Observations

[CorduroyG]

Mintz - me first player. Talented but not a winning player. Hey judah, when your team is down by 11 and you make a shot, that aint the time to stare down the opponent.

Starling - a 2 guard who cant shoot. Not ideal.

Mcleod - literally did not belong on the same court as duke. He should not be starting unless we’re playing Cupcake University

Taylor - you know how in football they talk about wide receivers creating seperation? Well taylor creates ZERO seperation. No matter what he did with the ball, a duke defender was as close to him as the close talker from seinfeld.

Bell - he makes the same mistakes i made playing ball in 5th grade. By the 6th grade i learned not to leave my feet with the ball and have no idea what to do with it and chuck it outside to a covered teammate. Unfortunately hes the only guy i have any confidence could hit a couple 3s in a row so we need him.

Copeland - if michael jordan and magic johnson had a kid he thinks it would be him. Unfortunately hes not. Stop with the flashy passes and 360 layups and play smart and youll be great.

Brown - always in the right place at the right time. Winning player. Knows his game, knows his role, and plays it well.

Williams - i like his game. He needs to play more and just hope everything clicks for him and he can be more consistent. We need him.

Overall its a more talented and athletic team than recent years, but frustrating and dumb as hell. And cant shoot, which will ultimately be our downfall. I think the ceiling for this is beiny squarely on the bubble in march.

 

[tbonezone]

Unfortunately hes the only guy i have any confidence could hit a couple 3s in a row so we need him.

bell is currently 43rd in the ACC in 3pt% (.353).

 

[OrangeFoo]

Autry bet heavily on Starling, who I think was the number one ranked portal player. Still a work in progress, but if the team is going to make the tournament Starling needs to live up to his prospect profile.

Autry also bet on Westry, another highly rated portal guy, and he got hurt.

Autry bet on Benny, Mintz making significant improvements to their game and I would say they are also works in progress.

I don’t think Bell/Taylor were intended starters.

Losing Edwards was the final kick to the crotch Autry couldn’t overcome,

From a roster construction perspective I don’t see any huge mistakes from a coaching perspective. Sometimes injuries happen and players don’t progress.

I am curious what changes Autry makes moving forward… this team can beat anyone on their schedule outside of UNC or Duke or lose to any of them.

I would move Cuffe to the starting lineup but we would get destroyed on the boards. Not a lot of answers to be honest.

 

[tbonezone]

I thought the press was pretty effective in bottling up dook in the back court. slap it on every once in a while and not just when you're in dire straits. also we made just 4 treys (4-16) and 2 of those were by copeland. the player i said in maui we should bench immediately (17.6%) if he takes another. go figure.

 

[SUFan44]

Agree completely with OP. Mintz is not a winning player. Talented, no question. But It's all about him.

I think this is what some feared when he came back - that he'd be auditioning for the league, rather than playing to help Syracuse win.

I would actually put Copeland in this same boat, but in a different way. Every single error he made last night was because of someone else. He complained about someone not being ready for a pass, that had a expected completion percentage of about 20%.

He has improved, and he is effective - and I am not suggesting he is a losing player in the same way Mintz is. But his attitude and "it's everyone else's fault and it isn't me" - that stuff doesn't fly with me.

 

[SU91]

Patience is the only word I can think of. All of these players are limited. I’m not in the camp that they’ll all get magically better with time. I think they’re all pretty much what they’ve shown so far.

So, that means we can win some games. Maybe even make it to the bubble if we play hard. But I think Red is at least two years out with his vision unless we pull some portal rabbits out of the hat. In the meantime, must recruit his butt off to overturn the roster.

 

[Jeremy L.]

Autry bet heavily on Starling, who I think was the number one ranked portal player. Still a work in progress, but if the team is going to make the tournament Starling needs to live up to his prospect profile.

Autry also bet on Westry, another highly rated portal guy, and he got hurt.

Autry bet on Benny, Mintz making significant improvements to their game and I would say they are also works in progress.

I don’t think Bell/Taylor were intended starters.

Losing Edwards was the final kick to the crotch Autry couldn’t overcome,

From a roster construction perspective I don’t see any huge mistakes from a coaching perspective. Sometimes injuries happen and players don’t progress.

I am curious what changes Autry makes moving forward… this team can beat anyone on their schedule outside of UNC or Duke or lose to any of them.

I would move Cuffe to the starting lineup but we would get destroyed on the boards. Not a lot of answers to be honest.

