sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Another small crowd, around 16K, understandable given it was the night before Thanksgiving and the students were away. An SU student sang the NA and did a good job. No cheerleaders, no SSS, no dance team, no HS band, no Otto. All there was to watch was basketball, and as it turns out, the game was a well played one between two good teams.
Toledo played Syracuse using a man to man defense all game long. SU was bigger, and quicker but the Blades were experienced, physical and well coached and did a pretty good job defending Syracuse. Tyus Battle in particular was bothered, as Toledo overplayed his dominant right hand and doubled him every time he touched the ball. Though he did make a couple really nice NBA moves for baskets early. Battle didn't do a good job finding the open man when doubled and forced a few shots but the Blades intent was to take away his ability to slash, so he had some good looks from the perimeter. But he didn't shoot it well from the outside and by and large wasn't his normal dominant self on offense.
Frank and Tyus appear to have a competition going regarding who can block the most shots from the perimeter this season. It is close; both are excellent at it and I can't recall a pair of guards we have had at the top of the 2-3 as good as these two are at this. It seems when a player gets his jumper blocked by these guys early, it has a big effect of the effectiveness of the outside shooters who got their shots blocked. They tend to pass on a lot of opportunities to shoot and/or take unusually long shots afterwards.
Anyway, that happened again last night, and it was on one of the block attempts that Tyus was injured. The Toledo guy, their best player, wisely faked a 3, got Battle in the air, saw there was not going to be contact, then moved into Tyus' way, causing him to flip and land really awkwardly.
For the first time this season, the bigs got into foul trouble and both ended up fouling out. Props to Toledo for doing a good job getting the ball into the paint. They were patient, and did a better job attacking the zone and getting the ball in front of the foul lane than the other teams we have played. Our centers were a little too aggressive, a little late abd the refs maybe a litter sympathetic to the Blades. They made a lot of calls where it appeared there was little or no contact. Anyway, it was a good lesson for our big men, who did not do a good job playing in foul trouble, and I think they will need to apply the lessons learned in the next 3 games.
As is his tendency, Marek didn't do much on offense. It is hard for him when the defense packs into the paint to take away slashing. He isn't a shooter at this point and can't muscle his way around either. His defense and rebounding were fine. With Toledo playing man, SU ran their normal pick and roll offense and he didn't get a chance to pass from the high post much.
Picking. There have been some rule changes in recent years designed to clean up the practice of setting picks and it has reduced their use to some extent (I think the latest change is that you can't set your feet wider than your shoulders). Anyway, this SU team appears to be bucking the trends and setting more picks, more effectively, than any in recent memory, OB, MD, PC and BS, I am talking about you. Well done. Tyus and Frank have gotten lots of good looks from the perimeter, or gotten free in the paint because of this.
With Tyus out, Frank became 'the man' for the first time in his career at SU. It was a big moment for him and he responded really well, making some big plays when we really needed him too. He has shown an ability to play well against cupcakes since his fresh season. He played 40 quality minutes last night against a solid team. Big night for him. I continue to be impressed by the vast improvement he has shown on the defensive end, where his inconsistency in the past was maddening.
I thought the game was won in the second half largely on the backs of three strong spurts by SU players. One was the spurt I just talked about by Frank after Tyus left the game hurt. Another was by Brissett late in the game, when he flashed some of his great potential with a series of points down the stretch, with the outcome of the game still very much not determined. Great to see a freshman stop up like that. He got another triple double. I think he has 3 already. The third key spurt was from a really unlikely source: Matt Moyer finally went off early in the second half, got things rolling and contributed with some good finishes down low, some big rebounds and even a key block and a key steal. He ended up playing the whole second half; he first extended playing time, and was solid. I thought he made a change in how he approached things on offense, moving more to the low post instead of hanging around the perimeter, where he has not been very effective. I hope to see more of that in future games.
Geno's injury looks like it is getting worse with every game. I am sure it didn't help playing 3 games so close together but I hope he can get some rest and treatment for it so he is ready for these next 3 games that will play a big role in determining the outcome of the season. After these games, I am hoping they can shut Geno down for a while, with the aim of getting him to 100% for conference play.
Maybe the most surprising thing about this team is how well they are rebounding, on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court. I thought we would be a fair to poor rebounding team but to date, they are killing teams in this area. Toledo was pretty big and strong, our bigs got in bad foul trouble, Tyus was largely a non factor and we still won pretty easily. A big part of that was good defense, but good rebounding was also a key. It will be interesting to see if they can continue to out rebound teams as the level of competition continues to ratchet up.
