sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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Thought the huge crowd did a good job. They were not helped by the poor play of the Syracuse players but they were enthusiastic and loud when appropriate. The most noise was probably made during the halftime ceremony where Melo's jersey was retired. That ceremony was handled well and Melo made a nice little speech. He has come a long way since his freshman year at Syracuse.
The NA was sung by the student section, who were respectful and sang with enthusiasm, accompanied ably by the Sour Sitrus Society (7 sousaphones strong Saturday). I really like having the students sing the NA, hope it happens again in the future.
I ripped the students for their poor support of the program for most of the year. Well, they showed up today and I want to credit them for that. Credit the regular fans too. Still find it amazing people will sometimes play $40 to watch a game from 80 yards from the court.
Regarding the game, I think this was a similar one to the UConn game. GTown packed the lane on defense, was willing to give SU open 3s pretty much anytime they wanted. This effectively limited the ability of the SU players to drive the ball into the paint and score, When SU is not hitting its outside shots, this style of defense will shut down the SU offense unless they do a tremendous job forcing turnovers or hitting the offensive boards. Neither of these things happened today, hence the awful showing on offense.
The Hoyas mixed up man and zone. SU was more effective against the man defense. Once Gtown switched to the 2-3, the Orange struggled to get a decent shot and took a lot of time doing it as well. Props to Georgetown for playing good defense and limiting their turnovers as well.
Gtown also struggled on offense. They had their share of open looks from the outside as well, but were awful from there in the 1st half. In the 2nd, they made a few but the story of the game, the difference between these offensively challenged teams, was Otto Porter.
Porter was easily the best player on the court. He dominated almost every aspect of the game and everytime the Hoyas needed a basket, he was there to rescue them. He can shoot, score from the paint and the perimeter, he can rebound, he can pass and he can defend. That was one of the most impressive performances I have seen from an opposing player in the last 10 years and I have to give him credit for doing a great job. He was close to outscoring the Syracuse team by himself even late into the game. If he isn't the MVP of the league this season, something is seriously wrong with the selection process.
With teams daring us to shoot from the outside like this, our fortunes rise and fall with the success of Triche and Southerland have shooting from the outside (and to a lesser extent TC and MCW). Triche picked a really bad day to shoot the ball poorly. He really did.
We continue to get almost nothing from our centers offensively, which exaserbates our offensive challenges. Our half court offense at this point is essentially an exercise in playing 4 against 5. No wonder we can't score. If JB can't find answers, the season is in serious jeopardy.
I expect to see more of the same defensively from Marquette come Monday night. I don't think this was a case of SU being outcoached by Georgetown...it was more a case of not performing on the court.
On the defensive side of the ball, here are my thoughts:
The SU 2-3 zone normally is very effective taking the leading scorer on the opposing team out of the play, severely limiting their ability to get and make quality shots.
That didn't happen today. Georgetown did a really nice job running a single play over and over late in their possessions, where they would get the ball to the right baseline, get penetration, get the zone to rotate and then kick the ball across the paint to the opposite wing, where Otto Porter had just rotated, to get a quick, open look at the basket with a second or two left on the shot clock, Porter inevitably scored on this. SU did not do a good job staying disciplined here, kept leaving Porer to provide help and their lack of ability to make adjustments effectively cost them the game.
No one else on the Hoyas was effective offensively. This win was achieved on the back of one player; Otto Porter. This should be impossible. Of all the disappointments I have with the game (the poor shooting, the awful defensive rebounding, the general lack of hustle), the biggest by far was our inability to locate and stay with Porter consistently for entire possession. We did a good job for 28 or 30 seconds but consistently let him get open late, and credit to the Georgetown role players, especially Nate WhateverHimNameIs, did a fine job getting him the ball then,
The game against Marquette just got a lot more important. I hope the team is ready. Vander Blue and company will be. That team plays hard.
The NA was sung by the student section, who were respectful and sang with enthusiasm, accompanied ably by the Sour Sitrus Society (7 sousaphones strong Saturday). I really like having the students sing the NA, hope it happens again in the future.
I ripped the students for their poor support of the program for most of the year. Well, they showed up today and I want to credit them for that. Credit the regular fans too. Still find it amazing people will sometimes play $40 to watch a game from 80 yards from the court.
Regarding the game, I think this was a similar one to the UConn game. GTown packed the lane on defense, was willing to give SU open 3s pretty much anytime they wanted. This effectively limited the ability of the SU players to drive the ball into the paint and score, When SU is not hitting its outside shots, this style of defense will shut down the SU offense unless they do a tremendous job forcing turnovers or hitting the offensive boards. Neither of these things happened today, hence the awful showing on offense.
The Hoyas mixed up man and zone. SU was more effective against the man defense. Once Gtown switched to the 2-3, the Orange struggled to get a decent shot and took a lot of time doing it as well. Props to Georgetown for playing good defense and limiting their turnovers as well.
Gtown also struggled on offense. They had their share of open looks from the outside as well, but were awful from there in the 1st half. In the 2nd, they made a few but the story of the game, the difference between these offensively challenged teams, was Otto Porter.
Porter was easily the best player on the court. He dominated almost every aspect of the game and everytime the Hoyas needed a basket, he was there to rescue them. He can shoot, score from the paint and the perimeter, he can rebound, he can pass and he can defend. That was one of the most impressive performances I have seen from an opposing player in the last 10 years and I have to give him credit for doing a great job. He was close to outscoring the Syracuse team by himself even late into the game. If he isn't the MVP of the league this season, something is seriously wrong with the selection process.
With teams daring us to shoot from the outside like this, our fortunes rise and fall with the success of Triche and Southerland have shooting from the outside (and to a lesser extent TC and MCW). Triche picked a really bad day to shoot the ball poorly. He really did.
We continue to get almost nothing from our centers offensively, which exaserbates our offensive challenges. Our half court offense at this point is essentially an exercise in playing 4 against 5. No wonder we can't score. If JB can't find answers, the season is in serious jeopardy.
I expect to see more of the same defensively from Marquette come Monday night. I don't think this was a case of SU being outcoached by Georgetown...it was more a case of not performing on the court.
On the defensive side of the ball, here are my thoughts:
The SU 2-3 zone normally is very effective taking the leading scorer on the opposing team out of the play, severely limiting their ability to get and make quality shots.
That didn't happen today. Georgetown did a really nice job running a single play over and over late in their possessions, where they would get the ball to the right baseline, get penetration, get the zone to rotate and then kick the ball across the paint to the opposite wing, where Otto Porter had just rotated, to get a quick, open look at the basket with a second or two left on the shot clock, Porter inevitably scored on this. SU did not do a good job staying disciplined here, kept leaving Porer to provide help and their lack of ability to make adjustments effectively cost them the game.
No one else on the Hoyas was effective offensively. This win was achieved on the back of one player; Otto Porter. This should be impossible. Of all the disappointments I have with the game (the poor shooting, the awful defensive rebounding, the general lack of hustle), the biggest by far was our inability to locate and stay with Porter consistently for entire possession. We did a good job for 28 or 30 seconds but consistently let him get open late, and credit to the Georgetown role players, especially Nate WhateverHimNameIs, did a fine job getting him the ball then,
The game against Marquette just got a lot more important. I hope the team is ready. Vander Blue and company will be. That team plays hard.
