Not that this matters, but hard to fathom we're not a preseason Top 10 team

[Rocco]

We return everyone from a squad that made the Sweet 16 and nearly knocked off Duke to get to the Elite 8. In addition to that, we add much needed depth via freshmen and a transfer.

This defense will be an absolute nuisance to everyone (especially those outside of the ACC not used to the 2-3 zone). A lengthy, stretchy zone.

Offensively, we have some legit shooters and outright scorers. Veteran leadership will come in handy as the season grinds along.

I don't get it. Oh well, looking forward to seeing our boys in the Top 10 in no time. To hell with all of the non-believers.

This team has the potential to give Boeheim another one of these moments:

 

[OrlandoCuse]

A) Rankings early in the year don’t matter
B) Pre-season rankings especially don’t matter

 

[Rocco]

A) Rankings early in the year don’t matter
B) Pre-season rankings especially don’t matter

Agreed, but it's the *perception* of the voters. With my orange-colored glasses, it's hard to think 15 other teams are better suited to win more this year.

So, fug em.

 

[Orangezoo]

Add to that the pressure element we are working in is awesome. Maybe some of that time Pitino spent with Boeheim got him thinking.

 

[NineOneSeven]

We were the last team into the tournament

 

[OrlandoCuse]

We were the last team into the tournament

But we weren’t the first team to exit

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

We return everyone from a squad that made the Sweet 16 and nearly knocked off Duke to get to the Elite 8. In addition to that, we add much needed depth via freshmen and a transfer.

This defense will be an absolute nuisance to everyone (especially those outside of the ACC not used to the 2-3 zone). A lengthy, stretchy zone.

Offensively, we have some legit shooters and outright scorers. Veteran leadership will come in handy as the season grinds along.

I don't get it. Oh well, looking forward to seeing our boys in the Top 10 in no time. To hell with all of the non-believers.

This team has the potential to give Boeheim another one of these moments:

View attachment 143211

The returners had one good week.

 

[HOFCeluck]

We return everyone from a squad that made the Sweet 16 and nearly knocked off Duke to get to the Elite 8. In addition to that, we add much needed depth via freshmen and a transfer.

This defense will be an absolute nuisance to everyone (especially those outside of the ACC not used to the 2-3 zone). A lengthy, stretchy zone.

Offensively, we have some legit shooters and outright scorers. Veteran leadership will come in handy as the season grinds along.

I don't get it. Oh well, looking forward to seeing our boys in the Top 10 in no time. To hell with all of the non-believers.

This team has the potential to give Boeheim another one of these moments:

View attachment 143211

It’s like people just forget about the first four months of the season just to focus on the last week.

I mean our ranking is perfectly fine.

 

[SoBeCuse]

Still need to integrate the PGs. Haven’t played anybody. If we don’t have any or much post scoring again (probable) can we play or shoot like Villanova/GS? Can we zip the ball around? Enough quickness off the bounce? We’re tall but very light in the frontcourt. If the players don’t go get the ball well we’ll likely be rooted out of position for rebounds against certain teams. Even with Marek and Frank playing well we still scored in the 50s late in the season. Our ranking is fine but these are some minor concerns of mine.

 

[SBU72]

People are all over this team. Like the poster said, most seem to forget the first 4 months of the season last year. FH was a flawed pg. MD's best games by far were in the tourney. Top10 talk is based on Howard having steadier performances or Carey playing not like a freshmen, and MD playing like those last 2 weeks. He didn't even start in the preseason games. No, mid teens is about right.

 

[TacoTime75]

Add to that the pressure element we are working in is awesome. Maybe some of that time Pitino spent with Boeheim got him thinking.

This is exactly what I thought last night. Reminded me of the Russ Smith/Peyton Siva L’ville team that pressed seamlessly into a zone defense

 

[br801]

A) Rankings early in the year don’t matter
B) Pre-season rankings especially don’t matter

Exactly. Just take care of business on the court and the rankings (and ultimately the seeding) will follow.

