My Take

[sutomcat]

Sounded like Cal had a good home court advantage, but not like it was like a true game on the road. Saw some empty seats. I think the St Louis fans, and some of the Oregon fans left early. For those that went to the game, approximately how many SU fans showed?

Regarding the game, I thought MCW played extremely well. He was really good on defense, got some big steals and on offense, he got into the paint almost at will. When he got there, he was really effective, scoring or dishing for an easy basket, or more often, passing to someone who was fouled almost immediately. This continues his late season renaissance, which is great because it makes SU play at the level of a top 20 team again, and not so great, because it is going to get him into discussions as a top 10 or lottery pick again. But I suspect even if he were projected to be selected in the 15-20 range of the first round, he would be gone, so we might as well root for him to be dominant since it is so likely he isn't coming back.

Was surprised Cal didn't try and play MCW more physical, or switch to a zone. They didn't make any adjustments until the last 5 or 10 minutes of the game, when they did body up on him, and it was successful, though it got #1 into foul trouble.

I question Cal's approach attacking the zone as well. For much of the game they looked bewildered, like they had never seen one before. I know the SU zone is special, and the team played very aggressively, covered a ton of ground and recovered quickly, but Cal rarely showed interest even getting the ball to the high post. They didn't pass it quickly out of double teams on the rare occasions when they did get it into the paint, they didn't hit the offensive boards hard at all and for most of the game looked happy to all stand around the perimeter and pass it to each other. Kind of bizaree. Montgomery didn't do a good job preparing them but I guess with only one day to prep, it is hard to get ready to play against our zone. One of the nice perks of running this defense.

Thought Triche did a really good job of getting into the paint, drawing fouls and getting quality looks inside 15 feet. He is normally solid with these types of shots but was not last night. Also is struggling to finish down low with minor contact, which is not like him. I think his back continues to deteriorate. Playing 4 days in a row in NYC was not good for him. Glad he will have some time now to recover.

Thought CJ had a fine game, especially early when he was dominant and played a key role getting Syracuse in control of the game. Cal did a better job defending him after that, doubling him every time he got the ball in the paint. If there is one criticism I will make for CJ, it is that he needs to do a better job recognizing when he is being doubled and finding the player left open as a result of this.

One of the key factors leading this late improvement in play this season has been the emergence of BMK as a genuine force on offense, and that continued last night. Good to see him being so aggresive on offense, good to see him playing with confidence. RC didn't do much last night despite having a major advantage on his man in athletic ability but he was able to continue to extend his record streak of games missing at least one dunk. To be fair, he also had some big blocks early that helped set the tone and discouraged the Cal big guys from venturing down low. BMK also had some nice blocks.

Cal was able to do some damage down low, especially in the 2nd half, but that was something JB was willing to give them to take away their perimeter game. In the end, it was a sound decision. Though it did get somewhat dicey when JS got his 4th foul in the 2nd half.

Getting 28 wins playing in the Big East is a pretty good year. Especially given the huge graduation/going pro early losses Syracuse suffered after last year. It has been a good year but I think even at this extremely late point in the season, this team has not really distinguished itself as being special. Good? Absolutely? Memorable wins? Absolutely? A special team? No, not yet.

I think a win over the winner of Indiana/Temple would make me feel that this team did what it could reasonably be expected to do. And a bit more. Indiana has a lot of talent, they have played a tough schedule and are a legitimate 1 seed. Beating them, even in front of an extremely pro Syracuse crowd in DC would be a great thing. Getting revenge over Temple would also be a sweet thing. Looking forward to my second visit to the Verizon Center in the last couple of weeks. I think the team will play better this time than last time.

