My Take | Syracusefan.com

My Take

sutomcat

No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Got there early. Much to my surprise, there was a band playing in a corner of the football field back court area. They played cover songs, mostly from the 1990s. Thought they were good. Some people stood around to listen. Good idea.

There were a fair number of people that were wearing Georgetown gear. Not as much as when we play Cornell, but I bet they had at least 100 fans in the house.

Only 24K for this one but walking to our seats 5 minutes before tipoff was tough. The concourses and staircases are woefully narrow. If you are wondering if this is another thinly veiled attempt to lobby for wider concourses and staircases (escalators would be nice too) as part of phase 2 of the Dome renovation, the answer is yes.

I noticed the students have brought back the chants after each of the starters are introduced for the opposition. Watching the student section get smaller, quieter and more lame and boring each season has been profoundly disappointing but nothing has been sadder to see than the decision to do away with that tradition. Not sure whose decision it was to do away with it but I am glad to see it is back. Even if the signs to that the students what to say have decreased in size just as much as the number of students attending the games.

It was great to see the football team get some love at halftime. Dino did a ‘Whose house? Our house!’ that was embraced enthusiastically by the fans. Why doesn’t the ‘cheer team’ embrace the chant as well? Their attempts to engage the crowd in chants have been a complete failure for 30 years. Why not embrace a chant people want to do? Perplexing.

The grande male cheerleader had the C flag last night. He kept up with the A flag but all the smaller letters got destroyed by type A holder of the giant S flag. Impressive. C flag did feign fainting afterwards, lining down in the middle of the open area south of the movable section section, but a couple of carts needed to be wheeled through and C flag had to be dragged out of the way.

On to the game...

That might have been the most substitutions I have ever seen JB make in the first half. He shuttled players in and out like a maniac, trying desperately to find a lineup that could play effectively. I think he probably pulled a Q and subbed too much. There is something to continuity. But everyone was playing poorly. It was a remarkably ugly half of basketball. Meanwhile, that hotdog McClung was putting on a show, hitting bombs from outside, penetrating and shredding the zone inside and even making a behind the back pass for an assist. Impressive half for him.

In the second half, JB probably wouldn’t have subbed at all if it wasn’t for foul trouble. He rode that nag til she dropped. And it worked.

Why did we play so bad in the first half? What is going on with this team? With so many scorers, how can we struggle to score so often?

Part of the problem is Frank. When he is just sitting around the perimeter, passing it around to someone else on the perimeter, and launching and missing 3s, he doesn’t need to be covered and becomes a big liability on offense.

The same applies to Paschal. Teams aren’t bothering to cover him at all. He does pick and rolls, gets open and is routinely ignored. Or, until the second half last night, he gets the ball and something really bad happens.

Frank actually had a breakthrough yesterday and got into the lane a few times, where good things happened. Great sign. He has gotten in foul trouble a coup,e of times since his return and is not playing smart when he does. He did better at this last year. Hope that is just rust.

Speaking if breakthroughs, thought Paschal’s second half was really good. His rebounding could be better and I thought his defense was okay, but wow, it was great to see him finish some plays consistently. I think he has to contribute if we are going to be a good team on offense. Another senior, another foul out. Disappointing. Not many rebounds. Disappointing.

I don’t think we even tried pressure once. Thry had a true frosh PG out there most of the time. Kind of surprised about that. Given the foul trouble we had, it probably was a good decision.

Was Frank’s foul trouble a good break? In some ways, yes. I think Frank is easily the best guy we have forcing turnovers. He gets a ton of steals. Does a good job covering ground an limiting good looks from the3 point circle too, though by the time his career here is over, I suspect he will have fouled a 3 point shooter in the act more than any SU player ever. When he is out, our defense is worse.

Our first looks at Carey, he was shooting a lot. Too much for a point guard. JB had to have talked to him about it because he is not looking for his shot nearly as much any longer. Why is our plus/minus so much better when Jalen is in? Part of it is tempo I think.

