My Take

[sutomcat]

Has to be fast because I gotta get up early tomorrow.

Buddy went 6 for 13 from the 3 point circle. Brings his 3 point shooting % to 37.71. He is averaging 22 ppg the last 4 games. Every game he gets the best defender the other team has. Even hitting some shots when he drives into the lane. Even drawing some fouls (probably deserved a couple more calls too).

He struggled for a long while but I think he has finally recovered from COVID and the shutdowns and is 100%. We don’t have a chance to win without him carrying us for long stretches of the game.

Kadary was clearly not 100% and looked exhausted late, even before he got hurt and left the court. But he found a way to stay in the game and make plays anyway. Tough kid. Most impressed with him targeting Buddy on drive and kick outs. That was my biggest quibble with his play to date, and today, he addressed it.

When I saw Q trying to move around on the court at the start of the game, looking like he was my age, I couldn’t believe JB was actually playing him. He didn’t even bother to jump on the jump ball to start the game and got picked on by the UNC offense a lot early. Looked like he played on one leg all game long. Something he knows a thing or two about from last year. Very impressive game for him. He knew we had no one who could score inside except him and stepped up and ignored a lot of pain to get the job done.

I don’t know how the training staff is going to get these three guys ready to play for an early game on Wednesday. Buddy was barely able to stay in the game and the other 2 had to leave. I hope we have 3 water tanks for treatment.

Marek only had 8 points, but it seemed like all of them were big baskets we really needed. Ended p with 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 blocks and 3 steals. And a lot of good decisions and good ball handling down the stretch. It is great to have a senior that does things a senior should do. So happy he is playing well down the stretch of his career. He deserves to go out with some home wins.

I believe Jaime Luckie is the older looking gentlemen who blew all those calls today. The other refs were bad but he was a special kind of bad. Most of his mistakes helped UNC but he was so crappy he blew some calls to help us too. That guy needs to go to ref rehabilitation school for extensive re-training.

Clemson must have watched that game and the GT game, and seen all the SU players getting hurt and loved it. Quite unfortunate that both schools played Saturday but Clemson gets to rest until Wednesday while Syracuse had to play with a bunch of hurt players today, and more got hurt during the game. But it is par for the course during this crazy season, where so much has gone so wrong.

I think over the last 2 games, Edwards has played the best interior defense a Syracuse player has played going back a long way. To Keita or Christmas. He hasn’t been fantastic but he is a legitimate shot blocker, and has done a fine job of staying in front of drivers and not letting them get to the hoop. I think he stays in the rotation the rest of the season. We are so much better defensively when he is in the game and Marek is able to play on the wing.

Couple that with Kadary playing most of the game up top instead of JGIII and we go from a bad defense to a quite good one.

Alan continues his crazy up and down season. At this point one would think he would learn to protect the ball holding it away from the basket with SU up late in the game. He got stripped again in a crucial situation. Unacceptable. Props to him for hustling his butt off to catch the guy who stole it and block his shot. Those of you that think he can play guard...I think maybe in a year or two. No way he is capable of helping out with ball handling right now. Very disappointing to see him make the same mistakes over and over. He has a lot of talent and is capable of so much more.

It looks like JGIII has been pretty badly shaken by the massive loss in playing time. Hope he is able to make the adjustment and find ways to contribute. I like the shots he is getting off penetrating and pulling up for mid range jumpers. That is a shot he can hit reliably.

The Clemson game is such a big one. 9-7 sounds so much better than 8-8. We have to have it to stay alive. It is going to be a war. Hope our beat up guys can play.

 

[bballbeadle]

How much I wish we could play Clemson on Saturday! I don’t care how good our trainers and doctors are, those kids are hurt. And exhausted.

If JGIII can come to terms with not being “the guy,” he can still help us. He’s a great shooter and he has moxie. It’s gotta be hard.

But the main thing is the injuries.

In the meantime, back at the ranch, in other news: WE BEAT CAROLINA!!!

 

[tbonezone]

joe G 3 needs to adjust his mind to his new role. you still help us win. make the most of your minutes.

 

[ottodaorange]

I think JGIII has lost confidence in himself. Sometimes this is harder to come back from than a physical injury, especially if you have been the star in two sports. If he can, he will help us.

 

[Seng85]

When we recruited JGIII, we thought we were getting a great competitor/winner, a clutch player, and potentially a really good shooter if he didn’t have to fire up 35 shots a night. With effort and smarts, he’d be an adequate defender who could play both guard spots at times. An ideal 3rd guard/end of game closer at the line.

Last year, he played a lot more than most expected, and showed flashes of all those things. He played with a lot of emotion, and I think the good outweighed the bad, especially considering he was a freshman.

This year, almost none of these things are true. That’s what’s frustrating and disappointing. Hope he can figure it out next year.

 

[CuseCPT]

Agree with your points regarding Q, Marek, and Griff. They all had key contributions at very important points in the game. Quincy showed a ton of grit out there.

