sutomcat
2024 Iggy Award (ACC Tournament Record)
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My wife and I sat in court side seats last night, courtesy of cto. Thanks again to her; it is a really special treat to sit courtside and the timing was great. What a nice way to see all the new players play in person for the first time.
I don't have time to break down things in great detail, so sorry in advance for that. Drawing conclusions based on a single game is not a good idea. But it isn't very fun to create a post that says 'too early to draw any conclusions', so I will throw caution to the wind and proceed.
Small crowd. Very bad turnout by the townies and an even worst turnout by the students. There were more students entertaining the students (SSS, cheerleaders and dance team) than there were students to be entertained. It was quiet too.
The refs were a lot more relaxed than in a normal game, spent a lot of time talking to players, explaining why fouls were called, joking with the players, etc. Everyone got along swimmingly.
The squeaking of sneakers is really loud when you are court side. I love the sound. Would be happy to sit through a game sometime where the only sound was the sound of the sneakers squeaking on the floor.
The SU players look supportive of each other and play unselfishly. But it is clear some of them are not used to playing together. There are lot of issues with positioning, and teamwork type things like setting picks, calling out picks, executing pick and rolls, etc. are not being executed well. Players are feeling each other out...more so at this point in the season than I can ever remember. Understandable given the extreme turnover and number of new players out there in the rotation.
Speaking of the rotation, it is beginning to settle out, starting with the decision to redshirt MM. He looked in good spirits last night but was still dressed much like he would be playing. No dress clothes. It has to be hard to adjust to sitting out a whole season and I feel for him. He seems to be taking it well so far.
Some observations...
AW3 obviously had a good game on offense. LeMoyne actually did a good job trying to defend him and he rarely had an open look at the basket. He has a really good move where he starts driving to the basket and quickly pulls up for a fadeaway jumper. With his size and strength, it is a really hard shot to block and last night anyway, he seems to hit it just about every time he tried it. Definitely not comfortable going all the way to the basket, even against the little people of LeMoyne. But he was a man among boys and his stats showed that.
On defense, he was not impressive at the top of the zone or on the baseline. Not many Orangemen were. The Dolphins did a good job getting the ball in the paint, where most of the SU defenders would close in, then a quick pass was made to the perimeter where there always seemed to be an open player for a great look at a 3. Thought SU played the 2-3 with lethargy and it was alarming how little attention was paid to their good outside shooters. To me, one of the ways you can tell if the 2-3 is going to be really good in a given season is how well the players tilt the zone to the good shooters. They were awful at it in the first half. The good news is that it was better in the second half. Not great but better. I think AW3 is going to be somewhat of a liability up top. Just not quick enough, agile enough to be top notch. His height is a big asset and it looks like he is not going to be easy to get around either. JG has the quickness and agility but not the height to be really good. He plays pretty physical and I think will be okay preventing penetration inside. Both should be adequate defenders up top.
FH has the potential to be really good defensively. Has all the raw tools to be a premiere defender but I haven't seen great results yet. It usually takes a year or two to get good at playing up top. Looks like he is improving. Hope by the end of the season, he is the excellent defender he is capable of being.
Right now, I think TB is our best defender up top. He has exceptional quickness and size and I think some players just have a gift for anticipation. He is one of those guys. Just a really smart player. Can defend in the open court, in transition, is physical enough to stop penetration, has great hands. Pretty impressive stuff for a true frosh.
Thought FH looked good on the offensive side. Only forced the ball into a tight spot once, was more patient, had some nice passes and ran the offense much better than in the first game, when the match up zone Indiana PA used gave him some issues. He is shooting it better for now, though it remains to be seen what happens when he has a hand in his face against good defensive teams.
LeMoyne played man all game long and was surprisingly effective with it for a while. Thought it looked like they got really tired and broken in the second half. Really liked their ball movement and the way they attacked the 2-3. They even did a good job against our press. Beilein looks to be a really good young coach. I see good things for them the rest of the season.
LeMoyne left JG alone when he had the ball, content to let him launch his set shot 3 unguarded. He didn't shoot it really well and did most of his damage inside, where he is surprisingly adept at getting off shots under the basket. Looks like he will probably draw a lot of fouls with his style of play. I don't know if he is a true PG; this guy is good at getting his shot off and likes to score. If JG won round one of the PG competition, FH won the second. One thought: I bet we got the transfers with the prettiest and ugliest jump shots in the transfer derby this off season.
