sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Maybe 16K in the stands tonight. They were quite loud and receptive. No band, no cheerleaders, no dance team. Not even a Dome Ranger.
The NA was sung by some guy. Didn't get his name but he sang acapella, did a nice job and got a good ovation from the crowd.
In my last My Take post, I touched on the next game against Tulane and called them the Blue Waves. Cto corrected me. In a weird twist, Tulane showed up for the game in blue uniforms (shirts and shorts). Maybe I channeled a vision of this? Rod Serling moment? Props to the Southern Tier folks for the Serling call out.
SU played zone almost all game, put the press on a couple of times for relatively brief periods. Tulane handled the press pretty well. Might be losing some of its punch now. Looked like the Green/Blue Wave strategy was to milk the clock on each possession as long as possible. They did a pretty good job early, taking a small lead and getting a number of quality shots with good passing and fine patience. But it slowly fell apart, they had at least 3 shot clock violations and forced some really bad shots with almost no time on the clock.
Tulane was able to hurt us on the offensive glass, especially early in the game. Keita and Fair had position but were jumped over for rebounds, a trend that continues to raise concerns.
The game was broken open by another extended run by Syracuse, lead by JS, who continues to show wild inconsistencies in his game. There are times, even in the same game where he plays 6 or 7 minutes with nothing to show for it. And other times when he gets white hot and explodes for 9 or 12 points in the course of a couple of minutes. He is the streakiest of streak shooters. Especially when paired with Brendan Triche...those two together can do a lot of damage in the short time and they did it again when SU went on a 19-0 run to end the half.
Triche had a wrap on his right wrist today but shot the ball well anyway. Still looked hampered by the bad foot a little, but he played stellar defense and made a lot of good passes to set up easy baskets.
Dion again had a heavy wrap on his left wrist. Started off pretty quiet but he eventually got into the flow and ended up the leading scorer for SU again (I believe he has done this 4 of the last 5 games now). For those that do not attend games, I believe he has become the crowd favorite. There is an audible buzz when he gets the ball anywhere near scoring position and when he does something good, the ringing applause is noticeably louder for him than it is for anyone else on the team. Syracuse loves a good showman.
Another game where pretty much everyone played well. Fair was solid. Joseph did his usual nice job. Melo got in foul trouble, almost picked up a 4th PF in the 1st half but blocked some shots and intimidated people inside like he has been doing all season. Scored a couple of baskets too.
Scoop was mostly Good Scoop tonight. Was almost pulled early after some bad play but he was at the foul line so when it came time to take Scoop out he had to take out BT instead.
Christmas played a lot more than he was playing early in the season. Made some plays inside, drew some fouls. I think he is probably our best rebounding big guy, plays passable defense inside and finishes well too. Keita is going to have to work very hard to keep Christmas from stealing PT from him as the backup center.
MCW again received quality minutes at PG, again impressed with his savvy play. Is very effective with floaters in the paint, again showed uncommon passing ability. If he can develop a quick and accurate jumper, he is going to be a dominant force. GMac is working with him on refining his shooting stroke so right now, he might be taking one step backwards to take 2 steps forward later.
Tulane has a nice bunch of athletes. Quick, aggressive, they played hard and competed very well on the boards, where we might have gotten out-rebounded again. They don't have much of an inside game and don't have a good PG to run their half court but they have talent and will win some games this year.
The most intriguing played on the Green Waves was a foreign player named Malte Ziegenhagen. Malte wore his long hair in a bun, highlighted with a hand band. With his lack of muscle, lack of body and facial hair and elegant air and regal style, he looked more like a princess than a basketball player.
Malte Ziegenhagen, The Epitome of German Elegance (Not Real)
Malte Ziegenhagen, The Epitome of German Elegance ( Real)
Malte was beaten like a drum trying to play defense. At one point he found himself assigned to cover Dion. About 2 seconds later, he was on the ground and Dion was laying a finger roll gently into the basket. To Malte's credit, his misadventures on defense did not affect him on offense, where, against all odds, he hit a couple of 3s from deep in the corner to get Tulane within 20 of Syracuse.
Props to Big Mike T, who made the only 3 he took today. He was 3 for 3 from the 3 point circle last year and is now 4 for 4 this year. If he isn't the 2nd best walk on in the Big East, he is the 3rd (the others in contention are Brendan Reese and some big guy from UConn).
It has been a good run of cupcake treats for the team but I think we are all kind of bored with watching games where the only real point of interest to be determined during the game is whether Syracuse will score 75 points in the game and quality the fans for free tacos.
The game against Seton Hall has gotten a lot more interesting since they went 11-1 to start the season and won on the road in Dayton. I think we are very fortunate that the Pirates beat us, and beat us badly, in the Dome last year. That will hopefully ensure the team takes SHU seriously and is ready to play from the opening tip. Speaking of opening tips, Christmas won it but I think KJ was so surprised this happened that he did not pursue the ball hard and some munchkin on Tulane beat him to it. What have we won, 2 tips all season? Not good for one of the biggest teams in the country.
