/Silent G more pt. I know JB loves his short bench but with the scoring issues of this years team (maybe the worst since the 07 squad) we have to get points from other sources. Keitas been doing a great job getting 2-3 garbage buckets a game off rebounds, Silent G can hit the three and Roberson has shown the ability to hit that mid range jumper. Getting 10+pts a game from the bench and taking some of the pressure off the starters to do everything would do this team a world of good.

Lastly put me in the camp of people who think this loss will probably help this team. I dont believe in the theory that an undefeated team needs to lose a game but it was clear we were going to lose and while I would have preferred a loss at Duke to BC maybe the shock value of this loss will get that spark back for a team that just hasnt looked itself in a while.

 

[bballbeadle]

What an intelligent post! I agree with virtually everything. So that makes me . . . . intelligent?

I have a Duke friend whom I love but he can be really arrogant. This morning he wrote, "So now Boeheim will have those kids so fired up to play us it won't be funny. Great, just great." He seemed to be serious!

 

[Upstate]

Great post. Was hoping something within the last 3 days (maybe the return of Baye) would light a fire under this squad and get them cooking again, but maybe what it was going to take is a loss. We hear it every year: get hot at the right time. Better to have this cold spell in late February than late March.

 

[JeremyCuse]

What an intelligent post! I agree with virtually everything. So that makes me . . . . intelligent?

I have a Duke friend whom I love but he can be really arrogant. This morning he wrote, "So now Boeheim will have those kids so fired up to play us it won't be funny. Great, just great." He seemed to be serious!

Saturday will tell me a lot about this team, don't believe we have to win because obviously @ Duke is really difficult but I really want to see this team get back to a semblance of what JB era Syracuse offense looks like.

 

[SU2NASA]

Yes, the issue is that we lost to BC.

That's inexcusable on every level imaginable.

 

[Alsacs]

Jeremy great post, but I don't think our offense is a complete dumpster fire. We aren't getting enough possessions in games for our offense and we have little margin for error as a result. Everything you described is accurate, but I have to give Millhouse credit he nailed it with this Syracuse is 348th in the country in possessions. We don't get enough chances on offense to ticker with it. The non-conference games and Duke were played a much faster pace than we have been playing in ACC play.

Its like Lacrosse before the shot clock with 30 seconds after the stall warning. If you win faceoffs in lacrosse you could melt the time off and shorten the game. I will never forget the loss to Maryland in the LAX playoffs at Gillette. All MD did was burn clock and that is what opponents are doing against us in ACC play.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Yes, the issue is that we lost to BC.

That's inexcusable on every level imaginable.

The loss to BC in the grand scheme is meaningless, this isnt college fball, a bad regular season loss (unless your on the bubble) means absolutely nothing in the tourney.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Jeremy great post, but I don't think our offense is a complete dumpster fire. We aren't getting enough possessions in games for our offense and we have little margin for error as a result. Everything you described is accurate, but I have to give Millhouse credit he nailed it with this Syracuse is 348th in the country in possessions. We don't get enough chances on offense to ticker with it. The non-conference games and Duke were played a much faster pace than we have been playing in ACC play.

Its like Lacrosse before the shot clock with 30 seconds after the stall warning. If you win faceoffs in lacrosse you could melt the time off and shorten the game. I will never forget the loss to Maryland in the LAX playoffs at Gillette. All MD did was burn clock and that is what opponents are doing against us in ACC play.

Hey Alsacs, I certainly agree that this team could use a lot more possessions then it is currently getting. That being said we had ample chances yesterday to not only beat BC but win by 10/15+ like we should have. Our shooting has been bad for weeks now and the last few games its been horrific.

Some of the reasons were not getting more possessions is that its taking us 25+ seconds into the shot clock to get going ourselves, Tyler does take some time to get himself set up and doesn't push things nearly as much as MCW and Dion did. Not saying theres anything wrong with that but when your opponent is slowing you down and your slowing down your not going to get a ton of possessions. If we need more possession we need to speed things up, im a huge JB fan but he allows the opponent to dictate tempo and its the most frustrating thing (one of the only) about his coaching style.

 

[Alsacs]

Hey Alsacs, I certainly agree that this team could use a lot more possessions then it is currently getting. That being said we had ample chances yesterday to not only beat BC but win by 10/15+ like we should have. Our shooting has been bad for weeks now and the last few games its been horrific.

Some of the reasons were not getting more possessions is that its taking us 25+ seconds into the shot clock to get going ourselves, Tyler does take some time to get himself set up and doesn't push things nearly as much as MCW and Dion did. Not saying theres anything wrong with that but when your opponent is slowing you down and your slowing down your not going to get a ton of possessions. If we need more possession we need to speed things up, im a huge JB fan but he allows the opponent to dictate tempo and its the most frustrating thing (one of the only) about his coaching style.

