sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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Gotta be short.
The woman who sang the NA was from North Carolina. Appeared on The Voice. Sang a slow, blusey version, did some Joe Cocker style gyrations during the performance. Very nice, got a big ovation.
Shockingly bad crowd for a game against a ranked ND team on a Monday night. I think the announced number was just under 24K but there were less than 20K in the seats. Lots of season ticket holders sat it out. I don't know what is going on with attendance this year but it has gotten to the point where it is downright disturbing. The students that were there did a nice job but there weren't very many fannies in the seats. Pretty soon we will have more cheerleaders than students.
They had something new at haltime, a Simon Says game that pitted maybe 30 man against 30 women (I think they were all students). It was entertaining. I hope they bring the guy back.
Regarding the game, ND is a good matchup for us. They play man almost exclusively and they do not have forwards to match up with ours. It appeared they wanted to use a big lineup with Cooley at C and Knight at PF. Knight is listed at 6'10 258 and might be heavier than that. He was matched up with Jerami Grant most of the time he was in...mismatch city. Cooley was pitted against Christmas most of the time. Another major mismatch in foot speed and athletic ability. And they had no one to cover Fair all game long.
We moved the ball better but a big reason for the better offense was that ND just did not have the horses to cover our guys. They also tried hard to take away Triche's looks from the outside, which was effective, but skewed their defense and opened space in the paint for Triche to drive and dish, or to get the ball inside. BT ran the offense well, really liked his kick outs to JG to get him wide open mid range baseline jumpers.
Speaking of JG, it is interesting to watch how he and Fair are getting along together on offense. They are similar players, slashers who can also hurt you with their mid range shooting game. Both like to get the ball at the high post and either drive or take the jumper from there. I think Grant likes patroling the baseline more, where Fair also likes to attack from the wing, about 45 degrees between the baseline and the high post. Because their games are so similar, co-existence could be an issue and I think there have been times when Fair's offense has been diminished somewhat by Grant kind of taking his place near the high post. Looks to me as though both are adjusting well...I think we might see Grant continue to expand his time on the baseline, where his talents and the needs of the team are probably best matched (leaving the high post to Fair and the guards).
I think a big reason the half court offense was more successful with MCW out of the game was related to this. Also, ND felt the need to cover Cooney away from the basket, which opened up more space inside for Fair, Grant and Christmas to work with. When MCW is in, he is ignored from the 3 point circle...just is not considered a threat from there, which hurts the half court offense.
The Irish were eventually forced to switch to the 2-3, which was more successful than their man (we have struggled against zone defenses most of the season; certainly since JS was declared ineligible.).
Looked like JB has changed things up some with late game strategy, having BT being the guy with the ball most of the time now instead of MCW, whose foul shooting and turnover woes late in games have been a problem all season.
Thought Fair did a great job on the defensive boards last night. Heck, everyone did a nice job on the boards. Cooley, for all his shoving and holding, is a very good rebounder and ND hurt us badly on the boards last year. Good to see us outrebound an upper tier BE team again.
Thought we did a really nice job taking away Cooley. The Christmas, Grant, Fair front court is very quick, reacts well and all 3 guys can get blocks, all of which is a problem for Cooley. This was a good defenisve effort...everyone was active and they played hard. But I have to say, ND still got a lot of good looks from the outside in the second half. Just did not have a good shooting night. Still, a big part of that were the early blocks SU had on ND jump shots. They appeared to affect their shooting the rest of the game.
Thought after the extended time on the bench, I thought MCW played a lot more under control, didn't make the snap judgement risky passes that tend to end up as turnovers. He passed up a bunch of open 3s as well, which I think is a sign of progress. And to his credit, he hit a big 3 that kind of broke open the game. I don't want him to limit himself to only the simple pass and I don't want him to stop taking shots altogether, but I think for this team, things work best when he is a pass first point guard who avoids the high risk play most of the time. Don't want to make this out to be a really negative post about MCW. He is a tremendous talent who is capable of great things but he has some issues and it looks like he is trying to work on this now. Good to see.
Cooney and Christmas had new, really bright shoes last night. I think they were red. Don't know what they were all about but the rest of the team might want to think about getting some too.
Lastly, regarding the refs, I am not a fan of Karl Hess, who is the king of the mysterious foul away from the ball and who makes 4 or 5 utterly baffling calls every time he suits it up, but the 3rd ref that did the game, someone relatively new I did not recognize, was completely clueless. Looked like a Russian hockey ref pressed into emergency service. Was dazed and confused all game long. Didn't really affect the game much, the awful calls ended up roughly even when all was said and done. But wow, that was a special performance by that guy. Anyone know his name? Was it his first Big East game ever? JB looked like he wanted to kill him about 20 times.
My friends tell me that the decision to make Blue Moon cans available as a Dome Foam option was a move of brilliance.
Someone added a column to the scoreboard behind the movable seating section for rebounds. I approve wholeheartedly.
One last thing...is it about that kid featured on the YouTube video that went kind of viral not long ago, the one where he pretended he was the public address announcer and announced the names of all the of Syracuse players. Last night, Mr Excitment and the kid shared the pregame announcing honors for the Syracuse starters, with Mr E doing everything except the name, which the kid did pre-recorded. They showed him on video making the calls as well. It was cute and well done and personally, I hope they continue to do it the rest of the season.
Good to keep the home court winning streak intact. Looking forward to the game against the Johnnies already. Glad it won't be the last one against them. Hoping JS gets a chance to make his return against his hometown buddies on Sunday.
