General20
Basketball Maven
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There seemed to be an unusually large number of people on this board pissing their pants about the upcoming Oakland and Toledo games so I took some time to watch them play each other. I almost never watch mid-majors play and I only made it through about five minutes of that game. All I saw was two teams who had no chance at beating SU, so I turned it off.
With Oakland I saw a team that plays tough pressure D, but has no shot blocker to stop you once you beat your man off the dribble. On O, I saw a team that relies on two players shooting 3's for more than 60% of its offense … the kiss of death against Syracuse's zone is relying too much on one player, especially one who shoots a lot of 3s.
With Toledo I saw a team that just doesn't have the horses. They've got some okay basketball players, but they are not athletic enough to hang.
Oakland is missing one of their best players, and has a history of dominating their conference, so I am hopeful that they will pull together a really good season. Toledo not so much. I'd be surprised to see them in the NCAA tournament.
The game against Oakland went pretty much as expected. They played tough pressure D, we beat them off the dribble, we scored around the basket. When they had the ball we were all over the two players who average over 50 points a game combined, and the other three players looked lost against our zone. As a team, their zone offense was far worse than either Iona's (who in my opinion is the best team we've played so far) or Texas Southern's.
The one interesting wrinkle was the speed with which Oakland likes to play. Iona sped the game up against us with great success, and I predicted that SU had learned their lesson. About a minute into this game Oakland beat us down the court in transition for an easy basket causing Boeheim to call a time out. Sure enough that never happened again even though Oakland was looking to push the ball at every opportunity. The transition defense problem seems to be solved in record time.
If you want a take away from this game, I'd say its that most people were way too down on Syracuse going into this game, and its possible that many are too high on Syracuse now. Beating Oakland, even as easily as they did, was not much of an accomplishment.
I didn't get a chance to write anything after the Texas Southern game, but I thought it was a much more interesting and telling game, so I want to bring something up about our offense in that game. Imagine a situation where Syracuse can't get out and run in transition and they have to score in half court sets, against a zone with a 7'2 shot blocker who is the best combination of height, length, and vertical leap we will see all season, and Battle is on the bench with foul trouble. That was pretty much everybody's nightmare situation after the first exhibition game, but when Syracuse faced it against Texas Southern they actually flourished, and started to pull away. I've heard many people say they don't know where the points are going to come from with this year's SU team, and that opinion seems to stem from the first ten minutes of the first exhibition game, where they missed every shot they took (literally). But that clearly wasn't an accurate representation of this team, and I actually think they are pretty good offensively, or will be, once Gino Thorpe gets healthy.
Gino was a big reason SU thrived in the half court without Battle against Texas Southern. I think that when he is healthy we will see a line up of Howard, Thorpe, Battle, Brissett, and a center frequently, and that looks like a very good offensive line up to me. I've always said that college championships are won on the backs of guards who can both hit threes and get to the basket and score. This line up has 3 of them, and a fourth in Brissett who is not a guard but has all the requisite skills. I also like the idea of both Thorpe and Battle being there to take pressure off Howard. This is not a bad defensive line up either, I ultimately think Battle will prove to be a better rebounder than Dolezaj.
The one cause for worry against Oakland was that we went through a stretch early in the second half where we missed a bunch of bunnies around the basket, despite the fact that they didn't have much in the way of rim protectors. If we can find a way to convert around the basket against bigger more athletic teams, then this will be a very successful SU team.
We don't know exactly how good they are going to be, of course, but I think we can safely say they will be good. I know last year's team looked good early and completely folded against stiffer competition, but in Boeheim's 40+ years coaching that never happened in any other season (most every team he's had has been good, and the few bad teams were suppose to be bad from the get go). What we saw last year was a fluke. Chukwu, Roberson, Howard all went through worst-case-scenario seasons and Lydon wasn't far off considering he had first round NBA talent. That wont happen again this year. We've got a young team, so there are likely to be some bumps in the road, but we've got a good team. This isnt fools gold.
