Our Blueprint Was to out shoot people

[CsonkaStash]

The problem is that we can't shoot. I did not expect us to have great rebounding, not with this team. Nor did I expect us to be able to drive to the lane and/or draw fouls. What I did expect with this team was that we could stay in games with our three point shooting.

I don't buy the story that good teams are playing better defense. We have had wide open shots and are just missing them. It must all be Mental at this point. Girard is 0-8 in the past two games from 3.

 

[RF2044]

My father texted me a similar sentiment during the game yesterday. This team was supposed to be full of shooters -- three point shooting was supposed to be the strength of the team. Yet, only Hughes seems to be able to capable of hitting shots.

 

[tbonezone]

sit back in 1 defense all game and chuck threes. mastermind at work.

 

[jncuse]

I originally misread the title. I thought it said our blueprint was to shoot people. Maybe that would be more effective?

 

[UpstateSM]

It’s almost impossible that Buddy and Girard shoot as poorly as they have the last three games for the entirety of the season. College shooters are streaky, especially young ones, so bad stretches are inevitable. I’m not ready to throw the towel in because eventually shots will start to fall and we‘ll look better.

 

[TinyManInside]

The problem is that we can't shoot. I did not expect us to have great rebounding, not with this team. Nor did I expect us to be able to drive to the lane and/or draw fouls. What I did expect with this team was that we could stay in games with our three point shooting.

I don't buy the story that good teams are playing better defense. We have had wide open shots and are just missing them. It must all be Mental at this point. Girard is 0-8 in the past two games from 3.

I'm not sure what games you're watching, but we're not getting many quality shots at all. We're shooting poorly because the offensive scheme is poor and doesn't free up our shooters for good shots. It's pretty obvious when you watch this team against Bucknell and then against Ok State. We make a lot of shots when the shots are uncontested, and we miss a lot of shots when they are heavily contested. This isn't neurosurgery.

 

[OrangeFoo]

I'm not sure what games you're watching, but we're not getting many quality shots at all. We're shooting poorly because the offensive scheme is poor and doesn't free up our shooters for good shots. It's pretty obvious when you watch this team against Bucknell and then against Ok State. We make a lot of shots when the shots are uncontested, and we miss a lot of shots when they are heavily contested. This isn't neurosurgery.

And this is true of every team... against the minnows we were able to put enough stress on the D where we could create open shots. Against the average teams, outside of Hughes, not one player is able to stress the D and create open shots for teammates. Thus no open shots.

The way to combat this of course is to use screens and player movement but that requires installing an offense... not sure what happened to some of the plays we ran earlier in the year but we seem to have abandoned those pretty quickly.

 

[stuckinbig11]

Trevor Cooney also had spans of poor shooting, and GMac told me it was mental.

 

[Tony DeFranco]

We can shoot - we just cant get any open looks - no ability to get to the rim and or by the defender

 

[CsonkaStash]

I'm not sure what games you're watching, but we're not getting many quality shots at all. We're shooting poorly because the offensive scheme is poor and doesn't free up our shooters for good shots. It's pretty obvious when you watch this team against Bucknell and then against Ok State. We make a lot of shots when the shots are uncontested, and we miss a lot of shots when they are heavily contested. This isn't neurosurgery.

Completely disagree...I watched the Penn State game, was at Virginia game. We had plenty of wide open looks and even many with people close but not right in our face. We have to knock those down. I completely disagree that we are not getting open looks. Let me rewatch the Iowa game and see how many open looks we missed.

 

[FrancoPizza]

I originally misread the title. I thought it said our blueprint was to shoot people. Maybe that would be more effective?

as long as we don't self-report.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Completely disagree...I watched the Penn State game, was at Virginia game. We had plenty of wide open looks and even many with people close but not right in our face. We have to knock those down. I completely disagree that we are not getting open looks. Let me rewatch the Iowa game and see how many open looks we missed.

Open looks are missed all the time in basketball and especially college ball.

 

[tbonezone]

also i keep hearing JB say we're "young" . we're not young. guerrier and jg3 are the only frosh seeing major minutes. everyone else has been in the program and played mucho minutes. lame excuse for poor coaching.

 

[Zelda Zonk]

I originally misread the title. I thought it said our blueprint was to shoot people. Maybe that would be more effective?

On Fifth Avenue.
Oops. Wrong forum.

