sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
- Messages
- 25,914
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Small crowd. Hard to hazard a guess but if you twist my arm (hey, that hurts!) I think it was around 10K actually in the seats. Really small turnout by the students after the extraordinary turnout for Fordham. Even the SSS was down in size, from 7 tubas to 2. Lastly, no dance team. The cheerleaders were there though and it was quiet enough that you could easily hear their cheers from the 3rd deck.
The SSS played the NA. Did a servicable job but no spectacular notes were hit and no glass surfaces vibrated violently.
To my surprise, SU opened in man to man. Also much to my surprise, the man was effective...really effective. SU rarely does a good job playing man, especially against undersized quick teams. In the second half, SU played the 2-3, which was also very effective. Even the press they used for brief periods did well. Fab Melo at one point caused a turnover 3 consecutive times down the court playing against someone who effectively was a 6'6 small forward. Amazing.
SU was also very effective on the offensive side of the court. moving the ball well against the undermanned Jaspers, consistently getting quality shots. It was one of those games where a traditional half court offense was rarely run, as SU beat Manhattan down the court all game long and had dozens of barely contested layups and dunks. The Jaspers looked quite miserable. I don't know what league they play in but they have to be a strong candidate for last place. That was just ghastly.
The most notable stretch of the game occurred at the start of the second half, when with the crowd impatiently standing and clapping, SU was unable to score a basket from the field until somewhere around the 13:20 mark. They missed a few shots early but after that, they were constantly thwarted from scoring a basket by Jasper desperation fouls. They made something like 14 fouls in the first 7 minutes of the 2nd half. Crazy. This evil strategy forced many a middle aged Syracusan to sit down and rest their weary and trembling legs before SU scored. Those b@stards!
Today, I think everyone except maybe Scoop and Mook played well, so the haters are going to have to dig deep to find someone or something to complain about. Good to see Triche play well again. JS really did well...best stretch of basketball I have seen from him since that exhibition game he scored a bunch of points when he was a frosh. He did a lot of things well but I was especially impressed by his passing and unselfishness.
Rak continues to look better at C than PF. Not comfortable forcing the basket, does a nice job getting position down low when at the 5. He is stealing time from Keita at C right now...kind of a shame because Keita does a very serviceable job when he is out there. But such is life on a team with some quality depth.
Scoop was benched for extended periods...that decision early to throw a difficult pass to the trailer on a fast break behind his back was not well received...he knew he was out and was on his way to the bench before anyone called his name. He is a perplexing player...hard not to like, hard to understand and support fully. Not good for a 5th year senior fighting for PT to pull a stunt like that. But that is the way Scoop rolls, and the way he has always rolled, for better or for worse.
When Scoop was out, JB went with DW and BT in the backcourt together for a long time. BT played point, which tells me DW is no likely to play point this season except in emergencies (when MCW is in, he has played point exclusively). For the record, the 2 played together very well, shared the ball nicely and showed some chemistry that was lacking last season.
The whole team played pretty unselfish tonight. They shared the ball well and made the extra pass. Best chemistry I have seen from this team so far. Good to see.
No TC again. No surprise on that front.
The SSS played the NA. Did a servicable job but no spectacular notes were hit and no glass surfaces vibrated violently.
To my surprise, SU opened in man to man. Also much to my surprise, the man was effective...really effective. SU rarely does a good job playing man, especially against undersized quick teams. In the second half, SU played the 2-3, which was also very effective. Even the press they used for brief periods did well. Fab Melo at one point caused a turnover 3 consecutive times down the court playing against someone who effectively was a 6'6 small forward. Amazing.
SU was also very effective on the offensive side of the court. moving the ball well against the undermanned Jaspers, consistently getting quality shots. It was one of those games where a traditional half court offense was rarely run, as SU beat Manhattan down the court all game long and had dozens of barely contested layups and dunks. The Jaspers looked quite miserable. I don't know what league they play in but they have to be a strong candidate for last place. That was just ghastly.
The most notable stretch of the game occurred at the start of the second half, when with the crowd impatiently standing and clapping, SU was unable to score a basket from the field until somewhere around the 13:20 mark. They missed a few shots early but after that, they were constantly thwarted from scoring a basket by Jasper desperation fouls. They made something like 14 fouls in the first 7 minutes of the 2nd half. Crazy. This evil strategy forced many a middle aged Syracusan to sit down and rest their weary and trembling legs before SU scored. Those b@stards!
Today, I think everyone except maybe Scoop and Mook played well, so the haters are going to have to dig deep to find someone or something to complain about. Good to see Triche play well again. JS really did well...best stretch of basketball I have seen from him since that exhibition game he scored a bunch of points when he was a frosh. He did a lot of things well but I was especially impressed by his passing and unselfishness.
Rak continues to look better at C than PF. Not comfortable forcing the basket, does a nice job getting position down low when at the 5. He is stealing time from Keita at C right now...kind of a shame because Keita does a very serviceable job when he is out there. But such is life on a team with some quality depth.
Scoop was benched for extended periods...that decision early to throw a difficult pass to the trailer on a fast break behind his back was not well received...he knew he was out and was on his way to the bench before anyone called his name. He is a perplexing player...hard not to like, hard to understand and support fully. Not good for a 5th year senior fighting for PT to pull a stunt like that. But that is the way Scoop rolls, and the way he has always rolled, for better or for worse.
When Scoop was out, JB went with DW and BT in the backcourt together for a long time. BT played point, which tells me DW is no likely to play point this season except in emergencies (when MCW is in, he has played point exclusively). For the record, the 2 played together very well, shared the ball nicely and showed some chemistry that was lacking last season.
The whole team played pretty unselfish tonight. They shared the ball well and made the extra pass. Best chemistry I have seen from this team so far. Good to see.
No TC again. No surprise on that front.