Isn't funny how this freshman class was probably the most complained about freshman class of all time (people are still complaining about Green) and it has turned out to be one of the better ones we've had in a while. It reminds me of the Waiters, Melo, Fair, Keita class. I remember watching those guys as freshman and thinking that Boeheim hit a home run with every single one of them. This class will not be as good as that class, but I feel much the same way where I like every player a lot.
Here are some individual player breakdowns:
Howard: On the good side, he is playing phenomenal defense right now. Better than anybody could have hoped for. He's also shooting well, and making a variety of floaters around the basket. He's got a decent amount of assists but he should have way more the way he is passing. He's getting guys great looks around the basket that they are missing too often. On the bad side he has made too many bad turnovers and seems to struggle finishing through contact. Howard is much more good than bad right now, and is a guy you've got to have on the floor, but he is still a mixture of good and bad. Lets hope the good outweighs the bad moving forward.
Battle: I'm a fan so its my right and my pleasure to get a little hyperbolic on occasion, but this guy looks like one of the best players to ever put on a Syracuse uniform. The poor guy guarding him, Nunn, is one of the best defenders Battle will see all season, and a legit P5 player who would be playing for Illinois right now if he didn't get into trouble off the court. Battle put up an easy 25 points against him, and looked like he could have scored 50 had he wanted to. Kansas and Maryland, for example, don't have a defender as good as Nunn to put on Battle. It just doesn't look like anybody is going to be able to stop him all year long. Its going to take several people which will leave others open to flourish.
Brissett: He missed a few free throws early and a few lay ups late, but that should not distract from what was a great performance. Brissett was all over the court playing great D, grabbing tough rebounds, and getting back in transition. He was everything we needed him to be, despite missing some shots. The bad shooting, I believe, is just a phase that will turn around quickly. The good play, D, hustle, and rebounding should be around for the long haul. I was very impressed with him in this game.
Moyer: The question I think everybody is asking without actually articulating it is, is Moyer a real starter who will contribute in a major way all year, or is he a token starter the way Triche, Melo, and Christmas were as freshmen? I don't know the answer, but I recommend reserving judgment until we play Kansas. Moyer is going to be a rebounder for us. That will be his job. We haven't needed a rebounder yet, but Kansas is going to have a really tough time scoring against our D, and if you were going to sculpt a player out of marble who would hurt us by pushing around our undersized bigs, that marble player would come out looking almost exactly like Kansas's center Azubukie. Moyer's ability to bang down low and grab tough rebounds may be the difference between a W and a L against Kansas. If its not, we probably won't see much of him all year. I can certainly picture an SU team where Brissett plays 30-35 minutes a game, Dolezaj plays 20-25 mpg, and Battle plays 20 mpg at forward. That wouldn't leave much room for Moyer.
Chukwu – Oakland was small and Chukwu was able to bully them. If we wanted to feed him the ball more he could have scored 20 or 30 in this game. It seems like it might be an easy thing to do, but its not. Chukwu certainly couldn't do it last year, and Christmas, Melo, Onuaku all tended to struggle against smaller quicker players. Add that to the fact that Chukwu also played very well against Texas Southern's 7'2 athletic P5 transfer big, and we've got the real thing on our hands. Maybe the best part of his performance that nobody is talking about is his stamina. That game was played at a very fast pace and he got very little rest, and he never slowed down or looked winded. Rare for a guy so big.
Thorpe – As soon as he got in the game he stole the ball and took off on a breakaway down the court. An Oakland player tripped and fell in his path causing him to jump earlier than he had intended. He came down funny, and hobbled a bit. He played for another minute or two but then sat for a LONG time, not playing again until garbage time. This guy clearly isn't healthy, and its frustrating because we need him to be the best team we can be. I'm dying to see a healthy Thorpe. Hopefully we won't have to wait long.
Washington – Looked very comfortable in the exhibitions and against Cornell, and has looked out of his depth since. He's not ready, and will not play much this year. He's a long term guy. I expect him to be very good for us his junior and senior seasons.
Dolezaj – He went into the game averaging 8.5 ppg, and got zero this game. He did a lot of little things to help us, of course, but I want to see him be more aggressive on offense and score more. I'll put this performance in the disappointing category, even though we all know he contributed in several ways.