The woman who sang the NA was from North Carolina. Appeared on The Voice. Sang a slow, blusey version, did some Joe Cocker style gyrations during the performance. Very nice, got a big ovation.
Shockingly bad crowd for a game against a ranked ND team on a Monday night. I think the announced number was just under 24K but there were less than 20K in the seats. Lots of season ticket holders sat it out. I don't know what is going on with attendance this year but it has gotten to the point where it is downright disturbing. The students that were there did a nice job but there weren't very many fannies in the seats. Pretty soon we will have more cheerleaders than students.
They had something new at haltime, a Simon Says game that pitted maybe 30 man against 30 women (I think they were all students). It was entertaining. I hope they bring the guy back.
Regarding the game, ND is a good matchup for us. They play man almost exclusively and they do not have forwards to match up with ours. It appeared they wanted to use a big lineup with Cooley at C and Knight at PF. Knight is listed at 6'10 258 and might be heavier than that. He was matched up with Jerami Grant most of the time he was in...mismatch city. Cooley was pitted against Christmas most of the time. Another major mismatch in foot speed and athletic ability. And they had no one to cover Fair all game long.
We moved the ball better but a big reason for the better offense was that ND just did not have the horses to cover our guys. They also tried hard to take away Triche's looks from the outside, which was effective, but skewed their defense and opened space in the paint for Triche to drive and dish, or to get the ball inside. BT ran the offense well, really liked his kick outs to JG to get him wide open mid range baseline jumpers.
Speaking of JG, it is interesting to watch how he and Fair are getting along together on offense. They are similar players, slashers who can also hurt you with their mid range shooting game. Both like to get the ball at the high post and either drive or take the jumper from there. I think Grant likes patroling the baseline more, where Fair also likes to attack from the wing, about 45 degrees between the baseline and the high post. Because their games are so similar, co-existence could be an issue and I think there have been times when Fair's offense has been diminished somewhat by Grant kind of taking his place near the high post. Looks to me as though both are adjusting well...I think we might see Grant continue to expand his time on the baseline, where his talents and the needs of the team are probably best matched (leaving the high post to Fair and the guards).
I think a big reason the half court offense was more successful with MCW out of the game was related to this. Also, ND felt the need to cover Cooney away from the basket, which opened up more space inside for Fair, Grant and Christmas to work with. When MCW is in, he is ignored from the 3 point circle...just is not considered a threat from there, which hurts the half court offense.
The Irish were eventually forced to switch to the 2-3, which was more successful than their man (we have struggled against zone defenses most of the season; certainly since JS was declared ineligible.).
Looked like JB has changed things up some with late game strategy, having BT being the guy with the ball most of the time now instead of MCW, whose foul shooting and turnover woes late in games have been a problem all season.
Thought Fair did a great job on the defensive boards last night. Heck, everyone did a nice job on the boards. Cooley, for all his shoving and holding, is a very good rebounder and ND hurt us badly on the boards last year. Good to see us outrebound an upper tier BE team again.
Thought we did a really nice job taking away Cooley. The Christmas, Grant, Fair front court is very quick, reacts well and all 3 guys can get blocks, all of which is a problem for Cooley. This was a good defenisve effort...everyone was active and they played hard. But I have to say, ND still got a lot of good looks from the outside in the second half. Just did not have a good shooting night. Still, a big part of that were the early blocks SU had on ND jump shots. They appeared to affect their shooting the rest of the game.
Thought after the extended time on the bench, I thought MCW played a lot more under control, didn't make the snap judgement risky passes that tend to end up as turnovers. He passed up a bunch of open 3s as well, which I think is a sign of progress. And to his credit, he hit a big 3 that kind of broke open the game. I don't want him to limit himself to only the simple pass and I don't want him to stop taking shots altogether, but I think for this team, things work best when he is a pass first point guard who avoids the high risk play most of the time. Don't want to make this out to be a really negative post about MCW. He is a tremendous talent who is capable of great things but he has some issues and it looks like he is trying to work on this now. Good to see.
Cooney and Christmas had new, really bright shoes last night. I think they were red. Don't know what they were all about but the rest of the team might want to think about getting some too.
Lastly, regarding the refs, I am not a fan of Karl Hess, who is the king of the mysterious foul away from the ball and who makes 4 or 5 utterly baffling calls every time he suits it up, but the 3rd ref that did the game, someone relatively new I did not recognize, was completely clueless. Looked like a Russian hockey ref pressed into emergency service. Was dazed and confused all game long. Didn't really affect the game much, the awful calls ended up roughly even when all was said and done. But wow, that was a special performance by that guy. Anyone know his name? Was it his first Big East game ever? JB looked like he wanted to kill him about 20 times.
My friends tell me that the decision to make Blue Moon cans available as a Dome Foam option was a move of brilliance.
Someone added a column to the scoreboard behind the movable seating section for rebounds. I approve wholeheartedly.
One last thing...is it about that kid featured on the YouTube video that went kind of viral not long ago, the one where he pretended he was the public address announcer and announced the names of all the of Syracuse players. Last night, Mr Excitment and the kid shared the pregame announcing honors for the Syracuse starters, with Mr E doing everything except the name, which the kid did pre-recorded. They showed him on video making the calls as well. It was cute and well done and personally, I hope they continue to do it the rest of the season.
Good to keep the home court winning streak intact. Looking forward to the game against the Johnnies already. Glad it won't be the last one against them. Hoping JS gets a chance to make his return against his hometown buddies on Sunday.