FWIW - the top transfer was Hunter Dickinson, but Starling was the top guy at the time he committed to Cuse

 

[Cstate]

This was from 5 days ago……

 

[Red Holzman]

Apparent improving coherence vs Pitt was reversed vs Duke-
No leader, and also concerned about the frequent theatrical displays of exasperation with teammates following turnovers and defensive lapses. That's cancer in a team sport.
Still a work in progress to become a team -there's potential if they have the character to do that.

 

[Dcuse]

Agree completely with OP. Mintz is not a winning player. Talented, no question. But It's all about him.

I think this is what some feared when he came back - that he'd be auditioning for the league, rather than playing to help Syracuse win.

I would actually put Copeland in this same boat, but in a different way. Every single error he made last night was because of someone else. He complained about someone not being ready for a pass, that had a expected completion percentage of about 20%.

He has improved, and he is effective - and I am not suggesting he is a losing player in the same way Mintz is. But his attitude and "it's everyone else's fault and it isn't me" - that stuff doesn't fly with me.

Can't agree on Copeland at all. He almost always has tapped his chest as " my fault" when he turns it over. He's always the guy picking everybody else up also, whether on the bench or in the game so your it's everyone else's fault comment just isn't accurate.

 

[DCUNITED13]

I think this is a work in process. On Jan 1 we were a B+ team. Slightly ahead of where we were expected to be.

We have the following positives:

• Bench that can score and/or change the game favorably.
• Improving Defense (from beginning of season and certainly last year)
• Benny Williams contributing and playing with positive results
• Better rebounding (we outrebounded Dook!!!!)

We have the following negatives:

• Dependable scoring for starting forwards
• Consistent shooting from 3 point range to open driving lanes

If we continue to grow with our positives and get our starting forwards to score and hit the 3 pointer, we will be a #6 Seed in the NCAA's (potentially a top 25 team).

I like and liked what I was seeing against Duke for 25 minutes. We could have been up by 5-8 pts at the half had we not rushed and stupidly turned the ball over. Lots of positives, but we need the 3 pt. shooting to start falling. If that does not happen we are in the First 4, a bubble team. Goal is to make NCAA's and right now what I see is we are on track to get there. Lets see what rest of January brings.

Go CUSE.

 

[two3zone]

Patience is the only word I can think of. All of these players are limited. I’m not in the camp that they’ll all get magically better with time. I think they’re all pretty much what they’ve shown so far.

So, that means we can win some games. Maybe even make it to the bubble if we play hard. But I think Red is at least two years out with his vision unless we pull some portal rabbits out of the hat. In the meantime, must recruit his butt off to overturn the roster.

Don’t want to agree but you’re 100% spot on.

 

[two3zone]

This was from 5 days ago……

I wonder if McLeod retweet this with an “lol” feeling snubbed like he did not being named one of the top 20 centers.

 

[SUalldway]

Agree completely with OP. Mintz is not a winning player. Talented, no question. But It's all about him.

I think this is what some feared when he came back - that he'd be auditioning for the league, rather than playing to help Syracuse win.

I would actually put Copeland in this same boat, but in a different way. Every single error he made last night was because of someone else. He complained about someone not being ready for a pass, that had a expected completion percentage of about 20%.

He has improved, and he is effective - and I am not suggesting he is a losing player in the same way Mintz is. But his attitude and "it's everyone else's fault and it isn't me" - that stuff doesn't fly with me.

I did enjoy the passes Copeland made to Brown that resulted in dunks!

 

[orangemass]

I did enjoy the passes Copeland made to Drown that resulted in dunks!

New nickname

 

[Newhouser]

Autry bet heavily on Starling, who I think was the number one ranked portal player. Still a work in progress, but if the team is going to make the tournament Starling needs to live up to his prospect profile.

Autry also bet on Westry, another highly rated portal guy, and he got hurt.

Autry bet on Benny, Mintz making significant improvements to their game and I would say they are also works in progress.

I don’t think Bell/Taylor were intended starters.

Losing Edwards was the final kick to the crotch Autry couldn’t overcome,

From a roster construction perspective I don’t see any huge mistakes from a coaching perspective. Sometimes injuries happen and players don’t progress.

I am curious what changes Autry makes moving forward… this team can beat anyone on their schedule outside of UNC or Duke or lose to any of them.

I would move Cuffe to the starting lineup but we would get destroyed on the boards. Not a lot of answers to be honest.

JJ being just another guy is not helping but I agree in that I too don't blame the roster construction on Red. The coaching is going to impact games this year because our winning or losing margin is razor thin. Red will have an opportunity this year to show some skills, let's hope he has them ( I think he does).

 

[Newhouser]

Apparent improving coherence vs Pitt was reversed vs Duke-
No leader, and also concerned about the frequent theatrical displays of exasperation with teammates following turnovers and defensive lapses. That's cancer in a team sport.
Still a work in progress to become a team -there's potential if they have the character to do that.

the theatrical expressions towards teammates was more visible last night - not sure if I've missed it the other games but deflecting blame was on high last night.

