Not trying to be over dramatic here but

[JeremyCuse]

This is the same Wisconsin team that lost to Western Illinois, Georgetown (by 10), Milwaukee, and Marquette.

No one said there were good, it was a bad loss

 

[JeremyCuse]

It's symptomatic of a spoiled and entitled fan base experiencing what it's like to be a fan of 98% of the other programs out there.

Well Syracuse isn't like 98% of the other teams out there. They have been a fringe blue blood team pretty much the last 20 years. Trying to suddenly equate this team now with Purdue, or St. Johns, or Seton Hall or Miami isn't going to work.

 

[Orangeman]

A team struggling to shoot can always play D. Our D has been horrible all year.

They are in the wrong defense for this personnel grouping.

I can't imagine a coach in the world who would look at this team and select "2-3 zone"

I would say 2-3 zone with Coleman to protect him, M2M with him out.

Box out and rebound

 

[SoBeCuse]

This is a weird season and one you have to throw away, imo. We have so many players playing out of position (poor Lydon and G), no inside presence whatsoever, limited speed at the guard position, etc. Roberson and Joseph aren't really developing. The Diagne loss is near crippling to this current team. Ideally, a good PG, Mal at the 2, G at the 3, Lydon at 4, Diagne at 5. McCullough was going to be one-and-done healthy or injured. Roberson, Coleman, etc coming off the bench and we would be much better. This is also one of the most one-dimensional SU teams and teams in general I have seen. Even Creighton, VCU, Nova, etc. can get SOME points in the paint.

 

[RF2044]

Hopkins can definitely share some of the blame though.

People don't realize how great JB is and take him for granted.

I've had my position on this for several years now so I'm not over reacting from one loss, but this is an elite basketball job, the Syracuse admins would be crazy to hand over the keys to a coach in waiting. The job should be opened up to a national search and the best candidate hired. If it's Hop fine, but if it's someone else that's fine to.

Agree 100%. Nothing against Hop, who has been one of the top ACs in the nation over his tenure.

 

[Millhouse]

Hopkins can definitely share some of the blame though.

People don't realize how great JB is and take him for granted.

I've had my position on this for several years now so I'm not over reacting from one loss, but this is an elite basketball job, the Syracuse admins would be crazy to hand over the keys to a coach in waiting. The job should be opened up to a national search and the best candidate hired. If it's Hop fine, but if it's someone else that's fine to.

Boeheim gets to do whatever he wants for as long as he wants, he's earned it

But as soon as he's done, I want a new approach.

 

[br801]

Well Syracuse isn't like 98% of the other teams out there. They have been a fringe blue blood team pretty much the last 20 years. Trying to suddenly equate this team now with Purdue, or St. Johns, or Seton Hall or Miami isn't going to work.

Well even the true blue blood programs, however you want to define them, experience rough patches and down years. My point was that this would likely be the norm for most programs, and not viewed as a reason to climb out on a ledge.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Agree with most of that but the transitive property definitely works here. Were not talking about UNC losing to Northern Iowa without Page were talking about losing by double digits to Fordham and by about 50 to Vandy. St. Johns is awful but somehow yesterday we were worse. People don't realize just how bad that team really is. When you see some of their Big East scores this year I think people will get the picture.

Those teams beat St. Johns by so much because they play aggressive D, we do NOT.

Basketball is about matchups more than anything. We did not play to their weaknesses. We let them do what they wanted.

We play a passive style of defense. It's why we are susceptible to upsets because we don't force the actions, those teams did.

If we pressure that team from the start we win by 20 plus.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Those teams beat St. Johns by so much because they play aggressive D, we do NOT.

Basketball is about matchups more than anything. We did not play to their weaknesses. We let them do what they wanted.

We play a passive style of defense. It's why we are susceptible to upsets because we don't force the actions, those teams did.

If we pressure that team from the start we win by 20 plus.

I don't disagree but that wasn't last year St. Johns team we lost to yesterday, the current team would struggle to win 4- 5 games in the ACC and that's being generous. Passive defense or not that's a game Syracuse has to win, its a horrific loss.

 

[RF2044]

Those teams beat St. Johns by so much because they play aggressive D, we do NOT.

Basketball is about matchups more than anything. We did not play to their weaknesses. We let them do what they wanted.

We play a passive style of defense. It's why we are susceptible to upsets because we don't force the actions, those teams did.

If we pressure that team from the start we win by 20 plus.

Fine in theory. But this team we're fielding is probably the least suited to play pressure defense than any in the last 20 years. And we have the worst shot blocking that we've had in ages to anchor the press. So even if we pressured them, I'm not sure that the outcome would be as desireable as you claim.

 

[rrlbees]

We shot 29% from the 3 point line against Wisconsin. 35% overall. 55% from the FT line. And were outrebounded by 26. WITH JB coaching. Maybe the problem isn't coaching.

And I didn't see Hop doing anything differently than JB does. Same minutes for players, same substitution patterns, same high volume 3 point shooting, same zone defense, same extending of the zone when it was obvious it was SJ shooting day. Like you said too, Wisky did a lot of the same and that was with JB.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Fine in theory. But this team we're fielding is probably the least suited to play pressure defense than any in the last 20 years. And we have the worst shot blocking that we've had in ages to anchor the press. So even if we pressured them, I'm not sure that the outcome would be as desireable as you claim.

We wouldn't of needed to of block shots. They couldn't even get it out of the backcourt in the 2nd half when we finally applied pressure.

 

[RF2044]

We wouldn't of needed to of block shots. They couldn't even get it out of the backcourt in the 2nd half when we finally applied pressure.

They got sloppy nursing a huge lead. But c'mon.

 

[Cusefan0307]

They got sloppy nursing a huge lead. But c'mon.

