Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="orangefan13, post: 1049063, member: 906"] It doesn't appear to me that JB recruits team lineups to press, play depth, or play m2m. Thats the key its not like lousiville who are going to press every year and recruit to. On the contrary we play a tough zone and if we are lucky any particular year can add extra things to our staples. I think our zone is almost always going to be pretty strong(especially to early feb), the key is getting a good offense around it. imo he recruits to play a sit back zone and has been doing it for the last 15 years. I don't see him leaving the staple he has had for years, because this one team had offensive efficiency issues. If he plans on that he will let us know. We usually 1.press for short periods almost only when behind, 2.play a deeper bench when they are ready and there isn't 6th and 7th men better on both sides of the ball then the 8th and 9th men. The competition was between gbinije roberson and buss for going 8 deep vs 7. Gbinije getting 15 mpg could have been moved up to 20-22 at both forward and guard if the coaches felt we needed that. 3. tweak the zone to its strengths and help mask its weakpoints year by year. For example with no on the ball defender and perimeter issues, our forwards played higher up alot this year similar to 2010-11 (Jacksons senior year). The 09-10, 11-12, and 12-13 teams were built differently with guys like dion, mcw and rautins up top, we didn't need to do that as much. Keita playing further up, a 7 foot shot blocking eraser like Fab, our freshmen centers not being fast enough to recover baseline, and strong rebounding on the wings are other examples. I think JB just rolls the ball out with his prospects and sees what he has every year, our zone should be looked at as a different sit back defensive staple. As Syracuse fans we can overlook the blessing of that easily while not overlooking something like lousivilles/kentuckys full court press, or dukes tough on the ball D. If we had another two titles in the last 25 years we probably wouldn't overlook that as much. I am in the strong opinion we lose games due to offense in the tournament 92% of the time compared to other teams that says something special about our defense. And that says even more considering the tempo issue and opponents hitting tough contested shots occasionally. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?