Our team will be playing our other team on weds

[Cuse_NYC]

On film Copeland looks fast, explosive for a big guy. Maybe not quick laterally hope your wrong and not like a Frank type.

Frank Howard? He’s not nearly the player Frank was.

 

[Cuse_NYC]

I would say Bunch, Brown and Taylor are our typical forwards. They all have body types and athleticism seen in the past. They might not be as accomplished as many of our top incoming recruits, but they seem to have the "bones" we always look for in our forwards.

Bunch in a few ways is a CJ Fair, Damone Brown, Wes Johnson, James Southerland clone, raw athletically but also a decent shooter. These are guys that did little when young, but turned into really good players. There is a lot of variation between the possible outcomes, but Bunch has the raw tools.

Brown looks like Tyler Roberson, Terrence Roberts, Rick Jackson or Quincy Guerrier, guys who were physical right off the bat, and good rebounders. Each had to develop their offensive games, as will Brown. Some had success, others didn't.

Taylor looks like Malachi Richards to me more than any other SF/SG recruit (physical resemblance to Buddy notwithstanding). Malachi was known for his shooting, but was multifaceted in his game, and really didn't turn in huge shooting performances until the NCAA Tournament.

Benny Williams is a guy we were all very excited about when he came in last year. For whatever reason he didn't perform well, but he is the same guy that just missed the McDonald's All America game. He could be really good, and he showed a solid glimpse by holding his own against Duke's lottery pick front court.

The gnashing of teeth over the forward rotation is premature and overblown. At least two will be good players this year and all have a chance down the line.

How good they are will define the season, no doubt. But at least we have very good seniors to take the stress off of them, at least to start the year.

Sheesh, I’ll take Woody Newton from Bunch. If he’s anywhere in the same universe as the players you named, we lucked out…
Taylor is Cooney without being a 3pt shooter. He can surely become a better shooter, but coming into college, more of a mid range, hustle guy. Plays hard.

 

[OmahaCuse]

Frank Howard? He’s not nearly the player Frank was.

Interesting he looks more explosive, bigger and better with the ball. Frank was a 2 forced to play PG always seems lazy, slow and not very explosive. Not bashing him just saying he was a average CBB player, not all ACC or a NBA type.

 

[two3zone]

Agree, 5 best guys. I think Bol can give us 10 quality minutes per game and we need Bunch or Taylor to be able to hit open shots and grab some boards...May need to press with Copeland, Mintz, Brown and Bunch who are athletic.

What did Bol ever do that showed he can give a quality 30 seconds?

 

[OmahaCuse]

What did Bol ever do that showed he can give a quality 30 seconds?

He played ok made a few decent passes grabbed a few boards. Going by what JB said about him,,,,

 

[Orangezoo]

Frank Howard? He’s not nearly the player Frank was.

I think jury is out to be fair given QC does have ample potential. That said had Frank not been the head case he was, he could have been much much more here...

 

[Cuse_NYC]

Interesting he looks more explosive, bigger and better with the ball. Frank was a 2 forced to play PG always seems lazy, slow and not very explosive. Not bashing him just saying he was a average CBB player, not all ACC or a NBA type.

Frank was great early on in his career as a distributor and was really turning into a nice scorer before the injury. Never got back to full speed imho. And obv the off-court stuff.

 

[Cuse_NYC]

He played ok made a few decent passes grabbed a few boards. Going by what JB said about him,,,,

JB probably still thinks Jesse “isn’t ready”

 

[Niastri]

Sheesh, I’ll take Woody Newton from Bunch. If he’s anywhere in the same universe as the players you named, we lucked out…
Taylor is Cooney without being a 3pt shooter. He can surely become a better shooter, but coming into college, more of a mid range, hustle guy. Plays hard.

Taylor is much bigger than Cooney. 3 inches and 15 pounds bigger before suiting up than Cooney was as a senior... And we haven't even gotten Rothstein involved yet!

 

[Niastri]

Sheesh, I’ll take Woody Newton from Bunch. If he’s anywhere in the same universe as the players you named, we lucked out…
Taylor is Cooney without being a 3pt shooter. He can surely become a better shooter, but coming into college, more of a mid range, hustle guy. Plays hard.

Sure, we could also name every guy who looks kind of like Bunch that didn't work out, but I prefer to be optimistic, Negative Nancy.

 

[Orangezoo]

Taylor is much bigger than Cooney. 3 inches and 15 pounds bigger before suiting up than Cooney was as a senior... And we haven't even gotten Rothstein involved yet!

He is bigger but other than rebounds(hopefully) he is a very similar player. Hard working, streak shooter and physical balls to the wall kind of player.

 

[Newhouser]

He is bigger but other than rebounds(hopefully) he is a very similar player. Hard working, streak shooter and physical balls to the wall kind of player.

Re-watching that Final Four run Trevor's senior year - he was pretty solid for us down the stretch. Kid in my mind who's career is better appreciated with a distance perspective.

 

[Orangezoo]

Re-watching that Final Four run Trevor's senior year - he was pretty solid for us down the stretch. Kid in my mind who's career is better appreciated with a distance perspective.

Also he was a great defender in the zone. That gets understated too

 

[Sbucketball]

Not to be a debbie downer, but based on the basically generic comments, going to be a long year. I'm excited to see new faces but realistically the talent level is not as good as last year and still mid-level acc at best. I'm going to temper expectations and look (hope) for player development throughout the year.

