My Take

[sutomcat]

Needs to be brief. Here goes:

Young girl did the NA. Did a terrific job with it and ended up getting the biggest ovation of the entire night.

Another really small crowd. I will say St Rose brought a significant number of fans, some scattered in good seats and a decent sized group behind one of the baskets.

Was impressed by the St Rose team. They have a lot of kids from the NYC area that were not intimidated much by the Dome or playing a top 5 D1 team. They were well coached and played very hard too.

SU played man all game long except when they zoned on inbounds plays and when they pressed. The man was not effective. Fab had some nice plays hustling back on defense but the team looked lackadaisical in general here. Kris Joseph in particular struggled in man. Not sure his knee is close to 100% right now.

The starters got the team out to a good lead but when JB went deep to his bench in the first half, the lead melted away quickly and when a Roser hit a 3 at the end of the half, SU was shockingly only tied for the lead.

Didn't think the starters looked very good early in the 2nd half either. Scoop got pulled after a bad lob pass to KJ turned into a turnover. He was replaced by MCW, who led an unlikely group on a long sustained run of excellence that pulled SU far ahead of the heady St Rose team. The other players who played during that run were Christmas, who played extended minutes at C for the first time, JS, KS and DW.

JB went to the press with this group of athletic and long players. They forced a series of turnovers, scored most everytime they had the ball and the game became a blowout quite quickly. The best player on the court during the run was MCW, who made some nice defensive plays, a number of great passes and hit 3 3s for good measure. He is the best looking frosh guard we have had in a long time...at least since GMac. Looks like he and Christmas have a good connection...MCW likes to get the ball to RC down low, where RC did some damage against the undersized St Rose team. Special credit to DW and JS for their stellar defense. KJ became a lot more assertive during this period as well, scoring on some nice drives during this interval.

JB substituted more freely in the 1st half than normal but as is his wont, when he finally found a lineup that was working in the 2nd half, he rode that horse till she dropped.

Weird game. Disturbing to see the starters struggle some against a relatively weak opponent. This looks like it is going to be a finesse team. Really need Fab and Rak to play hard and get rebounds.

Fab and MCW each drew a charge. This pleased me greatly.

 

[RoysRunts]

No FF Team seen tonight,When SU was playing their NO Defense Dunk Contest at Midnight Madness Teams like VCU were diving on the floor for loose Balls like the Japanese Woman's Volleyball team went for Digs. To many camera ready/Rap singers on this team.

 

[NKR1978]

No FF Team seen tonight,When SU was playing their NO Defense Dunk Contest at Midnight Madness Teams like VCU were diving on the floor for loose Balls like the Japanese Woman's Volleyball team went for Digs. To many camera ready/Rap singers on this team.

I have no idea if Syracuse will go to the Final Four. Probably not. But this is hilarious.

 

[ejz555]

Rebounding will haunt us all year IMO...Everytime Scoop goes on a fast break I expect a turnover..I think they should employ the press regularly ala Pitino's Kentucky teams...we have the depth..plus size..we should use it..SUball

 

[billsin01]

It's way to early to make any dire proclamations, but I still am not sure where everyone thought they were seeing a final four team. I mean, if it happens, I'll be fired up but that's a tall order and, as far as I can tell, this team has a bunch of cracks in the armor: questions about rebounding, questions about go-to guy, questions about half-court offense and questions about post presence (though Fab appears to be a solid answer here). Still, I get all the excitement about the talent but I'll get far more excited about the outcome of the season when they start to answer some of these nagging questions.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

I think cooney and waiters are the only guards we have who have any business playing man to man. coney needs to red shirt, after this year you will not keep him off the court, simply won't happen. 3 year starter

 

[wallacecuse]

No FF Team seen tonight,When SU was playing their NO Defense Dunk Contest at Midnight Madness Teams like VCU were diving on the floor for loose Balls like the Japanese Woman's Volleyball team went for Digs. To many camera ready/Rap singers on this team.

I stopped making inferences for the season based on exhibition game play 2 years ago.

 

[wallacecuse]

I think cooney and waiters are the only guards we have who have any business playing man to man. coney needs to red shirt, after this year you will not keep him off the court, simply won't happen. 3 year starter

Really? I thought Cooney looked like a liability out there in on-the-ball D.

 

[OttoMets]

Really? I thought Cooney looked like a liability out there in on-the-ball D.

Likewise. Defensively, he's our worst guard.

 

[Oakland]

Needs to be brief. Here goes:

Young girl did the NA. Did a terrific job with it and ended up getting the biggest ovation of the entire night.

Another really small crowd. I will say St Rose brought a significant number of fans, some scattered in good seats and a decent sized group behind one of the baskets.

Was impressed by the St Rose team. They have a lot of kids from the NYC area that were not intimidated much by the Dome or playing a top 5 D1 team. They were well coached and played very hard too.

SU played man all game long except when they zoned on inbounds plays and when they pressed. The man was not effective. Fab had some nice plays hustling back on defense but the team looked lackadaisical in general here. Kris Joseph in particular struggled in man. Not sure his knee is close to 100% right now.