One last thing. I think the decision by CBS to add another minute to the commericial breaks for the NCAA tourney games really detracts from the games. It is a shame a network has the ability to urinate over the most important games of the season. The NCAA needs to put a stop to it in the next contract, and should be willing to accept a little less money if necessary to prevent letting the networks ruin games like this. Basketball is a game of emotion and momentum. You can't have contact 4 or 5 minute breaks ruining that all game long. It is a farce and it needs to be stopped.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

One last thing. I think the decision by CBS to add another minute to the commericial breaks for the NCAA tourney games really detracts from the games. It is a shame a network has the ability to urinate over the most important games of the season. The NCAA needs to put a stop to it in the next contract, and should be willing to accept a little less money if necessary to prevent letting the networks ruin games like this. Basketball is a game of emotion and momentum. You can't have contact 4 or 5 minute breaks ruining that all game long. It is a farce and it needs to be stopped.

Yet when we're playing kids 35+ minutes a game, it works to our advantage, don't you think.

 

[bballbeadle]

Our defense was extraordinary, especially in the first half. (The second half is a blur for me.) What I loved the best was when Cal had a fast break, the bucket looked inevitable, and CJ ran down the court and got a clean block. That was suh-weet!

 

[tbonezone]

10 points seemed to be the fan base threshold. as long as the lead was double digits the decibels seemed more orange than orange county while the mariposa church mice sat on their hands. once CAL cracked the ten point barrier the bears would once again awake from hibernation and get rowdy. if only we hit our free throws we wouldn't have awaken their slumber. as it was we kept it closer than it had to be. good win.

 

[AZOrange]

Man I thought it was just me thinking the commercials were long

 

[DoctorBombay]

Yet when we're playing kids 35+ minutes a game, it works to our advantage, don't you think.

Good point. Still sucks for the home viewer though, not to mention those at the game.

 

[jdubs30]

Yet when we're playing kids 35+ minutes a game, it works to our advantage, don't you think.

Agreed. We're only playing 6 guys really, I think the extra minute break every 4 minutes helps us more than it hurts us.

 

[Ozcuse]

One last thing. I think the decision by CBS to add another minute to the commericial breaks for the NCAA tourney games really detracts from the games. It is a shame a network has the ability to urinate over the most important games of the season. The NCAA needs to put a stop to it in the next contract, and should be willing to accept a little less money if necessary to prevent letting the networks ruin games like this. Basketball is a game of emotion and momentum. You can't have contact 4 or 5 minute breaks ruining that all game long. It is a farce and it needs to be stopped.

HAHA, yeah I see that happening right after they decide to start fairly compensating players for the $$$$ they bring in. Good joke indeed.

I understand the school gives the players a scholarship to attend the school, but what does the NCAA give the student? Since the NCAA is the one raking in serious cash from this tournament and all. Do they even get a perk bag like football players get from the bowl games?

 

[JoeSU]

One last thing. I think the decision by CBS to add another minute to the commericial breaks for the NCAA tourney games really detracts from the games. It is a shame a network has the ability to urinate over the most important games of the season. The NCAA needs to put a stop to it in the next contract, and should be willing to accept a little less money if necessary to prevent letting the networks ruin games like this. Basketball is a game of emotion and momentum. You can't have contact 4 or 5 minute breaks ruining that all game long. It is a farce and it needs to be stopped.

From the perspective of the commercial sponsors, I wonder if this sort of backfires. When presented with a 4-5 mins. break in the action, I go pee, get another beer, or switch to one of the other games, rather than be subjected to the same commercials ad nauseum. I suspect a lot of other folks do too.

 

[SBU72]

Disagree on "MCW ..continues his late season renaissance". He had 3 ast and 5 TO, a couple of those jumb passes. He did come up pretty good late but his 4-9 ft is also not good. Agree that Triche started good but after his 1st miss from 12ft, he look down.

I couldn't figure out why Cal stopped going through the high post? Worked early as Thurman got a couple of easy baskets. The guy the put there in the 1st half couldn't hit that elbow jumper didn't help. Why they didn't put Soloman there, I can't figure out.

 

[SBU72]

HAHA, yeah I see that happening right after they decide to start fairly compensating players for the $$$$ they bring in. Good joke indeed.

