Minnesota Thoughts

[General20]

The two skills Syracuse least wants to see in an opponent are a shooter who is red hot from about thirty feet, and skilled big men who can handle the ball, shoot, and pass from the high post, because its pretty much impossible to stop both. Minnesota brought both of these things to the table, as well as a coach who is as familiar with the 2-3 zone as any in the country, and had a full week to prepare his team for it.

The Golden Gophers are not the greatest team in the world, and might not be a tournament team, but I thought this was a very good win for the reasons stated above. If Smith didn't come off the bench and hit four 3-pointers each one deeper than the last, the game probably isn't close at all, not just because of the 12 points he got from deeper than NBA range, but because without that threat Syracuse's zone would have collapsed more and taken away more inside points (Minnesota's bigs were not very athletic but were good in space, which they got). Minnesota came prepared, and gave a better effort than several more talented teams are going to give Syracuse this year, despite this, Syracuse was pretty much in control throughout, which is a very good sign.

Minnesota is a carbon copy of Louisville, which means they play a zone press that falls back into a 2-3 zone once the offense gets the ball past half court. Ive always thought this was theoretically the best defense because almost all college players have a weakness and those few complete players do not stay in college long. This means that 99% of players are either great athletes who can penetrate and score, or great shooters, but not both. The great shooters who are not overly athletic are bothered by the press, while the great athletes who can't shoot are bothered by the zone, either way this defense comes out on top.

While this defense is theoretically perfect, there are a lot of real world problems. Namely, the body type that is the best for pressure (small and quick) is not usually very good at playing zone, and the body type that is very good at zone (tall and long) is not usually adept at applying pressure. Its also a nuanced D that is hard to teach. When you get a veteran team with all the right parts you get a team like Louisville last year, but more often you get inconsistent performances like the Lousiville team from a few years ago that lost to Harvard in the first round of the tournament.

I thought Minnesota's players were always where they needed to be, which says a lot about junior Piteno. He really had his guys coached up well. However, I did not think they were athletically suited either to press or play zone, and Syracuse ultimately had few problems with either.

After making a few shots early and getting a few steals, Syracuse took a ten point lead that evaporated quickly when Syracuse went through its only bad stretch of the game. During this stretch I thought Syracuse got lured out of their offensive sets in favor of attacking a helter-skelter Minnesota defense. The real culprit here was Syracuse's inability to attack the rim effectively. Fair, Ennis, Grant, and Christmas each got rejected during this stretch. I think Minnesota's ability to get blocks inside really surprised Syracuse (this came back to bite them a bit at the end of the game too) and if you are looking for a downside to the game I think it starts and ends with Syracuse's inability to finish at a high enough percentage inside.

The rest of the game Syracuse was in control, minus a couple of stretches where Minnesota hit some deep threes. Against Minnesota's zone Syracuse was able to get Cooney open looks, as well as rebound, but it was Minnesota's press that Syracuse really ate up. The zone press is designed to prevent break away layups even when beaten, but Ennis was able to drive right at the center (who was always in the restricted zone) and get a bunch of free throws, and Fair had all kinds of room to knock down mid range stuff.

Syracuse only threw two lobs, both of which worked (one scored and one was an unforced drop that would have been a score). That play was open a lot, and I would have liked to see them throw it another five times at least. It would have gotten them some cheap points, and stopped Minnesota from cheating out on shooters.

On defense, Syracuse again gave up too many three pointers, but they did force nineteen turnovers. Still a work in progress, but things are heading in the right direction and will round into form. Might not be as good as last year's defense, but it will be good.

Here are my player evaluations:

Ennis - Had a poor shooting night, but did everything else well. I thought he got rattled a little early by the speed of the game, but Boeheim pulled him and obviously went over a few things with him, and Ennis was rock solid the rest of the way. 0 turnovers and 5 assists is pretty impressive for a freshman in his first ever game against a high major program that pressed for 40 minutes. There is no doubt Ennis was looking to get to the line, and he did an excellent job of this, hitting 10 of 11 free throws, and getting Minnesota's center in foul trouble in the process. Ennis looked more comfortable against the press the longer the game went on (a great sign for the future!) and oh, I forgot to mention, also had 5 steals.

