My Expectations, Your Expectations, Reasonable Expectations Year 1

[OttoinGrotto]

Red has 4 years to make it to a sweet 16.

Respectfully, this is the kind of thinking that excused recent poor season performances.

If we want to say Red's got 4 years to get a protected tournament seed, I'm good with that.

 

[CU44SE]

This isn’t college football where there is 85 scholarships and depth. This is college basketball where there are only 13 scholarships and hundreds of kids in the portal. As much as it is a team sport, 1 guy can be a difference between a decent team and a top ranked team.

I never said he needed a national championship. I said he needs to make a tournament. How low have our standards become?

This isn’t asking too much when 68 teams make the tournament. So you are telling me you expect our team to be worse over the next 2 years than the past 2 years. If that is the case, red isn’t it.

 

[two3zone]

This isn’t college football where there is 85 scholarships and depth. This is college basketball where there are only 13 scholarships and hundreds of kids in the portal. As much as it is a team sport, 1 guy can be a difference between a decent team and a top ranked team.

I never said he needed a national championship. I said he needs to make a tournament. How low have our standards become?

This isn’t asking too much when 68 teams make the tournament. So you are telling me you expect our team to be worse over the next 2 years than the past 2 years. If that is the case, red isn’t it.

We had that one guy this year and we didn’t sniff the tournament.

 

[swish7]

Respectfully, this is the kind of thinking that excused recent poor season performances.

If we want to say Red's got 4 years to get a protected tournament seed, I'm good with that.

Somewhat agree. Perhaps you are right.

If we have no 'protected tournament seed' in 3-4 years, there is a problem.
If we have a protected tournament seed in 3-4 years, then yes, that is better than the state of the program he inherited.
However, he doesn't have 5, 10, 15, 20 years to make it to a sweet 16. At some point he has got to make it there. A sweet 16 defines a great season, IMO.

 

[CU44SE]

We had that one guy this year and we didn’t sniff the tournament.

Juda was/is good. He wasn’t that guy though. And that is not a shot at Juda. Not to mention the defense. This shouldn’t be as big of a transition as most think though

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Somewhat agree. Perhaps you are right.

If we have no 'protected tournament seed' in 3-4 years, there is a problem.
If we have a protected tournament seed in 3-4 years, then yes, that is better than the state of the program he inherited.
However, he doesn't have 5, 10, 15, 20 years to make it to a sweet 16. At some point he has got to make it there. A sweet 16 defines a great season, IMO.

Sweet sixteen just feels really random.

Top 25 for consecutive weeks... that's a lot less random.

 

[swish7]

Sweet sixteen just feels really random.

Top 25 for consecutive weeks... that's a lot less random.

Making the Sweet 16 is a great season in my personal opinion.

Top 25 is great and all, but that metric can be gamed by playing 10 cupcakes early, which JB used to do. In his 'down years, we would be top 25 for 'consecutive weeks', but suffer the 'February swoon', and flame out on day 1.

 

[OrangeDW]

Personally I think he should only get 2 years to make the tournament. He probably gets 3. I think it should be 2 because of where the program is. We cannot allow it to get worse, soon it will avalanche.

With that said, basketball is the easiest sport to turn around in 1 year with the portal. Pound the portal for 2 years and get your recruiting in order.

I think we have a real problem if we are within 4 games of .500 and need to have 20 wins by year 2 even if we don’t make the tournament.

Program is in a bad spot, for those reasons red doesn’t/shouldn’t have a long leash.

Jimmy got 9, so Red should get 9.

 

[MikeSU02]

His first wins will be with keeping Judah and maybe Jesse.

Benny stays and makes a decent jump (not saying all conference or anything).

We land at least two other new faces.

With a start of Judah and Jesse as our keys, I think we can get into the bubble mix and depending on who we land in the portal, we could be in the tourney.

Judah would be on pre-season all America lists if he comes back. When you have that type of talent, you need to be minimally on the bubble.

 

[blust2i3d4]

This thread was coming eventually.

I think my expectations next year, assuming Judah/Jesse/Joe/JBA/Symir are gone, are that we’re above .500 overall and qualify for a postseason tournament. And thats it. And no in no way should we even think about hot seat discussions if these aren’t met, barring a single digit win finish.

I think that’s reasonable for year 1. I dont think we immediately return to tournament contention or the top 25. Theres some work to do.

If Judah comes back,

I have faith Red brings in some experienced size at C and PF. In which I adjust my expectations to 20 wins, a top half finish in the ACC and at least being on the bubble.

Judah’s a generational Cuse college basketball talent as a sophomore and we have a head coach who can push a guard to realize some potential imo. He’s a Waiters like talent who as a sophomore will be able to impose his will when provided some decent support. We have a staff I think who can build that support.

This is the scenario where we test the maintaining of an Orange Standard immediately.

Im just excited

I think at the least, grit and pride will return to the program on the court. We’ll see a team that fights and knows that they’re representing a culture bigger than themselves individually.

He must come back. Next year SU is going to Hawaii for a good vacation plus playing 3 games.

