Only Two More Wins - Are We In?

[jdubs30]

Coach K has said Duke will play much more zone for the rest of the season. IMHO bad for SU.

I have less confidence in beating Duke than I do the other 3. UNC is hot right now and with Berry, Johnson, Williams, and even Maye, all of whom shoot 36% or better from beyond the 3-point line, they can light it up from long distance. But in the past they have killed us from inside and they don't have that firepower this year. Hopefully playing in the Dome will affect their long-range shooting. I'd hate to go into the last 2 games needing in all likelihood to win both to get to the tournament.

I looked up last year's game at NC and UNC shot 29% (7-24) from 3. Meeks, Hicks, Maye, and Jackson went 27-44 with only Jackson (2-8) hitting from 3. All I can say is I doubt they will win that way this year.

Why? Did you see the Duke/Clemson game yesterday? That zone was not very good. Marek is really good in the middle of the zone and creates open looks. And if you're in a zone you can't faceguard Battle. I don't think is good M2M either, but I wouldn't say that them playing zone hurts us. We have 3 good 3pt shooters.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Why? Did you see the Duke/Clemson game yesterday? That zone was not very good. Marek is really good in the middle of the zone and creates open looks. And if you're in a zone you can't faceguard Battle. I don't think is good M2M either, but I wouldn't say that them playing zone hurts us. We have 3 good 3pt shooters.

I agree 1000%. I think we are more effective when a team zones us. All of those reasons and more. I think Brissett would embrace it as well.

 

[littlereg]

Honestly it doesn’t even matter what D duke plays they’re terrible on D regardless.

 

[Sherman20]

Personally, I don't think that would get us in. Keep in mind at 8-10 we would be playing in that really early Tuesday round of the ACC Tourney. A win over Pittsburgh won't carry a lot of weight. Win Tues/Wed and we have a shot, but to be safer, let's beat Clemson (I agree on your prognosis for next week). On "senior day" (not that we have any that play) with hopefully close to 30K, is that really such a big ask?

I don’t think it would get us in. But I also don’t think we lose 3 out of our last 4 regular season games. UNC, Duke or Clemson will be going down. Cuse will win at least one of those games.

 

[Forza Azzurri]

Forza, I wouldn't worry too much about this scenario (although it sure would be a nice problem to have, wouldn't it?)

Yes, I'll take 8-9 over not getting in...

 

[sugrad68]

Why? Did you see the Duke/Clemson game yesterday? That zone was not very good. Marek is really good in the middle of the zone and creates open looks. And if you're in a zone you can't faceguard Battle. I don't think is good M2M either, but I wouldn't say that them playing zone hurts us. We have 3 good 3pt shooters.

We have "good" 3pt shooters? Team is shooting 32% from 3, which I believe is last of 15 teams in the ACC. Even Pitt is at 33% as a team. Battle 33%. Howard 34%. Brissett 34% but improving. Duke has 5 players shooting better than our best from the 3-point line. We haven't faced too many decent zone defenses this year but when we have the team looked lost most of the time. I remember one game where Dolezaj looked good passing from the foul line. SU depends on drives to the basket and the zone SHOULD cut that off and force the other team to hit from the outside. Which SU very often is unsuccessful at doing.

 

[sugrad68]

Honestly it doesn’t even matter what D duke plays they’re terrible on D regardless.

I don't disagree. Their m-2-m was not good which is why they went to zone. Duke has no rim enforcer like SU does.

 

[pearl31]

I don't disagree. Their m-2-m was not good which is why they went to zone. Duke has no rim enforcer like SU does.

their zone, while maybe more effective than their m2m, is porous as all he11 - and as you say, no real rim protector back there

 

[KevMonstah]

No way 1-3 down the stretch and 1-1 in ACC tourney works. They'd be praying for every
1-seed in every automatic berth conference to win, cuz otherwise, the bubble will shrink,
and SU's out.

