sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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- 26,538
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Duke is an interesting team. They have a lot of talent but there is some disfunction going on and I don’t think they are playing fully up to their potential.
Bagley is a great talent. Carter is almost as good. But they play similar styles and sometimes get in each other’s way, Allen is a gifted passer and his defense is underrated and excellent. He anticipates really well, has quick hands and gets to a lot of loose balls. But he takes too many shots. When Duke needed a big basket, Grayson usually responded with a great entry pass into the lane or a perfect alley oop to a big.
You would think they would be better with Allen at SG and Duval at PG but he can’t run that offense well and they looked lost sometimes when he was in.
Can’t believe a Coach K team never could learn to play man defense. Their zone got carved up nicely (as nice as this Syracuse team can. rave an offense anyway) most of the game, as they put their forwards and guards on the perimeter and dared SU to pass the ball inside.
This made it easy for Syracuse to get the ball in the paint to our forwards, which led to a lot of points in the paint for Marek. His development from a guy who wouldn’t even look at the rim early in the season to the guy with the most reliable mid range jumper on the team was remarkable to watch.
Brissett and Chukwu also hurt the Dukies with points in the paint.
Oshae had.a long stretch once conference play started where he kept getting shots blocked and just could not finish but he made adjustments, got much better finishing plays aggressively (tried to dunk whenever possible, initiated contact whenever possible) and played a key role saving the season.
Chukwu’s development on offense reminds me a lot of how Rony Seikaly played early at Syracuse. Not saying he is going to put up numbers like Rony did, but he is not far from becoming a reliable option inside. He finished more plays late in the year and has misses got closer to makes down the stretch. He is another player who played banged up much of the season and will be markedly better if 100% healthy next year.
I hope all our forwards and centers spend a lot of time in the weight room, Baz included. Relatively weak upper bodies led to a lot of lost balls/turnovers.
I thought Battle went out like a champion. He was aggressive, fearless, got a lot of key baskets to keep us in the game, and his development as a passer late in the season has been great to see. He struggled to find the open man when he got doubled for much of the year but got a lot better toward the end of the year. If this was the last game of his Syracuse career, it was a really good one. I think he has earned a p,ace in Syracuse lore as a really good player who kept the program relevant as we were recovering from sanctions.
Thought Frank played okay. He struggled to get good shots. Duke’s emphasis on perimeter defense and size on the perimeter ensured he got little in the way of good looks from the outside. I think Frank does great shooting 3s when wide open but his percentage drops dramatically when their is someone in his face. He needs to work on this over the off season. Thought his improvement from last season was remarkable. He really impressed me with his toughness and leadership this year. I wonder how much his badly sprained wrist affected his play the latter part of the season. I think one of the keys to next season is if Frank can can to the point where he can hit contested 3s reliably. We are going to be a lot harder to defend next year and if he could ever shoot 40% from the 3 point circle, it would be huge.
I hope Sidibe and Moyer, who both played hurt for a long time this year, learned from the experience they got this year. Thry are both better than what we saw and when back to 100% next season, they will prove it. Very excited to see what we will get out of the center position next season.
Very excited to see what Bailey and Carey and Buddy will bring to the table. Very excited to see what Elijah can do. If the stories of Battle and. Hughes being ultra competitive with each other in practice this year are true, Tyus’ last gift to the program might be how he helped turn Hughes into a monster.
I am excited to see what we get at all positions. It will be nice to have quality depth everywhere. Let’s hope for an uneventful off season with no surprise departures and I also hope the incredible heart, passion and fire this team brought to every game returns for next season. The slow down, ultra low scoring style of play was tough to watch but the toughness of the players more than overcame this.
What was up with Nance and his name pronunciations? He butchered Sidibe and Dolezaj like no one else. Even Mr Excitment did better.
Coach K looked really bad, thought looked he was really sick. Hope he is okay.
I hope the committee never puts 4 teams from the same conference in one region again. It was ridiculous to have 3 schools from the same conference in a regional final. I hope it never happens again.
The Kansas-Duke game will be an interesting one to watch. I think Duke has a major advantage when they play half court basketball. If they end up getting into a running game, it will help Kansas’ chances a lot. The
Jayhawks will have the home court advantage. Duke needs to get the Kansas big in foul trouble. I am tempted to say this game will determine the national champion, but this season, anything can and probably will happen.
