sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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Will probably do something longer later, it is late and I have to sleep.
Big crowd, record for MM here. I would guess about 22K.
The legends game was one of the most enjoyable things I have ever seen. So many great players playing at the same time it was really difficult to digest all the plays as they happened. JW is in remarkable shape for someone who graduated in 1996. Moten looks like he always has. Jonny and Wes continue to have a great chemistry. Hak is so fun to watch. Great to have him back in a Syracuse uniform if only for a few minutes. Andy, Gene, Adrian, Z, GMac, they all looked in good shape and played well. Awesome experience for an SU fan to behold.
The only negative was that Melo did not play. The crowd chanted We Want Melo a number of times but it fell on deaf, but very rich ears.
As for the scrimmage with the real team, there wasn't much defense. All the players that were heavy last year have lost weight and look, for now anyway, more mobile. Fab Melo looks a lot more comfortable. Triche had a couple of alley oop dunks. Scoop was Good Scoop all the time he was in.
The White team had 4 starters on it and as expected, won pretty easily. KJo was solid. Fab finished well and was one of the few who played decently on defense. BMK has added some muscle and looks better with the ball on offense but he didn't challenge people attacking the hoop, something that happened too much last season as well. This has to change.
Dirty looked athletic and promising...he always looks this way in exhibition games. Thought CJ played very well. His shooting range has extended. Even made a smooth 3 tonight.
As for the C frosh, Carter-Williams impressed me with his court sense (though he made a couple bad passes). He can pass, get to the paint, finishes well and is going to be one of those guys that has a habit of being in the right place at the right time a lot. Even now, really young and really skinny, he has a way of making plays and playing like a veteran. Thought he was very impressive.
Cooney has great shooting form and showed more athletic ability than given credit for, getting at least one nice dunk. Made a couple nice passes too. Defense is going to be his biggest issue early in his career.
Christmas, wearing 25 (I get it, ha ha), got a lot of points but most were cheap breakaway dunks where he left defense early. Don't like seeing a big guy do this. He appears to be a good athlete and is very physical. Didn't see much from him in the half court but in this type of game there rarely is half court play.
Afterwards, the men and women had a 3 person 3 point shooting contest. For the record, Brendan made the most shots from the right, the top of the key and the left wing, followed closely by Southland. Mookie was off badly and looked lost. Maybe he had some bad shellfish.
Dion won the dunk contest. It was most remarkable for the poor efforts by so many. Christmas missed both his first round dunks and was immediately eliminated. Trevor Conney hit his first and missed his second, which took him out of the running. Dion had a couple nice ones to get to the finals, where he faced off against Dirty. Dirty had the dunk of the night with his first attempt but he was unable to land a dunk in the final. Dion was solid and won due to his consistency.
I missed what happened before the men's team was introduced...can't comment on it. I will say I thought this event was much better organized and more professionally done that the legendary failures of the last couple of years. The player scrimmage was much longer, the contests were done well and the legends game again was a joy to watch.
The big snafu with the event was that JB, Melo and others were outfitted with microphones and they provided running commentary though the scrimmages, but the sound system/microphones were second rate, something was really wrong and no one in our area of the Dome could clearly hear anything that was bring said. Embarrassing that it happened early. Unforgivable that it was not corrected the whole night. Does anyone care about what is being presented to the fans? Sometimes I wonder.
Last thing. Was in the Standart parking lot. Took more than an hour to get out of it and I left almost immediately after the scrimmage and 3 point and dunk contests ended. Ridiculous. People need to get fired for this. If nothing changes for the regular season, it will affect attendance.
Big crowd, record for MM here. I would guess about 22K.
The legends game was one of the most enjoyable things I have ever seen. So many great players playing at the same time it was really difficult to digest all the plays as they happened. JW is in remarkable shape for someone who graduated in 1996. Moten looks like he always has. Jonny and Wes continue to have a great chemistry. Hak is so fun to watch. Great to have him back in a Syracuse uniform if only for a few minutes. Andy, Gene, Adrian, Z, GMac, they all looked in good shape and played well. Awesome experience for an SU fan to behold.
The only negative was that Melo did not play. The crowd chanted We Want Melo a number of times but it fell on deaf, but very rich ears.
As for the scrimmage with the real team, there wasn't much defense. All the players that were heavy last year have lost weight and look, for now anyway, more mobile. Fab Melo looks a lot more comfortable. Triche had a couple of alley oop dunks. Scoop was Good Scoop all the time he was in.
The White team had 4 starters on it and as expected, won pretty easily. KJo was solid. Fab finished well and was one of the few who played decently on defense. BMK has added some muscle and looks better with the ball on offense but he didn't challenge people attacking the hoop, something that happened too much last season as well. This has to change.
Dirty looked athletic and promising...he always looks this way in exhibition games. Thought CJ played very well. His shooting range has extended. Even made a smooth 3 tonight.
As for the C frosh, Carter-Williams impressed me with his court sense (though he made a couple bad passes). He can pass, get to the paint, finishes well and is going to be one of those guys that has a habit of being in the right place at the right time a lot. Even now, really young and really skinny, he has a way of making plays and playing like a veteran. Thought he was very impressive.
Cooney has great shooting form and showed more athletic ability than given credit for, getting at least one nice dunk. Made a couple nice passes too. Defense is going to be his biggest issue early in his career.
Christmas, wearing 25 (I get it, ha ha), got a lot of points but most were cheap breakaway dunks where he left defense early. Don't like seeing a big guy do this. He appears to be a good athlete and is very physical. Didn't see much from him in the half court but in this type of game there rarely is half court play.
Afterwards, the men and women had a 3 person 3 point shooting contest. For the record, Brendan made the most shots from the right, the top of the key and the left wing, followed closely by Southland. Mookie was off badly and looked lost. Maybe he had some bad shellfish.
Dion won the dunk contest. It was most remarkable for the poor efforts by so many. Christmas missed both his first round dunks and was immediately eliminated. Trevor Conney hit his first and missed his second, which took him out of the running. Dion had a couple nice ones to get to the finals, where he faced off against Dirty. Dirty had the dunk of the night with his first attempt but he was unable to land a dunk in the final. Dion was solid and won due to his consistency.
I missed what happened before the men's team was introduced...can't comment on it. I will say I thought this event was much better organized and more professionally done that the legendary failures of the last couple of years. The player scrimmage was much longer, the contests were done well and the legends game again was a joy to watch.
The big snafu with the event was that JB, Melo and others were outfitted with microphones and they provided running commentary though the scrimmages, but the sound system/microphones were second rate, something was really wrong and no one in our area of the Dome could clearly hear anything that was bring said. Embarrassing that it happened early. Unforgivable that it was not corrected the whole night. Does anyone care about what is being presented to the fans? Sometimes I wonder.
Last thing. Was in the Standart parking lot. Took more than an hour to get out of it and I left almost immediately after the scrimmage and 3 point and dunk contests ended. Ridiculous. People need to get fired for this. If nothing changes for the regular season, it will affect attendance.
