My Take

[sutomcat]

Small crowd, bad turnout by students, not much buzz. Even the NA singer was not on her A game.

Thought Cornell was very dangerous. They have some experience and a bunch of players with skills on offense. I think #10 will surely be first team All Ivy and might end of player of the year.

They were expecting us to press and did a really nice job breaking it. It was the first time the press didn't play a big role in a game. But there were two problems they ran into that killed them.

1) they do not play good defense

And

2) their execution on offense was hindered greatly by a stellar effort by the Syracuse 2-3 defense.

I talked after the first exhibition about the defensive potential of this team. It was realized last night. The press has been excellent but last night was the first time the half court defense was special. All the elements are there: a couple of agile, shot blocking centers, some long, agile and athletic forwards who can cover vast expanses of space, and some long, fast, ball hawking guards whose length extends the 2-3 zone longer than it normally can go.

Anyway, the kids played really hard on defense and intimidated the hell out of Cornell. I think they only made 5 shots from the field in the whole first half, and 13 for the game. If not for some Ivy-loving refs, they might not have scored 35.

Thought Frank looked to score a little too much but he was solid otherwise. Geno played better and looked better running the offense, though he needs work here too. TB did a better job not forcing his shot and looked comfortable playing in the back of the 2-3 (with Geno getting more PT, this is happening more).

First time MD contributed in half court basketball. Got some boards, played solid defense and flew around like a mad man. MM was surely told he needed to look to score more, as he was noticably more aggressive attacking the rim. He is probably our best rebounder and does a pretty job job on defense too.

Good game for the team. Progress was made. They have a chance to be good if they are willing to break their butts in defense every game.

 

[20Plus]

Small crowd, bad turnout by students, not much buzz. Even the NA singer was not on her A game.

Thought Cornell was very dangerous. They have some experience and a bunch of players with skills on offense. I think #10 will surely be first team All Ivy and might end of player of the year.

They were expecting us to press and did a really nice job breaking it. It was the first time the press didn't play a big role in a game. But there were two problems they ran into that killed them.

1) they do not play good defense

And

2) their execution on offense was hindered greatly by a stellar effort by the Syracuse 2-3 defense.

I talked after the first exhibition about the defensive potential of this team. It was realized last night. The press has been excellent but last night was the first time the half court defense was special. All the elements are there: a couple of agile, shot blocking centers, some long, agile and athletic forwards who can cover vast expanses of space, and some long, fast, ball hawking guards whose length extends the 2-3 zone longer than it normally can go.

Anyway, the kids played really hard on defense and intimidated the hell out of Cornell. I think they only made 5 shots from the field in the whole first half, and 13 for the game. If not for some Ivy-loving refs, they might not have scored 35.

Thought Frank looked to score a little too much but he was solid otherwise. Geno played better and looked better running the offense, though he needs work here too. TB did a better job not forcing his shot and looked comfortable playing in the back of the 2-3 (with Geno getting more PT, this is happening more).

First time MD contributed in half court basketball. Got some boards, played solid defense and flew around like a mad man. MM was surely told he needed to look to score more, as he was noticably more aggressive attacking the rim. He is probably our best rebounder and does a pretty job job on defense too.

Good game for the team. Progress was made. They have a chance to be good if they are willing to break their butts in defense every game.

Love these "my take"

Mine is our defense will be there every night and we're going to be a team to be reckoned with

our offense will come along and I am so excited about this team. Thorpe is the wildcard for me and I think it's so funny how so many people have low expectations on this team. Just like the year we went to the final four and nobody thought we had a chance at the tournament and a few on the board said no we can get in we can get in and were laughed off the board.

It's not blind optimism your faith it's the facts when you watch players for so many years you know which ones are going to work in our system and watch ones are not!

We have a bunch of guys who are going to work in the system.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Great post Tomcat.

 

[bballbeadle]

Tom, I can’t quibble with your analysis but I will with your first sentence. I thought the crowd was great (albeit a little quiet) and the students filled up the bottom part of their seats and there were some on the top as well. (I do think student attendance is horrific overall, so last night was better than I expected.) We had 21,000+ and I believe that was a fair estimate. Also, the singer was clearly sick. She had a beautiful tone but couldn’t hit the high notes.

I am going to have to give Gary a good talking to. He walked away from the game mournfully and I was so pleasantly surprised! I am glad to read that much of the board agrees with me that the team looked better overall than its first two games and shows some promise. Gary is a glass half empty and I am a glass half full. Gary needs to get a new glass!

 

[Cheriehoop]

I thought the crowd size was good at 21,700+. Looked back and it was 1,200 better than last year and 3,000 more than in 2015.

