NC State Postgame Thoughts

[newmexicuse]

Great game - any time you get a double digit win against an ACC opponent, there should be no complaints. Especially in a game like this where we lead throughout and there was never any sense of danger that the game would get away from us.

A few thoughts:

1. Many comments about Taylor. He needs to get back any mojo he might have had. Look at the Knicks and how much better Grimes is playing after finding a better role on the second team. Gotta stop starting Justin and give him a chance to find himself in a different role.

2. Carey was a pleasant surprise. Several tough rebounds and he showed good mobility and D instincts. On O he rushed a bunny layup that he missed and could have had a dunk on a pass from Cope, but he fumbled the ball and passed it out.

3. JJ - wow - kid is still a bit inconsistent from game to game, but his intra-season improvement is through the charts. He is becoming the player we all expected and hoped for.

4. Judah - his ability to draw fouls is amazing and he knows how to hawk the ball. Last time I checked Tankathon he was projected to go in Round 2. This kid needs to study Brunson to figure out how to score with footwork and cleverness once he gets inside the paint and not to simply rely on drawing fouls. He made 3 FGs, and I believe 2 of them were on fast breaks. Cant have him only making 1 FG off of all his lane penetrations no matter how much he gets to the line. Also, what happened to his 3 point shooting ? It seemed to be coming on at the end of last season and has vanished now. Dont take these comments wrong, I love Judah, but I am looking forward to what he needs to do to succeed at the next level, and I cant help but ask, why not ask him to do those things now ?

5. Bell and Benny - I am putting them together because they both had very nice games doing exactly what they are supposed to do. Bell hit his threes and also had a couple of nice pullup Js in the lane off of dribble penetration - need to see more of that. Benny was very clever in working himself free for monster dunks. He should be starting over Taylor.

6. Q - He seems to be falling a bit out of favor with Red - he only got 18 minutes. He is a smart player from outside and sees his teammates. I think the missing piece of his game is that he should be more clever from inside. He flashed that capability in a few games earlier in the season, but I haven't seen it recently.

7. Lastly, Brown - so solid in so many ways, but he needs to improve his O. He didnt seem that aggressive yesterday in cutting to the basket. He also needs some sort of a baby hook or turnaround 10' J.

8 Red - Great job getting them up to play after the FSU catastrophe.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I’m having to watch the replay bc I missed the game. I don’t know if it’s JT not knowing or being afraid.

So far, when he does get the ball, he’s immediately looking to pass and nothing else.

He also had a run out where he could have sprinted towards the hoop behind the D and potentially got a pass, but he slowed up and floated out to the perimeter.

Maybe it’s both. But you can’t get better if you are scared out there or not looking to be in the action.

I dunno. It’s not great with him right now.

Watch his feet and body position on the catch.

 

[orangecuse]

In a post-game thoughts thread you should be allowed to point out flaws. Maybe if this was a total feel-good win where everything clicked it would be odd to complain.

It wasn't! Good teams do better. Syracuse usually has, over its history. Why can't we allow people to point that out?

100%

What I actually find "utterly amazing" is how some folks don't (or choose not to from a broader lens perspective) see that or maintain a rigidity inability to compartmentalize, etc. One can certainly overall be happy about the W, whilst still be able to constructively/objectively point out some things, concerns or what have you (like missed fouls shots as one example) that need work on, etc.

 

[Scotch]

All credit to my guy Big Peter

He had some good minutes. More mobile than I thought, fought for rebounds, rolled hard to the basket on a few picks. I feel like he could end up giving us more than McLeod with some experience.

 

[CardiacCuse]

We simply cannot blow out inferior opponents.

shoulda won this by at least 30, imo

slowing the ball down in the 2nd half when you are DOMINATING is a huge mistake, imo

if you understand the way the algorithms work...going for blowouts is essential

great win but still...shouldve been a blowout

 

[sugrad68]

Good win. Team, including Red, seemed to just mail it in for the 2nd half. They need to learn how to keep the peddle down. Just confusing coaching decisions for the 2nd half by sticking with the same lineup. Not sure what Red was trying to accomplish leaving Bell on the bench. Glad we were able to hold on for the win but it didn’t need to be that way.