Bagley is a great talent. Carter is almost as good. But they play similar styles and sometimes get in each other’s way, Allen is a gifted passer and his defense is underrated and excellent. He anticipates really well, has quick hands and gets to a lot of loose balls. But he takes too many shots. When Duke needed a big basket, Grayson usually responded with a great entry pass into the lane or a perfect alley oop to a big.
You would think they would be better with Allen at SG and Duval at PG but he can’t run that offense well and they looked lost sometimes when he was in.
Can’t believe a Coach K team never could learn to play man defense. Their zone got carved up nicely (as nice as this Syracuse team can. rave an offense anyway) most of the game, as they put their forwards and guards on the perimeter and dared SU to pass the ball inside.
This made it easy for Syracuse to get the ball in the paint to our forwards, which led to a lot of points in the paint for Marek. His development from a guy who wouldn’t even look at the rim early in the season to the guy with the most reliable mid range jumper on the team was remarkable to watch.
Brissett and Chukwu also hurt the Dukies with points in the paint.
Oshae had.a long stretch once conference play started where he kept getting shots blocked and just could not finish but he made adjustments, got much better finishing plays aggressively (tried to dunk whenever possible, initiated contact whenever possible) and played a key role saving the season.
Chukwu’s development on offense reminds me a lot of how Rony Seikaly played early at Syracuse. Not saying he is going to put up numbers like Rony did, but he is not far from becoming a reliable option inside. He finished more plays late in the year and has misses got closer to makes down the stretch. He is another player who played banged up much of the season and will be markedly better if 100% healthy next year.
I hope all our forwards and centers spend a lot of time in the weight room, Baz included. Relatively weak upper bodies led to a lot of lost balls/turnovers.
I thought Battle went out like a champion. He was aggressive, fearless, got a lot of key baskets to keep us in the game, and his development as a passer late in the season has been great to see. He struggled to find the open man when he got doubled for much of the year but got a lot better toward the end of the year. If this was the last game of his Syracuse career, it was a really good one. I think he has earned a p,ace in Syracuse lore as a really good player who kept the program relevant as we were recovering from sanctions.
Thought Frank played okay. He struggled to get good shots. Duke’s emphasis on perimeter defense and size on the perimeter ensured he got little in the way of good looks from the outside. I think Frank does great shooting 3s when wide open but his percentage drops dramatically when their is someone in his face. He needs to work on this over the off season. Thought his improvement from last season was remarkable. He really impressed me with his toughness and leadership this year. I wonder how much his badly sprained wrist affected his play the latter part of the season. I think one of the keys to next season is if Frank can can to the point where he can hit contested 3s reliably. We are going to be a lot harder to defend next year and if he could ever shoot 40% from the 3 point circle, it would be huge.
I hope Sidibe and Moyer, who both played hurt for a long time this year, learned from the experience they got this year. Thry are both better than what we saw and when back to 100% next season, they will prove it. Very excited to see what we will get out of the center position next season.
Very excited to see what Bailey and Carey and Buddy will bring to the table. Very excited to see what Elijah can do. If the stories of Battle and. Hughes being ultra competitive with each other in practice this year are true, Tyus’ last gift to the program might be how he helped turn Hughes into a monster.
I am excited to see what we get at all positions. It will be nice to have quality depth everywhere. Let’s hope for an uneventful off season with no surprise departures and I also hope the incredible heart, passion and fire this team brought to every game returns for next season. The slow down, ultra low scoring style of play was tough to watch but the toughness of the players more than overcame this.
What was up with Nance and his name pronunciations? He butchered Sidibe and Dolezaj like no one else. Even Mr Excitment did better.
Coach K looked really bad, thought looked he was really sick. Hope he is okay.
I hope the committee never puts 4 teams from the same conference in one region again. It was ridiculous to have 3 schools from the same conference in a regional final. I hope it never happens again.
The Kansas-Duke game will be an interesting one to watch. I think Duke has a major advantage when they play half court basketball. If they end up getting into a running game, it will help Kansas’ chances a lot. The
Jayhawks will have the home court advantage. Duke needs to get the Kansas big in foul trouble. I am tempted to say this game will determine the national champion, but this season, anything can and probably will happen.
