sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Another really good crowd for this event. My guess is something in the range of 20K, perhaps a bit more. Lots of families and kids. One young girl left the Dome early, escorted by a police officer and Dome security, with a bloody nose from what was rumored to be a major cat fight.
The students were again put at center court, separated from the court by a temporary metal wall, kind of like the English have hooligan walls at the soccer arenas to keep the wild ones at bay.
Before the event officially started, the SU cheerleaders entertained the crowd. They have been working on some dance routines that are very dance team like. Did a nice job with them. I really like the new, largely orange uniforms they are wearing.
Gomez and Dave started things, introduced Scoop and Miss Jordan, they had some banter, seemed like they had a good time. The sound system was terrible even by Dome standards so it was hard to understand anything.
The women's team was introduced and played first. They showed a lot of personality, many did dances as they walked on to the court (they all walked through a long tented entrance to get near the court). Their intersquad scrimmage only lasted 8 minutes, there didn't stop the clock at times even when the ball was dead so it went very quickly. Coffey, the fine soph PG from Kingston, hit at least 3 3 pointers. Leary and Alexander played well inside, as expected. Frosh former HS AA G Sykes has talent and will make an impact. Taft is another fine shooter and Tyson-Thomas is a heady player. I think they have some talent and will probably get an NCAA bid this season.
JB arrived this year escorted by soldiers from the Fort Drum Mountain Division. He was in a military Humvee. Wore his Olympic USA jacket, said he was proud of it and proud of something else, pulling out a gold medal for everyone to see. Loud cheers. I wonder if Carmelo let him borrow it or if he had a fake one made for himself?
The men's scrimmage consisted of 2 8 minute halves. Brandon was on one team, MCW on the other. Play was very ragged, defense was only a rumor, there was a lot of one on one play and frankly, it was not good basketball to watch much of the time. I think making judgements about what people did is quite foolish.
But for the record...here are my impressions:
The best player on the court was, easily, MCW. He made a few mistakes and was hardly perfect but he is something special when the ball is in his hands, he plays spectacular plays with alarming regularity and is a joy to watch play. Lots of great passes, lots of assists, got to the hoop when he wanted to, even played some defense. Has filled out some, no sign of problems ball handling.
Triche didn't play a ton, mostly worked the ball around as the PG for the white team, looked much like he always has. Makes muscles with his arms on the pregame intro and did a long, elaborate dance when he was introduced that seemed really out of character with his personality.
Cooney shot the ball well, had a lot of looks, is leaning forward some on his shots not unlike Triche does sometimes, which I am not a fan of. Played point briefly and lost the ball almost immediately. He can shoot, and it appears he will not be reluctant to pull the trigger. Both teams played man defense, didn't give it a good effort, Cooney did not distinguish himself here.
Baye Keita scored a bunch of points on easy baskets inside in one stretch when Coleman spaced out and just didn't play defense at all. Has not put on much new muscle, looks about the same as last year.
Too early to freak out about but DC2 did not look good on defense today. He did score his share of points on offense and was active on the boards. He has lost fat and looks like he might be the strongest player in the history of the Big East conference as a true frosh.
I suspect the leading scorer of the night was Christmas, who again benefited from some bad defense to score a bunch of points at point blank distance from the rim. He looked comfortable and very solid.
Southerland had some points but didn't get into the game much. Needs to have the ball worked around some to find him open a lot and that wasn't going to happen tonight. He was fine. Did a nice dance during his intro which included sharing the floor with Elashier Hall, a PG on the women's team, for a brief period.
Grant didn't play a lot, was pretty quiet when he was in but he did have a nice move to the basket for a score. Pretty skinny right now. Is definitely really agile but looked lost out there most of the time.
Gbinje did well playing at the top of the zone, scored a bunch of points, mostly on short and mid range jumpers. Looks like he is going to be a very solid player for us.
Biggest surprise was CJ Fair, who started but barely played. I assume he has a minor injury.
Left after the scrimmage, I think there might have been a dunk and 3 point shooting contest coming later.
There was a rap session before the women's game. Two guys did it, got the students riled up.
They have a lot of work to do to make use of the new scoreboards with basketball. The new color scoreboard above the portable stands east of the basketball court looks nice, at least if you like the Pepsi logo.
I would say this team has a lot of potential but is quite a bit behind the last couple of squads in terms of people knowing their roles and filling them properly. They could be very very good or they could be really frustrating to watch. Gonna need some youngsters to step up. I think they will but it might take some time for this to happen fully.