Toledo was a good team to play now. Their good work attacking the zone gives the SU players some film to watch to see where they went wrong and what they need to work on for next week, when they face better players with better coaching. I am fascinated to see how these kids react playing better teams starting next week.
Toledo played Syracuse using a man to man defense all game long. SU was bigger, and quicker but the Blades were experienced, physical and well coached and did a pretty good job defending Syracuse. Tyus Battle in particular was bothered, as Toledo overplayed his dominant right hand and doubled him every time he touched the ball. Though he did make a couple really nice NBA moves for baskets early. Battle didn't do a good job finding the open man when doubled and forced a few shots but the Blades intent was to take away his ability to slash, so he had some good looks from the perimeter. But he didn't shoot it well from the outside and by and large wasn't his normal dominant self on offense.
Frank and Tyus appear to have a competition going regarding who can block the most shots from the perimeter this season. It is close; both are excellent at it and I can't recall a pair of guards we have had at the top of the 2-3 as good as these two are at this. It seems when a player gets his jumper blocked by these guys early, it has a big effect of the effectiveness of the outside shooters who got their shots blocked. They tend to pass on a lot of opportunities to shoot and/or take unusually long shots afterwards.
Anyway, that happened again last night, and it was on one of the block attempts that Tyus was injured. The Toledo guy, their best player, wisely faked a 3, got Battle in the air, saw there was not going to be contact, then moved into Tyus' way, causing him to flip and land really awkwardly.
For the first time this season, the bigs got into foul trouble and both ended up fouling out. Props to Toledo for doing a good job getting the ball into the paint. They were patient, and did a better job attacking the zone and getting the ball in front of the foul lane than the other teams we have played. Our centers were a little too aggressive, a little late abd the refs maybe a litter sympathetic to the Blades. They made a lot of calls where it appeared there was little or no contact. Anyway, it was a good lesson for our big men, who did not do a good job playing in foul trouble, and I think they will need to apply the lessons learned in the next 3 games.
As is his tendency, Marek didn't do much on offense. It is hard for him when the defense packs into the paint to take away slashing. He isn't a shooter at this point and can't muscle his way around either. His defense and rebounding were fine. With Toledo playing man, SU ran their normal pick and roll offense and he didn't get a chance to pass from the high post much.
Picking. There have been some rule changes in recent years designed to clean up the practice of setting picks and it has reduced their use to some extent (I think the latest change is that you can't set your feet wider than your shoulders). Anyway, this SU team appears to be bucking the trends and setting more picks, more effectively, than any in recent memory, OB, MD, PC and BS, I am talking about you. Well done. Tyus and Frank have gotten lots of good looks from the perimeter, or gotten free in the paint because of this.
With Tyus out, Frank became 'the man' for the first time in his career at SU. It was a big moment for him and he responded really well, making some big plays when we really needed him too. He has shown an ability to play well against cupcakes since his fresh season. He played 40 quality minutes last night against a solid team. Big night for him. I continue to be impressed by the vast improvement he has shown on the defensive end, where his inconsistency in the past was maddening.
I thought the game was won in the second half largely on the backs of three strong spurts by SU players. One was the spurt I just talked about by Frank after Tyus left the game hurt. Another was by Brissett late in the game, when he flashed some of his great potential with a series of points down the stretch, with the outcome of the game still very much not determined. Great to see a freshman stop up like that. He got another triple double. I think he has 3 already. The third key spurt was from a really unlikely source: Matt Moyer finally went off early in the second half, got things rolling and contributed with some good finishes down low, some big rebounds and even a key block and a key steal. He ended up playing the whole second half; he first extended playing time, and was solid. I thought he made a change in how he approached things on offense, moving more to the low post instead of hanging around the perimeter, where he has not been very effective. I hope to see more of that in future games.
Geno's injury looks like it is getting worse with every game. I am sure it didn't help playing 3 games so close together but I hope he can get some rest and treatment for it so he is ready for these next 3 games that will play a big role in determining the outcome of the season. After these games, I am hoping they can shut Geno down for a while, with the aim of getting him to 100% for conference play.
Maybe the most surprising thing about this team is how well they are rebounding, on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court. I thought we would be a fair to poor rebounding team but to date, they are killing teams in this area. Toledo was pretty big and strong, our bigs got in bad foul trouble, Tyus was largely a non factor and we still won pretty easily. A big part of that was good defense, but good rebounding was also a key. It will be interesting to see if they can continue to out rebound teams as the level of competition continues to ratchet up.
Toledo was a good team to play now. Their good work attacking the zone gives the SU players some film to watch to see where they went wrong and what they need to work on for next week, when they face better players with better coaching. I am fascinated to see how these kids react playing better teams starting next week.
