My Take | Page 2 | Syracusefan.com

My Take

Guerrier was billed as a highly skilled/savvy player on offense and a good 3-point shooter. Not quite the typical ‘tall athlete who we can teach how to play basketball’ type we tend to get. So the observations are a little worrisome. Hopefully he just had an off night or wasn’t overly interested? The Freshman Brissett comparison/target doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence. We all know OB could rebound but he was never much of an offensive weapon. Incredibly inefficient.

Obviously hoping Quincy steps in right away and is a knock-down shooter, but it should be noted that from the available statistics that we have (which definitely has some gaps), we have the following numbers:

69/215 from 3 (32.1%)
126/204 from FT (61.8%)
158/238 from 2 (66.4%)

The 3 point shooting and FT shooting numbers would seem to suggest that our expectations of him as a shooter should probably be tempered quite a bit. If he comes in and is a knockdown shooter from day 1, that should be treated as a pleasant surprise and a very nice development.
 
Dear Basketball Board Buds, I got back last night from a Louisville cousin wedding - SO much fun! - and today have been slowly doing laundry etc. when suddenly it hit me! We had a scrimmage on Friday, a scrimmage I normally would have attended! And I could read about it! Bliss!

So, I would like to thank everyone for sharing their observations. Basketball season is right around the corner! I watched the games in Italy and was very impressed by Goodine and Guerrier. I was surprised that Tomcat didn’t think much of Quincy and glad to hear that others who stayed for the second half were more impressed. I am hoping that Girard will quickly learn how to play college bball, and it really hits me how lucky we were with GMac. What a phenomenon he was for us, freshman year and beyond! We want a reincarnation of him, and I wish Girard were it, but it’s looking like he will need time, as so many freshmen do.

Our exhibition games are right around the corner, and then here comes the season! I have my expectations lowered appropriately, and just pray that they won’t need to be lowered more. I think we’ve got a great group of (young) players! Go SU!
 
Went to the intersquad scrimmage tonight. Pretty good crowd.
It was weird to watch a basketball game without the movable bleachers from the east end zone at courtside.

Carey won the ball handling contest but Guerrier would have won easily if he could have just hit a 3 quickly. I believe he missed his first 3. Looks like a good athlete but at this point in his career, not a great outside shooter (did not do well at the 3 point shooting contest either).

Buddy made 10 of 15 3s and looked like he was going to coast to a victory but Goodine made 12 of 15, including his last 3 form the corner to win that one.

No dunk contest, which is probably good as this is not one of our better groups for making spectacular dunks.

I stayed for the first half of the scrimmage.

Hughes looked like the best player on the court. Both teams played man exclusively. He was matched against Guerrier, who did a reasonable job against him but is not currently in his class. Elijah could get a good shot pretty much whenever he wanted.

Boeheim looked solid, as expected. He has gotten stronger, which helps him with his defense and rebounding. He looks more confident with the ball, makes good choices and yes, the kid can still shoot it.

Marek continues to be more deferential to his teammates than I would like to see. Not looking for his shot much. I keep hoping to see him more assertive and aggressive and keep getting disappointed. It isn’t a bad thing to be unselfish but he can clearly shoot and can drive too and just doesn’t look to score as often as this team needs him to. He mostly played at the high post on offense, made a few nice passes and played forward exclusively.

Bol Ajak was quietly impressive. Didn’t score a lot but he made a couple quick, quality athletic moves to the basketball and his jumper is silky smooth. Also aaready looks like the strongest and most physical big we have and I would say the best defensively (Sidibe was pretty lost playing man). He is still skinny right now but he has a better frame than the other bigs and I suspect he is going to be the heaviest and strongest down the road by a large margin.

Was impressed by Edwards too. He is going to be a good pick and roll guy, I think. Moves well without the ball, Can pass it too. His instincts, especially on offense, are impressive. He is also by far the skinniest and least physical of the bunch, and least ready to play right away.

That leaves Sid, who as mentioned looked bad playing man. Left his guy wide open time and time again. Got the ball in pretty good position on offense a few times but did not make quality power moves to score and ended up usually throwing up an awkward shot that had no chance of going in. He did rebound the best of the bunch and got some garbage points being in the right spot at the right time. Didn’t add much muscle or weight in the off season. He is moving well though and looks a lot closer to 100% this year than he was last season.

Guerrier forced some shots on offense, didn’t box out hard and didn’t look all that interested in getting rebounds. Stood around the perimeter on offense too much for my liking. One can see he is strong and a good athlete but he didn’t wow me with his smarts or skills. His defense was quite good and he had the toughest assignment, guarding Hughes. I will be thrilled if he ends up as good as Brissett was as a frosh. Hoping he can get 10 ppg and 7 rpg. I think he ends up around there.

Braswell looks stronger and more comfortable but he did a few careless things and is another big guy who seems to hang out on the perimeter too much for me. I think he can provide serviceable minutes and have some good games but from this small window, i am not convinced he will play in the regular rotation.

Goodine played well in the scrimmage. Was tenacious on defense, where I think he will contribute the most for this team early in his career. Did a good job running the Orange offense and is clearly a really good athlete. His shooting form is excellent too. Needs to get a lot stronger but has made good strides here already. I think he has the highest ceiling of any of the Frosh Five. Will probably be up and down a lot this season but I think he is the backup PG and will play minutes every game.

Washington didn’t get a lot of run. I think he backed up Carey at PG for the White team. Doesn’t do much wrong or right. Quiet type player. Goodine is going to make more turnovers and force more bad shots but also make more good passes, score more and definitely be better defensively. That is why I think he wins the backup PG spot. But this was a narrow window and things could change.

That leaves Girard. He was playing SG when I was watching them play. He did okay but is heavily dependent on his PG to get him some good looks, and that didn’t happen much when I was watching. He is good at getting open and I am pretty sure he will take a lot of shots when he gets in. Was almost exclusively on the perimeter when I was watching. His defense looked okay. Isn’t that tall or fast so I doubt he will ever be more than a pretty good defender. But GMac ended up being quite good on defense and if Gerry could do it, I would think Joe can too. One thing he does not lack is confidence and that is a good thing to have.

The girl that sang the NA did a nice job. She did a soulful, ambitious and risky version of the song. Hard to pull off. For the most part, she was successful and she got a very good hand from the crowd.

The program started late, which was not good for those of us who stayed up really late the night before to watch the SU football game. That said, I thought things were well organized.

It was a nice touch having fans compete with modified skills drills.
The free shirts were nicer than expected. Wish they went with XL as the size instead of L. Know your audience SUAD! Next time do a 50-50 breakdown. That would probably be best.

Free is always nice. There were a lot of young families with kids at the game. I am sure they all appreciated this.

glad they deviated away from an event which attracted youths that fight and stab each other in the concourses
 
Obviously hoping Quincy steps in right away and is a knock-down shooter, but it should be noted that from the available statistics that we have (which definitely has some gaps), we have the following numbers:

69/215 from 3 (32.1%)
126/204 from FT (61.8%)
158/238 from 2 (66.4%)

The 3 point shooting and FT shooting numbers would seem to suggest that our expectations of him as a shooter should probably be tempered quite a bit. If he comes in and is a knockdown shooter from day 1, that should be treated as a pleasant surprise and a very nice development.
What are those stats from? AAU or high school? Just curious.
 
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