My Take

[sutomcat]

That was a tough game to watch. Ugly basketball. Both teams struggled to score. Lot of air balls and awful shots that had no chance to go in.

I think Houston played great defense. The best defense we have seen all season. They aren’t really big, and they have no shot blocker but they have some great athletes and Sampson has them playing like a pack of rabid dogs. They double the ball when a player gets in scoring position, they are really quick and recover really well.

Not sure I have ever seen a team rebound with that kind of crazed zeal. And if you show them even a sliver of the ball, they are going to get it.

On offense, it really looks like they work the ball around until they have a few players in position to get offensive rebounds, and then they throw it up and everyone goes after it. It is an interesting style and one I am not sure I have seen before. I think the way to shut them down is to have some size and good rebounders and get your share of defensive rebounds. You do that and you are probably going to hold them to 50 or 55 points.

This was a bad matchup for us. Our biggest weakness all season has been rebounding, especially on the defensive end. That in your face defensive style with really quick, undersized players was a great way to take away our outside shooters. The way to beat it is to get the ball in the low post with a quality big, or attack the rim quickly with quality slashers. We didn’t have the personnel to do this and it showed.

I give special credit to Jarreau. Yes, he looks 35, and has that awful hair style to make his balding hair look very worse. But the guy can play defense. He did a great job on Buddy and he did it playing hurt. Very impressive. He also was the one guy on Houston who was able to get into the paint and get them a good look. No question he was the MVP of the game. It wasn’t even close.

It was in testing that the one good run we had was largely with Buddy on the bench and Edwards and Kadary playing in the first half. JB has taken a lot of criticism not playing Edwards more in the second half and maybe this is justified. The problem he had was that we were having great difficulties scoring and at this point in his career, Edwards is pretty much a non factor on offense. Houston was doubling the ball a ton and when Edwards was in the game, it make it easier for them because they could leave him alone and not have to worry about him being a threat to score.

In the end, I don’t think it would have made a big difference who JB played last night. We had no answers on offense. Jarreau stayed with Buddy on picks really well and we could almost never get him open for a good look, Alan was bad on defense and contributed close to nothing on offense. It didn’t help when he threw up that awful air ball early and immediately got taken out.

Braswell is a great kid but he is a poor rebounder, and the only way he can score is to stand around the perimeter and hope the other team leaves him alone, and someone hits him with a pass. But he isn’t a very good outside shooter right now. Good defense, bad rebounding, no ability to slash, little ability to pass or handle the ball. Tough to play him when we were so desperate to find ways to score.

Kadary had an interesting frosh season. He ended the year a completely different player than he started. His assists, steals, blocks and rebounds were off the charts great the first half of the year and by the end of the season, he had largely transformed into a scorer. Period. He went from a guy who looked really uncomfortable shooting from the perimeter to a good outside shooter.

I have been pining for a true PG for so long that I was sad to see his assists and other production fall so dramatically. Some of it is surely tied to his knee injury. He is not nearly as frisky and agile now as he was early. But I think part of it is JB seeing Kadary is a guy who can get his own shot and be a good scorer, and him encouraging Kadary to be more aggressive looking for his shot. That is probably what this offensively challenged team needed but man, I enjoyed seeing him play when he was stuffing the stat box each game.

Thought JGIII showed some growth late in the year. Sounds like GMac has been doing some good coaching, getting him to attack the paint and be more aggressive. I would not have thought he would be the guy who handled the Houston defense the best, but he probably was.

Q did not have a good game, continuing a trend that I think started when his knee was injured a while ago. We needed him to have a huge game on the boards and he wasn’t able to do it. I can’t criticize him much. He and Kadary played hurt for a bunch of games at the end of the season and I commend any player playing hurt to help his team. Hope the injuries both have are not serious and I hope both decide to come back for another season.

Sorry Marek had to end his career on such a bad game. I am going to miss him. If you made a list of the best over achievers in Syracuse basketball history, he would be near the top.

The program is coming off a wave of success, there is a buzz in the air and we are well positioned to fill in whatever gaps are left when the lemmings leave. I agree with dash that we have a good foundation coming back and I think we will be very attractive to transfers looking to play for a major program and compete for an NCAA bid. The next couple of month should be a wild ride. I suspect this will be the most interesting roller coaster of an off season for SU basketball in my lifetime.