When Jalen is in, the team plays faster. Carey was born to run, Frank is a deliberate, walk in up the court guy. With Jalen out there, we get more transition opportunities, and it happens that Battle, Brissett and Howard all thrive in unsettled, transition settings. Tyus absolutely went off in the second half; real AA stuff again, he took the game over. But I bet o0% of his points were in unsettled situations. I think this is a big deal with this team. We don’t have great half court scorers on this team. We don’t have a traditional low post player.

When we get in half court situations, we need someone to penetrate and dish off. Battle can penetrate but he is not good finding the open guy when he gets doubled. F Howard is just now getting comfortable getting to the paint again. Carey can do it but he is used to finishing himself from the paint and is getting embarrassed trying to finish against big guys at this level. He could help the team more by looking to dish when he gets inside. He is certainly capable of do8ng this and did it a few times. If we can get Frank and Jalen to slash inside and either dish or make floaters, it will help s lot.

Marek is part of the problem too. He is playing as timidly as he did at the start of last year. He needs to play with more confidence. Don’t just immediately pass it to the closest guy on the perimeter. Marek can drive and finish, drive and dish or shoot it. Make the other team have to account for you MD. And get some rebounds. Remember that you are 6’10.

Thought Brissett did okay. He get some tough rebounds and some big baskets. Played good defense. Missed a dunk and another bunny or two. But drew fouls and was tough.

Thought Gtown played good defense except for that stretch early in the second half when the lead was erased in short order. How good as they? I think the second half was a better indicator than the first, when our poor execution on offense made things easy for them.

Props to the crowd. They made a lot of noise. Looked like it bothered the Hoyas, who are not used to having people in the stands or noise. Even the students contributed.

Should we play them again? It would help if they ever get good again. I don’t think they are making the NCAA.tournament. Attendance for this game was only slightly more than it would have if we played had we played someone like Rhode Island. If we get no bump to our SOS, if the fans don’t care, should we bother to play the Hoyas and chase shadows from the past? Maybe. The away game gives our fan base in the DC metro area a chance to watch the team play. And we still recruit that area regularly.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out next season.

This was a nice win. It will be nice to be ranked again Monday and it sets up a huge game against the Mighty Bulls. Who would had ever thought there would be a game between two ranked teams from upstate NY? I wonder when the last time was that happened? Has it ever happened?
 
As a Cuse fan since the 60's, I yearn for the transition game that made this team so much fun to watch for decades. We are so much better in transition than in a half court offense. If we play like we did the 1st 10 minutes of the 2nd half, we are as good as anyone. Are players today that selfish, or that stupid, with how that offense played in the 1st half. No attempt to get to the basket, just constantly settling for 3 pointers. It makes for very boring basketball. This has become a much better team with Carey at the point than Howard. Carey made a couple poor decisions, but is far more dynamic than Howard is. We also need to have Paschal more involved offensively. That's one thing we did down the stretch last year & it made us an entirely different team. We seem more inclined to do that with Carey on the floor. Bottom line, we need to push the ball down court more & stop settling for 3's!!!!!
 
Got there early. Much to my surprise, there was a band playing in a corner of the football field back court area. They played cover songs, mostly from the 1990s. Thought they were good. Some people stood around to listen. Good idea.

There were a fair number of people that were wearing Georgetown gear. Not as much as when we play Cornell, but I bet they had at least 100 fans in the house.

Only 24K for this one but walking to our seats 5 minutes before tipoff was tough. The concourses and staircases are woefully narrow. If you are wondering if this is another thinly veiled attempt to lobby for wider concourses and staircases (escalators would be nice too) as part of phase 2 of the Dome renovation, the answer is yes.

I noticed the students have brought back the chants after each of the starters are introduced for the opposition. Watching the student section get smaller, quieter and more lame and boring each season has been profoundly disappointing but nothing has been sadder to see than the decision to do away with that tradition. Not sure whose decision it was to do away with it but I am glad to see it is back. Even if the signs to that the students what to say have decreased in size just as much as the number of students attending the games.