 

[Chip]

I'd get rid of this de facto starting lineup, and just go with Judah, JJ, Q, Benny, Brown to start games. Let them continue to build chemistry.

MacLeod, Taylor and Bell can come off the bench, and hopefully have a different mentality when they need to rescue bad Q or bad Benny (or Brown in foul trouble), instead of the pressure of starting.

It should be good enough to win games against much of this ACC. We're still going to lose to the better road teams, and those games will probably get ugly for stretches.

 

[Brooky03]

I’ve noticed last year and this year that teams have been much more willing/likely to openly taunt and trash talk our guys. There seems to be more bad blood than I’ve recalled from prior years.

Now, this could certainly just be perception. When we were good, maybe we talked trash and got away with it because we backed it up. But, if that were the case, I feel like I would have noticed this stuff sooner. It feels like Mintz and maybe some other guys like to talk a game that they don’t back up. Putting fuel on a fire without so much as a bucket of water nearby.

 

[SUalldway]

New nickname

fixed

 

[sufandu]

I don't know that I would say Mintz thinks it's all about him. I think it's more likely he has more confidence in himself to make the play than he has in others. Sometimes he's right (lots of missed layups off of good feeds last night). Sometimes he needs to learn how to set up guys better. In the past we would get to see him learn how to do that better. In today's world he won't be working on that in college because if he sticks around past his sophomore year he is suddenly no longer a good prospect. Therein lies the demise of college basketball,

 

[MikeSU02]

Mintz - me first player. Talented but not a winning player. Hey judah, when your team is down by 11 and you make a shot, that aint the time to stare down the opponent.

Starling - a 2 guard who cant shoot. Not ideal.

Mcleod - literally did not belong on the same court as duke. He should not be starting unless we’re playing Cupcake University

Taylor - you know how in football they talk about wide receivers creating seperation? Well taylor creates ZERO seperation. No matter what he did with the ball, a duke defender was as close to him as the close talker from seinfeld.

Bell - he makes the same mistakes i made playing ball in 5th grade. By the 6th grade i learned not to leave my feet with the ball and have no idea what to do with it and chuck it outside to a covered teammate. Unfortunately hes the only guy i have any confidence could hit a couple 3s in a row so we need him.

Copeland - if michael jordan and magic johnson had a kid he thinks it would be him. Unfortunately hes not. Stop with the flashy passes and 360 layups and play smart and youll be great.

Brown - always in the right place at the right time. Winning player. Knows his game, knows his role, and plays it well.

Williams - i like his game. He needs to play more and just hope everything clicks for him and he can be more consistent. We need him.

Overall its a more talented and athletic team than recent years, but frustrating and dumb as hell. And cant shoot, which will ultimately be our downfall. I think the ceiling for this is beiny squarely on the bubble in march.

We are toast without Judah. Toast. I get the frustration at times (please see my posts about his nba stuff), but he is our best player and definitely has the most pure talent.

I think he gets a bit of tunnel vision and his second-level decision-making has to get better... HOWEVER, when he starts a game with JJ, Bell, JT and NM... He, without question, has to be selfish. Has to be. When we get punched in the mouth, there is no one else to stand up (outside of Maliq being a good Robin to Batman).

NM was setting ghost screens, rolling to the pain, then setting up like we would pass him the ball like he was Embiid!

I hope JJ puts it together. I think he is still re-learning some stuff from his injuries.

But while Mintz may be frustrating, he has to me-first at this point.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Too often Mintz has guys wide open while he continues to dribble and he doesn’t get it to guys in spots they can do something with it. There was a play last night he tried to dribble through 3 guys and he had Copeland wide open. That’s just one example, but it happens multiple times a game.

 

[MikeSU02]

Too often Mintz has guys wide open while he continues to dribble and he doesn’t get it to guys in spots they can do something with it. There was a play last night he tried to dribble through 3 guys and he had Copeland wide open. That’s just one example, but it happens multiple times a game.

It does. But would you keep passing to some of the guys? I'm not trying to be a jerk, I'm being serious.

Again, Mintz has a lot to work on, no doubt.

But how many times are you going to pass it to Chris Bell?

 

[two3zone]

Too often Mintz has guys wide open while he continues to dribble and he doesn’t get it to guys in spots they can do something with it. There was a play last night he tried to dribble through 3 guys and he had Copeland wide open. That’s just one example, but it happens multiple times a game.

I don’t think he’s ever looked at how his pass may be passed to someone open ever. It’s what the best point guards do?