 

[Cuseball]

Completely agree with many of your points. Edwards played great but gives you nothing offensively. Giving him an extra 5-10 minutes last night maybe allows us to score 2-4 more points but not a difference.

I’ll also addd that Jimmy tried mixing up Braswell and Griff. Unfortunately both have very little. Really nowhere else to turn if you get nothing from your frontline and Buddy is shutdown.

We will lose some players and will gain some (just like everyone else)

Cuse!

 

[Newhouser]

That's an interesting observation on Kadary. Hadn't thought of that and have to wonder if it ties into the thread on him possibly leaving. Auditioning maybe? Or not ha.

 

[Red Holzman]

Edwards may not be an factor on offense, but has made nice shots that show he can be.
With PT and more confidence, Jesse may not be far from being a solid 10ppg guy.
I look forward to watching Jesse's development next season -assuming he stays!

 

[Melancer46]

That was a tough game to watch. Ugly basketball. Both teams struggled to score. Lot of air balls and awful shots that had no chance to go in.

I think Houston played great defense. The best defense we have seen all season. They aren’t really big, and they have no shot blocker but they have some great athletes and Sampson has them playing like a pack of rabid dogs. They double the ball when a player gets in scoring position, they are really quick and recover really well.

Not sure I have ever seen a team rebound with that kind of crazed zeal. And if you show them even a sliver of the ball, they are going to get it.

On offense, it really looks like they work the ball around until they have a few players in position to get offensive rebounds, and then they throw it up and everyone goes after it. It is an interesting style and one I am not sure I have seen before. I think the way to shut them down is to have some size and good rebounders and get your share of defensive rebounds. You do that and you are probably going to hold them to 50 or 55 points.

This was a bad matchup for us. Our biggest weakness all season has been rebounding, especially on the defensive end. That in your face defensive style with really quick, undersized players was a great way to take away our outside shooters. The way to beat it is to get the ball in the low post with a quality big, or attack the rim quickly with quality slashers. We didn’t have the personnel to do this and it showed.

I give special credit to Jarreau. Yes, he looks 35, and has that awful hair style to make his balding hair look very worse. But the guy can play defense. He did a great job on Buddy and he did it playing hurt. Very impressive. He also was the one guy on Houston who was able to get into the paint and get them a good look. No question he was the MVP of the game. It wasn’t even close.

It was in testing that the one good run we had was largely with Buddy on the bench and Edwards and Kadary playing in the first half. JB has taken a lot of criticism not playing Edwards more in the second half and maybe this is justified. The problem he had was that we were having great difficulties scoring and at this point in his career, Edwards is pretty much a non factor on offense. Houston was doubling the ball a ton and when Edwards was in the game, it make it easier for them because they could leave him alone and not have to worry about him being a threat to score.

In the end, I don’t think it would have made a big difference who JB played last night. We had no answers on offense. Jarreau stayed with Buddy on picks really well and we could almost never get him open for a good look, Alan was bad on defense and contributed close to nothing on offense. It didn’t help when he threw up that awful air ball early and immediately got taken out.

Braswell is a great kid but he is a poor rebounder, and the only way he can score is to stand around the perimeter and hope the other team leaves him alone, and someone hits him with a pass. But he isn’t a very good outside shooter right now. Good defense, bad rebounding, no ability to slash, little ability to pass or handle the ball. Tough to play him when we were so desperate to find ways to score.

Kadary had an interesting frosh season. He ended the year a completely different player than he started. His assists, steals, blocks and rebounds were off the charts great the first half of the year and by the end of the season, he had largely transformed into a scorer. Period. He went from a guy who looked really uncomfortable shooting from the perimeter to a good outside shooter.

I have been pining for a true PG for so long that I was sad to see his assists and other production fall so dramatically. Some of it is surely tied to his knee injury. He is not nearly as frisky and agile now as he was early. But I think part of it is JB seeing Kadary is a guy who can get his own shot and be a good scorer, and him encouraging Kadary to be more aggressive looking for his shot. That is probably what this offensively challenged team needed but man, I enjoyed seeing him play when he was stuffing the stat box each game.