I think if we had depth JB trusted he would press more like he did in 2012 when we went 10 deep. Its not worth killing Grant, Ennis, Fair's legs when they are in the top 8 in the ACC in minutes per game pressing when you have no depth and it can lead to fouls.

 

[AJDavCuse]

Fair needs a complete rebuild. Not sure what the staff can do but whether its a few minutes on the bench, watching film or running some different sets we have to try and re-start him so to speak. The current version of CJ is a shell of what he was in Maui and games against St. Johs, Nova, Indiana, UNC etc. Go back and watch those games, CJ and that mid range jumper were absolute money. He single handidly beat Baylor and St. Johns on jumpers late with guys right in his face. Now I am not sure he could hit that shot in warmups by himself, everything seems to hit the back rim and hes missing shots that he almost never missed in his career here at least not at this clip. Even his in close shots on drives just look horrific, multiple air balls and then shots off the glass that dont even hit the rim. No idea whats wrong but he looks completely shot. I would like us to run him off more screens for pick and pop shots, we did a lot of that in Maui and he was deadly, but now everything seems to be giving him ISO looks.

Have to get Roberson/Keita/Silent G more pt. I know JB loves his short bench but with the scoring issues of this years team (maybe the worst since the 07 squad) we have to get points from other sources. Keitas been doing a great job getting 2-3 garbage buckets a game off rebounds, Silent G can hit the three and Roberson has shown the ability to hit that mid range jumper. Getting 10+pts a game from the bench and taking some of the pressure off the starters to do everything would do this team a world of good.

Its been said many times in the past that JB would rather win than develop/use his bench more. Last night was the first game that I can really recall JB continuing to force the issue with a player that was having a bad game to the extent he/we did with CJ. He missed 8 of first 10. I can't remember many fg's that weren't layups. He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. When we went to others (in particular posting Grant), things worked, but inevitably, we came back to CJ. I think it was a concerted effort to get CJ going and to some extent relates back to first point - was odd seeing JB pound a square peg into a round hole at the detriment to the team to help CJ get out of his funk. Yes, he's our #1 option and that shouldn't change, but 23 shots is the most CJ has ever taken in his career. We were clearly forcing the issue with him and it backfired, not to mention potentially adding to the pressure he is putting on himself to break out of his slump. Understand doing it, but haven't seen it happen very often. Even CJ said he was simply off last night, but we kept going to him.

 

[baggerbob]

It was a good post, but you left out the fact we only have one guard on the floor, who can pass the ball, Cooney is just a shooter, unable to do anything else with the ball on offense, and our forwards don't pass either. We need someone else on the floor with Ennis, who can handle the ball, and pass in order for the offense to be anything but one, on one. We have had forwards who get more then 1.4 or 1.5 assists per game, Paul Harris had 2.2 his last year, Wesley Johnson had 2.2, Donte Green had 2.0, Carmelo Anthony had 2.2, Rick Jackson had 2.2 his senior year. Unless that somehow gets fixed, the problem is going to continue, Trevor or Silent G, or CJ someone needs to become a better passer, and help Ennis out.

 

[Knicks411]

We aren't getting enough possessions to score a ton of points. Last two games the offense has been very poor. But the Clemson game, against a good defense we scored 57 points on 49 possessions. That's great. Pitt is a good D; 58 points on 54 possessions. Very good.

 

[AlpoTitan]

The last two games we have seen our field goal percentage drop to 35% and 32%, which is much lower than the three games before (but after Duke) where the offense was slowed down by the tactics of our opponents. Don't think we played as poorly on offense in those games. We had a bunch of opportunities in the last three minutes against BC and missed multiple shots in the paint (plus foul shots) when we still had a chance to redeem a poor offensive performance.

 

[rstone7727]

We aren't getting enough possessions to score a ton of points. Last two games the offense has been very poor. But the Clemson game, against a good defense we scored 57 points on 49 possessions. That's great. Pitt is a good D; 58 points on 54 possessions. Very good.

We aren't getting possessions because most teams are using 30 seconds on each poss and we are doing the same.. Tempo.. Where did our notorious fast break go? We don't seem to push the ball at all this year.

 

[Marsh01]

Syracuse Basketball Board

We aren't getting possessions because most teams are using 30 seconds on each poss and we are doing the same.. Tempo.. Where did our notorious fast break go? We don't seem to push the ball at all this year.

Its because we are not rebounding well on the defensive end nor are we creating as many turnovers as we were earlier in the season

 

[AZOrange]

Syracuse Basketball Board Its because we are not rebounding well on the defensive end nor are we creating as many turnovers as we were earlier in the season

Ding ding ding.,.

