Never seen a decent team so bad at starting and finishing

[STEVEHOLT]

Its the same crap game after game. They come out flat each half. They pick it up and look like a good team for long stretches. And then when its closing time, they forget how to play. There's just no excuse for it. Today we dominated miami for all but the beginning of the halves and the end. It's the same old story over and over. This is what happens when you have no leadership.

Rak , God bless him as well as he is playing, has TO STOP WHINING everytime he doesnt get a call or one of his teammates makes a real or perceived mistake. Today he had two consecutive horrid turnovers on passes about as accurate as Geno Smiths and he was trying to mean mug the recipients. He needs to stop that crap.

 

[Ghost]

I thought Rak settled down a bit with the complaining tonight - but do agree he has gotten a tad over the top with that. In his defense he is getting killed at times inside without calls flowing in his direction.

We did seem to get a spark in each half when Patterson came in - he doesn't do much shooting, but he seems to be the only player who has a firm grasp on what a pick-n-roll is supposed to be. I'll give him all the credit in the world for that. He also plays far better defense than Joseph.

I think G needs to step up as that third option - teams come out of the gate relatively focused on stopping two people, Cooney and Rak. We need that third scoring option to start strong. Roberson did a good job in the first half stepping up early during our scoring drought, but G just cannot disappear for such long stretches as he is quite prone to doing. He is the one person who has a pretty diverse skill set and should be able to create for himself and others when the defense is doing a serviceable job stopping options A & B (or A & B are just plain missing shots).

It is bad though - slow starts, ugly finishes...that does appear to be our specialty.

 

[teamco]

That's because We are NOT really a decent team. We have too many issues. Can we play with anybody? Maybe the middle quality programs, but not against the level we have come to see ourselves belonging to over the past few years. With us playing our A game and any of the top ten teams playing their average game we are still probably toast. Kentucky, Duke, Wisconsin, Louisville etc playing well against us playing well is not even a contest. We are PAPER THIN; too INEXPERIENCED . . . MISS way, too many [especially critical late] FOUL SHOTS . . . TURN OVER the BALL too much . . . LACK LEADERSHIP . . . often LOOK TENTATIVE, too often SLOPPY, or even SCARED.

This is not meant to denigrate the team or diminish the fact that they are doing the best with what they have under unexpected circumstances- Ennis and Grant leaving thus throwing Joseph in before he is ready, CMac going down, even Coleman's situation. My point is, if you took this team and put say Colgate jerseys on them, you would sneer at "that" team going anywhere post-season. Just associating this team with the Syracuse "brand" gives it a benefit of a doubt in our minds that it otherwise wouldn't get.

I hope anyone reading this gets my point and doesn't misconstrue it as an attack piece. I am trying to be realistic in assessing our team. I love my Cuse. I will be rooting my Orange ass off on Monday night (and the rest of the season)- Grey Goose and Cranberry juice beverage in hand. I just don't see how six guys, some critically inexperienced, who run hot and cold on offense, defense and at the line, can be expected to put together enough wins going into the teeth of the schedule, in light of how they did during the weaker part of the schedule, to get into the tourney. Buckle up my friends, we are about to run into some heavy chop over the next few weeks. LGO!