Players Returning Next Year | Page 17 | Syracusefan.com

Players Returning Next Year

I think this teams needs a lot of changes, or improvements. The lack of 3 point shooting is very apparent. Besides Bell, no one else's shot is respected. No one can score from the post either. That combination is a recipe for disaster. I'm shocked we won 20 games this year

Judah- Love to have him back, but if he goes, so be it. Needs to improve his shooting and not rely on the refs to call fouls.

JJ- does he do anything well? I don't see him as a starter on a good team.

Bell- He is the most important player. When Bell made shots we won, when he didnt we got crushed. I think he has the highest ceiling

Taylor- Competes but shouldn't be playing major minutes for a NCAA tournament team ( or a P5 school for that)

Copeland- too many turnovers. Tries to make a play no matter what. He has all the tools to be a stud though. Don't think he should be the main PG on this team next year

Brown- Played out of position all year. I would take him on any team due to his defense, but he can't create his own shot. No post game and he never shoots a mid-range either. All his points were off dunks or layups.

Cuff- Nothing really stands out, I think this board overrates his defense.

This team needs to hit the portal HARD. Need a true PG, another wing that can shoot the 3 and defend, and obviously a center that can get a bucket from the block. Without that, this team wont make the big dance again for the 4th (yikes) straight year

Hopefully the Moore kid can provide shooting and Freeman is as good as advertised. Cuse needs them to contribute right away
 
Newhouser said:
Where is Gerry going to go?
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I could see him getting a chance at a school like Lehigh, Bucknell, Holy Cross or a Lafayette kind of school in the Patriot League. That's a league with Army, Navy and Colgate. That's a good first job, IMO. His PA Legend status helps him recruit to several of these schools. That's built-in goodwill. And even if he came up short as a recruiter, I think you have to give him credit as a good teacher of the jump shot.

Another league that might take a chance on Gerry is the schools in the MAAC. The MAAC schools are a good level where his name will also have stature. It's very much metro NYC, which would help him retain important recruiting ties, and maybe he would do better, placing those 2nd tier kids at his school than competing for Top 40 talent. Iona, St. Peters, Siena, Manhattan or Fairfield. Lots of quality schools, where many coaches have won before, and where many started their careers.

Other leagues are too far above him, to risk bigger budgets on a totally unproven head coach. Atlantic 10, MAC or Ivy leagues are above him until he has success at a school in the Patriot or the MAAC. That's how I see it for him.
 
kcsu said:
I'm not sold on Brown after tonight. He was exposed. I wouldn't pay up for him
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If they had a real center, it would open up this offense, and Maliq would be like having Rick Jackson as the "Robin" role on the boards and defense to the new center. He would be great at that job. He passes well. Put in an offense where he can take a foul line jumper instead of a 3 pointer from the top of the circle, and he will crush it. He's a terrific passer, has great hands and a great nose for the ball. As a sidekick, he's Scottie Pippin.
 
This is going to be a very interesting offseason, because we have a lot of pieces that could be back and make sense, but other than Maliq no piece that is a sure-fire returning starter on a good team. If JJ can continue to improve his 3-point shot, he could be the 5th best starter on a good team. If Bell could learn to shoot off a screen the way he shoots standing still OR improve his D/rebounding, he could be the 4th or 5th best starter on a good team.

We have too many guys with fatal flaws and you can't put them on the court together and expect a good result. What I would do...

Maliq - Stays, and hopefully primarily plays the 4.

Judah - Gone. He can't/won't pass (mix of both), can't shoot the 3, and takes too many bad shots. So... you sag off him, dare him to shoot, and don't let him beat you off the dribble. He's also way too reliant on getting to the line, and horrendous at working the officials. He gets them so pissed they're looking to stick it to him, not do him favors.

Hima - "Retires" due to injuries.

Westry - Stays, hopefully he's as good as the hype.

Patterson - Stays, let's see what we've got.

Q - Stays, ideally he's the sixth man and learns how to play a little more within himself. The exciting part to me is that we've seen flashes of what he can become, and the natural progression is to play more controlled and within yourself as you get more experience.

