Class of 2019 PF Isaiah Stewart (NY/LaLumiereIN) to Washington

[Zelda Zonk]

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Personally, i wasn't thrilled that he was coaching the Bigs, but that had nothing to do with my expectations of him as a head coach.

Can we talk about Bernie? There has long been the 'legend' that Bernie was a "great" bigs coach. But, how do we ever really know that? We had 'testimony' from Rony Seikaly at some point. But how valid is that? Rony came from Greece, with little HS basketball experience. Then we had him. Then he played for an NBA team before telling someone that Bernie was the best bigs coach he had ever had. What the hell does that even mean? When would he have had a frame of reference?

So, then we had Derrick Coleman, who needed no Bernie to be amazing. So, what's the evidence? That Bernie had some association with Pete Newell camps?

The thing is, we can only know what the players did, not what they might have done under someone else. I don't have a great sense of our centers progressing in certain characteristics/skills. I remember Etan had paddles for hands, and he did become pretty good. Otis Hill became pretty good. McNeil and Forth were limited and didn't develop into what i hoped. Onuaku and Rick were really good. Terrence and Watkins were never what i hoped. Fab... is difficult to discuss. He became a force, but how much of that was due to coaching, and how much due to his raw athleticism and growing into the game?

You take all of those guys, and after DC, only Etan had an NBA career, and that wasn't exactly stellar. Onuaku perhaps could have, with better knees(?), but he didn't. Fab didn't have the head. That's 30 years with only two real NBA centers. Surely the college game is different, and it's not SU's responsibility to train a kid to be an NBA player, but there is some correlation to excellence in college and viability in the NBA.

People have said that my wish for an actual big to coach our bigs is unnecessary. That most other schools also have ex-guards as bigs coaches. But, my question is this: if we have been underperforming in this area, why wouldn't it be a good idea to go further than the norm? At least as far as the optics are concerned, toward attracting recruits.

 

[50YRsofCuse]

I guess that it was always right in front of our faces all the time. Isaiah Stewart never wanted to go to Syracuse over this past year and we were never seen as the favorite during that time frame. In the interview after his announcement, he mentioned other schools as previous leaders but nothing on Syracuse. He considered the offer/opportunity to become the man at Syracuse like Carmelo Anthony and dismissed it.

While hindsight is often more revealing, it is a shame that the coaching staff didn’t see this earlier and refocused its efforts on other big men that may have been more willing to come to Syracuse. Not saying that we did not try hard, it just seems that SU’s efforts did not have a significant chance with Isaiah.

His closeness to, belief in and familiarity with Coach Hopkins outweighed any opportunity for his family to see him play without major travel difficulties (frequency, distance and cost) as it would have with the other schools like Michigan St, UK, Duke, Georgetown and Syracuse. It will be interesting to see how often his immediate family will be able to travel cross-country to see him play.

Good luck to him and to his family.

 

[Trueblue25]

Man... McCullough. I always feel like that injury robbed us of watching a truly special player develop. He wasn’t quite ready for the NBA but I find it inarguable that he made the correct decision for his life.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Man... McCullough. I always feel like that injury robbed us of watching a truly special player develop. He wasn’t quite ready for the NBA but I find it inarguable that he made the correct decision for his life.

Imagine if Ennis stayed one more year, and CMac stayed healthy. We would have made some noise in 2015.

 

[syrBossHogg]

Imagine if Ennis stayed one more year, and CMac stayed healthy. We would have made some noise in 2015.

We went from having a possible front court of

Rakeem Christmas
DaJuan Coleman
Jerami Grant
Chris McCullough

to just Christmas. Damn injuries

 

[jgeorge322]

It's really not when you consider both our recruits also played in the US, had exposure and received offers from schools here. It's not like the blue bloods of the world didn't know about them and failed to offer them just because they were from Canada. I'm not saying these guys aren't good recruits - neither is a top 25ish recruit however people want to spin it and we don't seem to be landing THOSE kind of recuits right now - for whatever reason.

Oshae was by far one of the best frosh in the country last year. That ends your argument.

 

[cuse10]

We all love Syracuse. But when you watch our games we literally throw the bal in the post 1x 2x max per game. Most of the time the 5 comes up sets a pick and or gets the ball 26 ft away from the rim (see Dolezaj backdoor passes last game) if i am a good 5, why in the world would i come to Syracuse just to set picks and pass the ball to a guard. And get yelled at our benched if i make any mistakes.

You get the ball if you can produce down low. Christmas, Rick and Onuaku saw the ball a lot. The offense will run through the 5 if they are a legit threat.

 

[HOFCeluck]

Carey is a great example...kid can obviously play but he's gotten worse

Go back a few years...McCullough got worse.

In a thread full of overreactions and blistering takes, hooooooooo boy.

 

[SUbear]

I guess that it was always right in front of our faces all the time. Isaiah Stewart never wanted to go to Syracuse over this past year and we were never seen as the favorite during that time frame. In the interview after his announcement, he mentioned other schools as previous leaders but nothing on Syracuse. He considered the offer/opportunity to become the man at Syracuse like Carmelo Anthony and dismissed it.

