Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 59010, member: 289"] GUARDS SHOOTING GUARDS We really had a three-man rotation last year that was almost interchangeable as they were all combo guards. But Scoop Jardine was our main point guard so I’m listing Brandon Triche and Dion Waiters here. The two others, Mookie Jones and Trevor Cooney, are more obviously shooting guards. BRANDON TRICHE junior 6-4 205 Brandon is the team’s best outside shooter, other than Southerland when he’s playing a bad team or Jones when’s he playing anybody. Like all outside shooters, he’s streaky. He was 7 for 11 in two games vs. Seton Hall and St. John’s in January but was 0 for 4 three times, including against Connecticut when we got beat by 5 in the big East semi-finals. He hit 40% of 80 three pointers as a freshman but only 33% of 150 last year when, like Joseph, the defense was paying more attention. Brandon had quite a streak at the foul line, 37 straight over 8 games and parts of two others, a school record. Few things are as valuable as a guard who is automatic at the line- if you want to protect a lead in the final minutes, just get him the ball and force the defense to foul him. In his other 58 free throws he shot 74%, good but hardly automatic. Triche is physically strong but maybe a step slow against Big East guards. He can drive to the basket and score. Maybe his biggest problem is one of self image. He tells every reporter whose ear he can get “I’m a point guard”. He’s not creating any problems about it but he’s not really happy with his role on the team. But with Scoop Jardine back for another year and Michael Carter-Williams in the fold, he’s not going to play point guard here, at least not for any long stretches. He sometimes is reluctant to shoot because he doesn’t see himself in that role. He needs to focus on being the best shooter and scorer that he can be. His numbers last year per 40 minutes: 15.5p 3.7r 4.0a 1.1s 0.1b 24.4+ 7.1mfg 0.6mft 2.9to 2.7pf 13.3- = 11.1NP 7.8OE 3.3FG DION WAITERS sophomore 6-4 215 Waiters was actually offered a scholarship by SU at age 14 and Jim Boeheim believed in him enough to stick with him through transfers to four high schools in three years. Like Triche he has a football player’s body but he’s quicker and more explosive. There’s a video of him dunking in high school with his chin over the rim. He’s Scoop Jardine’s cousin and was looking forward to playing with him. When he actually got in a Syracuse uniform, he seemed like a different player. He just drifted around the perimeter, jacking up three pointers. The one big question about him was whether he could hit a jump shot. He could, but not enough to make a living doing it. (He wound up 29 for 85 on the season, .329). There were rumors that he had an injury that was limiting his speed and jumping ability, (everybody on the team seems to have had some kind of injury they were playing with last year). He had some defensive lapses, which resulting in some shouting matches with JB. There were rumors he was going to leave the team but he’s back for this season. Towards the end of the season we began to see flashes of what Waiters was supposed to be. He was 11 for 19 in the Big East Tournament, then scored 18 in the season-ending loss to Marquette on 8 for 10 shooting. He showed more of a vertical game, with lighting-like drives to the basket and some dunks. You could see the type of player he could become. Will he become that player this year? Or will it be another year of frustration for him and with him. Will he even be here at the end of the year? Stay tuned. His numbers per 40 minutes last year: MOOKIE JONES senior 6-6 220 Mookie was a legendary NYS high school player, leading Peerskill High to three state championships. He was considered the 6th best small forward in the country by as a senior. At Syracuse he has proven a specialist. He makes hitting three-pointers look so easy they look like lay-ups. Even the ones he misses are around and out and just fall off the side of the basket, he’s so smooth. For his career, he’s 45 for 109 (.413) from beyond the arc. He has great range and no conscience. I made a joke last year that he was “last in the conference in time of possession” and got some laughs. The reputation is that he doesn’t do anything else, even though his all-around numbers last year were pretty good. His numbers per 40 minutes last year: 17.5p 5.3r 3.0a 3.4s 0.8b 30.0+ 8.0mfg 0.0mft 1.1to 4.6pf 13.7- = 16.3NP 9.5OE 6.8FG But most of those numbers were against inferior opposition. Mookie only played in 12 games last year. He seems to have a casual attitude toward defense but had 9 steals in 105 minutes of play. He may not have a good work ethic in preparing for the season or games. I think it may hurt him that he seems to look rather casual in everything he does. He never appears to be trying hard. Whatever, he puts up good numbers but doesn’t play much and that’s probably not going to change. TREVOR COONEY freshman 6-4 185 He’s the one of the three recruits that wasn’t a McDonald’s All-American. But he still has the potential to be a very good player. Gerry McNamara, now an assistant coach with the Orange, says that he’s as good an outside shooter as we’ve had. That comes form a guy who hit six treys in the national championship game and who once dropped 43 on Brigham Young, so it’s a strong recommendation. He was ranked the 64th best prospect in the country at any position and the 17th best shooting guard by At their request, this network is being blocked from this site.. He’s supposed to have a good all-around game and most observers think he and Michael Carter-Williams will someday make up SU’s starting backcourt. But he won’t be