Sidibe – This was the perfect game for him to get hurt because it allowed Chukwu to showcase his talents and build some confidence. It must be said that Sidibe was also playing quite well before the injury. Hopefully its nothing serious. We are going to need him soon.
With Oakland I saw a team that plays tough pressure D, but has no shot blocker to stop you once you beat your man off the dribble. On O, I saw a team that relies on two players shooting 3's for more than 60% of its offense … the kiss of death against Syracuse's zone is relying too much on one player, especially one who shoots a lot of 3s.
With Toledo I saw a team that just doesn't have the horses. They've got some okay basketball players, but they are not athletic enough to hang.
Oakland is missing one of their best players, and has a history of dominating their conference, so I am hopeful that they will pull together a really good season. Toledo not so much. I'd be surprised to see them in the NCAA tournament.
The game against Oakland went pretty much as expected. They played tough pressure D, we beat them off the dribble, we scored around the basket. When they had the ball we were all over the two players who average over 50 points a game combined, and the other three players looked lost against our zone. As a team, their zone offense was far worse than either Iona's (who in my opinion is the best team we've played so far) or Texas Southern's.
The one interesting wrinkle was the speed with which Oakland likes to play. Iona sped the game up against us with great success, and I predicted that SU had learned their lesson. About a minute into this game Oakland beat us down the court in transition for an easy basket causing Boeheim to call a time out. Sure enough that never happened again even though Oakland was looking to push the ball at every opportunity. The transition defense problem seems to be solved in record time.
If you want a take away from this game, I'd say its that most people were way too down on Syracuse going into this game, and its possible that many are too high on Syracuse now. Beating Oakland, even as easily as they did, was not much of an accomplishment.
I didn't get a chance to write anything after the Texas Southern game, but I thought it was a much more interesting and telling game, so I want to bring something up about our offense in that game. Imagine a situation where Syracuse can't get out and run in transition and they have to score in half court sets, against a zone with a 7'2 shot blocker who is the best combination of height, length, and vertical leap we will see all season, and Battle is on the bench with foul trouble. That was pretty much everybody's nightmare situation after the first exhibition game, but when Syracuse faced it against Texas Southern they actually flourished, and started to pull away. I've heard many people say they don't know where the points are going to come from with this year's SU team, and that opinion seems to stem from the first ten minutes of the first exhibition game, where they missed every shot they took (literally). But that clearly wasn't an accurate representation of this team, and I actually think they are pretty good offensively, or will be, once Gino Thorpe gets healthy.
Gino was a big reason SU thrived in the half court without Battle against Texas Southern. I think that when he is healthy we will see a line up of Howard, Thorpe, Battle, Brissett, and a center frequently, and that looks like a very good offensive line up to me. I've always said that college championships are won on the backs of guards who can both hit threes and get to the basket and score. This line up has 3 of them, and a fourth in Brissett who is not a guard but has all the requisite skills. I also like the idea of both Thorpe and Battle being there to take pressure off Howard. This is not a bad defensive line up either, I ultimately think Battle will prove to be a better rebounder than Dolezaj.
The one cause for worry against Oakland was that we went through a stretch early in the second half where we missed a bunch of bunnies around the basket, despite the fact that they didn't have much in the way of rim protectors. If we can find a way to convert around the basket against bigger more athletic teams, then this will be a very successful SU team.
We don't know exactly how good they are going to be, of course, but I think we can safely say they will be good. I know last year's team looked good early and completely folded against stiffer competition, but in Boeheim's 40+ years coaching that never happened in any other season (most every team he's had has been good, and the few bad teams were suppose to be bad from the get go). What we saw last year was a fluke. Chukwu, Roberson, Howard all went through worst-case-scenario seasons and Lydon wasn't far off considering he had first round NBA talent. That wont happen again this year. We've got a young team, so there are likely to be some bumps in the road, but we've got a good team. This isnt fools gold.
Isn't funny how this freshman class was probably the most complained about freshman class of all time (people are still complaining about Green) and it has turned out to be one of the better ones we've had in a while. It reminds me of the Waiters, Melo, Fair, Keita class. I remember watching those guys as freshman and thinking that Boeheim hit a home run with every single one of them. This class will not be as good as that class, but I feel much the same way where I like every player a lot.