Cooney - 15 points and 2 steals constitutes a great game in my book, especially while doing a ton of ball handling helping to break the press, and only committing one turnover. Cooney is looking really comfortable with the ball in his hands, and some of the shots he makes are shots only stars make. I think Cooney might be playing at an all ACC star level in the very near future. He got a little gassed towards the end of the game (he gives a huge effort on D, and shouldered a lot of the ball handling duties, and most of the shooting during the first half) and he front rimmed a couple of threes at the end, but other than that he had a spectacular performance.

Fair - The thing everyone is going to hear about is his dunk where the defender took a chuck of his face off and didnt get called for a foul, but Fair's game was really defined by Boeheim's decision to stop using him to help break the press (we really didn't need him) and start letting him hang out at the back of the press in the paint where he finished a ton of difficult mid range shots. Clutch game all around for Fair.

Christmas- Played 22 minutes and only 9 of those minutes were at center. This means Syracuse went with a lot of two-big combinations. Something I did not think Syracuse would do a ton this year (especially against a team as small as Minnesota) but I thought it worked well in this game. Christmas was able to make a few shots, and get a few blocks and generally be a disruptive force, without really standing out in any way. Solid game.

Coleman - Looked the same against Minnesota as he has against mid-majors (which is a good thing). He earned a big chunk of time by rebounding well, scoring some, and drawing a bunch of fouls. Coleman even had two blocks which is nice to see. He is still our worst defensive center (and made a couple mistakes tonight) and he is still not going to be playing at the end of games when we are up and need stops, but Coleman continues to make strides and earn more PT. Today was another step towards earning Boehiem's trust.

Gbinije - Did not log many minutes because of the style of play. We needed Ennis to break the press, and we needed Cooney to break the zone, and we looked worse when either player sat. This is no knock on Gbinije who I thought played pretty well despite obviously not liking handling the ball against pressure. He is really good defensively and his length saved a couple of baskets on broken plays.

Grant - When you look at the match ups, you would have thought Grant was in a position to dominate, but that didn't happen. He got blocked two or three times driving to the rim, and failed to record either a block or a steal himself (something I feel should never happen to a player of Grant's physical gifts). Grant's biggest problem seemed to me to be that he thought he could jump right over Minnesota's unathletic center like he did against mid-majors. Grant found out that he could not. He is going to have to add a little more misdirection to his game, and I expect to see this as the season progresses.

Keita - Had two blocks and some nice defense at times, but overall I thought he wasn't good enough in this game. Syracuse's zone was stretched pretty far, so I hate to give him all the blame, but it seemed like Keita made too many defensive mistakes for my liking in this one.

Nobody else played. Nobody else is ready to play right now, and it is going to stay like that for a while. Around January look out for Roberson. You might see him if he plays well and one of Christmas, Coleman, Keita is struggling. Otherwise what you saw in this game is our team.

Cal is a good team who is going to make the NCAA tournament, but playing Syracuse with no time to prepare is a tough ask. Assuming Syracuse plays about the same way they did today, I think they win possibly setting up a really exciting contest against Gonzaga who looks great right now, and historically looks as good as Syracuse in the early season.

 

[Oakland]

I pretty sure all teams prefer their opponents don't include: "a shooter who is red hot from about thirty feet, and skilled big men who can handle the ball, shoot, and pass from the high post, because its pretty much impossible to stop both."

 

[Toga]

My only quibble is that I thought G looked very good bringing the ball up against pressure.

 

[General20]

My own quibble is that I thought G looked very good bringing the ball up against pressure.

He had double the turnovers of Ennis and Cooney combined in about a sixth of the minutes. I dont think he was a disaster by any means, but I don't think he looked comfortable either.

 

[Trueblue25]

Great post. I only disagree on one thing. Judging by the state of the Big 10, I'd be extremely surprised if Minnesota wasn't a tournament team. They are small but they are very talented shooting the ball and are very well coached.

 

[billsin01]

The two skills Syracuse least wants to see in an opponent are a shooter who is red hot from about thirty feet, and skilled big men who can handle the ball, shoot, and pass from the high post, because its pretty much impossible to stop both. Minnesota brought both of these things to the table, as well as a coach who is as familiar with the 2-3 zone as any in the country, and had a full week to prepare his team for it.