Thought TB was the best athlete on the floor again. Stayed on the perimeter most of the first game but against the LeMoyne man, took his man into the paint whenever he wanted. Really good in transition too, is already our best finisher on the fast break. Could well lead the team in fouls drawn as a frosh. Again, I like his basketball IQ. He isn't forcing shots, committing foolish fouls, throwing the ball away, and all the other things true frosh almost always do. He is off to a really good start.
TL had a bad game. I don't think he scored until early in the second half. He had good looks from the 3 point circle but again shot poorly from there. Was doubled when he got the ball in the paint. Had little room there to drive, as the Dolphins packed inside and dared SU players to take outside shots a lot. These games are bad matchups for TL. He is at his best against a zone or playing against a bigger, slower guy in man defense. Which is one of the reasons I think he is going to play a lot of minutes at center this year. More than I thought originally. Despite his problems on the offensive end, he rebounded the ball really well and played good defense. Looks a lot stronger and I think he might give TRob some serious competition as the best rebounder on the team this season.
I think the first sub both halves was DC3 coming out, replaced by TB. Regardless, when it happened, TL moved to center. That tells me a lot about where he is going to play this year.
I only see PC playing when we press. I think he is being groomed to be a specialist here. Looked like his right leg was bothering him some. He runs well and looks reasonably athletic but I am not seeing him go all out to get blocks much. Doesn't anticipate well, is out of position a lot, doesn't appear to have a great feel for the game. All this is pretty common for a young big guy. Some learn and get a lot better. Some do not. He already is much more advanced than Cat Rescuer but isn't very close to where Fab Melo was, or even Rak when he was a frosh or soph. Offensively, he doesn't set up well down low, doesn't use his body well and doesn't have much in the way of moves. He is okay rebounding...that is probably his best skill right now. Didn't score against the Dolphins. I think that will be the case for a lot of games this year. Right now, I don't see him as a premiere shot blocker but he certainly has the potential to emerge as one.
TT is at the other end of the basketball IQ scale. Just knows how to play, is well coached and knows how to use his body to make space, keeps the ball high, is good at getting his shot off in traffic, etc. Not sure he is fast enough to be a great defender on the baseline but he is agile enough and tall enough to be better than average and might already be at that level. Spent his time at forward. There is a lot to like about him.
TRob had kind of a quiet game. Usual blue collar game. Rebounded the ball well, especially on the offensive boards. So far this year, when he gets the ball in good position, he is scoring. He is never going to be a 15 ppg guy and that is okay.
How good can this team be? It has a lot of answers. Should get better as the players get used to each other. At this point, I think it is likely it will be in the top ten at the end of the regular season.
I don't have time to break down things in great detail, so sorry in advance for that. Drawing conclusions based on a single game is not a good idea. But it isn't very fun to create a post that says 'too early to draw any conclusions', so I will throw caution to the wind and proceed.
Small crowd. Very bad turnout by the townies and an even worst turnout by the students. There were more students entertaining the students (SSS, cheerleaders and dance team) than there were students to be entertained. It was quiet too.
The refs were a lot more relaxed than in a normal game, spent a lot of time talking to players, explaining why fouls were called, joking with the players, etc. Everyone got along swimmingly.
The squeaking of sneakers is really loud when you are court side. I love the sound. Would be happy to sit through a game sometime where the only sound was the sound of the sneakers squeaking on the floor.
The SU players look supportive of each other and play unselfishly. But it is clear some of them are not used to playing together. There are lot of issues with positioning, and teamwork type things like setting picks, calling out picks, executing pick and rolls, etc. are not being executed well. Players are feeling each other out...more so at this point in the season than I can ever remember. Understandable given the extreme turnover and number of new players out there in the rotation.
Speaking of the rotation, it is beginning to settle out, starting with the decision to redshirt MM. He looked in good spirits last night but was still dressed much like he would be playing. No dress clothes. It has to be hard to adjust to sitting out a whole season and I feel for him. He seems to be taking it well so far.
Some observations...
AW3 obviously had a good game on offense. LeMoyne actually did a good job trying to defend him and he rarely had an open look at the basket. He has a really good move where he starts driving to the basket and quickly pulls up for a fadeaway jumper. With his size and strength, it is a really hard shot to block and last night anyway, he seems to hit it just about every time he tried it. Definitely not comfortable going all the way to the basket, even against the little people of LeMoyne. But he was a man among boys and his stats showed that.