It was great to see the football team get some love at halftime. Dino did a ‘Whose house? Our house!’ that was embraced enthusiastically by the fans. Why doesn’t the ‘cheer team’ embrace the chant as well? Their attempts to engage the crowd in chants have been a complete failure for 30 years. Why not embrace a chant people want to do? Perplexing.

The grande male cheerleader had the C flag last night. He kept up with the A flag but all the smaller letters got destroyed by type A holder of the giant S flag. Impressive. C flag did feign fainting afterwards, lining down in the middle of the open area south of the movable section section, but a couple of carts needed to be wheeled through and C flag had to be dragged out of the way.

On to the game...

That might have been the most substitutions I have ever seen JB make in the first half. He shuttled players in and out like a maniac, trying desperately to find a lineup that could play effectively. I think he probably pulled a Q and subbed too much. There is something to continuity. But everyone was playing poorly. It was a remarkably ugly half of basketball. Meanwhile, that hotdog McClung was putting on a show, hitting bombs from outside, penetrating and shredding the zone inside and even making a behind the back pass for an assist. Impressive half for him.

In the second half, JB probably wouldn’t have subbed at all if it wasn’t for foul trouble. He rode that nag til she dropped. And it worked.

Why did we play so bad in the first half? What is going on with this team? With so many scorers, how can we struggle to score so often?

Part of the problem is Frank. When he is just sitting around the perimeter, passing it around to someone else on the perimeter, and launching and missing 3s, he doesn’t need to be covered and becomes a big liability on offense.

The same applies to Paschal. Teams aren’t bothering to cover him at all. He does pick and rolls, gets open and is routinely ignored. Or, until the second half last night, he gets the ball and something really bad happens.

Frank actually had a breakthrough yesterday and got into the lane a few times, where good things happened. Great sign. He has gotten in foul trouble a coup,e of times since his return and is not playing smart when he does. He did better at this last year. Hope that is just rust.

Speaking if breakthroughs, thought Paschal’s second half was really good. His rebounding could be better and I thought his defense was okay, but wow, it was great to see him finish some plays consistently. I think he has to contribute if we are going to be a good team on offense. Another senior, another foul out. Disappointing. Not many rebounds. Disappointing.

I don’t think we even tried pressure once. Thry had a true frosh PG out there most of the time. Kind of surprised about that. Given the foul trouble we had, it probably was a good decision.

Was Frank’s foul trouble a good break? In some ways, yes. I think Frank is easily the best guy we have forcing turnovers. He gets a ton of steals. Does a good job covering ground an limiting good looks from the3 point circle too, though by the time his career here is over, I suspect he will have fouled a 3 point shooter in the act more than any SU player ever. When he is out, our defense is worse.

Our first looks at Carey, he was shooting a lot. Too much for a point guard. JB had to have talked to him about it because he is not looking for his shot nearly as much any longer. Why is our plus/minus so much better when Jalen is in? Part of it is tempo I think.

When Jalen is in, the team plays faster. Carey was born to run, Frank is a deliberate, walk in up the court guy. With Jalen out there, we get more transition opportunities, and it happens that Battle, Brissett and Howard all thrive in unsettled, transition settings. Tyus absolutely went off in the second half; real AA stuff again, he took the game over. But I bet o0% of his points were in unsettled situations. I think this is a big deal with this team. We don’t have great half court scorers on this team. We don’t have a traditional low post player.

When we get in half court situations, we need someone to penetrate and dish off. Battle can penetrate but he is not good finding the open guy when he gets doubled. F Howard is just now getting comfortable getting to the paint again. Carey can do it but he is used to finishing himself from the paint and is getting embarrassed trying to finish against big guys at this level. He could help the team more by looking to dish when he gets inside. He is certainly capable of do8ng this and did it a few times. If we can get Frank and Jalen to slash inside and either dish or make floaters, it will help s lot.

Marek is part of the problem too. He is playing as timidly as he did at the start of last year. He needs to play with more confidence. Don’t just immediately pass it to the closest guy on the perimeter. Marek can drive and finish, drive and dish or shoot it. Make the other team have to account for you MD. And get some rebounds. Remember that you are 6’10.