It was really only the last 10 minutes or so where the defense let up and NCS started scoring. We went from up 16 at the half to up 22 midway through the second half. I agree with you and others regarding Bell being on the bench so much in the second half. I know he is a defensive liablility at times but his head seemed to be really into it on both ends of the court yesterday.

 

[CardiacCuse]

Cope is really struggling. I assume bell was hurt or else he should’ve been in

bell was balling in the 1st half...only 21 minutes for him is weird, imo...

 

[CardiacCuse]

Salute to Chris Bell for catching fire. Also had a couple of boards, an assist and a block. Stuffing the stat sheet!

Salute to the refs for accurately calling fouls on NC State’s garbage defense.

Salute to the staff and all players for the lockdown halfcourt D. To my eye, Cuse is playing great D when they have a chance to set up. The next step is to improve on getting back to set up.

transition d is weak spot, for sure

 

[Cusefan0307]

One thing Carey has that you can’t teach is a motor that doesn’t stop. We never have to worry about him not playing hard. He definitely gave Burns problems when he was in. I think the game is a bit fast for him right now, but you can see some ability in there. He definitely has more upside than Hima.

 

[CardiacCuse]

Is it crazy to start Benny? Could get him locked in from the start, and a good Benny raises the floor of this team, as we saw tonight. Just not sure what Taylor gives you at this point

according to Red - rebounds and knowing where to rotate on defense...and thats about it...

benny is a better rebounder than taylor...but I'll admit...taylor is better at defensive positioning...

there needs to be some 1 on 1 sessions with a coach with benny on his defensive rotations, imo

even without that, benny is a way better player...(have noticed that opponents' runs do tend to happen with benny in the game though)

 

[CardiacCuse]

It doesn’t hurt our rankings at all. NET doesn’t take margin of victory into consideration beyond 10 points. For that formula a 12 point win counts the same as 25 points.

offensive efficiency and defensive efficiency are essentially the same issue...they weight every single possession equally...so winning by 12 will ALWAYS be worse than winning by 20 even if the NET only considers margin up until 10...its misleading imo

let the foot off the gas in the 2nd half and those metrics plummet needlessly

this young team gets a decent lead and loses focus DRASTICALLY

its effecting the teams reankings big time imo

 

[CardiacCuse]

You’re not totally wrong. Benny is an inconsistent headcase, but he leads Taylor in almost every advanced metric but plays 10 minutes less per game. I think that’s where the disconnect is. At worst, they should probably be splitting playing time equally

taylors minutes have gone way down in recent games. not sure youve noticed but its a thing

 

[CardiacCuse]

if the games were 30 min long we wouldnt have had so many blow out losses.. Same sloppy play the last 7-10 min as the other night but we had a lead.

exactly

a ton of inexplicable catastrophic last minutes this season

its a serious issue for the team even though it just happened in a win

seems unnecessary

 

[CardiacCuse]

The rims were VERY good to us tonight.
A bunch of misses which contributed to the slop.
Many of which fall on Judah. The announcers said as much when he went into traffic and tried to make a shot inside of 3 guys instead of passing.
Bell was +20 in 21 minutes!
And then the wheels fell off. Quadir was -9, but I don’t put it all on him.
4- and 5-point swings didn’t kill us here, but would and have against other teams

if bell is playing great, he needs to be in there

red cant just get tunnel vision and pre-decide his rotations before the game


needs to reward the hot player with more minutes

bell was BALLING

 

[CardiacCuse]

We basically need a win every night. I am happy we won; I wish we didn't play sloppily in the second half. That would have helped our ranking, and it was totally doable.

correct me if i am wrong and misunstand the ranking systems but this team needs blowouts

yes it needs wins...but it really needs to blow some teams out.

its not complaing to say so...its just facts.

this was a "blowoutable" game, imo

so even though its great to win and to get any win...makes a ton of sense to me why some are lamenting that the final margin was only 12.

 

[Sbucketball]

I think Red's thought on not playing Bell much in the second half after getting a big lead is that he wanted to focus on defense, rebounding, not turning the ball over, getting to the rim for 2s and fouls, and not chucking up 3s that could result in run outs on the other end for 5-6 point swings in the course of a few seconds. They only shot 1-2 threes in the last 10-15 minutes of the game. It seemed intentional. I think that's why Copeland played over Bell.