Thought JGIII showed some growth late in the year. Sounds like GMac has been doing some good coaching, getting him to attack the paint and be more aggressive. I would not have thought he would be the guy who handled the Houston defense the best, but he probably was.

Q did not have a good game, continuing a trend that I think started when his knee was injured a while ago. We needed him to have a huge game on the boards and he wasn’t able to do it. I can’t criticize him much. He and Kadary played hurt for a bunch of games at the end of the season and I commend any player playing hurt to help his team. Hope the injuries both have are not serious and I hope both decide to come back for another season.

Sorry Marek had to end his career on such a bad game. I am going to miss him. If you made a list of the best over achievers in Syracuse basketball history, he would be near the top.

The program is coming off a wave of success, there is a buzz in the air and we are well positioned to fill in whatever gaps are left when the lemmings leave. I agree with dash that we have a good foundation coming back and I think we will be very attractive to transfers looking to play for a major program and compete for an NCAA bid. The next couple of month should be a wild ride. I suspect this will be the most interesting roller coaster of an off season for SU basketball in my lifetime.

Re: Edwards, yeah, he played great but also is just such a non-factor offensively right now. We even hit him a few times on the roll and he just couldn't handle the passes well enough to catch it and go right up with it.

Re: Kadary, he still makes great passes throughout the games on top of starting to find his own shots more consistently.

Re: Girard, the thing that sinks him as a player for me is that he's a complete zero inside the 3 point line. If he were an elite shooter, maybe you can get past the lackluster defense and no inside game, but he isn't an elite shooter either so you're just left with a blah player that probably hurts you more than he helps.

 

[Red Holzman]

Re: Girard, the thing that sinks him as a player for me is that he's a complete zero inside the 3 point line. If he were an elite shooter, maybe you can get past the lackluster defense and no inside game, but he isn't an elite shooter either so you're just left with a blah player that probably hurts you more than he helps

One thing about Joe-
Admire his moxie/confidence -though sometimes has too much!
Some of SU's other guys could use a bit of that moxie.
With Joe's physical limitation/asthma, I share the perspective of others that Joe could excel as a 10-15" guy. Would allow Joe to go full throttle to help compete vs superior/larger athletes, and hopefully nail a few daggers.

 

[kcsu]

Solid post. Wanted to see Edwards and Marek together for the whole game with any combination of
Buddy Kadary Joe Griff. I felt that we needed Edwards in the paint as the stats dont lie and we were only plus when he played. Marek passed up numerous 7-10 foot shots that they gave him all night. Instead of shooting he either froze or went into his spinning dervish mode which didnt end well last night.
As to Griff regardless of where he plays if he ever wants to make a living playing ball in Russia he has to work on his handle as it is his Achilles. All in a great finish by the kids and staff and yes it is going to be a very interesting off season.

 

[bballbeadle]

Solid post. Wanted to see Edwards and Marek together for the whole game with any combination of
Buddy Kadary Joe Griff. I felt that we needed Edwards in the paint as the stats dont lie and we were only plus when he played. Marek passed up numerous 7-10 foot shots that they gave him all night. Instead of shooting he either froze or went into his spinning dervish mode which didnt end well last night.
As to Griff regardless of where he plays if he ever wants to make a living playing ball in Russia he has to work on his handle as it is his Achilles. All in a great finish by the kids and staff and yes it is going to be a very interesting off season.

Yeah, I don’t know why Marek wasn’t looking or his shot in the middle. He has certainly taken them and made them.

 

[hoopsupstate]

Solid post. Wanted to see Edwards and Marek together for the whole game with any combination of
Buddy Kadary Joe Griff. I felt that we needed Edwards in the paint as the stats dont lie and we were only plus when he played. Marek passed up numerous 7-10 foot shots that they gave him all night. Instead of shooting he either froze or went into his spinning dervish mode which didnt end well last night.
As to Griff regardless of where he plays if he ever wants to make a living playing ball in Russia he has to work on his handle as it is his Achilles. All in a great finish by the kids and staff and yes it is going to be a very interesting off season.

I don’t think anyone, except Kadary can go to their left. It’s mind boggling to watch college players not having the ability to beat anyone going left off the dribble. Marek, Quincy, Buddy, Joe, Bras, and Griff are awful going to their left. In the off season someone needs to tie their right hands behind their backs and force them to go left.

