sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Quick one. A lot going on at work.
Went with my wife. Her first time at the dome. She was impressed with the scoreboards, the new roof, and all the general improvements to the concourses and interior of the dome. She really liked the new room on the lower concourse of the eastern end zone where you can take your food and drink and stand at a table and enjoy it like a normal person.
Her favorite change was having the areas where the fans sit darkened a bit. She told me she always hated sitting in the bright lights, which hurt her eyes and made her uncomfortable.
I didn't bother to do any research on Lafayette before the game. I knew their coach had been there for 26 years and assumed with a coach with that kind of tenure, they were a power in the Patriot. They weren't very impressive (I thought not as good as a typical Colgate team) and after the game, I looked this up and it turns out they are pretty bad. They have lost at least 20 games 4 of the last 4 full seasons they have played. I guess they don't care about basketball at Lafayette. You would think they would.
Anyway, Lafayette had some decent size and a big man billed as a really good passer. My understanding was that they were going to run their offense with the center at the high post, kind of like we did last year with Marek, or what we did with Danny Schayes his senior season.
Looked like we were totally prepared. Jesse was really aggressive and disrupted things in the paint and our forwards did a pretty good job cutting off back door cuts. One time a forward got behind JB3 cut back door to the basket and got a nice pass from their big (I think his name was Quinn) and he went in (unwisely) for a dunk. But Benny flew in from the weak side and just destroyed that poor kid. I can see that kid sitting in a bar in 10 years, telling people "you see that guy on the Sixers scoring all those points? Yeah, Ben Williams. I played against him in college. Did pretty good too. Except for that one play..."
So Lafayette's offense soon deteriorated into passing the ball around the perimeter and someone forcing a bad shot late. Thought Pace and LeMoyne did a much better job attacking our zone. Do not expect Lafayette to do well in the Patriot this season.
JB3 is probably the only player on the team who has played against Lafayette and he acted like he knew all their tendencies early. Scored SU's first 8 points. He isn't really quick, can't jump really well...but the kid knows how to play basketball. Seems to constantly be in the right place. If he sees his defender is overplaying him on one side, he will go the other. He takes what the defense gives him. I called him a garbage man (in the best sense) in an earlier post and continue to think that is his role on this team. He has some similarities with Marek (both played smart) but is on the other end of the bell curve in terms of being aggressive looking to score. If you give Jimmy a chance to score, he will take it. That said, also a good passer. When we had issues in the 2-3, it was usually him at fault and I don't think he is ever going to be really good playing zone. But you can see him making adjustments and learning even in these early games with little on the line.
Was really happy how Cole took his bad start to the game. He missed a couple of good looks from the perimeter, didn't hang his head, instead went to work on the boards, made a difference there and tried to score with mid range jumpers and drives. One of those drives got probably the biggest reaction from a quiet crowd (people roared with laughter, as did the bench), when Cole just took his arm and cleared his defender out of the way. His driving game needs work. But I like his approach.
Buddy looked like the AA candidate he is. Lafayette tried to double him and when he got it, a couple Leopards always seemed to fly at him. But he countered all the attention by finding the open man and had a lot of nice passes without much time handling the ball. I am sure this was a point of emphasis for him over the summer. He is really getting his shot off quickly right now.
JG3 continues to play well. It looks like JB has told him to get the ball to Jesse early each half and establish him as an offensive threat and Joe is doing a good job here. He has been able to get into the paint and dish, and has had some nice entry passes down low as well. And he is shooting it really well right now.
Thought Symir again looked good. No one is going to cover him once we get into ACC play and that is probably going to be a problem but he is passing it well, looking good on defense and it is nice to have a big, strong, fast, really athletic guy running around as a guard.
Thought Jesse did what we want him to do. Shut down most of the paint, got some boards, finished when he got it in position to score. It looks like he might even have become a reliable FT shooter.
I am not going to get overly excited over a game against a team like Lafayette. They don't have good athletes, they aren't well coached and destroying them doesn't mean a lot (I think we were up 48-17 at one point late in the first half).
That said, you want your team to destroy weaker teams. And to be sure, this was a destruction. We have some really nice shooters and some really nice passing going on. And best of all, for this game anyway, we looked really good on the boards. If Cole is going to end up rebounding anywhere close to this the rest of the season, it is going to be a very good thing.
Drexel should be a better test Sunday. Let's see how things go then. This has certainly been a promising start.