 

[tbonezone]

love red lots but he is not one of the better proven head coaches in the nation today. this gig is 20+ years in the coming and should have been a prime landing spot for somebody young with a proven resume and solid foundation you know there are many many great coaches in this game who NEVER played guard at SU. in fact most of them! that said i feel red will be gone in two years and hopefully wildhack along with him for his insane lack of judgement and the perpetration of driving all our major SU sports into mediocrity. red ...please prove me wrong.

 

[OrangeDW]

love red lots but he is not one of the better proven head coaches in the nation today. this gig is 20+ years in the coming and should have been a prime landing spot for somebody young with a proven resume and solid foundation you know there are many many great coaches in this game who NEVER played guard at SU. in fact most of them! that said i feel red will be gone in two years and hopefully wildhack along with him for his insane lack of judgement and the perpetration of driving all our major SU sports into mediocrity. red ...please prove me wrong.

But WILL he play the BENCH though?!?!

 

[Jasoncuse]

I have zero expectations for next year, basically similar to the last 3 or so.

What i do want to see is Red establish his system (please be completely different) and start building for 2024-2025. The 2024 recruiting class needs to be much improved from what we’ve seen and without that, it’ll be tough to see how he gets more than 3 years. Year 2 is so important.

If we make the tourney next year, I will consider it a minor miracle and a fantastic first year. I just think there’s so much that needs to be turned over for that and it’d be hard for anyone to accomplish that. Seeing progress will be huge.

 

[Orangefizz]

As John Wildhack said in the Matt Park interview, the goal for Syracuse is the top third of the ACC conference every year.

That’s my goal and expectation within the first two years.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Come now. I love Judah but he is no Dion

Some people complained about how often Judah winds up on the floor after shots. Watch Steph Curry. Dude hits the deck 10 times a game.

 

[Orangefizz]

We had that one guy this year and we didn’t sniff the tournament.

Who was that one guy?? We didn’t have that this year

 

[Cuseball]

Jimmy got 9, so Red should get 9.

By that logic, red should get two final fours and four Sweet Sixteens in his first 11 years. We all agree things have been bad, but that’s what has been done during this dark period.

 

[OrangeDW]

By that logic, red should get two final fours and four Sweet Sixteens in his first 11 years. We all agree things have been bad, but that’s what has been done during this dark period.

By that logic, Red should’ve taken over a program that went to the final 4 two years earlier.

I will tolerate no BS being pulled on Red on here, and I’m watching close.

 

[two3zone]

Who was that one guy?? We didn’t have that this year

The second best freshman in the ACC.

 

[Orangefizz]

The second best freshman in the ACC.

You do realize it’s incredibly difficult to have one freshman lead the team into the tournament. He wasn’t surrounded by any other outstanding players. As great as Judah was for a freshman, he was also learning a brand new position; arguably the most important position in basketball. He did great, but there’s no way he would be able to lead the team into the tournament by himself.

 

[Lukeyloo]

I've determined that I'm a pessimist based on reading a lot of people's expectations. Going to the Tournament yearly? HC AA will be able to bring in big time transfers and recruits? Coaching is going to improve??

At this point in time there is exactly zero evidence to support any of this. I know speculation is what this board runs on, but c'mon. I have no expectations at this time for the success/failure of this program or HC AA because this is unchartered territory for Cuse. The program has had the same coach for the entirety of the modern basketball era, so what are we now that that's changed?

I'm hopeful that HC AA can bring the program back to relevancy, but that remains to be seen. I can see every outcome under the sun being a possibility, from the program being wildly successful once again in short order or completely cratering like Louisville or Gtown. We just don't know.

 

[SUfanNC]

My expectations for Syracuse next year is to beat the teams we should in out of conference play. Win a few that we aren’t picked to win. A good showing in ACC tournament (win a game or two) In the conversation on the NCAA. I love selection Sunday and the past few years have sucked.

 

[Shenexon]

My expectation is that SU will compete, for players and wins. One very attractive thing about Syracuse is fan support. The atmosphere at the dome makes it one of the best venues in college basketball. That was reinforced recently by JB. Coach Autry has a good product to sell and think the coaches will work hard to sell it, and start his tenure off in a positive way. It's time we compete in the ACC and we'll be a different team going forward. There's potential in that change. I expect good things. LGO!!

 

[Otto'd]

My biggest concern Year 1 is that Maui gauntlet. Depending what happens there, I think we can upgrade by about five wins.

I read a reddit thread a week or 2 ago that was talking about how incredible the Maui lineup was. I was starting to get pumped. It did an in depth praising of 6 of the teams there... and then I get to end of writeup and it closed with "and the other 2 teams are Chaminade and Syracuse" . It wasn't said in a mocking way or anything. It wasn't purposely trolling or trying to be mean. It actually hurt more that it wasn't haters writing that. It was just honest about our current place in the college basketball landscape. And that was sad.

I'd love to go in there next year and rip off a couple wins. We all need it

 

[Ozone!]

IMO, we need to play hard on both ends and be in games, with a never give up spirit.
Bring in good players from the portal and let them all get PT so we have fresh legs throughout the game! That’s how winning programs are!!