needed this year so I don’t expect to see much of him beyond the pre-Big East games and one wonders if he might be red-shirted. POINT GUARDS SCOOP JARDINE senior 6-2 190 It seems like Scoop has been here forever. He was recruited with Jonny Flynn and it was thought that he might give Flynn a run for his money for the point guard position. He lost that battle and struggled through his freshman season with an odd-looking jump shot that began behind his ear and a stress fracture in his foot. He also had an off the court problem when a relative showed up and used another student‘s ID card to buy some stuff. Scoop knew about it and was suspended. He red-shirted his second year to completely heal his injury. He came back in his third year and was a totally different player, a roadrunner who scurried all over the court making shots, dishing off, stealing the ball. His motor just kept running and running. He shared the point guard sport with Brandon Triche, with Triche starting and scoop coming off the bench. He increased the energy level of the game every time he entered it. Last year Jardine became the starting point guard and Triche moved over to replace Andy Rautins at shooting guard. It’s hard to complain about Scoop’s production: he scored 12.5 points per game and led the Big East with 5.9 assists per game. The stats say he’s one of the top returning point guards in the country. And one of the most criticized. His field goal percentage dropped from 48.9% to 41.5% and his turnovers went up from 41 to 55. But so did his minutes and rate of turnovers per 40 minutes actually went down from 2.1 to 2.0. But his misses and his turnovers always seemed to come at the wrong time. His shot selection at the end of games was more than just questionable. He had 7 turnovers vs. Cincinnati and 5 in three other games. Someone even started an ugly rumor that he was shaving points after one bad game. (People who know about these things saw no change in the point spread that would indicate such a thing.) 16.1p 3.8r 3.6a 2.7s 0.3b 26.5+ 8.1mfg 0.6mft 2.2to 3.3pf 14.2- = 12.3NP 7.4OE 4.9FG But it’s not enough to seriously consider replacing him with another player. And he had some big games- 27 points an 8 assists vs. Detroit, 23 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists vs. NC State, 13 points and 13 assists in the first game against Marquette, etc. Most teams would love to have a point guard of Scoop’s skills coming back and he deserves to be a little better appreciated for his efforts by SU fans. It would help if his decision making at critical points would be a bit better. That’s up to him. His numbers per 40 minutes last year: 15.6p 2.7r 7.3a 2.0s 0.2b 27.8+ 7.7mfg 1.3mft 3.6to 2.2pf 14.8- = 13.0NP 6.6OE 6.4FG MICHAEL CARTER-WILLIAMS freshman 6-5 176 MCW is our point guard of the future. He’s tall for the position and very skinny. Some people have said that his form on his jump shot isn’t classic but others have seen him shoot very effectively. I saw him in the McDonald’s game and he seemed almost a non-entity. But a point guard in an all-star game is something of a fifth wheel- everybody’s taking the ball to the basket as soon as they get it. MCW is a guy who runs an offense. He’s supposed to be a great penetrator who can draw the defense to him by scoring and then dish off and who can also hit the outside shot. Some people want him to become our point guard immediately but that’s not going to happen. Others say he will at least be part of the rotation. Like Cooney I just don’t think we need him, this year and since he clearly needs to get stronger, I would think he could be a red shirt candidate. But, if something bad happens with Waiters, we could see a lot of him. SUMMARY: The key to the whole season is the development of the big men. If Melo and Keita aren’t much better than last year and Christmas isn’t ready to make a major contribution, this is going to be a very disappointing season. But, again Boeheim doesn’t seem to be worried about that so I would expect to see a much improved Melo and Keita and a productive Christmas. A second favorable development would be for one or more of the players from the other three positions to rise above the level of a position player and become a genuine star- someone who could carry the team during a shooting slump, have an explosive five minutes that gives us a good lead or makes the big shot at the end of the game. I think the best candidates are CJ Fair and Dion Waiters. Fair needs to show a reliable jumper and Waiters needs to get back his above-the-rim mojo. I think we’ve seen what we are going to see from Joseph, Jardine and Triche. They could be more consistent but they aren’t going to sprout wings. The window of opportunity may have closed for Southerland and Jones. It hasn’t opened yet for Carter-Williams and Cooney. An average Syracuse team wins about 25 games. In a bad year we win about 20 games. In a good year, we win about 30 games. We got to the Final Four about once a decade and each time we’ve done that in the Boeheim Era we’ve wound up playing for the national championship. We won it once, should have won it another time and played a great team close the other time. If the big men come through and Fair and/or Waiters explode we’ll have one of those 30 win teams and this could be another Final Four team or even a national champion, (consider that the 9th place team in this conference won it last year). If nobody explodes but the big men get the job done, we’ll win at least 25. If the big men don’t come through it could also be a 20 win team, which would be a good year for most skills but not here. Now it’s time to play the games. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?