 

[RF2044]

Syracuse Basketball Board


Its because we are not rebounding well on the defensive end nor are we creating as many turnovers as we were earlier in the season

Which is precisely why assigning blame for why we lost is more complex / multi-dimensional than just the offensive issues. Defense in the second half was in a word, a liability. I'm still stunned by the amount of dribble penetrations they allowed. It seems ridiculous, because we're one of the top shot blocking teams in the nation, but they took the ball right at us indiscriminately, and we let them / didn't do anything defensively to deter them.

And for a team like that to rebound as well as they did against us is unacceptable.

It's easy to point to the offense, and rationalize that if we'd only made an extra shot or two we would have won. And that's probably true--but it doesn't mask the defensive lapses and poor rebounding that have ALSO been problematic this past stretch of several games.

 

[thebigeast44]

The loss to BC in the grand scheme is meaningless, this isnt college fball, a bad regular season loss (unless your on the bubble) means absolutely nothing in the tourney.

It's not meaningless for seeding purposes and it could cost us MSG. And while the tournament is obviously the most important thing, many of us also value the regular season. So while we'll always remember the Duke win this year as one of the best wins and games in Dome history, we'll also remember this loss as one of the worst.

 

[Alsacs]

It's not meaningless for seeding purposes and it could cost us MSG. And while the tournament is obviously the most important thing, many of us also value the regular season. So while we'll always remember the Duke win this year as one of the best wins and games in Dome history, we'll also remember this loss as one of the worst.

Dude c'mon on man. Duke lost to Notre Dame who is pretty bad this season without Grant. Teams have What losses. You don't get penalized for losing games you get penalized because your overall resume isn't good enough. Duke's resume is still below our resume with that What loss. Kansas lost to 11-21 TCU last year and was still a 1 seed. If MSG is lost it will be because Duke beat us and won the ACC Tournament of each both we controlled our chances in and would have lost.

 

[thebigeast44]

Dude c'mon on man. Duke lost to Notre Dame who is pretty bad this season without Grant. Teams have What losses. You don't get penalized for losing games you get penalized because your overall resume isn't good enough. Duke's resume is still below our resume with that What loss. Kansas lost to 11-21 TCU last year and was still a 1 seed. If MSG is lost it will be because Duke beat us and won the ACC Tournament of each both we controlled our chances in and would have lost.

I agree completely with your post Alsacs. We are still ahead of Duke at this point. And we will stay ahead of them unless they win out. My point was if they do, they will beat us out most likely for the #1 seed in the East and the BC loss will play a role in it.

 

[Briancuse]

We have been asking for this for quite sometime now, maybe this is the wake up call that they needed.

 

[andyw715]

Syracuse Basketball Board


Its because we are not rebounding well on the defensive end nor are we creating as many turnovers as we were earlier in the season

Right but when turnovers are created and subsequent fast breaks had, it seem Cuse slows it down to the half court O. In those cases they should just take it to the rim or try for a quick 3 and attack the boards.

 

[SU2NASA]

The loss to BC in the grand scheme is meaningless, this isnt college fball, a bad regular season loss (unless your on the bubble) means absolutely nothing in the tourney.

It does when the selection committee meets. Remember how we've all been giving UVa crap for losing by 35 to Tennessee? This is worse.

 

[anglerman]

Its that our offense (or lack thereof) has been a dumpster fire for the better part of a month and a half. Outside of the Duke game this team hasnt score over 61 points in three weeks and hasnt topped 70 since I believe early January, for a Syracuse team these are unheard of numbers. Even last years team as bad as they looked against Gtown (39pts) at least "exploded" for 70 + points on multiple occassions: Rutgers, Prov(X2), Nova, St. Johns, Seton Hall(X2), Marquette, Depaul. For this years team outside of maybe a game against RU or Depaul do you have any faith they could top 70 from what we have seen since conference play began? This is a great defensive team with clutch players who have been able to hide our offensive efficiency's for a while. Myself and a few others got massacred a few weeks back when we brought up the fact this isnt a great offensive team and it has serious flaws that we will need to work through, unfortuately it finally caught up with us.

This teams Defense, Rebounding (for the most part), coaching, intangibles are all of the charts and were the reason we were 25-0. That said all of those things wont save this team from an early exit if we dont get this offense re-sparked because at this point what were seeing isnt an anomaly, anomalys dont last a month and a half.

So where do we go from here? Unfortunately the answer to that isnt so easy. For me personally I thought the lack of any sort of a second shooter was an issue from the start of the year, puts way to much pressure on Cooney and leaves us in desire straights if he is having an off night. Right now there isnt a second shooter for us to rely on and there may not even be one on the roster. This team misses Southerland in the worst way, we dont have that usual stretch 3/4 hybrid that we usually have ie Southerland, Kris Joseph, etc. Its always easy to play MMQB but imagine this team if we had a 5th year Southerland on the roster, one of the few bad decisions by the staff in regards to redshirts.