 

[dasher]

also i keep hearing JB say we're "young" . we're not young. guerrier and jg3 are the only frosh seeing major minutes. everyone else has been in the program and played mucho minutes. lame excuse for poor coaching.

Let me ask you a simple question...if we had great coaching over the last 44 years compared to the terrible coaching we have had, how many more games would we have won? We had the best overall record in the Big East while we were in it. Should that record have been even better?

 

[Scooch]

Syracuse has averaged 70 points per game or lower for 5 of the past 6 seasons. We're averaging under 70 this season-to-date.

Do you know how many times we averaged below 70 PPG in the years prior to 6 seasons ago?

Zero.

Zero times in JB's first 38 years at the helm.

Our offense is horrifically broken, and has been for quite some time. Players have come and gone in the past 7 seasons, but one thing is constant: an utterly incomprehensible offensive scheme.

Our "good shooters" struggle in large part because we seem to do almost nothing to get them easy shots.

 

[Alsacs]

Syracuse has averaged 70 points per game or lower for 5 of the past 6 seasons. We're averaging under 70 this season-to-date.

Do you know how many times we averaged below 70 PPG in the years prior to 6 seasons ago?

Zero.

Zero times in JB's first 38 years at the helm.

Our offense is horrifically broken, and has been for quite some time. Players have come and gone in the past 7 seasons, but one thing is constant: an utterly incomprehensible offensive scheme.

Our "good shooters" struggle in large part because we seem to do almost nothing to get them easy shots.

I have been beating this drum for 7 years but the board loyalists don’t care.
Our offense costed us a NC IMO.
The 2013 team if it had a better offense wins a NC.
Watch the Michigan Final Four game.
If CJ Fair doesn’t make tough shot after shot we couldn’t score.
It was embarrassing how we played offense against Indiana and Marquette.
If the offense is decent we beat both by 20+ that is how good our defense was.

This coach doesn’t care to fix the problems. It’s just grind teams with defense and slow tempo.

Just dribble the ball into the floor and rely on tough shots to fall and then on defense slow the tempo with the zone and get enough stops.

We are the Chicago Bears of college basketball all defense and the offense literally kills the team from being to win it all.

 

[tbonezone]

JB was named BE coach of the year twice. georgetown uconn and villanova might quibble over who was the best team.(more titles and championships et al) we had a nice run in the 80's early 90's. impossible to speculate how we might have fared under a different coach. maybe better maybe worse. we'll never know.
and while we all appreciate the bright spots in the past what we do know for sure is what we're watching now. tangible evidence. losses in the books. dropping winning % and attendance. facts not conjecture.
unranked . no longer feared. 44 years is a good run is this business. unheard of these days. look back and smile.

 

[City of Cuse]

I have been beating this drum for 7 years but the board loyalists don’t care.
Our offense costed us a NC IMO.
The 2013 team if it had a better offense wins a NC.
Watch the Michigan Final Four game.
If CJ Fair doesn’t make tough shot after shot we couldn’t score.
It was embarrassing how we played offense against Indiana and Marquette.
If the offense is decent we beat both by 20+ that is how good our defense was.

This coach doesn’t care to fix the problems. It’s just grind teams with defense and slow tempo.

Just dribble the ball into the floor and rely on tough shots to fall and then on defense slow the tempo with the zone and get enough stops.

We are the Chicago Bears of college basketball all defense and the offense literally kills the team from being to win it all.

What offense would you run right now to free up our shooters? Don't just say motion, give me a play or a set that we can get a player in position.

We all know the problem, we have guys that are no threat. People used to complain when we would screen with our center. Well, that was actually the best way to try and free up the middle for our slashers.

Now, you have two guys on the floor that the defense barely cares about and no one that can drive. Cuse guys could run around the gym 3 times with screens everywhere, a good team will still have someone in their face.

My gripe is I'm not sure any offensive mind could get results with this group as it is right now. I almost lean to saying screw defense, put in 5 shooters, spread out the other team and see if they have to make an adjustment. I don't know man, just throwing stuff against the wall at this point.

 

[Alsacs]

What offense would you run right now to free up our shooters? Don't just say motion, give me a play or a set that we can get a player in position.

We all know the problem, we have guys that are no threat. People used to complain when we would screen with our center. Well, that was actually the best way to try and free up the middle for our slashers.

Now, you have two guys on the floor that the defense barely cares about and no one that can drive. Cuse guys could run around the gym 3 times with screens everywhere, a good team will still have someone in their face.