The Golden Gophers are not the greatest team in the world, and might not be a tournament team, but I thought this was a very good win for the reasons stated above. If Smith didn't come off the bench and hit four 3-pointers each one deeper than the last, the game probably isn't close at all, not just because of the 12 points he got from deeper than NBA range, but because without that threat Syracuse's zone would have collapsed more and taken away more inside points (Minnesota's bigs were not very athletic but were good in space, which they got). Minnesota came prepared, and gave a better effort than several more talented teams are going to give Syracuse this year, despite this, Syracuse was pretty much in control throughout, which is a very good sign.

Minnesota is a carbon copy of Louisville, which means they play a zone press that falls back into a 2-3 zone once the offense gets the ball past half court. Ive always thought this was theoretically the best defense because almost all college players have a weakness and those few complete players do not stay in college long. This means that 99% of players are either great athletes who can penetrate and score, or great shooters, but not both. The great shooters who are not overly athletic are bothered by the press, while the great athletes who can't shoot are bothered by the zone, either way this defense comes out on top.

While this defense is theoretically perfect, there are a lot of real world problems. Namely, the body type that is the best for pressure (small and quick) is not usually very good at playing zone, and the body type that is very good at zone (tall and long) is not usually adept at applying pressure. Its also a nuanced D that is hard to teach. When you get a veteran team with all the right parts you get a team like Louisville last year, but more often you get inconsistent performances like the Lousiville team from a few years ago that lost to Harvard in the first round of the tournament.

I thought Minnesota's players were always where they needed to be, which says a lot about junior Piteno. He really had his guys coached up well. However, I did not think they were athletically suited either to press or play zone, and Syracuse ultimately had few problems with either.

After making a few shots early and getting a few steals, Syracuse took a ten point lead that evaporated quickly when Syracuse went through its only bad stretch of the game. During this stretch I thought Syracuse got lured out of their offensive sets in favor of attacking a helter-skelter Minnesota defense. The real culprit here was Syracuse's inability to attack the rim effectively. Fair, Ennis, Grant, and Christmas each got rejected during this stretch. I think Minnesota's ability to get blocks inside really surprised Syracuse (this came back to bite them a bit at the end of the game too) and if you are looking for a downside to the game I think it starts and ends with Syracuse's inability to finish at a high enough percentage inside.

The rest of the game Syracuse was in control, minus a couple of stretches where Minnesota hit some deep threes. Against Minnesota's zone Syracuse was able to get Cooney open looks, as well as rebound, but it was Minnesota's press that Syracuse really ate up. The zone press is designed to prevent break away layups even when beaten, but Ennis was able to drive right at the center (who was always in the restricted zone) and get a bunch of free throws, and Fair had all kinds of room to knock down mid range stuff.

Syracuse only threw two lobs, both of which worked (one scored and one was an unforced drop that would have been a score). That play was open a lot, and I would have liked to see them throw it another five times at least. It would have gotten them some cheap points, and stopped Minnesota from cheating out on shooters.

On defense, Syracuse again gave up too many three pointers, but they did force nineteen turnovers. Still a work in progress, but things are heading in the right direction and will round into form. Might not be as good as last year's defense, but it will be good.

Here are my player evaluations:

Ennis - Had a poor shooting night, but did everything else well. I thought he got rattled a little early by the speed of the game, but Boeheim pulled him and obviously went over a few things with him, and Ennis was rock solid the rest of the way. 0 turnovers and 5 assists is pretty impressive for a freshman in his first ever game against a high major program that pressed for 40 minutes. There is no doubt Ennis was looking to get to the line, and he did an excellent job of this, hitting 10 of 11 free throws, and getting Minnesota's center in foul trouble in the process. Ennis looked more comfortable against the press the longer the game went on (a great sign for the future!) and oh, I forgot to mention, also had 5 steals.

Cooney - 15 points and 2 steals constitutes a great game in my book, especially while doing a ton of ball handling helping to break the press, and only committing one turnover. Cooney is looking really comfortable with the ball in his hands, and some of the shots he makes are shots only stars make. I think Cooney might be playing at an all ACC star level in the very near future. He got a little gassed towards the end of the game (he gives a huge effort on D, and shouldered a lot of the ball handling duties, and most of the shooting during the first half) and he front rimmed a couple of threes at the end, but other than that he had a spectacular performance.

