sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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This is going to be a badly written stream of conscience type post. Sorry but I am tired and this is the best I can do right now.
It is great having the students back. They change the atmosphere of the games markedly. I don’t know what happened, but after years of slowly degrading performances, the students continue to operate at a high level.
I have always liked the SSS. But after years of them performing at almost every game (except during Christmas break, when the Bills HS band filled in nicely), we have had to live without a band for a long time. Close to 2 months i think. It is so nice to have them back. Yay.
Otto, the cheerleaders and the dance club are also now back but in a different way. None are allowed to perform on the court any longer. Too much COVID risk I guess. The dance team has sat being the north basket for decades, with the cheerleaders sitting behind the south basket but these days, they perform next to the student section. These days, the cheerleaders are not even allowed to finish the running of the flags at center court. Quite unfortunate.
Things are weird during time outs. We at least have the band to play sometimes but no dancers, no cheerleaders, no Otto and no contests. It is even weirder at halftime. There is a lot of nothing going on. Unfortunately, I think these are the cards SUAD has been dealt and there isn’t much they can do with the new rules.
Enough of the behind the scenes stuff. Let’s talk about the game.
UL’s only real big guy is suspended and was not there. They had no shot blocker and little inside presence. Pretty big for us because it opened up the paint for Syracuse. And we took advantage. JGIII did his usual good job finding Jesse for a couple easy baskets early. I have criticized JBIII and BB some for missing wide open teammates too often. That was not the case this game. Both kept their head up and made good passes, mostly to Jesse, when they drew his defender to get him easy baskets. I think JBIII can be an effective player for us if he only shoots when he is in good shooting position. When he forces shots, bad things happen. I think he needs to be a 6 or 7 shots a game type guy. Use his good driving skills but look to pass first on these drives. That is how he brings the most value to this team.
Thought overall, we moved the game better than we have since early in the season. Everyone can score right now and everyone is willing to pass it too. Way more ball movement and it is leading to better shots and more efficiency.
No question the offense is changing. The extreme focus on getting the Boeheim brothers shots has evolved into more of a focus on getting it inside to Jesse. Jesse is getting better at finishing but if he feels a double is coming, he is passing it back out immediately, which makes it exceedingly hard to defend this offense. Buddy still gets the most touches in half court sets but he is doing a better job seeing the double and finding the open guy when that happens. Oh yeah, and Buddy’s long slump shooting from the outside appears to be over. Every year it sees like he starts the season off struggling shooting from outside, and doesn’t really get it together until late January. And then shoots over 40% from outside the rest of the season. It looks like it is happening again.
Meanwhile, Cole keeps getting covered by a guard and is finally getting aggressive about taking advantage of the mismatch and taking his little guy into the paint for easy shots. And when he gets the ball on the perimeter, he has become a reliable outside shooter.
Another pretty bad day for the subs. Frankie was probably the best of them. He seems to find a way to contribute just about every game now. Not as good a defender as Jesse, probably not quite as good a rebounder or as polished offensively, he can finish when he gets it near the basket (I bet 80% of his made FGs are dunks). I see a steady progression but with Jesse’s development, he isn’t going to get a ton of PT. Might not be a bad idea to sneak him in as a PF for a few minutes a game. Would like to see him and Jesse in together to see what happens, especially against some of the bigger teams we play.
My favorite thing about Jesse’s play today was that he played aggressively but did not get into foul trouble. He didn’t get his first foul until there was 10 minutes left in the game and that was it. Of course, he was taken out right after he got that foul. But it was good to see him out of position a couple of times for an offensive rebound and instead of going over the back and making a foolish foul, he just conceded the rebound and got back on defense. Not sure if this is the start of a new, smarter Jesse or just an aberration. Learning to play hard but not make over aggressive foolish fouls is an art and something JE has struggled to do. If he can figure this out, he can be an all conference level player.
At halftime, something weird happened. Syracuse came out and started doing their normal warm ups. Layups, outside shots, some players stretch. Pretty standard stuff. I think the SU players were out with about 10 minutes still on the clock before halftime was over. But Louisville was no where to be found. 8 minutes left. No UL. 6 minutes left. No UL. 4 minutes left. No UL. 3 minutes left. No UL. Finally around 2:50 before halftime ended, UL walked out on the court. A couple guys didn’t get on the court until less than 2 minutes were left. Not sure what happened. Maybe their interim coach was chewing them out for a really long time? Maybe there was a fight? No idea but it was weird. Have never seen that before.
It was a good crowd today. The students, as already mentioned, were great. They love Jesse and chanted his name. Thought it was our biggest crowd of the season and it was quite loud at times. The new roof definitely reflects sound better than the old one. If we could get to 30K for Duke, it would be interesting to see how loud the dome will get. Hope we can get to that point. It is going to take an extended winning streak but you never know. Especially during this most unusual season.
We have a modest 3 game winning streak. Not much to be excited about but….it is the first time all season that this team has won 3 games in a row. Hard to believe but true (I am talking actual games here). We have been really inconsistent. Nice to see some progression. If we can beat BC too, things are going to start to get really interesting.