Best wishes for a great holiday for everyone on the board.
The NA was sung by some guy. Didn't get his name but he sang acapella, did a nice job and got a good ovation from the crowd.
In my last My Take post, I touched on the next game against Tulane and called them the Blue Waves. Cto corrected me. In a weird twist, Tulane showed up for the game in blue uniforms (shirts and shorts). Maybe I channeled a vision of this? Rod Serling moment? Props to the Southern Tier folks for the Serling call out.
SU played zone almost all game, put the press on a couple of times for relatively brief periods. Tulane handled the press pretty well. Might be losing some of its punch now. Looked like the Green/Blue Wave strategy was to milk the clock on each possession as long as possible. They did a pretty good job early, taking a small lead and getting a number of quality shots with good passing and fine patience. But it slowly fell apart, they had at least 3 shot clock violations and forced some really bad shots with almost no time on the clock.
Tulane was able to hurt us on the offensive glass, especially early in the game. Keita and Fair had position but were jumped over for rebounds, a trend that continues to raise concerns.
The game was broken open by another extended run by Syracuse, lead by JS, who continues to show wild inconsistencies in his game. There are times, even in the same game where he plays 6 or 7 minutes with nothing to show for it. And other times when he gets white hot and explodes for 9 or 12 points in the course of a couple of minutes. He is the streakiest of streak shooters. Especially when paired with Brendan Triche...those two together can do a lot of damage in the short time and they did it again when SU went on a 19-0 run to end the half.
Triche had a wrap on his right wrist today but shot the ball well anyway. Still looked hampered by the bad foot a little, but he played stellar defense and made a lot of good passes to set up easy baskets.
Dion again had a heavy wrap on his left wrist. Started off pretty quiet but he eventually got into the flow and ended up the leading scorer for SU again (I believe he has done this 4 of the last 5 games now). For those that do not attend games, I believe he has become the crowd favorite. There is an audible buzz when he gets the ball anywhere near scoring position and when he does something good, the ringing applause is noticeably louder for him than it is for anyone else on the team. Syracuse loves a good showman.
Another game where pretty much everyone played well. Fair was solid. Joseph did his usual nice job. Melo got in foul trouble, almost picked up a 4th PF in the 1st half but blocked some shots and intimidated people inside like he has been doing all season. Scored a couple of baskets too.
Scoop was mostly Good Scoop tonight. Was almost pulled early after some bad play but he was at the foul line so when it came time to take Scoop out he had to take out BT instead.
Christmas played a lot more than he was playing early in the season. Made some plays inside, drew some fouls. I think he is probably our best rebounding big guy, plays passable defense inside and finishes well too. Keita is going to have to work very hard to keep Christmas from stealing PT from him as the backup center.
MCW again received quality minutes at PG, again impressed with his savvy play. Is very effective with floaters in the paint, again showed uncommon passing ability. If he can develop a quick and accurate jumper, he is going to be a dominant force. GMac is working with him on refining his shooting stroke so right now, he might be taking one step backwards to take 2 steps forward later.
Tulane has a nice bunch of athletes. Quick, aggressive, they played hard and competed very well on the boards, where we might have gotten out-rebounded again. They don't have much of an inside game and don't have a good PG to run their half court but they have talent and will win some games this year.
The most intriguing played on the Green Waves was a foreign player named Malte Ziegenhagen. Malte wore his long hair in a bun, highlighted with a hand band. With his lack of muscle, lack of body and facial hair and elegant air and regal style, he looked more like a princess than a basketball player.
Malte Ziegenhagen, The Epitome of German Elegance (Not Real)
Malte Ziegenhagen, The Epitome of German Elegance ( Real)
Malte was beaten like a drum trying to play defense. At one point he found himself assigned to cover Dion. About 2 seconds later, he was on the ground and Dion was laying a finger roll gently into the basket. To Malte's credit, his misadventures on defense did not affect him on offense, where, against all odds, he hit a couple of 3s from deep in the corner to get Tulane within 20 of Syracuse.
Props to Big Mike T, who made the only 3 he took today. He was 3 for 3 from the 3 point circle last year and is now 4 for 4 this year. If he isn't the 2nd best walk on in the Big East, he is the 3rd (the others in contention are Brendan Reese and some big guy from UConn).
It has been a good run of cupcake treats for the team but I think we are all kind of bored with watching games where the only real point of interest to be determined during the game is whether Syracuse will score 75 points in the game and quality the fans for free tacos.
The game against Seton Hall has gotten a lot more interesting since they went 11-1 to start the season and won on the road in Dayton. I think we are very fortunate that the Pirates beat us, and beat us badly, in the Dome last year. That will hopefully ensure the team takes SHU seriously and is ready to play from the opening tip. Speaking of opening tips, Christmas won it but I think KJ was so surprised this happened that he did not pursue the ball hard and some munchkin on Tulane beat him to it. What have we won, 2 tips all season? Not good for one of the biggest teams in the country.
Best wishes for a great holiday for everyone on the board.