Since Southerland isnt coming back heres my thoughts on what we can do moving forward.
Ennis and Silent G need to keep and or start shooting. Ennis continues to give up 3-4 wide open 3 looks a game, HE NEEDS TO SHOOT THAT. With Cooney covered tighter then a childs medium shirt on a sumo wrestler other people have to shoot some 3's to open things up. With Fair's jump shot completely shot, Ennis and Silent G have to shoot for us to generate some offense from 3.

Fair needs a complete rebuild. Not sure what the staff can do but whether its a few minutes on the bench, watching film or running some different sets we have to try and re-start him so to speak. The current version of CJ is a shell of what he was in Maui and games against St. Johs, Nova, Indiana, UNC etc. Go back and watch those games, CJ and that mid range jumper were absolute money. He single handidly beat Baylor and St. Johns on jumpers late with guys right in his face. Now I am not sure he could hit that shot in warmups by himself, everything seems to hit the back rim and hes missing shots that he almost never missed in his career here at least not at this clip. Even his in close shots on drives just look horrific, multiple air balls and then shots off the glass that dont even hit the rim. No idea whats wrong but he looks completely shot. I would like us to run him off more screens for pick and pop shots, we did a lot of that in Maui and he was deadly, but now everything seems to be giving him ISO looks.

Getting Cooney some better looks - Again not a newsflash but we have to find other ways to get Cooney a shot besides him running around like hes on meth for 20 seconds and then launching an NBA range three fading to the side. He was 1-6 yesterday and nearly all of them were rushed shots with him fading. We need to try and find him better in transition and utilizing the inside out offense teams keep using against us. Several times Jerami and CJ had the ball down low yesterday with Cooney wide open and I dont think he got one pass, we need to be looking to kick it out more.

Have to get Roberson/Keita/Silent G more pt. I know JB loves his short bench but with the scoring issues of this years team (maybe the worst since the 07 squad) we have to get points from other sources. Keitas been doing a great job getting 2-3 garbage buckets a game off rebounds, Silent G can hit the three and Roberson has shown the ability to hit that mid range jumper. Getting 10+pts a game from the bench and taking some of the pressure off the starters to do everything would do this team a world of good.

Lastly put me in the camp of people who think this loss will probably help this team. I dont believe in the theory that an undefeated team needs to lose a game but it was clear we were going to lose and while I would have preferred a loss at Duke to BC maybe the shock value of this loss will get that spark back for a team that just hasnt looked itself in a while.

Simple answer for what's wrong with this team is fatigue fatigue and more fatigue...

 

[Lil Rick]

Syracuse Basketball Board


Its because we are not rebounding well on the defensive end nor are we creating as many turnovers as we were earlier in the season

Lack of rebounding: That's because of JB's recent 6 man rotation. Plus, our zone is designed to give up offensive rebounds. And teams are realizing we don't push the ball (nor fast break anymore), so teams can crash the offensive glass easier, knowing Ennis will take 8 seconds to walk it pass half-court. With a better rotation n fresher legs, we out-boarded teams in 17/21 games to start the season. Given a lack of subs, our last 5 games we've out-boarded teams only once (by 1, mind you). Yes, the Keita injury played a factor, but Roberson is a good rebounder - yet can't sniff the court at all? His play can't be any worse that how our starters play at both ends. There is no sizeable drop off, given how our forwards have performed of late.

Turnovers: Actually, we still turn teams over (BC had 17, to SU's 7... still mind-boggling having that many more possessions and losing, but I disgress...). All year, outside of maybe 3 games, we've turned teams over 10+ per game. And considering the limited possessions per game, that's pretty good.

History has a way of repeating itself, and considering no changes are being made to this 6-man rotation, or the offensive strategy... expect similar outcomes from the past few weeks to end the season. This team is certainly good, but lacks a go-to player to "turn it on" at a moments notice. There's no Pearl, Coleman, Owens, Warrick, Anthony, or Waiters-types to take games over. Fair shows sparks of brilliance, but often struggles taking his man 1-on-1 to get a good shot... and Ennis seemingly disappears until the last few mins of games.

Tired bodies, and lack of anyone willing to shoot from the outside allows opps to clog the interior. How can this team be expected to improve at either end of the court w/o any variable change? How hard is it for TE or MG to take an open look at a 3, when it's there (they aren't that bad), or give Patterson a few mins to try and spark the offense. I mean it's not like TE is consistently driving the paint and dishing to open shooters (with any regularity) to counteract my point. Then again, the reserves always live in fear of shooting, knowing JB will yank them if they don't play perfectly, even though the starters get free passes. Can a change to our offensive strategy really be any worse than the status quo? If you think yes, you're fooling yourself. Not to mention, RP n MG give you more length and defensive ability at the top of the zone. These aren't walk-ons were talking about