It is great having the students back. They change the atmosphere of the games markedly. I don’t know what happened, but after years of slowly degrading performances, the students continue to operate at a high level.
I have always liked the SSS. But after years of them performing at almost every game (except during Christmas break, when the Bills HS band filled in nicely), we have had to live without a band for a long time. Close to 2 months i think. It is so nice to have them back. Yay.
Otto, the cheerleaders and the dance club are also now back but in a different way. None are allowed to perform on the court any longer. Too much COVID risk I guess. The dance team has sat being the north basket for decades, with the cheerleaders sitting behind the south basket but these days, they perform next to the student section. These days, the cheerleaders are not even allowed to finish the running of the flags at center court. Quite unfortunate.
Things are weird during time outs. We at least have the band to play sometimes but no dancers, no cheerleaders, no Otto and no contests. It is even weirder at halftime. There is a lot of nothing going on. Unfortunately, I think these are the cards SUAD has been dealt and there isn’t much they can do with the new rules.
Enough of the behind the scenes stuff. Let’s talk about the game.
UL’s only real big guy is suspended and was not there. They had no shot blocker and little inside presence. Pretty big for us because it opened up the paint for Syracuse. And we took advantage. JGIII did his usual good job finding Jesse for a couple easy baskets early. I have criticized JBIII and BB some for missing wide open teammates too often. That was not the case this game. Both kept their head up and made good passes, mostly to Jesse, when they drew his defender to get him easy baskets. I think JBIII can be an effective player for us if he only shoots when he is in good shooting position. When he forces shots, bad things happen. I think he needs to be a 6 or 7 shots a game type guy. Use his good driving skills but look to pass first on these drives. That is how he brings the most value to this team.
Thought overall, we moved the game better than we have since early in the season. Everyone can score right now and everyone is willing to pass it too. Way more ball movement and it is leading to better shots and more efficiency.
No question the offense is changing. The extreme focus on getting the Boeheim brothers shots has evolved into more of a focus on getting it inside to Jesse. Jesse is getting better at finishing but if he feels a double is coming, he is passing it back out immediately, which makes it exceedingly hard to defend this offense. Buddy still gets the most touches in half court sets but he is doing a better job seeing the double and finding the open guy when that happens. Oh yeah, and Buddy’s long slump shooting from the outside appears to be over. Every year it sees like he starts the season off struggling shooting from outside, and doesn’t really get it together until late January. And then shoots over 40% from outside the rest of the season. It looks like it is happening again.
Meanwhile, Cole keeps getting covered by a guard and is finally getting aggressive about taking advantage of the mismatch and taking his little guy into the paint for easy shots. And when he gets the ball on the perimeter, he has become a reliable outside shooter.
Another pretty bad day for the subs. Frankie was probably the best of them. He seems to find a way to contribute just about every game now. Not as good a defender as Jesse, probably not quite as good a rebounder or as polished offensively, he can finish when he gets it near the basket (I bet 80% of his made FGs are dunks). I see a steady progression but with Jesse’s development, he isn’t going to get a ton of PT. Might not be a bad idea to sneak him in as a PF for a few minutes a game. Would like to see him and Jesse in together to see what happens, especially against some of the bigger teams we play.
My favorite thing about Jesse’s play today was that he played aggressively but did not get into foul trouble. He didn’t get his first foul until there was 10 minutes left in the game and that was it. Of course, he was taken out right after he got that foul. But it was good to see him out of position a couple of times for an offensive rebound and instead of going over the back and making a foolish foul, he just conceded the rebound and got back on defense. Not sure if this is the start of a new, smarter Jesse or just an aberration. Learning to play hard but not make over aggressive foolish fouls is an art and something JE has struggled to do. If he can figure this out, he can be an all conference level player.
At halftime, something weird happened. Syracuse came out and started doing their normal warm ups. Layups, outside shots, some players stretch. Pretty standard stuff. I think the SU players were out with about 10 minutes still on the clock before halftime was over. But Louisville was no where to be found. 8 minutes left. No UL. 6 minutes left. No UL. 4 minutes left. No UL. 3 minutes left. No UL. Finally around 2:50 before halftime ended, UL walked out on the court. A couple guys didn’t get on the court until less than 2 minutes were left. Not sure what happened. Maybe their interim coach was chewing them out for a really long time? Maybe there was a fight? No idea but it was weird. Have never seen that before.
It was a good crowd today. The students, as already mentioned, were great. They love Jesse and chanted his name. Thought it was our biggest crowd of the season and it was quite loud at times. The new roof definitely reflects sound better than the old one. If we could get to 30K for Duke, it would be interesting to see how loud the dome will get. Hope we can get to that point. It is going to take an extended winning streak but you never know. Especially during this most unusual season.
We have a modest 3 game winning streak. Not much to be excited about but….it is the first time all season that this team has won 3 games in a row. Hard to believe but true (I am talking actual games here). We have been really inconsistent. Nice to see some progression. If we can beat BC too, things are going to start to get really interesting.
