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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 59000, member: 289"] [I]The Players[/I] CENTERS As Jim Boeheim constantly reminded us last season, big men take a while to develop and having two freshmen centers, as we did last year, is problematic to say the least. The question is: how far along will they be this year? FABRICIO (Fab) MELO sophomore 7-0 244 We first saw Fab in a U-Tube clip, making shot after shot from various points on the court. He seemed to have excellent shooting skills for a big man. Particularly intriguing was his ability to make foul shots because our center at the time, Arinze Onuaku, was the worst foul shooter that ever put on a Syracuse uniform. A big man who can make them pay from the line is a very valuable asset. But the video shows Fab working against no opposition until a scrimmage where everyone seemed half his size. In game footage that year he seemed pretty chunky and slow. People wondered about his conditioning. He’d recently emigrated from Brazil where he didn’t even begin playing basketball until the 9th grade. Then, after sitting out a year due to state transfer rules, he played at a small high school in Florida where the level of completion was low. Nonetheless, he had an NBA-type body and his stock rose to the point of being both a Parade and McDonald’s All-American. ESPN listed him as the #1 center prospect in the country. In the McDonald’s All-American game it was clear he had slimmed down And he seemed to be all over the court, rebounding and blocking shots and running the court. SU fans were all excited about having a center of his stature. The last center from Syracuse who made it in the NBA was Etan Thomas a decade ago and the last one to make it big was Rony Seikaly a generation ago. But Fab showed up out of shape again, (he certainly wasn‘t 244 pounds last year). He started 24 games but was often winded after 5 minutes of play and barely played after that. If he had, the referees would have fouled him out shortly after that. Not only did Fab not know how to guard anyone but the refs seemed to delight in calling fouls on him even when he seemingly did nothing. He was a big, awkward guy who was always visible and sometimes that’s all it takes. Finally, he was hobbled by an early injury that made it as painful for him to play as it was for us to watch. Boeheim kept starting him because he knew what he could become and he did want to give up on the kid. He wound up averaging 2.3 points and 1.9 rebounds per game. Per 40 minutes of play, these were his numbers: 9.4p 7.8r 1.0a 1.2s 3.1b 22.5+ 2.7mfg 2.0mft 3.1to 7.3pf 15.1- = 7.4NP 4.7OE 2.7FG (p = points, r= rebounds, a = assists, s= steals, b= blocks, + = the total “positives“. Mfg = missed field goals, mft= missed free throws. to= turnovers. pf= personal fouls, - = the total “negatives”. NP= “net points“, the positives minus the negatives. OE: equals offensive efficiency, (points minus missed field goals and free throws). FG= floor game, (rebounds, assists, steals and blocks minus turnovers and fouls). Melo did show flashes of what he could do late in the season when he began to acclimate himself to this level of play. He made some moves in the paint where you could see he could be dominant someday. Against Cincinnati he was 3 for 4 from the field, scored 6 points, had 4 rebounds and 4 blocks in 15 minutes. In the first two games of the Big East Tournament vs. DePaul and St. John’s he played a total of 38 minutes and had 22 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocks. He played for the Brazillian team in the World University games over the summer and reportedly did well against international competition. So there’s hope that this could be a break-out year for Fab. But he may have to break out to play. He had a very disturbing off-season incident in which he threatened his girlfriend and injured himself tearing off a windshield wiper from her car. He has a court date coming up for that. There’s talk that he was very controlling toward her and that that may have been due to the low status of women in his cultural background. Is it just another adjustment he’ll have to make or an ongoing problem that will derail his life and career? No one knows at this point. BAYE MOUSSA KEITA sophomore 6-10 213 Our center position is right out of the United Nations. Baye is from Senegal. He’s so skinny that if he stood on the other side of Fab Melo from you, you wouldn’t know he was there. But his background in basketball is more extensive. He was playing international ball for Senegal before he ever came here. When he did come here, he played for probably the #1 prep program in the country, Oak Hill of Virginia, from which we got Carmelo Anthony and Eric Devendorf. He didn’t even start there- their line-up usually consists of nothing but highly rated Division I prospects. When he did play he showed good instincts for the game and lot of quickness. The same was true at Syracuse, where he was the guy who replaced Fab when he was doubled over in exhaustion or in foul trouble. He’s such a good defensive player and carries himself with such an air of confidence that people where comparing him to Connecticut’s former All-American Emeka Okafor, who led them to the 2004 national championship, (at a similar state, of course). But Keita had no offensive game whatsoever and he just wasn’t strong enough to take the pounding of the Big East schedule. He was also bothered by a hand injury. His numbers per 40 minutes: 6.0p 10.3r 0.5a 1.6s 3.4b 21.8+ 1.9mfg 1.3mft 1.6to 5.9pf 10.7- = 11.1NP 2.8OE 8.3FG The big thing with Keita is that he’s just got to get stronger. He doesn’t have the frame to be as big and strong as Fab Melo but he’s got to add on at least 20 pounds over the course of his career here to become a starter and have a shot at the NBA. Both centers need to learn to play without fouling but that will come with experience. There was to be a third center, Dashonte Riley, who looked good in some clips from high school and who showed some skills, especially passing the ball, as a reserve two years ago. He was 7-0, 233 and moved smoothly. I felt he had a lot of potential and would have given us a good third option at center. But he missed last year with an injury and when assistant coach Rob Murphy got the head coaching job at Eastern Michigan, Riley decided to transfer there. That was disappointing, (I actually think Riley might have been better than Fab and Baye) but hopefully Melo and Keita can get better and handle the position this year by themselves. Jim Boeheim when asked about that in press conferences, didn’t betray any real concern about the center position, so that‘s a good sign. [/QUOTE]

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