Regarding Kadary, I agree he looked exhausted at the end. I think he's proven he can play a lot more than 20, but I don't think he should be playing 40 either. I'd have loved to seen Joe sub for him him and get a breather about halfway through the second half for 3 or 4 minutes and then put back in at the end. And can't speak for the rest of the HATERZ(TM), but I want to see more bench use overall, not just "against" certain starters.

Disagree about Buddy and COVID. I think the simple truth is that Kadary's game compliments his game much better than Joe's and he gets more quality shots when he doesn't have to create his own as much. Plus if he wasn't fully recovered from COVID, I'd argue that's all the more reason to question his minutes when he was not shooting the ball as well.

All in a all, it was a very good win, just need to get healthy and do it again against Clemson. LGO

 

[Ghost]

Re: Q:

Q seemed poised to steal the jump - he retreated immediately and it almost went straight to him.

Can you do that? I didn't think you could, but I suppose I never saw it happen either.

 

[Trueblue25]

Knew we wouldnt blow it when Griff got the backdoor layup personally

 

[Alsacs]

Agree with your points regarding Q, Marek, and Griff. They all had key contributions at very important points in the game. Quincy showed a ton of grit out there.

Regarding Kadary, I agree he looked exhausted at the end. I think he's proven he can play a lot more than 20, but I don't think he should be playing 40 either. I'd have loved to seen Joe sub for him him and get a breather about halfway through the second half for 3 or 4 minutes and then put back in at the end. And can't speak for the rest of the HATERZ(TM), but I want to see more bench use overall, not just "against" certain starters.

Disagree about Buddy and COVID. I think the simple truth is that Kadary's game compliments his game much better than Joe's and he gets more quality shots when he doesn't have to create his own as much. Plus if he wasn't fully recovered from COVID, I'd argue that's all the more reason to question his minutes when he was not shooting the ball as well.

All in a all, it was a very good win, just need to get healthy and do it again against Clemson. LGO

Stop making sense.
People want to make excuses when it’s okay to say JB has made mistakes this year.
He didn’t give Edwards a chance.
It took his hands forced to give Kadary more minutes.
Kadary improves the defense AND gets the shooters a chance to get better shots.
Girard is perfect as a piece of the team but because JB doesn’t want to play the bench for reasons I don’t get players get pigeonholed into roles.

There is absolutely no reason this team this year didn’t go 8 deep each game.
I get riding starters and not going deep when you have great starters. We don’t. Our players get inflated or deflated stats Depending on how much they play.

We get fed practice, practice. We get Covid affected some players. When we know 2 players who actually had Covid thanks to the HC himself and it didn’t affect the amount of minutes they got.

If people want to pretend the HC is consistent fine. Do it. Just realize people can see for themselves that what is said out loud by this HC is to shut people up.

JB is Smart he always has an answer for anyone who can second guess him. He has made mistakes this year if he ever said that then the temperature in the fanbase would be cooler.

Instead his instinct is too always fight back. I truly believe Buddy deserves credit for not cracking to the criticism that was directed at his father not him. The kid is a nice player he is not a superstar. The minutes he plays when he is off are too many. The HC thinks he has to play no matter what.

The staff has screwed up Joe Girard. If the kid can’t handle the fact that Kadary is a better PG and he doesn’t get to play the whole game anymore that is on the coaching staff. The kid WAS NEVER intended to be a 4 year starter. If the staff had an actual option last year he gets eased in.
I get Girard being hurt but sorry you aren’t as good as Kadary.

This status quo is too comfortable in the basketball program.

 

[Orangezoo]

JG3s problem is two fold. His confidence is shot to start and that has been so important to his success in all levels of play.

The other part is that his game is focused purely on instinct and not IQ. I am not saying he has zero bball IQ but he doesn't apply much. You will see him make a nice play on an alley oop, a hustle play on D and then bury a 29 footer. You also see him leave his team in a 4 on 5, not properly close out, take bad shots when he could get himself a better one and get himself in trouble against ball pressure by dribbling straight into trouble. He needs to use his body to shield defenders way more similar to Buddy given he has a less than stellar handle. Also Joe needs to work hard every minute he plays not just here and there. He needs to be going all out after every screen. Kid is his own worst enemy for his lack of success. There are things he can control but he pouts and doubts himself instead of fighting through.

 

[Newhouser]

JG3s problem is two fold. His confidence is shot to start and that has been so important to his success in all levels of play.

The other part is that his game is focused purely on instinct and not IQ. I am not saying he has zero bball IQ but he doesn't apply much. You will see him make a nice play on an alley oop, a hustle play on D and then bury a 29 footer. You also see him leave his team in a 4 on 5, not properly close out, take bad shots when he could get himself a better one and get himself in trouble against ball pressure by dribbling straight into trouble. He needs to use his body to shield defenders way more similar to Buddy given he has a less than stellar handle. Also Joe needs to work hard every minute he plays not just here and there. He needs to be going all out after every screen. Kid is his own worst enemy for his lack of success. There are things he can control but he pouts and doubts himself instead of fighting through.

Joe and most of our guys seem to suffer from inconsistent focus. max effort is not a team strength.