Our team will be playing our other team on weds | Page 9 | Syracusefan.com

Our team will be playing our other team on weds

Anyone recall how lost/confused Guerrier, Roberson, and Rak looked as freshman? All of them ended up being very good and making significant improvements. I'd imagine Benny will do the same. Media/fans said very similar things about Guerrier his freshman year as they have Benny. I think this is good to remember when worrying about the need for Benny to be good. Have we had a legit top 40 recruit fall flat his Sophomore year?
I can't like this post enough.

The sophomore leap can be significant, and Williams is just the sort to have a huge one.

He seemed to defer too much to his elder teammates, got recruited over before arriving (Cole Swider transfer) and didn't have a defined role to start the year, then got Boeheim'd with the quick hook till he didn't know what to do when he was it there in his limited minutes.

The elders are gone, he's the only forward we know is going to start, he's going to be told exactly what to do on the court and there isn't anybody else to play, so he's going to get forcefed minutes no matter his early results.

Williams should get better every week after starting out better than just about every game last year. There will still be variation in his performance, but I'm not worried about Benny.
 
I can't like this post enough.

The sophomore leap can be significant, and Williams is just the sort to have a huge one.

He seemed to defer too much to his elder teammates, got recruited over before arriving (Cole Swider transfer) and didn't have a defined role to start the year, then got Boeheim'd with the quick hook till he didn't know what to do when he was it there in his limited minutes.

The elders are gone, he's the only forward we know is going to start, he's going to be told exactly what to do on the court and there isn't anybody else to play, so he's going to get forcefed minutes no matter his early results.

Williams should get better every week after starting out better than just about every game last year. There will still be variation in his performance, but I'm not worried about Benny.

He got plenty of mins the first half season to show what he could do.
 
He got plenty of mins the first half season to show what he could do.
He got minutes, but he had the quick hook and there was always the spectre of Jimmy or Swider just waiting to check back in. It was not a situation designed to build confidence. This year, if Williams doesn't get over the jitters, he never will.

Everyone can decide for themselves to give him a pass or not for last season.
 
He got minutes, but he had the quick hook and there was always the spectre of Jimmy or Swider just waiting to check back in. It was not a situation designed to build confidence. This year, if Williams doesn't get over the jitters, he never will.

Everyone can decide for themselves to give him a pass or not for last season.
That he came back after so many thought he might transfer shows confidence.
 
Anyone recall how lost/confused Guerrier, Roberson, and Rak looked as freshman? All of them ended up being very good and making significant improvements. I'd imagine Benny will do the same. Media/fans said very similar things about Guerrier his freshman year as they have Benny. I think this is good to remember when worrying about the need for Benny to be good. Have we had a legit top 40 recruit fall flat his Sophomore year?
Guerrier actually had an impactful freshman year, especially once he got over a nagging injury and focused on rebounding and scoring in the paint. That said, I have hope for Benny figuring it out this season and making a real improvement over his freshman year.
 
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I think we underestimate a Sr. Center that we have. Over the last 30-40 years the Senior Center was the focal point of our offence. I think we will see the continual improvement of Jesse at the 5 and he will manger around 16-19 PPG. In todays Game the Center position morphed and we have individuals like Embiid taking 3 pointers; however, Jesse will be more like the Greek Freak and get his points on the inside. Jesse will be our top scorer for the season.
 
I think we underestimate a Sr. Center that we have. Over the last 30-40 years the Senior Center was the focal point of our offence. I think we will see the continual improvement of Jesse at the 5 and he will manger around 16-19 PPG. In todays Game the Center position morphed and we have individuals like Embiid taking 3 pointers; however, Jesse will be more like the Greek Freak and get his points on the inside. Jesse will be our top scorer for the season.

Interesting thought. I'll counter [devil's advocate] that Jesse's shot attempts will be contingent upon people getting him the ball. I do NOT expect the offense to run through Jesse, like it did the Rak year.