Went with my wife. Her first time at the dome. She was impressed with the scoreboards, the new roof, and all the general improvements to the concourses and interior of the dome. She really liked the new room on the lower concourse of the eastern end zone where you can take your food and drink and stand at a table and enjoy it like a normal person.
Her favorite change was having the areas where the fans sit darkened a bit. She told me she always hated sitting in the bright lights, which hurt her eyes and made her uncomfortable.
I didn't bother to do any research on Lafayette before the game. I knew their coach had been there for 26 years and assumed with a coach with that kind of tenure, they were a power in the Patriot. They weren't very impressive (I thought not as good as a typical Colgate team) and after the game, I looked this up and it turns out they are pretty bad. They have lost at least 20 games 4 of the last 4 full seasons they have played. I guess they don't care about basketball at Lafayette. You would think they would.
Anyway, Lafayette had some decent size and a big man billed as a really good passer. My understanding was that they were going to run their offense with the center at the high post, kind of like we did last year with Marek, or what we did with Danny Schayes his senior season.
Looked like we were totally prepared. Jesse was really aggressive and disrupted things in the paint and our forwards did a pretty good job cutting off back door cuts. One time a forward got behind JB3 cut back door to the basket and got a nice pass from their big (I think his name was Quinn) and he went in (unwisely) for a dunk. But Benny flew in from the weak side and just destroyed that poor kid. I can see that kid sitting in a bar in 10 years, telling people "you see that guy on the Sixers scoring all those points? Yeah, Ben Williams. I played against him in college. Did pretty good too. Except for that one play..."
So Lafayette's offense soon deteriorated into passing the ball around the perimeter and someone forcing a bad shot late. Thought Pace and LeMoyne did a much better job attacking our zone. Do not expect Lafayette to do well in the Patriot this season.
JB3 is probably the only player on the team who has played against Lafayette and he acted like he knew all their tendencies early. Scored SU's first 8 points. He isn't really quick, can't jump really well...but the kid knows how to play basketball. Seems to constantly be in the right place. If he sees his defender is overplaying him on one side, he will go the other. He takes what the defense gives him. I called him a garbage man (in the best sense) in an earlier post and continue to think that is his role on this team. He has some similarities with Marek (both played smart) but is on the other end of the bell curve in terms of being aggressive looking to score. If you give Jimmy a chance to score, he will take it. That said, also a good passer. When we had issues in the 2-3, it was usually him at fault and I don't think he is ever going to be really good playing zone. But you can see him making adjustments and learning even in these early games with little on the line.
Was really happy how Cole took his bad start to the game. He missed a couple of good looks from the perimeter, didn't hang his head, instead went to work on the boards, made a difference there and tried to score with mid range jumpers and drives. One of those drives got probably the biggest reaction from a quiet crowd (people roared with laughter, as did the bench), when Cole just took his arm and cleared his defender out of the way. His driving game needs work. But I like his approach.
Buddy looked like the AA candidate he is. Lafayette tried to double him and when he got it, a couple Leopards always seemed to fly at him. But he countered all the attention by finding the open man and had a lot of nice passes without much time handling the ball. I am sure this was a point of emphasis for him over the summer. He is really getting his shot off quickly right now.
JG3 continues to play well. It looks like JB has told him to get the ball to Jesse early each half and establish him as an offensive threat and Joe is doing a good job here. He has been able to get into the paint and dish, and has had some nice entry passes down low as well. And he is shooting it really well right now.
Thought Symir again looked good. No one is going to cover him once we get into ACC play and that is probably going to be a problem but he is passing it well, looking good on defense and it is nice to have a big, strong, fast, really athletic guy running around as a guard.
Thought Jesse did what we want him to do. Shut down most of the paint, got some boards, finished when he got it in position to score. It looks like he might even have become a reliable FT shooter.
I am not going to get overly excited over a game against a team like Lafayette. They don't have good athletes, they aren't well coached and destroying them doesn't mean a lot (I think we were up 48-17 at one point late in the first half).
That said, you want your team to destroy weaker teams. And to be sure, this was a destruction. We have some really nice shooters and some really nice passing going on. And best of all, for this game anyway, we looked really good on the boards. If Cole is going to end up rebounding anywhere close to this the rest of the season, it is going to be a very good thing.
Drexel should be a better test Sunday. Let's see how things go then. This has certainly been a promising start.