 

[CardiacCuse]

That was a fantastic win, and now 6 in a row vs. NC State. A few miscellaneous thoughts of things to work on to get closer to the bubble:

1. I know in the year 2024 that feeding the post is about as cool as jean shorts and cell phone belt clips, but I wish we could actually design plays for Maliq. He shoots 72% from the field and 82% from the line. Is there a reason why we can't isolate him on the low block, tell Judah/JJ to feed the post, and let him go to work maybe 3-4 times per half?

2. Taylor's confidence is on life support. He shot the ball zero times last night, and anytime he had the ball in his hands he gave it up almost immediately. He's still an important part of this roster. Justin just needs to see the ball go through the hoop a couple times, and he will relax and get his mojo back.

3. I hope Carey is a permanent part of the rotation from here on out. He held his own defensively against Burns. Similar to Justin, he just needs to see the ball go through the hoop. Would love to see our guards drive and dish to Peter for an easy dunk to get him more relaxed offensively.

4. Fast breaks. I've never seen anything like this in my life. It's bizarre how we can seem to pull off this fundamental aspect of basketball.

1. there were nice plays from the post by maliq, benny, bell starling

this team should use the post waaay more imo

just cuz you dont have a 7foot center doesnt mean you cannot use the post!

2,3. yeah taylor and carey would beneift from scoring a bit, if they could. judah kinda just gets tunnel vision for stretches of games and just decides hes gonna shoot no matter what...and it is less efficient than team basketball, mostly, esp against good defenses...at this point, i dont think red can do much to change it.

 

[CardiacCuse]

I think Red's thought on not playing Bell much in the second half after getting a big lead is that he wanted to focus on defense, rebounding, not turning the ball over, getting to the rim for 2s and fouls, and not chucking up 3s that could result in run outs on the other end for 5-6 point swings in the course of a few seconds. They only shot 1-2 threes in the last 10-15 minutes of the game. It seemed intentional. I think that's why Copeland played over Bell.

yeah it was intentional

and was the reason the margin of victory wasnt much higher

i think in light of how the ranking systems work...the decision making should be to try to go for blowouts instead of increasing the chances of a win that is already in the bag.

the slowdown, defensive lineup is very inefficient on offense, which hurts the team;s rankings

 

[rrlbees]

I think Red's thought on not playing Bell much in the second half after getting a big lead is that he wanted to focus on defense, rebounding, not turning the ball over, getting to the rim for 2s and fouls, and not chucking up 3s that could result in run outs on the other end for 5-6 point swings in the course of a few seconds. They only shot 1-2 threes in the last 10-15 minutes of the game. It seemed intentional. I think that's why Copeland played over Bell.

Bell was fine on defense last night. Bell didn’t have a turnover. NCSt scored 30 points the last 10 minutes. I still can’t figure out sitting Bell the last 13 minutes.

 

[atlanticuse]

Bell was fine on defense last night. Bell didn’t have a turnover. NCSt scored 30 points the last 10 minutes. I still can’t figure out sitting Bell the last 13 minutes.

they beat us 29-22 to end the game...

 

[tptcuse]

I think Red's thought on not playing Bell much in the second half after getting a big lead is that he wanted to focus on defense, rebounding, not turning the ball over, getting to the rim for 2s and fouls, and not chucking up 3s that could result in run outs on the other end for 5-6 point swings in the course of a few seconds. They only shot 1-2 threes in the last 10-15 minutes of the game. It seemed intentional. I think that's why Copeland played over Bell.

I think this is the answer. Red basically said that in his presser.

 

[CardiacCuse]

I think this is the answer. Red basically said that in his presser.

it is. but since bell was doing well in all of those aspects in the NC state, it would make sense to reward him with playing time...instead of just "going through the preconceived motions"

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

and we had a big lead.
If Syracuse fans were a thing when the French made a gift of the Statue of Liberty, they all would have found some inconsequential thing to bitch about.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

they beat us 29-22 to end the game...

So what. If you subtract this scores from the final score, you will see how much we won the rest of the game by.
The foe in the second half was the clock, not NC state

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

if bell is playing great, he needs to be in there

red cant just get tunnel vision and pre-decide his rotations before the game


needs to reward the hot player with more minutes

bell was BALLING

You should get a team and coach it.
I have seen nothing that suggests Red’s minutes are pre-ordained. Very much situational, especially in the 2nd half.