Thought Brissett did okay. He get some tough rebounds and some big baskets. Played good defense. Missed a dunk and another bunny or two. But drew fouls and was tough.

Thought Gtown played good defense except for that stretch early in the second half when the lead was erased in short order. How good as they? I think the second half was a better indicator than the first, when our poor execution on offense made things easy for them.

Props to the crowd. They made a lot of noise. Looked like it bothered the Hoyas, who are not used to having people in the stands or noise. Even the students contributed.

Should we play them again? It would help if they ever get good again. I don’t think they are making the NCAA.tournament. Attendance for this game was only slightly more than it would have if we played had we played someone like Rhode Island. If we get no bump to our SOS, if the fans don’t care, should we bother to play the Hoyas and chase shadows from the past? Maybe. The away game gives our fan base in the DC metro area a chance to watch the team play. And we still recruit that area regularly.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out next season.

This was a nice win. It will be nice to be ranked again Monday and it sets up a huge game against the Mighty Bulls. Who would had ever thought there would be a game between two ranked teams from upstate NY? I wonder when the last time was that happened? Has it ever happened?
Nice but escalators in dome? Took twenty plus years for AC. We are more apt to get stair lifts than escalators.lol
 
Got there early. Much to my surprise, there was a band playing in a corner of the football field back court area. They played cover songs, mostly from the 1990s. Thought they were good. Some people stood around to listen. Good idea.

There were a fair number of people that were wearing Georgetown gear. Not as much as when we play Cornell, but I bet they had at least 100 fans in the house.

Only 24K for this one but walking to our seats 5 minutes before tipoff was tough. The concourses and staircases are woefully narrow. If you are wondering if this is another thinly veiled attempt to lobby for wider concourses and staircases (escalators would be nice too) as part of phase 2 of the Dome renovation, the answer is yes.

I noticed the students have brought back the chants after each of the starters are introduced for the opposition. Watching the student section get smaller, quieter and more lame and boring each season has been profoundly disappointing but nothing has been sadder to see than the decision to do away with that tradition. Not sure whose decision it was to do away with it but I am glad to see it is back. Even if the signs to that the students what to say have decreased in size just as much as the number of students attending the games. It might also be that I was just so damn happy to win that game.

It was great to see the football team get some love at halftime. Dino did a ‘Whose house? Our house!’ that was embraced enthusiastically by the fans. Why doesn’t the ‘cheer team’ embrace the chant as well? Their attempts to engage the crowd in chants have been a complete failure for 30 years. Why not embrace a chant people want to do? Perplexing.

The grande male cheerleader had the C flag last night. He kept up with the A flag but all the smaller letters got destroyed by type A holder of the giant S flag. Impressive. C flag did feign fainting afterwards, lining down in the middle of the open area south of the movable section section, but a couple of carts needed to be wheeled through and C flag had to be dragged out of the way.

On to the game...

That might have been the most substitutions I have ever seen JB make in the first half. He shuttled players in and out like a maniac, trying desperately to find a lineup that could play effectively. I think he probably pulled a Q and subbed too much. There is something to continuity. But everyone was playing poorly. It was a remarkably ugly half of basketball. Meanwhile, that hotdog McClung was putting on a show, hitting bombs from outside, penetrating and shredding the zone inside and even making a behind the back pass for an assist. Impressive half for him.

In the second half, JB probably wouldn’t have subbed at all if it wasn’t for foul trouble. He rode that nag til she dropped. And it worked.

Why did we play so bad in the first half? What is going on with this team? With so many scorers, how can we struggle to score so often?

Part of the problem is Frank. When he is just sitting around the perimeter, passing it around to someone else on the perimeter, and launching and missing 3s, he doesn’t need to be covered and becomes a big liability on offense.

The same applies to Paschal. Teams aren’t bothering to cover him at all. He does pick and rolls, gets open and is routinely ignored. Or, until the second half last night, he gets the ball and something really bad happens.