Here are some individual player breakdowns:
Howard: On the good side, he is playing phenomenal defense right now. Better than anybody could have hoped for. He's also shooting well, and making a variety of floaters around the basket. He's got a decent amount of assists but he should have way more the way he is passing. He's getting guys great looks around the basket that they are missing too often. On the bad side he has made too many bad turnovers and seems to struggle finishing through contact. Howard is much more good than bad right now, and is a guy you've got to have on the floor, but he is still a mixture of good and bad. Lets hope the good outweighs the bad moving forward.
Battle: I'm a fan so its my right and my pleasure to get a little hyperbolic on occasion, but this guy looks like one of the best players to ever put on a Syracuse uniform. The poor guy guarding him, Nunn, is one of the best defenders Battle will see all season, and a legit P5 player who would be playing for Illinois right now if he didn't get into trouble off the court. Battle put up an easy 25 points against him, and looked like he could have scored 50 had he wanted to. Kansas and Maryland, for example, don't have a defender as good as Nunn to put on Battle. It just doesn't look like anybody is going to be able to stop him all year long. Its going to take several people which will leave others open to flourish.
Brissett: He missed a few free throws early and a few lay ups late, but that should not distract from what was a great performance. Brissett was all over the court playing great D, grabbing tough rebounds, and getting back in transition. He was everything we needed him to be, despite missing some shots. The bad shooting, I believe, is just a phase that will turn around quickly. The good play, D, hustle, and rebounding should be around for the long haul. I was very impressed with him in this game.
Moyer: The question I think everybody is asking without actually articulating it is, is Moyer a real starter who will contribute in a major way all year, or is he a token starter the way Triche, Melo, and Christmas were as freshmen? I don't know the answer, but I recommend reserving judgment until we play Kansas. Moyer is going to be a rebounder for us. That will be his job. We haven't needed a rebounder yet, but Kansas is going to have a really tough time scoring against our D, and if you were going to sculpt a player out of marble who would hurt us by pushing around our undersized bigs, that marble player would come out looking almost exactly like Kansas's center Azubukie. Moyer's ability to bang down low and grab tough rebounds may be the difference between a W and a L against Kansas. If its not, we probably won't see much of him all year. I can certainly picture an SU team where Brissett plays 30-35 minutes a game, Dolezaj plays 20-25 mpg, and Battle plays 20 mpg at forward. That wouldn't leave much room for Moyer.
Chukwu – Oakland was small and Chukwu was able to bully them. If we wanted to feed him the ball more he could have scored 20 or 30 in this game. It seems like it might be an easy thing to do, but its not. Chukwu certainly couldn't do it last year, and Christmas, Melo, Onuaku all tended to struggle against smaller quicker players. Add that to the fact that Chukwu also played very well against Texas Southern's 7'2 athletic P5 transfer big, and we've got the real thing on our hands. Maybe the best part of his performance that nobody is talking about is his stamina. That game was played at a very fast pace and he got very little rest, and he never slowed down or looked winded. Rare for a guy so big.
Thorpe – As soon as he got in the game he stole the ball and took off on a breakaway down the court. An Oakland player tripped and fell in his path causing him to jump earlier than he had intended. He came down funny, and hobbled a bit. He played for another minute or two but then sat for a LONG time, not playing again until garbage time. This guy clearly isn't healthy, and its frustrating because we need him to be the best team we can be. I'm dying to see a healthy Thorpe. Hopefully we won't have to wait long.
Washington – Looked very comfortable in the exhibitions and against Cornell, and has looked out of his depth since. He's not ready, and will not play much this year. He's a long term guy. I expect him to be very good for us his junior and senior seasons.
Dolezaj – He went into the game averaging 8.5 ppg, and got zero this game. He did a lot of little things to help us, of course, but I want to see him be more aggressive on offense and score more. I'll put this performance in the disappointing category, even though we all know he contributed in several ways.
Sidibe – This was the perfect game for him to get hurt because it allowed Chukwu to showcase his talents and build some confidence. It must be said that Sidibe was also playing quite well before the injury. Hopefully its nothing serious. We are going to need him soon.
