sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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Interesting game tonight. Another bad crowd, with an especially pathetic showing by the students. We have already been eliminated for the attendance crown for this season and might even finish lower than 2nd. Not good.
What was good was the NA performance, sung by a talented woman from Indian River. Impressive, one of the 10 best NAs I have heard at the Dome.
On to the game. TS played a 2-3 zone all game long, supplemented by some pressure defense. SU did a good job handling the pressure, mostly by having TB take the ball up.
The defense continues to look good. With the possible exception of MM, there are no weak links with this group. Everyone is long, quick and agile. Add Matt helps compensate for any weaknesses he has by being the most physical player on the team (and maybe the best rebounder). PC didn't block a lot of shots or get a ton of rebounds like last game, but he made it hard for TS to score in the paint. His defensive positioning is vastly better than last season and he is showing he can finish when he gets the ball in scoring position on the low post. Combine his improvements with the advanced play of true fresh center BS and it appears A;Len Griffin is doing a hell of a job coaching up our big guys.
They got a couple of alley oops to their 7'2 center setting up behind our center where I think OB fell asleep a little, and they got some open 3s, but some of that was excellent passing. They had a few guys who passed it well.
TB got 2 fouls with about 10 minutes left in the first half and sat the rest of the half out, giving GT a chance to play quality minutes. Geno took advantage and ended up our leading scorer at halftime with 11 points. Good for him he is looking more comfortable and looked to score more. His defense looks good too. Hope he turned a corner today.
FH played some great games early last season before falling apart, but his play was really inconsistent. He seemed to play well against bad teams and poorly against good ones. So far this year, I am seeing 3 changes: 1) his defense is noticably better 2) he is shooting the ball a lot better, especially from the outside and 3) he is far more consistent to date. Based on his past, I have no idea what we are getting from him the rest of the season. He could average 14 ppg and 6 apg or 5 ppg and 2 apg. Everybody is going to say as FH goes, Syracuse goes. And you know what? I think they will be right. Props to Frank for getting off to a very good start.
Our half court offense has been less than stellar to date. We didn't get points from the press tonight (heck, we didn't press at all). But it didn't hurt us because our half court offense was better. Why? We did some interesting stuff, trying to attack their zone from just in front of the foul line (as we have seen others try against the SU 2-3 for many years).
OB wasn't good at it but when MD tried, good things happened consistently. I think he might be our best passer. He anticipates well and just has an advanced feel for the game. He also moves without the ball really well and presents himself to get the ball in good places a lot. I don't want to overly praise Marek. He missed a number of easy shots under the basket, isn't a threat to score outside 15 feet from the basket and is going to have lots of TOs early in his career due to his lack of strength and girth. But man, he does a lot of things well. One is positioning himself on defense, where he has a knack for consistently being in the right place. With his ability to pass it, hit the offensive boards and his aggressive nature when in scoring position, he is someone defenses have to account for. Can he continue to play at this level against forwards that are his height and weigh 220 or 230? I am not sure.
OB is struggling some on offense, not shooting well. But he still is contributing on the boards and his defense is quite good. It looks like he is going to draw a lot of fouls.
BS continues to impress. He shot it well again, got a nice block and made a great pass from the high post to MD. He is another that will get fouled a lot, has to shoot better from the FT line. Love his feel for the game. Looks like he is going to split time with PC almost down the middle. I think they are going to make a good pair.
MM looks kind of lost on offense. He seems rushed, really tense and really short of confidence on the court. Seems like he gets his shot blocked 50% of the time, struggles to make routine passes and while he knows he has to be more aggressive on offense, is not kind sure how to do it. He is a smart kid and I think he will figure it out, but he is in a race against time. As the opponents get tougher, opportunities to prove himself will decrease. Hope he steps up with a double figure scoring game soon.
HW barely played. When he was in, he passed the ball to someone else right away and didn't seem comfortable. Hard to say what he is capable of so far.
Miscellaneous Stuff:
The traditional running of the flags has traditionally been done at the four minute mark, but has apparently been moved to the 8 minute mark (or thereabouts). Also, it has traditionally been with 5 flags: a giant S and smaller C, U, S and E flags. They are using 9 now and spelling out Syracuse. That necessitated having 4 female cheerleaders carry flags. Maybe adding the additional flags started earlier than theirs year but this is the first year I have notified the change. It looks good.
Spirits available, along with lots of beer choices, a bunch of wine choices and wine slushes too? Nice. But what about ginger ale? If anyone is listening, Schweppes is preferred.