I understand the school gives the players a scholarship to attend the school, but what does the NCAA give the student? Since the NCAA is the one raking in serious cash from this tournament and all. Do they even get a perk bag like football players get from the bowl games?

But the NCAA is like a pep band for its people. Or a pep squad, Or a mascot. They say so during one of those thosands of commericals they add to extend the time outs.

 

[Orangemen]

The NCAA needs to put a stop to it in the next contract, and should be willing to accept a little less money if necessary to prevent letting the networks ruin games like this.

Hey, who brought the commie to the SU board?

J/K

Hell will literally freeze over before the NCAA accepts a little less money for anything. If anything, they're probably experimenting to see how teams would do if the TO's were a little longer.

And for SU, that's really not a bad thing. If JB is only gonna play 6 guys, we'll need all the breaks we can get.

 

[manleyzoo]

Sounded like Cal had a good home court advantage, but not like it was like a true game on the road. Saw some empty seats. I think the St Louis fans, and some of the Oregon fans left early. For those that went to the game, approximately how many SU fans showed?

Regarding the game, I thought MCW played extremely well. He was really good on defense, got some big steals and on offense, he got into the paint almost at will. When he got there, he was really effective, scoring or dishing for an easy basket, or more often, passing to someone who was fouled almost immediately. This continues his late season renaissance, which is great because it makes SU play at the level of a top 20 team again, and not so great, because it is going to get him into discussions as a top 10 or lottery pick again. But I suspect even if he were projected to be selected in the 15-20 range of the first round, he would be gone, so we might as well root for him to be dominant since it is so likely he isn't coming back.

Was surprised Cal didn't try and play MCW more physical, or switch to a zone. They didn't make any adjustments until the last 5 or 10 minutes of the game, when they did body up on him, and it was successful, though it got #1 into foul trouble.

I question Cal's approach attacking the zone as well. For much of the game they looked bewildered, like they had never seen one before. I know the SU zone is special, and the team played very aggressively, covered a ton of ground and recovered quickly, but Cal rarely showed interest even getting the ball to the high post. They didn't pass it quickly out of double teams on the rare occasions when they did get it into the paint, they didn't hit the offensive boards hard at all and for most of the game looked happy to all stand around the perimeter and pass it to each other. Kind of bizaree. Montgomery didn't do a good job preparing them but I guess with only one day to prep, it is hard to get ready to play against our zone. One of the nice perks of running this defense.

Thought Triche did a really good job of getting into the paint, drawing fouls and getting quality looks inside 15 feet. He is normally solid with these types of shots but was not last night. Also is struggling to finish down low with minor contact, which is not like him. I think his back continues to deteriorate. Playing 4 days in a row in NYC was not good for him. Glad he will have some time now to recover.

Thought CJ had a fine game, especially early when he was dominant and played a key role getting Syracuse in control of the game. Cal did a better job defending him after that, doubling him every time he got the ball in the paint. If there is one criticism I will make for CJ, it is that he needs to do a better job recognizing when he is being doubled and finding the player left open as a result of this.

One of the key factors leading this late improvement in play this season has been the emergence of BMK as a genuine force on offense, and that continued last night. Good to see him being so aggresive on offense, good to see him playing with confidence. RC didn't do much last night despite having a major advantage on his man in athletic ability but he was able to continue to extend his record streak of games missing at least one dunk. To be fair, he also had some big blocks early that helped set the tone and discouraged the Cal big guys from venturing down low. BMK also had some nice blocks.

Cal was able to do some damage down low, especially in the 2nd half, but that was something JB was willing to give them to take away their perimeter game. In the end, it was a sound decision. Though it did get somewhat dicey when JS got his 4th foul in the 2nd half.

Getting 28 wins playing in the Big East is a pretty good year. Especially given the huge graduation/going pro early losses Syracuse suffered after last year. It has been a good year but I think even at this extremely late point in the season, this team has not really distinguished itself as being special. Good? Absolutely? Memorable wins? Absolutely? A special team? No, not yet.