My gripe is I'm not sure any offensive mind could get results with this group as it is right now. I almost lean to saying screw defense, put in 5 shooters, spread out the other team and see if they have to make an adjustment. I don't know man, just throwing stuff against the wall at this point.

Coach Orange has posted numerous times how to fix the offense.
It’s in vain though.
Teams script offensive sets to run at the start of games. We don’t do any of that.
It’s just make shots.
We were spoiled by the talent’s ability to do that and coverup the fact our offense isn’t hard to defend.

 

[City of Cuse]

Coach Orange has posted numerous times how to fix the offense.
It’s in vain though.
Teams script offensive sets to run at the start of games. We don’t do any of that.
It’s just make shots.
We were spoiled by the talent’s ability to do that and coverup the fact our offense isn’t hard to defend.

We are in agreement that the coaches are not doing enough, but we are not in agreement that there are magical offenses that can make guys that aren't acc starters competent all of the sudden.

 

[billsin01]

sit back in 1 defense all game and chuck threes. mastermind at work.

Good point — hasn’t worked for 40+ years. Not sure why everyone has been so slow to pick up on how dumb he is.

JB is at the end of the line. Most here get this. S—ting on everything he’s accomplished is not only unfair to JB, but it exposes how simple-minded many folks here are. I’m sure you’re an encyclopedia of basketball knowledge. Have to just laugh.

 

[Alsacs]

We are in agreement that the coaches are not doing enough, but we are not in agreement that there are magical offenses that can make guys that aren't acc starters competent all of the sudden.

Tyler Lydon could shoot correct?
Why didn’t we run the pick and roll with him? Somebody who could shot off the pick?
Instead he would make shots off Gbinije penetrating and get the ball moved for an open look.

Our offensive sets are always isolation play and pick and roll with a bit like Chukwu who causes the guy with the ball to be doubled since he was a non threat.

Coaches can scheme players open.
Brad Stevens has hundred’s of sete he can run depending on the personnel he has and the opponent.
Syracuse under Boeheim has been the same offense just different players running the sets. That doesn’t work when the talent quality goes down.

 

[007]

I'm not sure what games you're watching, but we're not getting many quality shots at all. We're shooting poorly because the offensive scheme is poor and doesn't free up our shooters for good shots. It's pretty obvious when you watch this team against Bucknell and then against Ok State. We make a lot of shots when the shots are uncontested, and we miss a lot of shots when they are heavily contested. This isn't neurosurgery.

The offensive scheme is mind boggling as a whole. To be fair, JB has made several subtle adjustments this season. There is much better off ball movement and an improvements in screening attempts. It just seems too...chaotic at times.

There are a myriad other issues too. The team is poorly constructed (no true PG, lack of interior scoring threat), lack of player development, talent issues (I will die on this hill), and poor fundamentals (this has always been the case with JB, but his genius always seemed to transcend this flaw).

 

[City of Cuse]

Tyler Lydon could shoot correct?
Why didn’t we run the pick and roll with him? Somebody who could shot off the pick?
Instead he would make shots off Gbinije penetrating and get the ball moved for an open look.

Our offensive sets are always isolation play and pick and roll with a bit like Chukwu who causes the guy with the ball to be doubled since he was a non threat.

Coaches can scheme players open.
Brad Stevens has hundred’s of sete he can run depending on the personnel he has and the opponent.
Syracuse under Boeheim has been the same offense just different players running the sets. That doesn’t work when the talent quality goes down.

Yes, he certainly could shoot. Actually, his most famous shot ever is the shoeless one against uva that he set a screen for silent g and got the ball back, pumped, and shot.

You are missing a big component to that team, Roberson was also on the court. Again, you are trying to run an offense 4 on 5. So what do you do, try to get the big guy out of the middle, use robes in the screen. Set screens for lydon off ball or cooney off ball to get them open either on the post or on the perimeter. If you look back, they do that for the most part.

I love robes, but the saddest thing about this year is if he was playing he might be the second best player.

Could Brad Stevens or Tony Bennett made that group better offensively, sure, I wouldn't argue that at all. The thing that I am arguing is I don't think they could make this group much better offensively.

I love JB, but I hope he calls it quits and we can find a very competent replacement at the end of the season. Maybe we can get a transfer or two in to bridge the gap before the new coach brings in studs that can play both sides of the court.