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Message: [QUOTE="Orangeman, post: 897229, member: 972"] Don't know that it's fair to label Rak as Jekkyl & Hyde ...from my perspective he's played really well and is the "victim" of two ongoing trends in Syracuse basketball: 1) our players cannot/will not feed the post; 2) failure of the coaches to recognize the limitations of a zone and blame Rak for "mental" errors when they are really just 2-on-1s created by the nature of the defense against good ball movement. We've had really good guard-play, but for some reason only 2010 with Arinze did we feed the post. You could argue that we haven't had top post players, but let's be honest, not everyone has Wilt Chamberlain down low and probably 95% of teams do a better job of this than us. It must be systemic. Even Ennis will look off Rak when he's got good position established. The system works, but can't blame the center when his entire offense is based off put backs. Sometimes the ball doesn't bounce your way. In the zone, the 5 is the last line of defense and often gets put in bad positions which can lead to two things that often get Rak and other centers pulled that aren't their fault: 1) the in-the-paint 2-on-1 where the offense has hit the foul-line but the defensive wing hasn't collapsed yet...essentially the center must hedge and either give up a dunk or a wide open 15 footer. It's not the centers fault, and sometimes you'll see the coaches appropriately blame the wing, but it's often the center who unnecessarily takes the heat 2) defensive rotation that invariably takes the 5 out of rebounding position...in fact, the 2-3 almost guarantees the center won't be getting the rebound, since most rebounds go to the other side of the rim and the 5 is usually defending on the ball-side. This is one reason we can't afford to have a 6'-4" guy in the 3 spot, and why we were so good in '03 since Melo was the best small forward rebounder of all time. There are even scenarios where the 5 is stuck flying out on a three in the corner, etc etc. The good news, from my perspective, is Rak is playing so well lately that thèse issues seem to be getting trumped by how well he's playing. [/QUOTE]

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