Good game. This team just might be pretty good before all is said and done.
What was good was the NA performance, sung by a talented woman from Indian River. Impressive, one of the 10 best NAs I have heard at the Dome.
On to the game. TS played a 2-3 zone all game long, supplemented by some pressure defense. SU did a good job handling the pressure, mostly by having TB take the ball up.
The defense continues to look good. With the possible exception of MM, there are no weak links with this group. Everyone is long, quick and agile. Add Matt helps compensate for any weaknesses he has by being the most physical player on the team (and maybe the best rebounder). PC didn't block a lot of shots or get a ton of rebounds like last game, but he made it hard for TS to score in the paint. His defensive positioning is vastly better than last season and he is showing he can finish when he gets the ball in scoring position on the low post. Combine his improvements with the advanced play of true fresh center BS and it appears A;Len Griffin is doing a hell of a job coaching up our big guys.
They got a couple of alley oops to their 7'2 center setting up behind our center where I think OB fell asleep a little, and they got some open 3s, but some of that was excellent passing. They had a few guys who passed it well.
TB got 2 fouls with about 10 minutes left in the first half and sat the rest of the half out, giving GT a chance to play quality minutes. Geno took advantage and ended up our leading scorer at halftime with 11 points. Good for him he is looking more comfortable and looked to score more. His defense looks good too. Hope he turned a corner today.
FH played some great games early last season before falling apart, but his play was really inconsistent. He seemed to play well against bad teams and poorly against good ones. So far this year, I am seeing 3 changes: 1) his defense is noticably better 2) he is shooting the ball a lot better, especially from the outside and 3) he is far more consistent to date. Based on his past, I have no idea what we are getting from him the rest of the season. He could average 14 ppg and 6 apg or 5 ppg and 2 apg. Everybody is going to say as FH goes, Syracuse goes. And you know what? I think they will be right. Props to Frank for getting off to a very good start.
Our half court offense has been less than stellar to date. We didn't get points from the press tonight (heck, we didn't press at all). But it didn't hurt us because our half court offense was better. Why? We did some interesting stuff, trying to attack their zone from just in front of the foul line (as we have seen others try against the SU 2-3 for many years).
OB wasn't good at it but when MD tried, good things happened consistently. I think he might be our best passer. He anticipates well and just has an advanced feel for the game. He also moves without the ball really well and presents himself to get the ball in good places a lot. I don't want to overly praise Marek. He missed a number of easy shots under the basket, isn't a threat to score outside 15 feet from the basket and is going to have lots of TOs early in his career due to his lack of strength and girth. But man, he does a lot of things well. One is positioning himself on defense, where he has a knack for consistently being in the right place. With his ability to pass it, hit the offensive boards and his aggressive nature when in scoring position, he is someone defenses have to account for. Can he continue to play at this level against forwards that are his height and weigh 220 or 230? I am not sure.
OB is struggling some on offense, not shooting well. But he still is contributing on the boards and his defense is quite good. It looks like he is going to draw a lot of fouls.
BS continues to impress. He shot it well again, got a nice block and made a great pass from the high post to MD. He is another that will get fouled a lot, has to shoot better from the FT line. Love his feel for the game. Looks like he is going to split time with PC almost down the middle. I think they are going to make a good pair.
MM looks kind of lost on offense. He seems rushed, really tense and really short of confidence on the court. Seems like he gets his shot blocked 50% of the time, struggles to make routine passes and while he knows he has to be more aggressive on offense, is not kind sure how to do it. He is a smart kid and I think he will figure it out, but he is in a race against time. As the opponents get tougher, opportunities to prove himself will decrease. Hope he steps up with a double figure scoring game soon.
HW barely played. When he was in, he passed the ball to someone else right away and didn't seem comfortable. Hard to say what he is capable of so far.
Miscellaneous Stuff:
The traditional running of the flags has traditionally been done at the four minute mark, but has apparently been moved to the 8 minute mark (or thereabouts). Also, it has traditionally been with 5 flags: a giant S and smaller C, U, S and E flags. They are using 9 now and spelling out Syracuse. That necessitated having 4 female cheerleaders carry flags. Maybe adding the additional flags started earlier than theirs year but this is the first year I have notified the change. It looks good.
Spirits available, along with lots of beer choices, a bunch of wine choices and wine slushes too? Nice. But what about ginger ale? If anyone is listening, Schweppes is preferred.
Good game. This team just might be pretty good before all is said and done.