Those are the easy ones to me. So that opens up one portal. I would like to open up two additional portals from the guys below. I wouldn't be devastated if any of them left, nor would I be devastated if any of them stayed. But I'm hoping two are gone and Red can go after three portals.

Bell - Stays, and does nothing but shooting off screens in the gym all summer. If he can develop that part of his game and hustle more on defense he's a very valuable piece. If he can develop that part of his game and doesn't hustle, he's still worth having on the floor when he's hot.

JJ - Stays, and works on his 3 and his defense. Ideally becomes our 5th/6th man.

Cuffe - Stays, depth, can push for playing time.

Taylor - Goes, but I would feel pretty gross pushing him out because he's a serviceable depth player you can use in defensive situations and he sets a good example and works hard. I hate to force that type of guy out when he hasn't done anything wrong other than not be good enough. But, hopefully he wants to move down a level and play a bigger role somewhere else.

McLeod - Stays, depth player

Carey - Goes. I don't think he's put on enough weight, but I could be convinced he has potential. Just haven't seen enough to know. If one of the "stays" in this group leave, then no reason to push him out - seems unlikely we're going to get four portals.

Portal: A true PG, an experienced starting caliber C, and a 3-point shooter who's at least average defensively and/or can do more than just shoot 3's on offense.

New Rotation
1 - Portal PG/Q/Westry
2 - JJ/Q/Westry/Moore
3 - Freeman/Bell/Q/Westry
4 - Brown/Freeman
5 - Portal C/Patterson/Brown

Ideal Minutes
Portal PG 28
Q 22
JJ 22
Westry 22
Moore 6
Freeman 22
Bell 20
Brown 25
Portal C 23
Patterson 10

If you can get a third portal player who's starter caliber or close, obviously you plug them in there and that's perfect. They're going to eat into some of Bell's minutes. Then see how guys develop into their roles and adjust the rotation/minutes accordingly.

One thing I'm looking forward to is having enough depth that if someone is zoning out on defense, whining to Red during the course of play or yelling at the refs constantly, getting too out of control, or just plain doesn't have it that night, he can put them on the bench and not have the team suffer as a result.

This also allows the guys to play more aggressive defensively and push the tempo more. Let's see 100% effort for 20-25 minutes, not 80% effort for 38 minutes.

Also lets you do some fun things against the right opponents...

A small look...
1 - Portal PG
2 - JJ/Westry/Q/Moore
3 - JJ/Westry/Q/Moore
4 - Bell
5 - Brown/Freeman

A big look...
1 - Portal PG
2 - Q/Bell
3 - Freeman
4 - Brown
5 - Portal C

A 3 and rebound look...
1 - Portal PG
2 - Moore
3 - Bell
4 & 5 - Two of Brown/Patterson/Portal C

Imagine running screens and just cycling the ball around to get the 3-point shooters decent looks, and having two very tall, very good rebounders camped out on the glass ready to clean it up or kick it back out.

Hopefully some of the player movement I'm hoping for pans out and we can dream up different rotations and lineups to match up with different opponents. The exact opposite of this year's team that had too many fatal flaws and had to get the right matchup to have a chance.
 
I’m still and always will be a huge GMac fan. I’m sure his kids are still in school so he would prefer for them to stay where they are but who knows. I hope he stays at Cuse forever
 
baggerbob said:
I like Brown, but let's be realistic, when we were good he comes off the bench as a role player. We need better players in order to compete.
Expand...
Thing is, he's not really a C so he's been asked to bang down low with guys who are 3 to 6 inches taller and 20 to 60 pounds heavier. Despite that, he's putting up numbers at this point in his career that are ahead of where our 4s and 5s were as underclassmen on our good teams at the end of our time in the Big East.

Rick Jackson averaged 8 & 6 as a sophomore, Arinze averaged 13 & 7 as a sophomore, Rak averaged 5 & 5 as a sophomore and 6 & 5 as a junior.

Maliq's at 10 & 7, playing the 5 instead of the 4. No reason to think he can't develop into a 13-15ppg, 10rpg level PF. He's also a better passer than those guys.
 