 

[MadNY3]

That was a tough game to watch. Ugly basketball. Both teams struggled to score. Lot of air balls and awful shots that had no chance to go in.

I think Houston played great defense. The best defense we have seen all season. They aren’t really big, and they have no shot blocker but they have some great athletes and Sampson has them playing like a pack of rabid dogs. They double the ball when a player gets in scoring position, they are really quick and recover really well.

Not sure I have ever seen a team rebound with that kind of crazed zeal. And if you show them even a sliver of the ball, they are going to get it.

On offense, it really looks like they work the ball around until they have a few players in position to get offensive rebounds, and then they throw it up and everyone goes after it. It is an interesting style and one I am not sure I have seen before. I think the way to shut them down is to have some size and good rebounders and get your share of defensive rebounds. You do that and you are probably going to hold them to 50 or 55 points.

This was a bad matchup for us. Our biggest weakness all season has been rebounding, especially on the defensive end. That in your face defensive style with really quick, undersized players was a great way to take away our outside shooters. The way to beat it is to get the ball in the low post with a quality big, or attack the rim quickly with quality slashers. We didn’t have the personnel to do this and it showed.

I give special credit to Jarreau. Yes, he looks 35, and has that awful hair style to make his balding hair look very worse. But the guy can play defense. He did a great job on Buddy and he did it playing hurt. Very impressive. He also was the one guy on Houston who was able to get into the paint and get them a good look. No question he was the MVP of the game. It wasn’t even close.

It was in testing that the one good run we had was largely with Buddy on the bench and Edwards and Kadary playing in the first half. JB has taken a lot of criticism not playing Edwards more in the second half and maybe this is justified. The problem he had was that we were having great difficulties scoring and at this point in his career, Edwards is pretty much a non factor on offense. Houston was doubling the ball a ton and when Edwards was in the game, it make it easier for them because they could leave him alone and not have to worry about him being a threat to score.

In the end, I don’t think it would have made a big difference who JB played last night. We had no answers on offense. Jarreau stayed with Buddy on picks really well and we could almost never get him open for a good look, Alan was bad on defense and contributed close to nothing on offense. It didn’t help when he threw up that awful air ball early and immediately got taken out.

Braswell is a great kid but he is a poor rebounder, and the only way he can score is to stand around the perimeter and hope the other team leaves him alone, and someone hits him with a pass. But he isn’t a very good outside shooter right now. Good defense, bad rebounding, no ability to slash, little ability to pass or handle the ball. Tough to play him when we were so desperate to find ways to score.

Kadary had an interesting frosh season. He ended the year a completely different player than he started. His assists, steals, blocks and rebounds were off the charts great the first half of the year and by the end of the season, he had largely transformed into a scorer. Period. He went from a guy who looked really uncomfortable shooting from the perimeter to a good outside shooter.

I have been pining for a true PG for so long that I was sad to see his assists and other production fall so dramatically. Some of it is surely tied to his knee injury. He is not nearly as frisky and agile now as he was early. But I think part of it is JB seeing Kadary is a guy who can get his own shot and be a good scorer, and him encouraging Kadary to be more aggressive looking for his shot. That is probably what this offensively challenged team needed but man, I enjoyed seeing him play when he was stuffing the stat box each game.

Thought JGIII showed some growth late in the year. Sounds like GMac has been doing some good coaching, getting him to attack the paint and be more aggressive. I would not have thought he would be the guy who handled the Houston defense the best, but he probably was.

Q did not have a good game, continuing a trend that I think started when his knee was injured a while ago. We needed him to have a huge game on the boards and he wasn’t able to do it. I can’t criticize him much. He and Kadary played hurt for a bunch of games at the end of the season and I commend any player playing hurt to help his team. Hope the injuries both have are not serious and I hope both decide to come back for another season.

Sorry Marek had to end his career on such a bad game. I am going to miss him. If you made a list of the best over achievers in Syracuse basketball history, he would be near the top.

The program is coming off a wave of success, there is a buzz in the air and we are well positioned to fill in whatever gaps are left when the lemmings leave. I agree with dash that we have a good foundation coming back and I think we will be very attractive to transfers looking to play for a major program and compete for an NCAA bid. The next couple of month should be a wild ride. I suspect this will be the most interesting roller coaster of an off season for SU basketball in my lifetime.