Frank actually had a breakthrough yesterday and got into the lane a few times, where good things happened. Great sign. He has gotten in foul trouble a coup,e of times since his return and is not playing smart when he does. He did better at this last year. Hope that is just rust.

Speaking if breakthroughs, thought Paschal’s second half was really good. His rebounding could be better and I thought his defense was okay, but wow, it was great to see him finish some plays consistently. I think he has to contribute if we are going to be a good team on offense. Another senior, another foul out. Disappointing. Not many rebounds. Disappointing.

I don’t think we even tried pressure once. Thry had a true frosh PG out there most of the time. Kind of surprised about that. Given the foul trouble we had, it probably was a good decision.

Was Frank’s foul trouble a good break? In some ways, yes. I think Frank is easily the best guy we have forcing turnovers. He gets a ton of steals. Does a good job covering ground an limiting good looks from the3 point circle too, though by the time his career here is over, I suspect he will have fouled a 3 point shooter in the act more than any SU player ever. When he is out, our defense is worse.

Our first looks at Carey, he was shooting a lot. Too much for a point guard. JB had to have talked to him about it because he is not looking for his shot nearly as much any longer. Why is our plus/minus so much better when Jalen is in? Part of it is tempo I think.

When Jalen is in, the team plays faster. Carey was born to run, Frank is a deliberate, walk in up the court guy. With Jalen out there, we get more transition opportunities, and it happens that Battle, Brissett and Howard all thrive in unsettled, transition settings. Tyus absolutely went off in the second half; real AA stuff again, he took the game over. But I bet o0% of his points were in unsettled situations. I think this is a big deal with this team. We don’t have great half court scorers on this team. We don’t have a traditional low post player.

When we get in half court situations, we need someone to penetrate and dish off. Battle can penetrate but he is not good finding the open guy when he gets doubled. F Howard is just now getting comfortable getting to the paint again. Carey can do it but he is used to finishing himself from the paint and is getting embarrassed trying to finish against big guys at this level. He could help the team more by looking to dish when he gets inside. He is certainly capable of do8ng this and did it a few times. If we can get Frank and Jalen to slash inside and either dish or make floaters, it will help s lot.

Marek is part of the problem too. He is playing as timidly as he did at the start of last year. He needs to play with more confidence. Don’t just immediately pass it to the closest guy on the perimeter. Marek can drive and finish, drive and dish or shoot it. Make the other team have to account for you MD. And get some rebounds. Remember that you are 6’10.

Thought Brissett did okay. He get some tough rebounds and some big baskets. Played good defense. Missed a dunk and another bunny or two. But drew fouls and was tough.

Thought Gtown played good defense except for that stretch early in the second half when the lead was erased in short order. How good as they? I think the second half was a better indicator than the first, when our poor execution on offense made things easy for them.

Props to the crowd. They made a lot of noise. Looked like it bothered the Hoyas, who are not used to having people in the stands or noise. Even the students contributed.

Should we play them again? It would help if they ever get good again. I don’t think they are making the NCAA.tournament. Attendance for this game was only slightly more than it would have if we played had we played someone like Rhode Island. If we get no bump to our SOS, if the fans don’t care, should we bother to play the Hoyas and chase shadows from the past? Maybe. The away game gives our fan base in the DC metro area a chance to watch the team play. And we still recruit that area regularly.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out next season.

This was a nice win. It will be nice to be ranked again Monday and it sets up a huge game against the Mighty Bulls. Who would had ever thought there would be a game between two ranked teams from upstate NY? I wonder when the last time was that happened? Has it ever happened?
I love your takes but thought this one was a bit too negative. Yes, we looked awful in the first half. but in the second half, we did score 50 pts and made some tough plays to seal the win.
 
Nice analysis. Be careful about acknowledging the good and bad with Chukwu though - that gets Vt upset.
 
Marek had maybe the nicest putback of the night. I agree though, overall, seems to be back to being that tentative kid from most of last year. Not quite that bad - but it still seems like he has more to give. Not much, but some.

I remain patient with Frank, but he's playing like a placeholder too much. It's painful on offense - but we need him, and it will be very interesting to see how he progresses as he gets back to 100%.