Joe did a great job of setting Jesse up. And Jesse also gets put back attempts off of misses.

But this year, I'd expect the offense to flow through Joe [who probably is option 1] and Mintz. Jesse getting enough shot attempts to get to 16-19 is the issue. Will his teammates set him up to take that many shots? Of will his role be similar, in the sense that he'll only get shots within the flow of the offense, based upon his teammates intermittently getting him the ball?

I expect his scoring output to be similar to last year -- but hope I'm wrong, and that you are right. It's just not what I expect. Traditionally, that's just not how we use our centers [I don't dispute in any way, shape, or form that Jesse is capable of what you suggest].
 
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I think we underestimate a Sr. Center that we have. Over the last 30-40 years the Senior Center was the focal point of our offence. I think we will see the continual improvement of Jesse at the 5 and he will manger around 16-19 PPG. In todays Game the Center position morphed and we have individuals like Embiid taking 3 pointers; however, Jesse will be more like the Greek Freak and get his points on the inside. Jesse will be our top scorer for the season.

I think Jesse will be our most efficient scorer. I do not think he'll be our top scorer, I think that will be Joe, because of sheer volume of shots.
 
Interesting thought. I'll counter [devil's advocate] that Jesse's shot attempts will be contingent upon people getting him the ball. I do NOT expect the offense to run through Jesse, like it did the Rak year.

Joe did a great job of setting Jesse up. And Jesse also gets put back attempts off of misses.

But this year, I'd expect the offense to flow through Joe [who probably is option 1] and Mintz. Jesse getting enough shot attempts to get to 16-19 is the issue. Will his teammates set him up to take that many shots? Of will his role be similar, in the sense that he'll only get shots within the flow of the offense, based upon his teammates intermittently getting him the ball?

I expect his scoring output to be similar to last year -- but hope I'm wrong, and that you are right. It's just not what I expect. Traditionally, that's just not how we use our centers [I don't dispute in any way, shape, or form that Jesse is capable of what you suggest].
I think his scoring will go up, but I don't think we'll max out what he could do as a scorer, if that makes sense.
 
Interesting thought. I'll counter [devil's advocate] that Jesse's shot attempts will be contingent upon people getting him the ball. I do NOT expect the offense to run through Jesse, like it did the Rak year.

Joe did a great job of setting Jesse up. And Jesse also gets put back attempts off of misses.

But this year, I'd expect the offense to flow through Joe [who probably is option 1] and Mintz. Jesse getting enough shot attempts to get to 16-19 is the issue. Will his teammates set him up to take that many shots? Of will his role be similar, in the sense that he'll only get shots within the flow of the offense, based upon his teammates intermittently getting him the ball?

I expect his scoring output to be similar to last year -- but hope I'm wrong, and that you are right. It's just not what I expect. Traditionally, that's just not how we use our centers [I don't dispute in any way, shape, or form that Jesse is capable of what you suggest].

To add on Jesse's production will also depend on how the forward position goes. Can Bunch and Taylor be real threats as spot up shooters? Can Benny improve and be a threat as a cutter and make an open shot on a regular basis? Can Benny have a better floor game and awareness? Can we play 3 guards by way of playing some mtm? To me if the questions to these are mostly no then teams will pack the paint keeping one guy on Joe and denying Jesse all game.
 
Don’t like facts?
Water under the bridge now. Not gonna relitigate the past. Ready to get better players and win games at the level Syracuse should.
 
Around 7 ppg.
He got to play a good amount as a freshman but looked lost most of that year. He progressively got better at rebounding and scoring easy buckets but was 48th percentile defense and couldn't hit anything from further than 15ft away. The point is he was lost like most freshmen but then made the Soph leap. I was more confident about Guerrier's leap than Benny's since outside of the Duke game it was mostly bad but I think the house money is on Benny having a good year.
 
...Jesse will be more like the Greek Freak...
This would be the greatest senior year jump in the history of basketball.

Yes, I know, I'm taking the words out of context.
But I love it.
 

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