sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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Another small crowd. Announced at just under 18K though the total shown on the scoreboard at the same time of the announcement was 19.7K. Not sure which is right. Whoops.
Another strong NA delivered by a women from Cicero North Syracuse. Slow delivery, hit the notes nicely. CNY has talent.
No students. No cheerleaders. No SSS. No dance team. No Otto. Not even an orange student crumb. That made for a quiet Dome.
The Kiss Cam had an interesting moment. Instead of kissing his girl, a guy got on his knees and proposed. Yes, she accepted, yes, she put on the ring on and yes, she kissed him, to loud applause from the crowd. Looked like he arranged it with the help of Dome Czar Pete Sala. Nice work by all involved.
Princeton had one really good player, a muscular and physical 6'7 F named Hummer. SU knew this and JB had his players overplay him, effectively taking him out of the game for extended periods. Still, impressive player. Rebounded it well, made a number of impressive passes, could finish and shoot too when he got just a little room. The rest of their team is a bunch of disciplined scrappers, role players all. #3 is a fine outside shooter who thus wore the right number for his skill set.
The Tigers played a mix of man and zone. I think they wanted to play man but got in some foul trouble and ended up playing a 2-3 most of the game. We struggled with the zone for a while but after an adjustment period, MCW started carving it up like a nice, plump turkey and everyone in the game for SU seemed to get a nice pass or two from him. No question his favorite player to set up is his classmate and bestest friend on the team, Rak Christmas. Rak played well early but got in foul trouble and ended up not playing a lot of minutes. But I like the way he is finishing plays around the basket...he looks much improved from last season here.
MCW might at some point this season get a quintuple double. What is a quintuple double? Double figures in points, assists (he is going to get these two all the time), rebounds, steals and turnovers. He actually was in control the vast majority of the game today, really got the offense working when SU got in trouble. At one point, the lead got down to around 5. Everyone on SU looked tight shooting the ball and we did not score for a while.
But the Princeton coach or players decided to trap SU away from the basket. Not a good idea. 5 seconds later, we had an easy basket, and 5 minutes later, the game was essentially over, with SU up by 15 or 16.
Every once in a while, a player appears who has a special quality, a special ability to score points in astonishingly quick fashion. Out of all the players I have seen play at SU, I am not sure anyone is capable of exploding for 10 or 12 points in a short period quite like James Southerland can. He can have games where he plays 10 minutes and does nothing. And other games where he glows white hot and just blisters the net with scores in what seems like a few seconds.
This was one of those Southerland explosion nights, where James' play glowed with the heat of one thousand suns. The joy he gets playing this game makes him one of my favorite players. It is a real treat to watch James when he is on, and he was as on as on can be tonight.
Better night for Coleman, who dominated the boards in his rather limited playing time and finished much better against the Tigers. Glad to see him playing effectively at this level.
Tough night for Trevor, who didn't play much in the first half and barely played in the second half, as Princeton made their run to make the game close and JB was not willing to entrust a frosh guard in a tight game.
Keita had some moments but his new found offensive prowess was largely gone tonight. He did have a terrific block (I believe it was on Hummer) and a couple nice boards. Fell down awkwardly at one point and I was worried he had hurt himself seriously. Looked like a new born calf that had one of his spindly legs collapse. But it turned out he was fine and all was well.
CJ played his usual quiet and efficient game. Took what was there, thought he was fine.
Triche maybe drove into traffic too many times, had too many turnovers but I will say he continues to finish in the paint markedly better than he has at any point in his career. He and MCW were really good on defense...each had a number of steals. We have a bunch of players who play well off the ball, have excellent quickness and anticipation, all of which translates into a lot of steals for this team this season.
Grant didn't play much, didn't do much, not much to say about him or his play.
Anyway, this was a good test for the team. Princeton was well coaches, worked the ball around and attacked the zone nicely, played surprisingly effective defense and even rebounded it fairly well. SU showed some poise and calmness when the Tigers made their run, did a nice job getting the ball into the paint against their defense and looked good. MCW seems to be growing into the role of a heady PG who runs the half court offense better and better with each passing game.