I'd also say, once (if) SU gets in, their ability to win goes up because of other teams'
unfamiliarity with the zone. Same reason SU wins lots of early season tourneys: their
defense is ahead of where opponents' offenses are, and they aren't familiar with it. That
changes once you get to conference play.

I agree 1000%. I think we are more effective when a team zones us. All of those reasons and more. I think Brissett would embrace it as well.

Huh? The moment a team zones SU, they look like they've never seen one before, and they
sure don't use the lessons a team like Pitt has imparted in defeating one. It's like it was when
SU football played an option team: Don't they practice against this every day? How come the
defense has no idea how to slow it down? This team has what SHOULD work against a zone,
but I think it took until a play a few games ago that went FH to Marek at ft line, out to Battle,
then to Brissette for a 3, for them to finally realize it. In fact, it was this play vs Lville:

Brent Axe‏Verified account @BrentAxeMedia Feb 5
Some of the best ball movement I have seen from Syracuse in recent games leads to an Oshae 3. 25-23 Orange lead with 6:30 to go in first half

Don't know why they've never been able to do that consistently against a zone, cuz other
teams sure can do it against them.

Kev

 

[FrancoPizza]

Don't know why they've never been able to do that consistently against a zone, cuz other teams sure can do it against them.

To attack a zone players need to be disciplined in their movement and cuts without the ball. That's never been JB's teaching strength.

 

[cpatrocks]

I feel pretty confident saying that when we win our last 4 games and the ACC Tourney will we be in for sure.

I'm just looking forward to arguing about our seed.

 

[two3zone]

Ignoring the ACC tournament, outside of winning UNC and Duke I don't see how we're in a better position than last season. We've beaten a Miami team without arguably their best player and a mediocre Louisville team. What qualifies us?

 

[Ryand877]

Ignoring the ACC tournament, outside of winning UNC and Duke I don't see how we're in a better position than last season. We've beaten a Miami team without arguably their best player and a mediocre Louisville team. What qualifies us?

I agree with you overall. I'm not saying its much but we have an neutral floor win and road win in non-conference, whereas we had zero of those last year. Also one more road ACC win than all of last year too. And we didn't lose by 33 at the Dome to St. John's! I don't think winning against BC and Clemson is enough by itself. It could be with those two wins and an ACC tournament win against a team not named Pittsburgh.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Ignoring the ACC tournament, outside of winning UNC and Duke I don't see how we're in a better position than last season. We've beaten a Miami team without arguably their best player and a mediocre Louisville team. What qualifies us?

The highs were higher last year but the lows were absolutely craters. Say what you want about metrics, but they are much better this year and the only blowout loss was to a top team in the land.

 

[rhcuse]

Heard a commentator say Syracuse has no wins over Top 25 teams. Wierd if true, but have 3 chances coming up, plus who knows in ACCT. The days of 8 guaranteed home & home games with Big East perennial ranked powers are long gone.

 

[CuseMan4]

Ignoring the ACC tournament, outside of winning UNC and Duke I don't see how we're in a better position than last season. We've beaten a Miami team without arguably their best player and a mediocre Louisville team. What qualifies us?

The main reason we were left out last year was because of how many bad losses we had. We had more quality wins last year at this point but we had far more bad losses. Also college basketball in general is down this year compared to last year. Most teams have multiple bad losses this year and you will have teams in the top 25 with 8-9 losses at years end which is where we are at now pretty much at the end of the season...that’s really the difference

 

[obliterata]

9-9 in the ACC and we're in. Go 8-10 and we might have to win 3 in the ACCT.

 

[SWC75]

The main reason we were left out last year was because of how many bad losses we had. We had more quality wins last year at this point but we had far more bad losses. Also college basketball in general is down this year compared to last year. Most teams have multiple bad losses this year and you will have teams in the top 25 with 8-9 losses at years end which is where we are at now pretty much at the end of the season...that’s really the difference

Just our luck: They will decide this year they aren't going to concern themselves with bad losses: this year they are looking for good wins.