You might be right. Compared to past articles regarding the scrimmage, this year is missing a consensus comment that one particular guy is unstoppable (e.g. the comments on Lydon). I'm being optimistic because we are coming off our worst year in the JB era, and we have a rebuild full of players who fit the system. But we're likely in for pain with this many first year players, especially since they aren't of the variety who are billed as one-and-dones. We'll be good the following year, but man would I love to be good now.

I suppose we need to look no further than the non-conference schedule to discern what JB thinks about the team. He wrote in his book that having a hard non-con schedule is helpful if you have a good team, but harmful if you don't have a good team. He just set up a very easy non-con schedule.

 

[OmahaCuse]

Frank was great early on in his career as a distributor and was really turning into a nice scorer before the injury. Never got back to full speed imho. And obv the off-court stuff.

Very streaky shooter, not very good shooting form.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Frank Howard? He’s not nearly the player Frank was.

Let's hope not

 

[MikeSU02]

My goal as a Cuse fan this year is to not be on the bubble and just waiting on seeding when the selection show comes.

That's it.

I have my hopes/concerns/etc, but that's all I care about for this year. However we get there (whether it's Judah being a baller + Joe cranking out threes with ease + Jesse dunking left and right or Benny blowing up or a few of the frosh wings blowing up, I don't care), I just want to get to that threshold by the selection show.

That's it.

I'm fine with some growing pains as long as we're in at the end of the day. Lot of unknowns with this team, so I'm prepared for anything, but that's my hope.

 

[pearl31]

My goal as a Cuse fan this year is to not be on the bubble and just waiting on seeding when the selection show comes.

That's it.

I have my hopes/concerns/etc, but that's all I care about for this year. However we get there (whether it's Judah being a baller + Joe cranking out threes with ease + Jesse dunking left and right or Benny blowing up or a few of the frosh wings blowing up, I don't care), I just want to get to that threshold by the selection show.

That's it.

I'm fine with some growing pains as long as we're in at the end of the day. Lot of unknowns with this team, so I'm prepared for anything, but that's my hope.

well said

 

[djcon57]

My goal as a Cuse fan this year is to not be on the bubble and just waiting on seeding when the selection show comes.

That's it.

I have my hopes/concerns/etc, but that's all I care about for this year. However we get there (whether it's Judah being a baller + Joe cranking out threes with ease + Jesse dunking left and right or Benny blowing up or a few of the frosh wings blowing up, I don't care), I just want to get to that threshold by the selection show.

That's it.

I'm fine with some growing pains as long as we're in at the end of the day. Lot of unknowns with this team, so I'm prepared for anything, but that's my hope.

10000% I've been saying for awhile that we need to recalibrate our hopes to a bubble team. If we are not on the bubble, even like a solid 8-9, its a success.

 

[Orangezoo]

10000% I've been saying for awhile that we need to recalibrate our hopes to a bubble team. If we are not on the bubble, even like a solid 8-9, its a success.

Sucks but yeah...

 

[Orangezoo]

My goal as a Cuse fan this year is to not be on the bubble and just waiting on seeding when the selection show comes.

That's it.

I have my hopes/concerns/etc, but that's all I care about for this year. However we get there (whether it's Judah being a baller + Joe cranking out threes with ease + Jesse dunking left and right or Benny blowing up or a few of the frosh wings blowing up, I don't care), I just want to get to that threshold by the selection show.

That's it.

I'm fine with some growing pains as long as we're in at the end of the day. Lot of unknowns with this team, so I'm prepared for anything, but that's my hope.

Easier schedule on paper hopefully helps the young group.

 

[RF2044]

My goal as a Cuse fan this year is to not be on the bubble and just waiting on seeding when the selection show comes.

That's it.

I have my hopes/concerns/etc, but that's all I care about for this year. However we get there (whether it's Judah being a baller + Joe cranking out threes with ease + Jesse dunking left and right or Benny blowing up or a few of the frosh wings blowing up, I don't care), I just want to get to that threshold by the selection show.

That's it.

I'm fine with some growing pains as long as we're in at the end of the day. Lot of unknowns with this team, so I'm prepared for anything, but that's my hope.

That would be awesome. In the next day or two, I'm going to post some thoughts about how this upcoming team might be successful -- and what factors would have to break favorably for SU to have a good season.

But a lot would have to go right. I can see that path for the team, though -- just don't know how likely it is that several of the factors will go our way.

 

[djcon57]

Sucks but yeah...

yeah...certainly not my ideal scenario, but think it will help us enjoy the season more if we aren't looking at the Top 25 wishing we were there. Long term, obviously, we'd like to get back to where we are and changes will need to be made. For as long as JB remains, this is the best case reality

 

[RF2044]

yeah...certainly not my ideal scenario, but think it will help us enjoy the season more if we aren't looking at the Top 25 wishing we were there. Long term, obviously, we'd like to get back to where we are and changes will need to be made. For as long as JB remains, this is the best case reality

Yup. I got resigned to that two years ago. Nothing will change until there's actual CHANGE.

 

[Hopkins16]

Where we will be solid and reliable in my opinion is the backcourt - Girard, Mintz and Sy (no worries there). Front court will be problematic being that Jesse is the only guy we know to be reliable. The biggest unknown and the one guy for us to be a real force is Benny. If he makes the leap, we are a team to be reckoned with. Bol and the transfer center must be serviceable as backups. The freshman forwards are the big unknowns and we should have made sure to get a forward from the portal.

Again, Benny is the key and the main factor as to whether the team will be successful with the help of a solid center and backcourt. On his off nights, the guards must step up and an occasional meaningful big game from anyone else will be helpful.