Fair - The thing everyone is going to hear about is his dunk where the defender took a chuck of his face off and didnt get called for a foul, but Fair's game was really defined by Boeheim's decision to stop using him to help break the press (we really didn't need him) and start letting him hang out at the back of the press in the paint where he finished a ton of difficult mid range shots. Clutch game all around for Fair.

Christmas- Played 22 minutes and only 9 of those minutes were at center. This means Syracuse went with a lot of two-big combinations. Something I did not think Syracuse would do a ton this year (especially against a team as small as Minnesota) but I thought it worked well in this game. Christmas was able to make a few shots, and get a few blocks and generally be a disruptive force, without really standing out in any way. Solid game.

Coleman - Looked the same against Minnesota as he has against mid-majors (which is a good thing). He earned a big chunk of time by rebounding well, scoring some, and drawing a bunch of fouls. Coleman even had two blocks which is nice to see. He is still our worst defensive center (and made a couple mistakes tonight) and he is still not going to be playing at the end of games when we are up and need stops, but Coleman continues to make strides and earn more PT. Today was another step towards earning Boehiem's trust.

Gbinije - Did not log many minutes because of the style of play. We needed Ennis to break the press, and we needed Cooney to break the zone, and we looked worse when either player sat. This is no knock on Gbinije who I thought played pretty well despite obviously not liking handling the ball against pressure. He is really good defensively and his length saved a couple of baskets on broken plays.

Grant - When you look at the match ups, you would have thought Grant was in a position to dominate, but that didn't happen. He got blocked two or three times driving to the rim, and failed to record either a block or a steal himself (something I feel should never happen to a player of Grant's physical gifts). Grant's biggest problem seemed to me to be that he thought he could jump right over Minnesota's unathletic center like he did against mid-majors. Grant found out that he could not. He is going to have to add a little more misdirection to his game, and I expect to see this as the season progresses.

Keita - Had two blocks and some nice defense at times, but overall I thought he wasn't good enough in this game. Syracuse's zone was stretched pretty far, so I hate to give him all the blame, but it seemed like Keita made too many defensive mistakes for my liking in this one.

Nobody else played. Nobody else is ready to play right now, and it is going to stay like that for a while. Around January look out for Roberson. You might see him if he plays well and one of Christmas, Coleman, Keita is struggling. Otherwise what you saw in this game is our team.

Cal is a good team who is going to make the NCAA tournament, but playing Syracuse with no time to prepare is a tough ask. Assuming Syracuse plays about the same way they did today, I think they win possibly setting up a really exciting contest against Gonzaga who looks great right now, and historically looks as good as Syracuse in the early season.

A lot of excellent observations in here. A few comments on your comments:

-- I actually thought ennis struggled defensively despite the steals. Some of it, as you mentioned, was simply minny's execution but I felt like ennis got caught in some bad spots fairly often. He did look really solid offensively and thought he had two really nice passes that should added to his assist total (a great pass to cooney in an unsettled situation that resulted in a missed three and a great look to Keira that he bobbled and ended up at the line. Nice overall game but obviously some things to work on.

-- it cracked me up in the waters chat how many folks seemed to indicate that this is one of the deepest, if not the deepest, teams we've ever had. It's a nice group with a lot of talent but people are delusional if they think guys like Johnson and Roberson are going to get a ton of run in games that matter. Roberson May emerge but I tend to think this is our team as well.

-- I'll give Coleman an A+ for his defensive effort since he 1) stayed on the floor against a good opponent for long stretches and 2) actually contributed a bit at times, even moving his feet well to contest an eliasson drive at one point. I think that's the first time I've ever seen him contribute on the defensive end. That's a great sign.

-- gbinije may not have a particularly high ceiling but I think he'll be a solid ball-handler and decent scoring option by next season. Add that to his defense and he's a nice piece for us. He'll play an important role this season but I see him being a really solid asset by next season.

-- rak was active on both ends. That's all I ask.

-- grant had a rough game. Appears to have quite a few lapses in concentration. Needs to be more consistent. That said he is still capable of big things.

 

[Jack Hall]

He had double the turnovers of Ennis and Cooney combined in about a sixth of the minutes. I dont think he was a disaster by any means, but I don't think he looked comfortable either.