The students were again put at center court, separated from the court by a temporary metal wall, kind of like the English have hooligan walls at the soccer arenas to keep the wild ones at bay.
Before the event officially started, the SU cheerleaders entertained the crowd. They have been working on some dance routines that are very dance team like. Did a nice job with them. I really like the new, largely orange uniforms they are wearing.
Gomez and Dave started things, introduced Scoop and Miss Jordan, they had some banter, seemed like they had a good time. The sound system was terrible even by Dome standards so it was hard to understand anything.
The women's team was introduced and played first. They showed a lot of personality, many did dances as they walked on to the court (they all walked through a long tented entrance to get near the court). Their intersquad scrimmage only lasted 8 minutes, there didn't stop the clock at times even when the ball was dead so it went very quickly. Coffey, the fine soph PG from Kingston, hit at least 3 3 pointers. Leary and Alexander played well inside, as expected. Frosh former HS AA G Sykes has talent and will make an impact. Taft is another fine shooter and Tyson-Thomas is a heady player. I think they have some talent and will probably get an NCAA bid this season.
JB arrived this year escorted by soldiers from the Fort Drum Mountain Division. He was in a military Humvee. Wore his Olympic USA jacket, said he was proud of it and proud of something else, pulling out a gold medal for everyone to see. Loud cheers. I wonder if Carmelo let him borrow it or if he had a fake one made for himself?
The men's scrimmage consisted of 2 8 minute halves. Brandon was on one team, MCW on the other. Play was very ragged, defense was only a rumor, there was a lot of one on one play and frankly, it was not good basketball to watch much of the time. I think making judgements about what people did is quite foolish.
But for the record...here are my impressions:
The best player on the court was, easily, MCW. He made a few mistakes and was hardly perfect but he is something special when the ball is in his hands, he plays spectacular plays with alarming regularity and is a joy to watch play. Lots of great passes, lots of assists, got to the hoop when he wanted to, even played some defense. Has filled out some, no sign of problems ball handling.
Triche didn't play a ton, mostly worked the ball around as the PG for the white team, looked much like he always has. Makes muscles with his arms on the pregame intro and did a long, elaborate dance when he was introduced that seemed really out of character with his personality.
Cooney shot the ball well, had a lot of looks, is leaning forward some on his shots not unlike Triche does sometimes, which I am not a fan of. Played point briefly and lost the ball almost immediately. He can shoot, and it appears he will not be reluctant to pull the trigger. Both teams played man defense, didn't give it a good effort, Cooney did not distinguish himself here.
Baye Keita scored a bunch of points on easy baskets inside in one stretch when Coleman spaced out and just didn't play defense at all. Has not put on much new muscle, looks about the same as last year.
Too early to freak out about but DC2 did not look good on defense today. He did score his share of points on offense and was active on the boards. He has lost fat and looks like he might be the strongest player in the history of the Big East conference as a true frosh.
I suspect the leading scorer of the night was Christmas, who again benefited from some bad defense to score a bunch of points at point blank distance from the rim. He looked comfortable and very solid.
Southerland had some points but didn't get into the game much. Needs to have the ball worked around some to find him open a lot and that wasn't going to happen tonight. He was fine. Did a nice dance during his intro which included sharing the floor with Elashier Hall, a PG on the women's team, for a brief period.
Grant didn't play a lot, was pretty quiet when he was in but he did have a nice move to the basket for a score. Pretty skinny right now. Is definitely really agile but looked lost out there most of the time.
Gbinje did well playing at the top of the zone, scored a bunch of points, mostly on short and mid range jumpers. Looks like he is going to be a very solid player for us.
Biggest surprise was CJ Fair, who started but barely played. I assume he has a minor injury.
Left after the scrimmage, I think there might have been a dunk and 3 point shooting contest coming later.
There was a rap session before the women's game. Two guys did it, got the students riled up.
They have a lot of work to do to make use of the new scoreboards with basketball. The new color scoreboard above the portable stands east of the basketball court looks nice, at least if you like the Pepsi logo.
I would say this team has a lot of potential but is quite a bit behind the last couple of squads in terms of people knowing their roles and filling them properly. They could be very very good or they could be really frustrating to watch. Gonna need some youngsters to step up. I think they will but it might take some time for this to happen fully.
