My Take | Syracusefan.com

My Take

sutomcat

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Small crowd. The 21K number provided was about right. They were quiet most of the game but were a factor in the last five or 10 minutes.

The national anthem was sung by a girl from Baldwinsville. She had a lovely voice and did a great job. Someone continues to do a great job finding talent to sing this song.

As mentioned earlier, the Sour Sitrus Society's role was taken by alumni from the band who assembled specifically for this game. They sounded very good, were quite impressive, even if their hairlines and waistlines were a little different than last remembered. I really hope SU does this again in the future. There is no substitute for a good pep band at a college basketball game.

As for the game, I was genuinely impressed with the athletic ability of Miami. They had a number of tall, athletic, and agile kids who seemed to be fine defenders. They also had a few kids who could hit shots from the outside. And their coach did a great job milking the clock and forcing SU to work hard on defense every possession.

Miami sat in their matchup zone, and dared SU to beat them from the outside. Cooney got a lot of good looks, but today was not his day; he struggled to find the hoop all game long.

The Hurricanes left all the SU players open from the perimeter except Cooney and Fair. This clogged the lane and made it very hard for Syracuse to get quality shots inside. Good strategy by the Canes coaching staff, who did a heckuva job against the Syracuse offense.

I thought the biggest play the game was the rebound and put back by Christmas around the five-minute mark. Ennis had a couple of big baskets, Grant hit a huge jumper from the FT line and Christmas had another big shot with a hook in the lane late. Another very encouraging game for Rakim, who appears to finally be emerging as a reliable player.

Mentioned this but the pregame post, but want to reiterate it. When the cheerleaders did the running of the flags at the four minute mile today, one of the female cheerleaders carried the E flag, ran all the way around the court and back onto the basketball court. She did a great job, never let the flag drop low, and should be very proud of her strength and training.
 
Great post, as usual Tomcat.

"I was genuinely impressed with the athletic ability of Miami. They had a number of tall, athletic, and agile kids who seemed to be fine defenders."

I was taken a back by this as well. Seemed like every guy on their starting lineup was at least 6-6/6-7.
 
Small crowd. The 21K number provided was about right. They were quiet most of the game but were a factor in the last five or 10 minutes.
I was at the game too and disappointed that the crowd wasn't bigger for our inaugural ACC game.
I guess not having the students there makes a huge difference in crowd size and especially crowd noise - the cheer leaders were trying to get the people sitting in the student section going, but it seemed to be a tough sell. I felt like I was one of only a handful that were yelling out during the player introductions.
On the other hand, not having the students there today is how I got such great seats for the game :)

The national anthem was sung by a girl from Baldwinsville. She had a lovely voice and did a great job. Someone continues to do a great job finding talent to sing this song.
Agreed - I said to my wife after the anthem that this girl did a great job. Very nice voice and didn't try to "over sing" the anthem.

As mentioned earlier, the Sour Sitrus Society's role was taken by alumni from the band who assembled specifically for this game. They sounded very good, were quite impressive, even if their hairlines and waistlines were a little different than last remembered. I really hope SU does this again in the future. There is no substitute for a good pep band at a college basketball game.
Ditto here as well. I could tell by the mismatched shirts that they must have bee using fill-ins for the regular band members, but they still sounded great.

Mentioned this but the pregame post, but want to reiterate it. When the cheerleaders did the running of the flags at the four minute mile today, one of the female cheerleaders carried the E flag, ran all the way around the court and back onto the basketball court. She did a great job, never let the flag drop low, and should be very proud of her strength and training.
LOL - I said something similar to my wife after the four minute mile run.
I was sitting in section 102 and they started out and finished right in front of us. That female cheerleader was a tiny little thing and I too was impressed with her upper body strength and conditioning to be able to run around the court like that as well as the big and burly male cheerleaders carrying what looks to be a pretty heavy flag.

Overall, I had a great time at today's game, although was hoping for a better offensive output from the Orange and an easier win.
Biggest complaint was the nearly 9 minute FG drought in the second half - my hands are still hurting from clapping for so long.

That and I couldn't believe when I saw people leaving early in the last minute or two when we were still up only 3 points!
I mean, it's their dime and they are free to do what they want, but I just can't comprehend how you can get up and leave when the game is still hanging in the balance like that.
 
Great post, as usual Tomcat.

"I was genuinely impressed with the athletic ability of Miami. They had a number of tall, athletic, and agile kids who seemed to be fine defenders."