I really thought Griffin was going to have a strong game. He and Q were tailor-made to be the go-tos on O versus Houston.

Really surprised that didn’t happen.

 

[tbonezone]

jarreau was hobbling about like chester from gun smoke but he found enuf stuff to shut down buddy.

 

[newmexicuse]

They played better than us and deserved to win, but that being said, Jimmy lost us the game when he took edwards out with about 2 minutes left in the first half and the game went from all square to them +10 at the break in a heartbeat. Why that move ? Edwards surely could have hung in there for 2 more minutes. Could have spent a TO give him a blow if necessary, he was not in foul trouble. Jimmy then compounded the error by not starting Jesse in the second half.

Also, you have exaggerated the rebounding issue. They were plus 9, we always get outrebounded by decent teams, it is a big part of what the Zone gives up. I have seen much worse rebounding margins.

I agree with and like most of the rest of your post.

In the end we could not figure out how to break down their D and that was that.

It would certainly have been much more interesting, if hypothetically, Jimmy does not sit Jesse at the end of the first half and we go into the break up or down a just a bucket or two.

Who know how that might have played out.

 

[721Comstock]

They played better than us and deserved to win, but that being said, Jimmy lost us the game when he took edwards out with about 2 minutes left in the first half and the game went from all square to them +10 at the break in a heartbeat. Why that move ? Edwards surely could have hung in there for 2 more minutes. Could have spent a TO give him a blow if necessary, he was not in foul trouble. Jimmy then compounded the error by not starting Jesse in the second half.

Also, you have exaggerated the rebounding issue. They were plus 9, we always get outrebounded by decent teams, it is a big part of what the Zone gives up. I have seen much worse rebounding margins.

I agree with and like most of the rest of your post.

In the end we could not figure out how to break down their D and that was that.

It would certainly have been much more interesting, if hypothetically, Jimmy does not sit Jesse at the end of the first half and we go into the break up or down a just a bucket or two.

Who know how that might have played out.

I agree 144%.

But for a different reason -

Marek went back in at the 5 with 2 fouls.
We’ve seen how that can backfire, and while he did a great job of avoiding his 3rd, it was at the expense of him laying off on D.
Which was a big part of how Houston pushed their lead back out to 10.

We dodged a bullet w the fouls, but sacrificed giving up that run to do it, and with what ended up being no benefit on the O side of things either.

JB is clearly a better coach than all of us put together, but he’s also not infallible-
because no coach is.

Tired Jesse was still more of a net-positive there than 2 fouls Marek was.

 

[Eric15]

Girl I used to work with and her husband went to the game last night. I thought this was a cool picture.

 

[djcon57]

They played better than us and deserved to win, but that being said, Jimmy lost us the game when he took edwards out with about 2 minutes left in the first half and the game went from all square to them +10 at the break in a heartbeat. Why that move ? Edwards surely could have hung in there for 2 more minutes. Could have spent a TO give him a blow if necessary, he was not in foul trouble. Jimmy then compounded the error by not starting Jesse in the second half.

Also, you have exaggerated the rebounding issue. They were plus 9, we always get outrebounded by decent teams, it is a big part of what the Zone gives up. I have seen much worse rebounding margins.

I agree with and like most of the rest of your post.

In the end we could not figure out how to break down their D and that was that.

It would certainly have been much more interesting, if hypothetically, Jimmy does not sit Jesse at the end of the first half and we go into the break up or down a just a bucket or two.

Who know how that might have played out.

Jim said he was tired.

i tend to agree with the thought that a tired Jesse was worth more than Marek at center vs Houston

 

[JustPherU]

That was a tough game to watch. Ugly basketball. Both teams struggled to score. Lot of air balls and awful shots that had no chance to go in.

I think Houston played great defense. The best defense we have seen all season. They aren’t really big, and they have no shot blocker but they have some great athletes and Sampson has them playing like a pack of rabid dogs. They double the ball when a player gets in scoring position, they are really quick and recover really well.

Not sure I have ever seen a team rebound with that kind of crazed zeal. And if you show them even a sliver of the ball, they are going to get it.

