Offense Rules

[Orangezoo]

You can teach the kids to play better D but offensive firepower wins championships. Be it even having one guy who is a bigtime shot maker night in and night out. We were robbed due to the injury of AO and Fab being lazy. In 03 we had it. Talented athletes who cant score are good at times to help grind out wins but they arent taking you all the way. It hurts that Trevor isnt there yet and Ennis is gone but outside of CJ we have athletes who do a lot minus the ultimate key.. scoring.

Hopefully the frosh come back more polished offensively and joseph and cmac are nice surprises. Seems like going for lydon and richardson should help too and re stock the cabinet with more scoring.

 

[iommi]

Good post. One quibble: Joseph playing well would not be a surprise. The kid is an explosive talent and will be a lot of fun to watch. There will be growing pains, as he's not as polished as Ennis but he will be a lot better in transition from day one.

 

[jdubs30]

UConn and Wisconsin won this weekend on defense; but like you said, they had that 1 guy who could get a bucket when you absolutely needed it.

Visions of James and our shooting struggling vs. Michigan in the FF last year still haunt me.

 

[Orangezoo]

Good post. One quibble: Joseph playing well would not be a surprise. The kid is an explosive talent and will be a lot of fun to watch. There will be growing pains, as he's not as polished as Ennis but he will be a lot better in transition from day one.

Oh I am sky high on joseph my comment was more in line with just having things fall in line with expectations. I personally see a lot of kemba and jr/sr napier in him which excites me to have someone again who can be possible gamw breaker at guard on offense.

 

[iommi]

Oh I am sky high on joseph my comment was more in line with just having things fall in line with expectations. I personally see a lot of kemba and jr/sr napier in him which excites me to have someone again who can be possible gamw breaker at guard on offense.

Oh, okay. His shot is nowhere near Kemba's or Napier's but he does have the blow-by gear... And maybe just as underrated...a ton of confidence.

 

[Orangezoo]

UConn and Wisconsin won this weekend on defense; but like you said, they had that 1 guy who could get a bucket when you absolutely needed it.

Visions of James and our shooting struggling vs. Michigan in the FF last year still haunt me.

Indeed. And you need good defense as well I agree. With that said the true defensive natured teams were mostly either booted early or couldnt hang all the way. Florida is the exception but they have a dynamite offense to go with the D.

 

[CU44SE]

I was going to create a similar post. If this tournament tells me anything, its that you need an elite offense or an elite scorer to take you far in the tournament. Defense can only get you so far, everyone that you play deeper in the tournament has a good defense and there comes a time when you just need to make shots. Even though UConn and Wisconsin played great defense this weekend, they had guys go for 28 and 25 points. They had go to guys that couldnt be stopped.

 

[SoBeCuse]

How many points does SU score on these teams NOW? Not Nov when it doesn't matter. Now. Hypothetically. On Florida? Kentucky, Arizona, Wisconsin, even San Diego St.? Are you kidding me? Wouldn't be pretty. Lucky to get 45-50, imo.

 

[jdubs30]

How many points does SU score on these teams NOW? Not Nov when it doesn't matter. Now. Hypothetically. On Florida? Kentucky, Arizona, Wisconsin, even San Diego St.? Are you kidding me? Wouldn't be pretty. Lucky to get 45-50, imo.

lol we could barely crack 60 vs. BC, GaTech and NC State.

 

[Jasoncuse]

I've been hoping we recruit better shooters and scorers for years, especially these last few. This team has been and will continue to be painful to watch at times. JB's recruiting has been more about adding long athletes than offensive talents. I'll sacrifice an inch or two in the zone, or a bit of athleticism for actual scoring talent and offensive skills.

 

[Libero2]

I've been hoping we recruit better shooters and scorers for years, especially these last few. This team has been and will continue to be painful to watch at times. JB's recruiting has been more about adding long athletes than offensive talents. I'll sacrifice an inch or two in the zone, or a bit of athleticism for actual scoring talent and offensive skills.

I think the idea (ultimately) is to bring in those elite talents who have that elite length and elite athleticism, but also the ability to score as well. We have had a few over the past couple years, but it generally takes those guys an additional year to develop beyond how long they stay in college.

I'm hoping CM is the start of that elite guy with all sorts of awesome joining us being the norm.

 

[NKR1978]

Good post. One quibble: Joseph playing well would not be a surprise. The kid is an explosive talent and will be a lot of fun to watch. There will be growing pains, as he's not as polished as Ennis but he will be a lot better in transition from day one.

We had so many steals and so little to show for it this year. Joseph has big shoes to fill, but the one area I didn't like Tyler's game was his lack of transition offense. So few fast break buckets and I literally can't remember one alley oop he dished up. Not that there were that many in general.

Incredibly excited for Lydon and Richardson if reports on them are true. They are what we've been missing.

As for next year. Who knows. Thought the 2010 team wasn't going to be as good as 2009. Also not having a designated ACC player of the year type might pay off dividends. If Grant comes back I would expect him to be the star, but it will be fun to see who rises.

 

[Jasoncuse]

I think the idea (ultimately) is to bring in those elite talents who have that elite length and elite athleticism, but also the ability to score as well. We have had a few over the past couple years, but it generally takes those guys an additional year to develop beyond how long they stay in college.

I'm hoping CM is the start of that elite guy with all sorts of awesome joining us being the norm.

With big guys, it's more understandable. But we seem to recruit a lot of guards that aren't great shooters. Why? Does a 6'4" kid with questionable shooting ability mean more than a 6'1" kid with very good shooting/scoring ability, simply because of length up top? I may be overthinking this and not remembering everything I need to, though...