What is your take on CJs turnovers this season so far? I think he had five this game and is averaging roughly 5 per game. On one hand I think CJ has been very sloppy with the ball and would think he needs to cut down on the tos quickly. But on the other hand you have a kid like a Randle who is turning over the ball just as often and yet is in most "experts" short lists for POY and ultimately as a team we are not committing a ton of tos so maybe CJs tos are not much of a problem?

 

[General20]

What is your take on CJs turnovers this season so far? I think he had five this game and is averaging roughly 5 per game. On one hand I think CJ has been very sloppy with the ball and would think he needs to cut down on the tos quickly. But on the other hand you have a kid like a Randle who is turning over the ball just as often and yet is in most "experts" short lists for POY and ultimately as a team we are not committing a ton of tos so maybe CJs tos are not much of a problem?

Fair is adjusting to a new role and new defensive attention. These turnovers are the rough spot in the adjustment process. Remember that we are not watching a finished product here. All these kids will improve over the course of the year. So, when you watch early season games you have to do it with an eye towards projecting out to the end of the season. What shortcomings can be fixed, and what can't?

Fair is one of the smartest basketball players Syracuse has ever had. Do you think he is going to be a turnover machine in March? I, personally, can't see that happening. And his turnovers have not cost us wins, so I'm not overly worried about it.

 

[HarrisonJBounel]

What is your take on CJs turnovers this season so far? I think he had five this game and is averaging roughly 5 per game. On one hand I think CJ has been very sloppy with the ball and would think he needs to cut down on the tos quickly. But on the other hand you have a kid like a Randle who is turning over the ball just as often and yet is in most "experts" short lists for POY and ultimately as a team we are not committing a ton of tos so maybe CJs tos are not much of a problem?

I'm willing to cut CJ some slack on his TO's at this point. He is adjusting to his role as the guy who gets the ball late in the clock when the play or pattern breaks down. This puts him in a tough spot where he has to force the action more than he would like, and that will result in some extra TO's. He could use some more respect from the refs in these situations, where he gets more calls from reach-ins while getting stripped. Witness the no-call on the dunk while getting lacerated.

 

[Lawrinson14]

Great rundown as usual, General.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Fair is adjusting to a new role and new defensive attention. These turnovers are the rough spot in the adjustment process. Remember that we are not watching a finished product here. All these kids will improve over the course of the year. So, when you watch early season games you have to do it with an eye towards projecting out to the end of the season. What shortcomings can be fixed, and what can't?

Fair is one of the smartest basketball players Syracuse has ever had. Do you think he is going to be a turnover machine in March? I, personally, can't see that happening. And his turnovers have not cost us wins, so I'm not overly worried about it.

I'd like to see CJ work some more on distributing the ball to wide open teammates. I know he made a bunch of the 15 footers he took, but he missed our bigs for easy dunks at least twice last night that I saw. Some nights that shot won't fall so easily for him and being able to rely on his 'mates will help out a ton.

Great write-up as always. I really thought our O looked better against the zone than I've seen in a long time, as you touched on early in the breakdown. Getting Cooney to hit those shots helps of course.

 

[JoeSU]

Syracuse only threw two lobs, both of which worked (one scored and one was an unforced drop that would have been a score). That play was open a lot, and I would have liked to see them throw it another five times at least. It would have gotten them some cheap points, and stopped Minnesota from cheating out on shooters..

The second (unsuccessful) lob was with 20 secs left and SU up 6. I think Ennis was caught-up in the moment and wanted to put an exclamation point on the W, but it looked like JB was reminding him that in that situation, the smarter play would have been to pull it out and milk the clock.

 

[DoctorBombay]

I thought Rak's put-back dunks were huge towards setting the tone early. If he ever becomes consistent and harnesses his physical gifts, Rak can be a dominate player, IMO.

 

[Sgt Cuse]

Nice writeup General.
I thought another thing SU may have wanted to avoid was pressure D, because of our limitations of number of ball handlers. That is less of a worry for me now. My feel for the =/- of the press was that SU got the best of it with CJ getting excellent one on one looks for scores. I don't think teams will try installing that as a unique defensive strategy if it didn't work for Minn, who uses it routinely.