On offense, it really looks like they work the ball around until they have a few players in position to get offensive rebounds, and then they throw it up and everyone goes after it. It is an interesting style and one I am not sure I have seen before. I think the way to shut them down is to have some size and good rebounders and get your share of defensive rebounds. You do that and you are probably going to hold them to 50 or 55 points.

This was a bad matchup for us. Our biggest weakness all season has been rebounding, especially on the defensive end. That in your face defensive style with really quick, undersized players was a great way to take away our outside shooters. The way to beat it is to get the ball in the low post with a quality big, or attack the rim quickly with quality slashers. We didn’t have the personnel to do this and it showed.

I give special credit to Jarreau. Yes, he looks 35, and has that awful hair style to make his balding hair look very worse. But the guy can play defense. He did a great job on Buddy and he did it playing hurt. Very impressive. He also was the one guy on Houston who was able to get into the paint and get them a good look. No question he was the MVP of the game. It wasn’t even close.

It was in testing that the one good run we had was largely with Buddy on the bench and Edwards and Kadary playing in the first half. JB has taken a lot of criticism not playing Edwards more in the second half and maybe this is justified. The problem he had was that we were having great difficulties scoring and at this point in his career, Edwards is pretty much a non factor on offense. Houston was doubling the ball a ton and when Edwards was in the game, it make it easier for them because they could leave him alone and not have to worry about him being a threat to score.

In the end, I don’t think it would have made a big difference who JB played last night. We had no answers on offense. Jarreau stayed with Buddy on picks really well and we could almost never get him open for a good look, Alan was bad on defense and contributed close to nothing on offense. It didn’t help when he threw up that awful air ball early and immediately got taken out.

Braswell is a great kid but he is a poor rebounder, and the only way he can score is to stand around the perimeter and hope the other team leaves him alone, and someone hits him with a pass. But he isn’t a very good outside shooter right now. Good defense, bad rebounding, no ability to slash, little ability to pass or handle the ball. Tough to play him when we were so desperate to find ways to score.

Kadary had an interesting frosh season. He ended the year a completely different player than he started. His assists, steals, blocks and rebounds were off the charts great the first half of the year and by the end of the season, he had largely transformed into a scorer. Period. He went from a guy who looked really uncomfortable shooting from the perimeter to a good outside shooter.

I have been pining for a true PG for so long that I was sad to see his assists and other production fall so dramatically. Some of it is surely tied to his knee injury. He is not nearly as frisky and agile now as he was early. But I think part of it is JB seeing Kadary is a guy who can get his own shot and be a good scorer, and him encouraging Kadary to be more aggressive looking for his shot. That is probably what this offensively challenged team needed but man, I enjoyed seeing him play when he was stuffing the stat box each game.

Thought JGIII showed some growth late in the year. Sounds like GMac has been doing some good coaching, getting him to attack the paint and be more aggressive. I would not have thought he would be the guy who handled the Houston defense the best, but he probably was.

Q did not have a good game, continuing a trend that I think started when his knee was injured a while ago. We needed him to have a huge game on the boards and he wasn’t able to do it. I can’t criticize him much. He and Kadary played hurt for a bunch of games at the end of the season and I commend any player playing hurt to help his team. Hope the injuries both have are not serious and I hope both decide to come back for another season.

Sorry Marek had to end his career on such a bad game. I am going to miss him. If you made a list of the best over achievers in Syracuse basketball history, he would be near the top.

The program is coming off a wave of success, there is a buzz in the air and we are well positioned to fill in whatever gaps are left when the lemmings leave. I agree with dash that we have a good foundation coming back and I think we will be very attractive to transfers looking to play for a major program and compete for an NCAA bid. The next couple of month should be a wild ride. I suspect this will be the most interesting roller coaster of an off season for SU basketball in my lifetime.

I don’t think Marek was an over achiever, I think he is and was a smart player when he got here, but he never developed a shot.I don’t want to sound like I’m putting him down because he could be our MVP and still not be an over achiever.
Love the guy and all he did for the program, but I think he still can get better if he would look to score more. No doubt he sacrificed his body and played out of position for the good of the team.
Hope he comes back.