Agree to Disagree. Hopkins even mentioned it in his presser. We had opportunities at the end we missed about 10 layups in 2 minutes.

 

[SUFan44]

And I didn't see Hop doing anything differently than JB does. Same minutes for players, same substitution patterns, same high volume 3 point shooting, same zone defense, same extending of the zone when it was obvious it was SJ shooting day. Like you said too, Wisky did a lot of the same and that was with JB.

Disagree with that. Richardson continued to chuck up bad shots and he continued to play. We can argue about the golden child all you want, but he was chucking up bad shots, too. Meanwhile, Gbinije and Lydon don't get a sniff because those two are busy doing their best Steph Curry imitations (and doing them poorly I might add).

Boeheim would have figured out a way to get guys shots, and tell the guy that is 0-for-10 from 3 to probably avoid taking his 11th.

 

[RF2044]

Agree to Disagree. Hopkins even mentioned it in his presser. We had opportunities at the end we missed about 10 layups in 2 minutes.

We sure did--we were stuck at 7 for about two minutes, and failed to cut into their lead. How many layups / threes did we miss down the stretch?

Actually, 7 was our hump that we couldn't get over the entire second half. I don't know how many times we cut it to 7 only to fail to score for long stretches to further cut into their lead. And then St. John's would hit a three and get a breakaway layup to respond, and we'd be back down 10, 11, or 12 in the blink of an eye.

 

[81South]

Those teams beat St. Johns by so much because they play aggressive D, we do NOT.

Basketball is about matchups more than anything. We did not play to their weaknesses. We let them do what they wanted.

We play a passive style of defense. It's why we are susceptible to upsets because we don't force the actions, those teams did.

If we pressure that team from the start we win by 20 plus.

ok, so does anyone think that the coaches didn't watch tape on St Johns before we played them? Obviously they did and obviously they put a game plan in place to try and win the freakin game. We stunk up the joint on Sunday...it sucks...but this is NOT Hop's team and lets face it he has to stick to the script while the old man sits in detention.

The only thing I am surprised about is Hop's demeanor on the sidelines. Given how he played I thought he would be much more animated throughout the game.

 

[FrancoPizza]

We shot 29% from the 3 point line against Wisconsin. 35% overall. 55% from the FT line. And were outrebounded by 26.

WITH JB coaching.

Maybe the problem isn't coaching.

Well if you're insinuating that it's a lack of talent - that's a cop-out. This is a roster of 3 and 4-star players with a couple McDs seeing significant PT. It's not Duke talent but it's not Colgate either. We're playing like Colgate.

I'm starting to think we need a total overhaul of both the offensive and defensive schemes that are being run here. We need coaches that are tacticians, who preach technique and fundamentals, spend a few minutes taking free throws seriously in practice, and can look in the mirror and recognize when something clearly isn't working. I can stand in front of a presser and read a cue card that says, "uuhhhh, we need to make more shots". Where's my $2M paycheck?

 

[AlaskaSU]

We are an average team. How people didn't think this going in kind of blows my mind. Atlantis was fun, but if you thought we would keep up 50% shooting from 3...

AND...this is all with G playing like an all american and Lydon being a much better player than people anticipated.

I am more upset with silly substitutions and lack of any desire to change the status quo.

We are starting three, count them, 3, Mickey D's.

 

[Jasoncuse]

St. John's hit shots they normally miss or never take and we missed shots that we should hit. Just like Wisconsin.

That seems to be becoming a trend, though. Both those teams were getting any shot they wanted. Yeah, they probably hit them at a higher clip than normal, but open shots in rhythm are a lot easier to hit than contested shots. And other than G and Lydon, we aren't a good shooting team. Cooney and Malachi are volume shooters, not great shooters. It's no surprise when they have games like yesterday's, but it's somewhat unacceptable that they continue to get to fire up so many shots. Sometimes you have to sit a kid down and get shot selection through his head...

This isn't football where we get out-talented.

That's what makes it so much worse. We shouldn't, at least on paper, be losing to Wiscy or SJU by double digits.

 

[Jasoncuse]

This is a weird season and one you have to throw away, imo. We have so many players playing out of position (poor Lydon and G), no inside presence whatsoever, limited speed at the guard position, etc. Roberson and Joseph aren't really developing. The Diagne loss is near crippling to this current team. Ideally, a good PG, Mal at the 2, G at the 3, Lydon at 4, Diagne at 5. McCullough was going to be one-and-done healthy or injured. Roberson, Coleman, etc coming off the bench and we would be much better. This is also one of the most one-dimensional SU teams and teams in general I have seen. Even Creighton, VCU, Nova, etc. can get SOME points in the paint.

It's too bad Rak didn't have another year, as he'd be PERFECT with shooters surrounding him. With his interior D, we'd be much better too. Instead we're left with a kid in Coleman who isn't a fit in this style, nor very effective, and Lydon, who's more SF than C.

 

[Jasoncuse]

We are starting three, count them, 3, Mickey D's.

Coleman, Malachi and ? Coleman shouldn't have been a McD.

 

[retro44]

St. John's hit shots they normally miss or never take and we missed shots that we should hit. Just like Wisconsin.

The foul shooting thing is a joke however.

I want to see more Howard and a more aggressive Lydon.

This isn't football where we get out-talented.

I am beginning to think that Ray Charles is coaching this team to shoot foul shots in practice as this has been a multi-decades long problem. Boeheim years ago use to bring in a specialist whenever the team had problems on free throws. Now Boeheim is just too old and stubborn to change his ways now(zone)and just gave up on the free points. He's just basically telling the team you are on your own at the line.

 

[AlaskaSU]

Coleman, Malachi and ? Coleman shouldn't have been a McD.

Silent G

 

[Jasoncuse]

Silent G

G wasn't a Mickey D AA