I was taken a back by this as well. Seemed like every guy on their starting lineup was at least 6-6/6-7.

And had biceps bigger than my legs. They looked like players you would see playing for Huggins back in his "Thuggins" days. This Miami team is a clone of Cincy as far as I'm concerned. Strong, athletic, and capable of creating havoc every time they are on the floor. I predict that Miami will do better than the pre-season poll suggests. Their only weakness is consistent outside shooting, so when they go cold...ugly could be around the corner. I want to see the Pitt-Miami game. That'll be a gem.
 
And had biceps bigger than my legs.

we all do, pete. we all do.

86525617.jpg
 
why did the TV keep saying we had 26-27K at the game when we only had 21K?
 
why did the TV keep saying we had 26-27K at the game when we only had 21K?

i wondered the same thing. At 1 point Durham even said close to 28k.

And Jeremy Ryan on twitter said close to 30k.

i thought i was in lala land. there was basically no crowd behind the baskets in the 3rd level. thats not typically the recipe for Syracuse level big crowds.
 
They were probably going by season ticket sales plus the additional single game ticket sales and forgot to subtract for the missing students and season tickets that were not sold for this game.
That or they were estimating by looking just at the crowd on the bench side of the court.
The seats actually looked pretty full all the way up to the top of the 3rd level over there, but once your got around the corner, it thinned out pretty quickly up there.
The lower levels were were completely full all the way around, but I was in the front row of section 102 which is just the other side of the student section and there was hardly anybody sitting behind me more than 2 rows back and only a handful of people to the right of me.
 
They were probably going by season ticket sales plus the additional single game ticket sales and forgot to subtract for the missing students and season tickets that were not sold for this game.
That or they were estimating by looking just at the crowd on the bench side of the court.
The seats actually looked pretty full all the way up to the top of the 3rd level over there, but once your got around the corner, it thinned out pretty quickly up there.
The lower levels were were completely full all the way around, but I was in the front row of section 102 which is just the other side of the student section and there was hardly anybody sitting behind me more than 2 rows back and only a handful of people to the right of me.

i would say 21 and change was a pretty legit number
 
i would say 21 and change was a pretty legit number

I usually gauge attendance by the 300 level directly behind the baskets. If those sections are full, it's usually 25k. If they run over toward the adjacent sections, 27-28k is typical. The 300 level behind the baskets were about 1/3 full yesterday, so 21k is pretty accurate.
 
I was really impressed by the size and athleticism of the 'Canes. With the two 6'6" guards at the top of their zone and good lateral quickness they reminded me of some other team I've seen recently. Very strong inside as well and really got on the boards for stretches. This team will surprise a couple of more highly regarded ACC teams this season particularly the way the shorten the game by minimizing possessions.

Anyone else wonder why JB chose to burn his "fouls-to-give" in a two possession game with under a minute to go? Didn't seem likely that Miami would take a quick shot against us and I would think that strategy would be better if they did score and get the ball back to make it a one possession game. Worked out and shortened the game but I wonder what the pros and cons are in determining that strategy?
 
Anyone else wonder why JB chose to burn his "fouls-to-give" in a two possession game with under a minute to go? Didn't seem likely that Miami would take a quick shot against us and I would think that strategy would be better if they did score and get the ball back to make it a one possession game. Worked out and shortened the game but I wonder what the pros and cons are in determining that strategy?

I think JB preferred Miami using the time to reset their offense than running their offense. Miami used the clock to take their best shot all game so shortening the time they had to probe the defense to get their best shot appeared to be his strategy - and best of all it thankfully worked.
 
I think JB preferred Miami using the time to reset their offense than running their offense. Miami used the clock to take their best shot all game so shortening the time they had to probe the defense to get their best shot appeared to be his strategy - and best of all it thankfully worked.

It seemed to work well at the end of the first half, so I guess JB figured it would work well at the end of the game too (which it did).
 
Cheriehoop said:
I think JB preferred Miami using the time to reset their offense than running their offense. Miami used the clock to take their best shot all game so shortening the time they had to probe the defense to get their best shot appeared to be his strategy - and best of all it thankfully worked.

Agree with using the fouls but thought JB might have saved them in case it got to a one possession game 20 seconds later.
 
Agree with using the fouls but thought JB might have saved them in case it got to a one possession game 20 seconds later.

I don't think there were more than 20 seconds even left in the game. I could be wrong
 

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