 

[DoctorBombay]

Jim said he was tired.

i tend to agree with the thought that a tired Jesse was worth more than Marek at center vs Houston

JB tends to lock in on a team’s narrative and it takes a helluva lot to move him off it.
Kadary saw time because Joe started slow, and even then the narrative was, “he’ll only play if Joe’s having an off night”. Only KRs stellar and obvious contributions convinced him otherwise. If Joe had played well, Kadary would’ve sat, no matter how good he was. Period.
Same thing w/ Marek at the 5. It was gonna be that role come hell or high water, regardless of how much we got battered and abused. And even when Jesse showed glimpses, played well, and contributed, JB went right back to his preferred narrative- Marek at the 5. It’s how Boeheim do.

 

[kcsu]

I don’t think anyone, except Kadary can go to their left. It’s mind boggling to watch college players not having the ability to beat anyone going left off the dribble. Marek, Quincy, Buddy, Joe, Bras, and Griff are awful going to their left. In the off season someone needs to tie their right hands behind their backs and force them to go left.

I learned to go left by not using my right hand for everyday use. Ate left handed, wrote a ton left handed, brushed teeth, pretty much everything. Once i started practicing handling the ball was pretty easy. My HS coach was the one who did this and its the reason or one of them as to why i got a scholarship.
Yes its appalling the lack of basic skills from so many of our players.
Griff Bras and Q dont have handles. They are very weak with the ball and it is a huge detriment to their games. Mareks lack of a shot is why he wont make the NBA. Out of all of our players Buddy has shown the most improvement.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Marek showed more promise as a scorer at the end of his freshman year than he ever evolved into. This year in particular he seemed very gun shy when it came to shooting.

 

[bpo57]

Marek showed more promise as a scorer at the end of his freshman year than he ever evolved into. This year in particular he seemed very gun shy when it came to shooting.

Good point and my gut is that the coaches may have discouraged him from getting too frisky on the offensive end.

 

[Dinkyspond]

Yeah, I don’t know why Marek wasn’t looking or his shot in the middle. He has certainly taken them and made them.

His inability to look for his shot plagued the team all year, sure he's a great passer for a big man, but he has offensive skills that he underutilized. He can hit that mid-range jumper but rarely took it. He has moves to drive to basket but seemed afraid to go in there for fear of getting blocked or smothered due to his slight frame. By him not being aggressive offensively, teams ignored him and hounded our shooters giving them less space. Marek's propensity to defer hurt our offense.

 

[721Comstock]

His inability to look for his shot plagued the team all year, sure he's a great passer for a big man, but he has offensive skills that he underutilized. He can hit that mid-range jumper but rarely took it. He has moves to drive to basket but seemed afraid to go in there for fear of getting blocked or smothered due to his slight frame. By him not being aggressive offensively, teams ignored him and hounded our shooters giving them less space. Marek's propensity to defer hurt our offense.

He hit 38% from 3 as a Soph.

And - he’s an excellent FT shooter.

There is NO reason he couldn’t have taken some wide-open 3’s and a few more midrange J’s.
(He was pretty much money on the latter,
Until he stopped taking them).

 

[kirbivore]

JB tends to lock in on a team’s narrative and it takes a helluva lot to move him off it.
Kadary saw time because Joe started slow, and even then the narrative was, “he’ll only play if Joe’s having an off night”. Only KRs stellar and obvious contributions convinced him otherwise. If Joe had played well, Kadary would’ve sat, no matter how good he was. Period.
Same thing w/ Marek at the 5. It was gonna be that role come hell or high water, regardless of how much we got battered and abused. And even when Jesse showed glimpses, played well, and contributed, JB went right back to his preferred narrative- Marek at the 5. It’s how Boeheim do.

I used to get into many arguments with Igor on many subjects and his notion of JB predetermining lineups in the preseason was the number one pushback by me. Nowadays I'm not so sure.

 

[FrancoPizza]

I learned to go left by not using my right hand for everyday use. Ate left handed, wrote a ton left handed, brushed teeth, pretty much everything. Once i started practicing handling the ball was pretty easy. My HS coach was the one who did this and its the reason or one of them as to why i got a scholarship.
Ye

Great story. Not being able to go left handicapped me terribly in high school and I wish I could do it over.

 

[kcsu]

Great story. Not being able to go left handicapped me terribly in high school and I wish I could do it over.

I had a great coach. Also we played ball non stop. I used to get in trouble for skipping school to play pick up games. Would play till 2am many summer nights.