On defense, he was not impressive at the top of the zone or on the baseline. Not many Orangemen were. The Dolphins did a good job getting the ball in the paint, where most of the SU defenders would close in, then a quick pass was made to the perimeter where there always seemed to be an open player for a great look at a 3. Thought SU played the 2-3 with lethargy and it was alarming how little attention was paid to their good outside shooters. To me, one of the ways you can tell if the 2-3 is going to be really good in a given season is how well the players tilt the zone to the good shooters. They were awful at it in the first half. The good news is that it was better in the second half. Not great but better. I think AW3 is going to be somewhat of a liability up top. Just not quick enough, agile enough to be top notch. His height is a big asset and it looks like he is not going to be easy to get around either. JG has the quickness and agility but not the height to be really good. He plays pretty physical and I think will be okay preventing penetration inside. Both should be adequate defenders up top.
FH has the potential to be really good defensively. Has all the raw tools to be a premiere defender but I haven't seen great results yet. It usually takes a year or two to get good at playing up top. Looks like he is improving. Hope by the end of the season, he is the excellent defender he is capable of being.
Right now, I think TB is our best defender up top. He has exceptional quickness and size and I think some players just have a gift for anticipation. He is one of those guys. Just a really smart player. Can defend in the open court, in transition, is physical enough to stop penetration, has great hands. Pretty impressive stuff for a true frosh.
Thought FH looked good on the offensive side. Only forced the ball into a tight spot once, was more patient, had some nice passes and ran the offense much better than in the first game, when the match up zone Indiana PA used gave him some issues. He is shooting it better for now, though it remains to be seen what happens when he has a hand in his face against good defensive teams.
LeMoyne played man all game long and was surprisingly effective with it for a while. Thought it looked like they got really tired and broken in the second half. Really liked their ball movement and the way they attacked the 2-3. They even did a good job against our press. Beilein looks to be a really good young coach. I see good things for them the rest of the season.
LeMoyne left JG alone when he had the ball, content to let him launch his set shot 3 unguarded. He didn't shoot it really well and did most of his damage inside, where he is surprisingly adept at getting off shots under the basket. Looks like he will probably draw a lot of fouls with his style of play. I don't know if he is a true PG; this guy is good at getting his shot off and likes to score. If JG won round one of the PG competition, FH won the second. One thought: I bet we got the transfers with the prettiest and ugliest jump shots in the transfer derby this off season.
Thought TB was the best athlete on the floor again. Stayed on the perimeter most of the first game but against the LeMoyne man, took his man into the paint whenever he wanted. Really good in transition too, is already our best finisher on the fast break. Could well lead the team in fouls drawn as a frosh. Again, I like his basketball IQ. He isn't forcing shots, committing foolish fouls, throwing the ball away, and all the other things true frosh almost always do. He is off to a really good start.
TL had a bad game. I don't think he scored until early in the second half. He had good looks from the 3 point circle but again shot poorly from there. Was doubled when he got the ball in the paint. Had little room there to drive, as the Dolphins packed inside and dared SU players to take outside shots a lot. These games are bad matchups for TL. He is at his best against a zone or playing against a bigger, slower guy in man defense. Which is one of the reasons I think he is going to play a lot of minutes at center this year. More than I thought originally. Despite his problems on the offensive end, he rebounded the ball really well and played good defense. Looks a lot stronger and I think he might give TRob some serious competition as the best rebounder on the team this season.
I think the first sub both halves was DC3 coming out, replaced by TB. Regardless, when it happened, TL moved to center. That tells me a lot about where he is going to play this year.
I only see PC playing when we press. I think he is being groomed to be a specialist here. Looked like his right leg was bothering him some. He runs well and looks reasonably athletic but I am not seeing him go all out to get blocks much. Doesn't anticipate well, is out of position a lot, doesn't appear to have a great feel for the game. All this is pretty common for a young big guy. Some learn and get a lot better. Some do not. He already is much more advanced than Cat Rescuer but isn't very close to where Fab Melo was, or even Rak when he was a frosh or soph. Offensively, he doesn't set up well down low, doesn't use his body well and doesn't have much in the way of moves. He is okay rebounding...that is probably his best skill right now. Didn't score against the Dolphins. I think that will be the case for a lot of games this year. Right now, I don't see him as a premiere shot blocker but he certainly has the potential to emerge as one.
TT is at the other end of the basketball IQ scale. Just knows how to play, is well coached and knows how to use his body to make space, keeps the ball high, is good at getting his shot off in traffic, etc. Not sure he is fast enough to be a great defender on the baseline but he is agile enough and tall enough to be better than average and might already be at that level. Spent his time at forward. There is a lot to like about him.
TRob had kind of a quiet game. Usual blue collar game. Rebounded the ball well, especially on the offensive boards. So far this year, when he gets the ball in good position, he is scoring. He is never going to be a 15 ppg guy and that is okay.
How good can this team be? It has a lot of answers. Should get better as the players get used to each other. At this point, I think it is likely it will be in the top ten at the end of the regular season.