There is a lot to like about this team. I like what I see so far.
Another strong NA delivered by a women from Cicero North Syracuse. Slow delivery, hit the notes nicely. CNY has talent.
No students. No cheerleaders. No SSS. No dance team. No Otto. Not even an orange student crumb. That made for a quiet Dome.
The Kiss Cam had an interesting moment. Instead of kissing his girl, a guy got on his knees and proposed. Yes, she accepted, yes, she put on the ring on and yes, she kissed him, to loud applause from the crowd. Looked like he arranged it with the help of Dome Czar Pete Sala. Nice work by all involved.
Princeton had one really good player, a muscular and physical 6'7 F named Hummer. SU knew this and JB had his players overplay him, effectively taking him out of the game for extended periods. Still, impressive player. Rebounded it well, made a number of impressive passes, could finish and shoot too when he got just a little room. The rest of their team is a bunch of disciplined scrappers, role players all. #3 is a fine outside shooter who thus wore the right number for his skill set.
The Tigers played a mix of man and zone. I think they wanted to play man but got in some foul trouble and ended up playing a 2-3 most of the game. We struggled with the zone for a while but after an adjustment period, MCW started carving it up like a nice, plump turkey and everyone in the game for SU seemed to get a nice pass or two from him. No question his favorite player to set up is his classmate and bestest friend on the team, Rak Christmas. Rak played well early but got in foul trouble and ended up not playing a lot of minutes. But I like the way he is finishing plays around the basket...he looks much improved from last season here.
MCW might at some point this season get a quintuple double. What is a quintuple double? Double figures in points, assists (he is going to get these two all the time), rebounds, steals and turnovers. He actually was in control the vast majority of the game today, really got the offense working when SU got in trouble. At one point, the lead got down to around 5. Everyone on SU looked tight shooting the ball and we did not score for a while.
But the Princeton coach or players decided to trap SU away from the basket. Not a good idea. 5 seconds later, we had an easy basket, and 5 minutes later, the game was essentially over, with SU up by 15 or 16.
Every once in a while, a player appears who has a special quality, a special ability to score points in astonishingly quick fashion. Out of all the players I have seen play at SU, I am not sure anyone is capable of exploding for 10 or 12 points in a short period quite like James Southerland can. He can have games where he plays 10 minutes and does nothing. And other games where he glows white hot and just blisters the net with scores in what seems like a few seconds.
This was one of those Southerland explosion nights, where James' play glowed with the heat of one thousand suns. The joy he gets playing this game makes him one of my favorite players. It is a real treat to watch James when he is on, and he was as on as on can be tonight.
Better night for Coleman, who dominated the boards in his rather limited playing time and finished much better against the Tigers. Glad to see him playing effectively at this level.
Tough night for Trevor, who didn't play much in the first half and barely played in the second half, as Princeton made their run to make the game close and JB was not willing to entrust a frosh guard in a tight game.
Keita had some moments but his new found offensive prowess was largely gone tonight. He did have a terrific block (I believe it was on Hummer) and a couple nice boards. Fell down awkwardly at one point and I was worried he had hurt himself seriously. Looked like a new born calf that had one of his spindly legs collapse. But it turned out he was fine and all was well.
CJ played his usual quiet and efficient game. Took what was there, thought he was fine.
Triche maybe drove into traffic too many times, had too many turnovers but I will say he continues to finish in the paint markedly better than he has at any point in his career. He and MCW were really good on defense...each had a number of steals. We have a bunch of players who play well off the ball, have excellent quickness and anticipation, all of which translates into a lot of steals for this team this season.
Grant didn't play much, didn't do much, not much to say about him or his play.
Anyway, this was a good test for the team. Princeton was well coaches, worked the ball around and attacked the zone nicely, played surprisingly effective defense and even rebounded it fairly well. SU showed some poise and calmness when the Tigers made their run, did a nice job getting the ball into the paint against their defense and looked good. MCW seems to be growing into the role of a heady PG who runs the half court offense better and better with each passing game.
There is a lot to like about this team. I like what I see so far.