 

[Rocco]

But we weren’t the first team to exit

Amen. That's all that really matters. We proved we could compete with really good teams. Just took a while to figure it out. My OP remains firm.

 

[newmexicuse]

we have top ten talent, maybe even ff talent.

it takes time to gel and find the right roles for everybody. starting out w no pgs may lead to an unexpected early season loss. as long as everybody is back and healthy by conference time that is what will matter.

i always love when we are underrated and pull off upsets.

 

[Cusefan0307]

KenPom has us 8.

 

[Townie72]

"Optimism is the feeling you have before you understand the problem".

Let's at least see how we do against reasonably good tams before we start the Final Four talk.

 

[Cusefan0307]

"Optimism is the feeling you have before you understand the problem".

Let's at least see how we do against reasonably good tams before we start the Final Four talk.

Canned response that can be used for every team in the country.

 

[Townie72]

People are all over this team. Like the poster said, most seem to forget the first 4 months of the season last year. FH was a flawed pg. MD's best games by far were in the tourney. Top10 talk is based on Howard having steadier performances or Carey playing not like a freshmen, and MD playing like those last 2 weeks. He didn't even start in the preseason games. No, mid teens is about right.

I think of an 18 handicap golfer who gets two pars and a birdie on the last three holes.

Based on this he's projecting a 69 for the next day's score.

 

[Townie72]

Canned response that can be used for every team in the country.

Exactly. It's way, way., way too early to tell.

 

[Cuseroc]

The 2003 NC team wasnt ranked until late February, I believe, and only lost 5 games the entire season. Im not worried about SU being highly ranked at this point. It will come soon enough.

 

[SUSScuse]

People are all over this team. Like the poster said, most seem to forget the first 4 months of the season last year. FH was a flawed pg. MD's best games by far were in the tourney. Top10 talk is based on Howard having steadier performances or Carey playing not like a freshmen, and MD playing like those last 2 weeks. He didn't even start in the preseason games. No, mid teens is about right.

I don't think this is fair to Frank. You should re watch some of the games. IMHO Frank Howard was the best player on the court and kept us in or close many games. No disrespect to TB although he was double teamed most of the time,

 

[SBU72]

I have rewatched some games. At times he was the best and at others not so much. Inconsistent. Also lazy at times. (not the exactly the right term but the best I can think of.) Again, he has to be steadier to make the team top 10.

 

[Sherman20]

It’s like people just forget about the first four months of the season just to focus on the last week.

I mean our ranking is perfectly fine.

No we didn’t forget. I always felt we were a few baskets or one more healthy player away from winning another 2-3 games in the ACC regular season (ND at home, Florida State on the road, Wake on the road). We beat Clemson at home to end the season and played well in the ACC tourney against Wake. if we didn’t have the bad matchup against Carolina in the 2nd round, we could have gone farther in Brooklyn. We also played very well against Duke the second week of the tourney. So I’d argue we we had a pretty good 4-6 week stretch, including wins against Maimi, Louisville, and Clemson in Feb, to end the season. We were simply short handed and didn’t have any depth. Now we have serious depth AND experience.

 

[Sherman20]

"Optimism is the feeling you have before you understand the problem".

Let's at least see how we do against reasonably good tams before we start the Final Four talk.

don’t tell people about what their expectations should be.

 

[HOFCeluck]

No we didn’t forget. I always felt we were a few baskets or one more healthy player away from winning another 2-3 games in the ACC regular season (ND at home, Florida State on the road, Wake on the road). We beat Clemson at home to end the season and played well in the ACC tourney against Wake. if we didn’t have the bad matchup against Carolina in the 2nd round, we could have gone farther in Brooklyn. We also played very well against Duke. So I’d argue we we had a pretty good 4-6 week stretch, including wins against Maimi, Louisville, and Clemson in Feb, to end the season. We were simply short handed and didn’t have any depth. Now we have serious depth AND experience.

“we were a few baskets or one more healthy player away from winning another 2-3 games in the ACC”

We were also “a few baskets” from losing at home to Clemson too, you realize?

We also lost by fifteen to a pretty bad BC team.