While hindsight is often more revealing, it is a shame that the coaching staff didn’t see this earlier and refocused its efforts on other big men that may have been more willing to come to Syracuse. Not saying that we did not try hard, it just seems that SU’s efforts did not have a significant chance with Isaiah.

His closeness to, belief in and familiarity with Coach Hopkins outweighed any opportunity for his family to see him play without major travel difficulties (frequency, distance and cost) as it would have with the other schools like Michigan St, UK, Duke, Georgetown and Syracuse. It will be interesting to see how often his immediate family will be able to travel cross-country to see him play.

Good luck to him and to his family.

For whatever reason he did not want to be close to home, and that is okay.

 

[Todoubled23]

In a thread full of overreactions and blistering takes, hooooooooo boy.

It's like an all you can eat H0T Takes buffet.

 

[manleyzoo]

Wel, McCullough tore his ACL and missed half the season. He was in the NBA for his soph year.

But he was pretty much terrible for about 10 games before he got injured.

 

[SU Dreaming]

IMHO...recruiting is adequate. Not great, but not as horrific as some of you suggest.

Player development however is another story ...

We have talent on our roster.

do not disagree w/ you, but this is not new, not going back to the 80s' and 90's, but back in 2011 same story

 

[SU Dreaming]

What's most frustrating is that the staff recognized this last spring and tried to bring in guys who would be system fits, as developmental 5's in Manuel / Osunnyi. Glad we didn't land the first one, as what's unfolded since then indicates that he's a flake, but it would have been nice to have a guy like Osunnyi in the hopper for a year or two to develop.

At this point, our best bet is to have Chukwu finish the season on a positive note and be receptive to applying for that 6th year / coming back next season.

I've asked this numerous times, but is there any evidence beyond that one tweet that we're actively involved with Carrigan?

trust me we tried to get Nate Roberts, Osunnyi and

We all love Syracuse. But when you watch our games we literally throw the bal in the post 1x 2x max per game. Most of the time the 5 comes up sets a pick and or gets the ball 26 ft away from the rim (see Dolezaj backdoor passes last game) if i am a good 5, why in the world would i come to Syracuse just to set picks and pass the ball to a guard. And get yelled at our benched if i make any mistakes.

agree 10000%, been saying same for years now

 

[OrangeDW]

trust me we tried to get Nate Roberts, Osunnyi and



agree 10000%, been saying same for years now

How many years?

Throwing it into the post was our first option in 2015.

We threw it in to Lydon and Coleman a good amount in 2016 too.

 

[OrangeAl]

For whatever reason he did not want to be close to home, and that is okay.

Thomas Bryant, Naz Carter, now Isaiah Stewart - don't guys from Rochester have any family values?

 

[OrangeDW]

Thomas Bryant, Naz Carter, now Isaiah Stewart - don't guys from Rochester have any family values?

John Wallace, they are not.

 

[Cuse9292]

People say they're glad he's not going to Duke or Michigan State but the thing is they'll just target the next guy on their list, we spend time on positions of need with a limited amount of high end guys but then we don't get them and we are left picking up something that doesn't necessarily fit or is noticeably lesser compared to the original target. Player development definitely is an issue but you do have to recruit players that have the ability to thrive in the system you want to play as a coach and those coaches need to remember there are two halves of a baskeball court. Everyone sees the direction of the NBA, if you can't produce on the offensive end in the NBA then there are limited roster spots available for you.

 

[RF2044]

trust me we tried to get Nate Roberts, Osunnyi and

Isn't that exactly what I said?

I actually forgot Roberts -- you didn't list Manuel [or Golden] Point being: the staff actively tried to address it.

 

[50YRsofCuse]

o\

For whatever reason he did not want to be close to home, and that is okay.

i agree with his line of thinkIng.

I just wish that the staff recognize that earlier. While I am not positive, I feel that the staff was holding a scholarship strictly for Stewart. If they recognized that he did not have an overwhelming interest in coming to Syracuse, the staff may have been able to focus their efforts on another highly regarded big man or even spent more time on recruiting Qudus Wahrab.

 

[creatorsgam]

In a thread full of overreactions and blistering takes, hooooooooo boy.

Those takes are exactly why I keep coming back to this thread.

Here’s hoping they don’t dry up anytime soon.

 

[creatorsgam]

But he was pretty much terrible for about 10 games before he got injured.

Averaged 9 points and 7 boards over his first 16 games as a true freshman.

Yeah, awful. Didn’t deserve to wear Orange IMO.

 

[Orangefan1]

They never want to stay home with the exception of girard these big guys just leave. Pretty soon we will be competing with Buffalo

 

[cliftonparksufan]

They never want to stay home with the exception of girard these big guys just leave. Pretty soon we will be competing with Buffalo

It's hard to figure out when some people are serious or sarcastic. We just need to recruit more guys from JD (Coleman, Triche, Rautins).

 

[Cusefan0307]

FFS we are 4-1 in the ACC and virtually every thread is an abomination of negativity today.

 

[pfister1]

Next JB radio show I’m calling in and demanding that we start feeding PC in the post so that we stop scaring away all of our big man recruits.