I think a win over the winner of Indiana/Temple would make me feel that this team did what it could reasonably be expected to do. And a bit more. Indiana has a lot of talent, they have played a tough schedule and are a legitimate 1 seed. Beating them, even in front of an extremely pro Syracuse crowd in DC would be a great thing. Getting revenge over Temple would also be a sweet thing. Looking forward to my second visit to the Verizon Center in the last couple of weeks. I think the team will play better this time than last time.

One last thing. I think the decision by CBS to add another minute to the commericial breaks for the NCAA tourney games really detracts from the games. It is a shame a network has the ability to urinate over the most important games of the season. The NCAA needs to put a stop to it in the next contract, and should be willing to accept a little less money if necessary to prevent letting the networks ruin games like this. Basketball is a game of emotion and momentum. You can't have contact 4 or 5 minute breaks ruining that all game long. It is a farce and it needs to be stopped.

Tom, there were very few empty seats in the house at the start of the game, maybe 50- 100 at most. All the blue and green people stayed but there's not much affinity between the Oregonians and the Cals--and the Billikins were just happy to be in California what with the weather and all, so it made for an odd crowd. Thursday night the Cals were much louder owing to the UNLV rivalry. No one out here knows anything about Syracuse and college hoop is secondary on their list of sports to attend and follow. Too many good pro teams at the moment.

 

[kuethstheman]

Disagree on "MCW ..continues his late season renaissance". He had 3 ast and 5 TO, a couple of those jumb passes. He did come up pretty good late but his 4-9 ft is also not good. Agree that Triche started good but after his 1st miss from 12ft, he look down.

The TOs were not good but what Tom said is exactly right, "scoring or dishing for an easy basket, or more often, passing to someone who was fouled almost immediately." He played well enough to have double-digit assists. He got into the lane easily and his execution once he got there was excellent.

 

[Francis03]

The TOs were not good but what Tom said is exactly right, "scoring or dishing for an easy basket, or more often, passing to someone who was fouled almost immediately." He played well enough to have double-digit assists. He got into the lane easily and his execution once he got there was excellent.

Yup. That's why the box score never tells the whole story. MCW did a good job hitting players in the right spot and if we had finish better then he would have had more than 3 assist.

 

[kuethstheman]

Yup. That's why the box score never tells the whole story. MCW did a good job hitting players in the right spot and if we had finish better then he would have had more than 3 assist.

My only complaint is that more often than not, he was dishing to Baye. Although Baye has come a long way, it's still a crap-shoot as to whether he's going to catch and if he does, then put it in the basket. He got points on free throws and an occasional make but he also lost a few along the way.

 

[007]

My only complaint is that more often than not, he was dishing to Baye. Although Baye has come a long way, it's still a crap-shoot as to whether he's going to catch and if he does, then put it in the basket. He got points on free throws and an occasional make but he also lost a few along the way.

This is not a MCW issue, IMO. Teams have consistently left Baye to double on penetration into the lane. You have to throw it to him in that situation. But, I think those passes can never be below his mid chest, he almost always seems to bobble anything low. And Baye needs to be standing still, should never dribble, and should go up immediately and attempt to dunk.

You simply have to make teams pay for doing that.

 

[Francis03]

This is not a MCW issue, IMO. Teams have consistently left Baye to double on penetration into the lane. You have to throw it to him in that situation. But, I think those passes can never be below his mid chest, he almost always seems to bobble anything low. And Baye needs to be standing still, should never dribble, and should go up immediately and attempt to dunk.

You simply have to make teams pay for doing that.

One play that I thought was the difference that gave Cal some life late was when we were up 14 and Triche hit BMK all alone near the basket, but instead of going up asap and dunking the ball, he did his famous hesitation move and ended up throwing the ball off the back iron. I didn't get to see that play again but did he struggle to catch the ball which caused the hesitation or was it just a bad play on his part? He scores on that play and we go up by 16 and win by 20 instead of 6.