The starters got the team out to a good lead but when JB went deep to his bench in the first half, the lead melted away quickly and when a Roser hit a 3 at the end of the half, SU was shockingly only tied for the lead.

Didn't think the starters looked very good early in the 2nd half either. Scoop got pulled after a bad lob pass to KJ turned into a turnover. He was replaced by MCW, who led an unlikely group on a long sustained run of excellence that pulled SU far ahead of the heady St Rose team. The other players who played during that run were Christmas, who played extended minutes at C for the first time, JS, KS and DW.

JB went to the press with this group of athletic and long players. They forced a series of turnovers, scored most everytime they had the ball and the game became a blowout quite quickly. The best player on the court during the run was MCW, who made some nice defensive plays, a number of great passes and hit 3 3s for good measure. He is the best looking frosh guard we have had in a long time...at least since GMac. Looks like he and Christmas have a good connection...MCW likes to get the ball to RC down low, where RC did some damage against the undersized St Rose team. Special credit to DW and JS for their stellar defense. KJ became a lot more assertive during this period as well, scoring on some nice drives during this interval.

JB substituted more freely in the 1st half than normal but as is his wont, when he finally found a lineup that was working in the 2nd half, he rode that horse till she dropped.

Weird game. Disturbing to see the starters struggle some against a relatively weak opponent. This looks like it is going to be a finesse team. Really need Fab and Rak to play hard and get rebounds.

Fab and MCW each drew a charge. This pleased me greatly.

Not sure what you are talking about - the starters did very well.

 

[orangefan13]

The first 8 mintues of the the game was one of the most impressive 19-2 runs I have ever seen syracuse run. Just the steals, ball movement(passing in particular), blocks and speed of play from our guys was so much fun to watch.

Then we score only 4 points the last 8 minutes of the half but the shots taken looked pretty darn good.

 

[hungrychuck]

Tom, good report as always, and yours is the first I've read after a night out.

I think it is right not to make too much out of the exhibitions. That said, I thought St Rose played some great team ball and found myself wishing that we had that level of cohesiveness this early. Doesn't mean we won't have it, but it would be nice to have an early surprise and it just wasn't there. Granted, Jimmy is trying out different combinations and trying to work in the frosh with existing players.

Continue to be impressed with Fab's transformation. He simply can do things physically that he couldn't last year.

Loved MCW's game. He seemed to overcome the first-game jitters seen previously. Very promising.

Props to Dion. Didn't like his first game, but tonight he showed the benefits of his weight loss and, one hopes, greater maturity. He was very active in the passing lanes on the press, played good D overall, and offensively seemed to be as aware of his teammates as he was of himself. Encouraging.

Again, would like to see us as together as opponents once in a while in these warmups. And -- while I know it may be against human nature -- it would be nice to see our scholarship players play as hard as our walk-0ns. The contrast was striking.

 

[sutomcat]

Not sure what you are talking about - the starters did very well.

When the starters were in, they played Saint Rose to a draw. Maybe slightly better than that.

I don't consider that playing very well. But everyone has different expectations.

 

[SmilinBob]

It is the second game in a row that some big guy down low could make some decent moves vs SU and if the opposition can hit some shots the guys down low have to step up and play better defense. That said, Keita made a wonderful one on one block last night.

 

[TexanMark]

St. Rose is a very good D2 team...one of the best in fact in D2.

This is their Super Bowl and biggest game of the year until the NCAAs.

Cuse did what it took to put them away...that big guy could play in the Big East

 

[bnoro]

No FF Team seen tonight,When SU was playing their NO Defense Dunk Contest at Midnight Madness Teams like VCU were diving on the floor for loose Balls like the Japanese Woman's Volleyball team went for Digs. To many camera ready/Rap singers on this team.

Who cares if we didn't dive for loose balls in midnight madness? If that's what your gripe with this team is, good god.

 

[AZOrange]

Needs to be brief. Here goes:

Young girl did the NA. Did a terrific job with it and ended up getting the biggest ovation of the entire night.

Another really small crowd. I will say St Rose brought a significant number of fans, some scattered in good seats and a decent sized group behind one of the baskets.

Was impressed by the St Rose team. They have a lot of kids from the NYC area that were not intimidated much by the Dome or playing a top 5 D1 team. They were well coached and played very hard too.

SU played man all game long except when they zoned on inbounds plays and when they pressed. The man was not effective. Fab had some nice plays hustling back on defense but the team looked lackadaisical in general here. Kris Joseph in particular struggled in man. Not sure his knee is close to 100% right now.

The starters got the team out to a good lead but when JB went deep to his bench in the first half, the lead melted away quickly and when a Roser hit a 3 at the end of the half, SU was shockingly only tied for the lead.

Didn't think the starters looked very good early in the 2nd half either. Scoop got pulled after a bad lob pass to KJ turned into a turnover. He was replaced by MCW, who led an unlikely group on a long sustained run of excellence that pulled SU far ahead of the heady St Rose team. The other players who played during that run were Christmas, who played extended minutes at C for the first time, JS, KS and DW.