I sit next to the students and to their credit they are trying to coordinate things ( banging on the bleachers for foul shots etc) and during team introductions they have a different gesture for each starter. Tyus Battle- shooting an arrow, Matthew Moyer - playing an imaginary violin, Oshae Brisset- they put their hands over their hearts for ‘O Say’, Pascal Chukwu- they put fingers around their eyes for goggles, Frank Howard - not sure but it looks like they are putting their hands in prayer. I thought the singer who was honored as a veteran started the anthem too high which doomed it when she came to the actual high parts.

Team sure came out better than they did against their first 2 opponents. Nothing could have been worse (I hope) than not scoring for over the first 4 minutes in the last game. Cornell was never really in this game which was a welcome relief.

 

[Jack Hall]

Small crowd, bad turnout by students, not much buzz. Even the NA singer was not on her A game.

Thought Cornell was very dangerous. They have some experience and a bunch of players with skills on offense. I think #10 will surely be first team All Ivy and might end of player of the year.

They were expecting us to press and did a really nice job breaking it. It was the first time the press didn't play a big role in a game. But there were two problems they ran into that killed them.

1) they do not play good defense

And

2) their execution on offense was hindered greatly by a stellar effort by the Syracuse 2-3 defense.

I talked after the first exhibition about the defensive potential of this team. It was realized last night. The press has been excellent but last night was the first time the half court defense was special. All the elements are there: a couple of agile, shot blocking centers, some long, agile and athletic forwards who can cover vast expanses of space, and some long, fast, ball hawking guards whose length extends the 2-3 zone longer than it normally can go.

Anyway, the kids played really hard on defense and intimidated the hell out of Cornell. I think they only made 5 shots from the field in the whole first half, and 13 for the game. If not for some Ivy-loving refs, they might not have scored 35.

Thought Frank looked to score a little too much but he was solid otherwise. Geno played better and looked better running the offense, though he needs work here too. TB did a better job not forcing his shot and looked comfortable playing in the back of the 2-3 (with Geno getting more PT, this is happening more).

First time MD contributed in half court basketball. Got some boards, played solid defense and flew around like a mad man. MM was surely told he needed to look to score more, as he was noticably more aggressive attacking the rim. He is probably our best rebounder and does a pretty job job on defense too.

Good game for the team. Progress was made. They have a chance to be good if they are willing to break their butts in defense every game.

Good post as usual but do you truly believe a team can reach its defensive potential against Cornell?? And if they do is that a good thing? I simply have no clue what our front line will do against the likes of UNC , UVa, Lou, Miami, Duke but its not that much fun to think about. The more I watch college bball, imo obviously you just have to hope most teams really suck as all the best players leave for nba after 1-2 seasons. Ie its not about absolute standards but relative standards...

 

[sutomcat]

Good post as usual but do you truly believe a team can reach its defensive potential against Cornell?? And if they do is that a good thing? I simply have no clue what our front line will do against the likes of UNC , UVa, Lou, Miami, Duke but its not that much fun to think about. The more I watch college bball, imo obviously you just have to hope most teams really suck as all the best players leave for nba after 1-2 seasons. Ie its not about absolute standards but relative standards...

No question there is a big jump in competition from Cornell to teams like Iona, St Bonaventure and St Johns.

Shutting down Cornell guarantees nothing, especially given the shaky half court defense the team played in the exhibition games against even worse competition.

I am just saying for this win to beat good teams, they are going to have to play very good defense and do it for 2 halves. I think this team has the raw tools to do it and do it well but young teams are notorious for being inconsistent. Yes, it will just get more difficult as the level of competition increases. I hope the kids are ready to work hard and buy into this...

 

[SWC75]

I thought the crowd size was good at 21,700+. Looked back and it was 1,200 better than last year and 3,000 more than in 2015.

I sit next to the students and to their credit they are trying to coordinate things ( banging on the bleachers for foul shots etc) and during team introductions they have a different gesture for each starter. Tyus Battle- shooting an arrow, Matthew Moyer - playing an imaginary violin, Oshae Brisset- they put their hands over their hearts for ‘O Say’, Pascal Chukwu- they put fingers around their eyes for goggles, Frank Howard - not sure but it looks like they are putting their hands in prayer. I thought the singer who was honored as a veteran started the anthem too high which doomed it when she came to the actual high parts.

Team sure came out better than they did against their first 2 opponents. Nothing could have been worse (I hope) than not scoring for over the first 4 minutes in the last game. Cornell was never really in this game which was a welcome relief.

I think it's very nice of the national anthem singer to inquire if Oshae can see.