Still shocked in the second half that we seemed to just be on another level in the effort department - people were coming around, and off the ball with some purpose finally. All too often our offense seems to lull our own players to sleep. That's not good - as sometimes it resembles what a practice likely looks like at 50% speed. In the second half they were coming off the ball aggressively and it helped...not sure if Carey's energy sort of sparks that, or if they just started hitting some shots and played with purpose.
 
Nice but escalators in dome? Took twenty plus years for AC. We are more apt to get stair lifts than escalators.lol

I love the escalators and food court on the second floor at the Excellus Center in Buffalo. That is a great setup. My favorite arena Upstate.
 
Doubt SU is ranked Monday.

That was another thing I meant to comment on. I'd be surprised if what we did this week got us back to the top 25 but we'll get more votes obviously.
 
That was another thing I meant to comment on. I'd be surprised if what we did this week got us back to the top 25 but we'll get more votes obviously.
hear ya, but also have to look at what back half of the top 25 did (or didn't) do
 
Nice but escalators in dome? Took twenty plus years for AC. We are more apt to get stair lifts than escalators.lol

They’re coming in time.
 
I love your takes but thought this one was a bit too negative. Yes, we looked awful in the first half. but in the second half, we did score 50 pts and made some tough plays to seal the win.

You know me. I’m the first guy to go off on people who i think are being overly negative, overly repetitive or just flat out ridiculous (who hear thinks the game has passed Boeheim bye?) but i think Tomcat is spot on. JB made many of the same exact points in his presser.
 
That was another thing I meant to comment on. I'd be surprised if what we did this week got us back to the top 25 but we'll get more votes obviously.
buffalo game is two polls away ... normal churn would see a few of those ranked 18-25 lose & fall out
 
Nice summary, but too much criticism of Frank, who is not 100% yet.

There may have been another ranked upstate team when the Bonnies had Bob Lanier or when Iona had that big guy who became coach later on (if you consider Iona upstate).
 
You know me. I’m the first guy to go off on people who i think are being overly negative, overly repetitive or just flat out ridiculous (who hear thinks the game has passed Boeheim bye?) but i think Tomcat is spot on. JB made many of the same exact points in his presser.
Don't misunderstand me, i understand that there were plenty of negative aspects of yesterday's game. But I also think there were some positives that are getting a bit ignored. That was a great comeback
 
I love your takes but thought this one was a bit too negative. Yes, we looked awful in the first half. but in the second half, we did score 50 pts and made some tough plays to seal the win.

The 1st half was far worse than awful. If we play like that against even just half of the ACC, we'd be down 25 and unable to come back & win. It's disturbing to me that JB can't seem to coach that selfishness & stupidity out of some of those guys. JB will get in the face of certain players, but not the ones that are mostly at fault .
 
The 1st half was far worse than awful. If we play like that against even just half of the ACC, we'd be down 25 and unable to come back & win. It's disturbing to me that JB can't seem to coach that selfishness & stupidity out of some of those guys. JB will get in the face of certain players, but not the ones that are mostly at fault .
That's the second time you said selfish. I didn't see anything going on that I would call selfish. What did you see?
 
The Brissett missed dunk was a foul. He was pushed from behind. That is why the ball went off the back of the rim.
I watched that one a couple times. I'm still not sure. I'm almost thinking OB thought he was going to get hit and just fumbled it.
 
The Brissett missed dunk was a foul. He was pushed from behind. That is why the ball went off the back of the rim.
Agree 100%. He clearly got shoved in the lower back, no call.
 
I watched that one a couple times. I'm still not sure. I'm almost thinking OB thought he was going to get hit and just fumbled it.
Seen him do that quite a few times. Looks like he expects to take a bump and double pumps mid air trying to sell as the ball floats over the backboard lol. As far as that dunk attempt looked like he hesitated a second too long. If not for that I think it would've been in. I'd love to see our guys flailing into the paint as dramatically as they can, hell every other team is an ace at flopping.
 

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