 

[jordoo]

General20 you always do such a great job of breaking down the defensive scheme that being used against us, its general philosophy and of course its effect on our offense and the players themselves.

I really don't have a lot to say other than I thought twice that the game could have really gotten away from Minnesota. Once after our initial barrage where we started great and had a 9-10 point lead but they settled in stayed with their plan and got us trying to do everything too quickly which ended up getting them a small lead. The other time was in the second half right before Smith hit two set shot three's in a row from the logo. Still as you said it felt like we were in control that whole game.

The officiating was strange in that they did call a handful of these impeding the ball handler fouls on the perimeter but the inside was like an anything goes mosh pit where whistles were rare and apparently only for loss of limb.

Two really great things for me:
One was DC2 having another great game. His offensive rebounding is excellent as is his over all rebounding. Although he is bringing the ball down a bit still on his move he has cut out the pump fakes for the most part and just gone up more quickly and strongly. This has been much more successful and gotten him to the line on a regular basis, where he also looks to be more consistent with his release. I won't say he's a good defender, yet, but he is quickly moving away from liability territory especially when he is so effective on the glass and getting us points. The last few games I've spotted him doing 1-2 things each game that I never used to see him do on defense. These all point to him beginning to understand how HE with his body type and abilities can be effective in JB's defense. I am really excited to see that and hope it continues. He's still making mistakes on D but he just busts his ass back on offense afterword and tries harder the next time. I really admire his attitude, he wants to be great for his hometown team.

Two was our young backcourt. For a backcourt of two guys who aren't screaming 1st round NBA jump off the screen talent they are going to be really dynamic in the college game before to long. If Ennis is still here when Cooney is a senior we will be treated to something truly special and rare in this day and age of NCAA bball. I know people are excited about Cooney but he is just starting to get it and has the makings of an absolutely deadly college 2G. As we see more and more m2m D going forward and he gets more and more comfortable he's going to start attacking the basket and getting our bigs some easy shots. His defense is strong, his ball handling is good as is his decicion making.
Ennis is simply not going to miss layups, floaters and pull-ups at this rate for all that long. He already does do many things well. I think he's going to be one of those pg's that is such a good tactician/game manager that other than a couple of plays a game he doesn't really stick out. You will think he had a decent game and then look at the box score to see he did a little bit more of everything than you thought.I just so excited about this backcourt moving forward and even more so next year and possibly the year after that.

 

[moqui]

Ennis - Had a poor shooting night, but did everything else well. I thought he got rattled a little early by the speed of the game, but Boeheim pulled him and obviously went over a few things with him, and Ennis was rock solid the rest of the way. 0 turnovers and 5 assists is pretty impressive for a freshman in his first ever game against a high major program that pressed for 40 minutes. There is no doubt Ennis was looking to get to the line, and he did an excellent job of this, hitting 10 of 11 free throws, and getting Minnesota's center in foul trouble in the process. Ennis looked more comfortable against the press the longer the game went on (a great sign for the future!) and oh, I forgot to mention, also had 5 steals.

I think that this was his worst defensive performance, however. He had three really bad rotations - I mean, they were not even rotations at all, he just drifted out of position once and twice trailed a ballhandler into the paint and left his spot in the zone wide open for three point kickouts. He is obviously adept at gaining steals, but that is not always a measure of solid defense. I am sure he will get better defensively, but he sure does have some brain farts right now.

Also, while I really like Cooney, I need to point out that his first steal really should have been credited to Coleman, who has noticeably improved on the defensive end.

 

[General20]

I think that this was his worst defensive performance, however. He had three really bad rotations - I mean, they were not even rotations at all, he just drifted out of position once and twice trailed a ballhandler into the paint and left his spot in the zone wide open for three point kickouts. He is obviously adept at gaining steals, but that is not always a measure of solid defense. I am sure he will get better defensively, but he sure does have some brain farts right now.

Also, while I really like Cooney, I need to point out that his first steal really should have been credited to Coleman, who has noticeably improved on the defensive end.

I don't disagree with you, but even Carter-Williams was a bad defender as a freshman. The only solid defensive freshman guard I remember is Triche (who played 2-3 zone in high school and had access to the program growing up). I look at it as a given that Ennis is going to make mistakes early, but at least he is making up for those mistakes by forcing turnovers.