JB went to the press with this group of athletic and long players. They forced a series of turnovers, scored most everytime they had the ball and the game became a blowout quite quickly. The best player on the court during the run was MCW, who made some nice defensive plays, a number of great passes and hit 3 3s for good measure. He is the best looking frosh guard we have had in a long time...at least since GMac. Looks like he and Christmas have a good connection...MCW likes to get the ball to RC down low, where RC did some damage against the undersized St Rose team. Special credit to DW and JS for their stellar defense. KJ became a lot more assertive during this period as well, scoring on some nice drives during this interval.

JB substituted more freely in the 1st half than normal but as is his wont, when he finally found a lineup that was working in the 2nd half, he rode that horse till she dropped.

Weird game. Disturbing to see the starters struggle some against a relatively weak opponent. This looks like it is going to be a finesse team. Really need Fab and Rak to play hard and get rebounds.

Fab and MCW each drew a charge. This pleased me greatly.

I think you can put about as much stock into these games as you can Midnight Madness (in the actual games themselves). I mean our 2010 team lost to LeMoyne and I am pretty sure most of us on here think that was a Final Four team...

Anyway, a couple of things I have picked up from the exhibition games:

1. Fab's conditioning and year in the gym have made him a prospective force. I am not sure I remember seeing a big that good with his hands and the ball up around the rim in a long time. If he rebounds, watch out.

2. Rotations are killer big here and there is NFW we are going to see 10-12 guys. That said, JB finally has depth where he can pull his struggling upperclassmen out of the game. This is a big positive.

3. MCW is going to be an absolute stud. I was pretty pumped to see Scoop so enthused after he got benched (that bodes well for the chemistry on the team), but MCW is a rare talent. He is not Jonny Flynn quick but he has nice handle, is really smart with the ball, is good in the lane, has a decent (but slow) outside shot, is an animal on defense. Sky is the freaking limit for this kid.

4. Three guys that looked the most lost out there with crazy rotations, Baye, James and suprisingly CJ (although I like the new stroke).

 

[Oakland]

When the starters were in, they played Saint Rose to a draw. Maybe slightly better than that.

I don't consider that playing very well. But everyone has different expectations.

The subs lost a sizable lead in the first half which is one of the main reasons the game was tied at half. For the whole game, the starters scored 60% of the team's pts in 47% of the total minutes by shooting 60% from the field. That fits my definition of 'very well'. They also had lots of steals and blocks, but it should be mentioned they also had too many TOs, not enough assists, and didn't shoot the 3pt well.

 

[Garbs]

It is the second game in a row that some big guy down low could make some decent moves vs SU and if the opposition can hit some shots the guys down low have to step up and play better defense. That said, Keita made a wonderful one on one block last night.

you know we will play zone for the rest of the year right?

 

[Garbs]

I think you can put about as much stock into these games as you can Midnight Madness (in the actual games themselves). I mean our 2010 team lost to LeMoyne and I am pretty sure most of us on here think that was a Final Four team...

Anyway, a couple of things I have picked up from the exhibition games:

1. Fab's conditioning and year in the gym have made him a prospective force. I am not sure I remember seeing a big that good with his hands and the ball up around the rim in a long time. If he rebounds, watch out.

2. Rotations are killer big here and there is NFW we are going to see 10-12 guys. That said, JB finally has depth where he can pull his struggling upperclassmen out of the game. This is a big positive.

3. MCW is going to be an absolute stud. I was pretty pumped to see Scoop so enthused after he got benched (that bodes well for the chemistry on the team), but MCW is a rare talent. He is not Jonny Flynn quick but he has nice handle, is really smart with the ball, is good in the lane, has a decent (but slow) outside shot, is an animal on defense. Sky is the freaking limit for this kid.

4. Three guys that looked the most lost out there with crazy rotations, Baye, James and suprisingly CJ (although I like the new stroke).

I completely disagree I think he is very good at creating space and getting his shot off fast, when he has to

 

[shermstheman]

It's way to early to make any dire proclamations, but I still am not sure where everyone thought they were seeing a final four team. I mean, if it happens, I'll be fired up but that's a tall order and, as far as I can tell, this team has a bunch of cracks in the armor: questions about rebounding, questions about go-to guy, questions about half-court offense and questions about post presence (though Fab appears to be a solid answer here). Still, I get all the excitement about the talent but I'll get far more excited about the outcome of the season when they start to answer some of these nagging questions.

Remember LeMoyne- everyone was predicting the end of the world after that. Don't take too much from the exhibition.

 

[SWC75]

Fab's charge was a huge flop. A guy half his size suppsoedly kncoked him over. Matt Park commented "All his years playing soccer in Brazil held him in good stead." But, hey, if it works... Joel Mareinness used to call it the "seat of the pants slide".

 

[SmilinBob]

you know we will play zone for the rest of the year right?

Yes and believe it or not guys get the ball down low quite easily when players are hitting shots from the outside.

 

[Garbs]

Yes and believe it or not guys get the ball down low quite easily when players are hitting shots from the outside.

yes but it is not man 2 man