IthacaMatt said:
I could see him getting a chance at a school like Lehigh, Bucknell, Holy Cross or a Lafayette kind of school in the Patriot League. That's a league with Army, Navy and Colgate. That's a good first job, IMO. His PA Legend status helps him recruit to several of these schools. That's built-in goodwill. And even if he came up short as a recruiter, I think you have to give him credit as a good teacher of the jump shot.

Another league that might take a chance on Gerry is the schools in the MAAC. The MAAC schools are a good level where his name will also have stature. It's very much metro NYC, which would help him retain important recruiting ties, and maybe he would do better, placing those 2nd tier kids at his school than competing for Top 40 talent. Iona, St. Peters, Siena, Manhattan or Fairfield. Lots of quality schools, where many coaches have won before, and where many started their careers.

Other leagues are too far above him, to risk bigger budgets on a totally unproven head coach. Atlantic 10, MAC or Ivy leagues are above him until he has success at a school in the Patriot or the MAAC. That's how I see it for him.
Expand...
He is an assistant in a middling ACC program. He is not getting a head coach job in the MAAC, Patriot League or Ivy League. Those go to assistants in successful P5 schools. Gerry is going to have to go to D2 or D3 for his first head coaching job.
 
Dinkyspond said:
He is an assistant in a middling ACC program. He is not getting a head coach job in the MAAC, Patriot League or Ivy League. Those go to assistants in successful P5 schools. Gerry is going to have to go to D2 or D3 for his first head coaching job.
Expand...

Of those schools I listed, several are having losing seasons and are going to fire their coach. Jobs will become open. If Gerry wants to look, I'm sure he will get some interviews. That's why all these coaches hire agents.

You might downplay him, but as a candidate for a job:
  • won a national championship in college
  • won a state championship in HS, where he scored more than 50 pts in the title game
  • coached some of the best 3 point shooters in Syracuse history - Buddy Boeheim, Cole Swider, Andrew White, Tyler Lydon, Joe Girard, Trevor Cooney, Mike Gbinije.
  • Twelve years as assistant to Hall of Fame coach.
 
Last edited:
Whoever is advising these kids needs to give them a dose of how hard it is to make the nba, especially now, since it’s literally deeper than ever with smarter front offices than ever.

Good luck chasing your dreams, truly, but are you kidding me?

JJ wants to test the NBA to get feedback, sure. But don’t wait for him. It’s go time and we just had to go through a year of a guy auditioning for the NBA that he was never going to make this year.
 
pokercuse08 said:
This is going to be a very interesting offseason, because we have a lot of pieces that could be back and make sense, but other than Maliq no piece that is a sure-fire returning starter on a good team. If JJ can continue to improve his 3-point shot, he could be the 5th best starter on a good team. If Bell could learn to shoot off a screen the way he shoots standing still OR improve his D/rebounding, he could be the 4th or 5th best starter on a good team.

We have too many guys with fatal flaws and you can't put them on the court together and expect a good result. What I would do...

Maliq - Stays, and hopefully primarily plays the 4.

Judah - Gone. He can't/won't pass (mix of both), can't shoot the 3, and takes too many bad shots. So... you sag off him, dare him to shoot, and don't let him beat you off the dribble. He's also way too reliant on getting to the line, and horrendous at working the officials. He gets them so pissed they're looking to stick it to him, not do him favors.

Hima - "Retires" due to injuries.

Westry - Stays, hopefully he's as good as the hype.

Patterson - Stays, let's see what we've got.

Q - Stays, ideally he's the sixth man and learns how to play a little more within himself. The exciting part to me is that we've seen flashes of what he can become, and the natural progression is to play more controlled and within yourself as you get more experience.

Those are the easy ones to me. So that opens up one portal. I would like to open up two additional portals from the guys below. I wouldn't be devastated if any of them left, nor would I be devastated if any of them stayed. But I'm hoping two are gone and Red can go after three portals.

Bell - Stays, and does nothing but shooting off screens in the gym all summer. If he can develop that part of his game and hustle more on defense he's a very valuable piece. If he can develop that part of his game and doesn't hustle, he's still worth having on the floor when he's hot.

JJ - Stays, and works on his 3 and his defense. Ideally becomes our 5th/6th man.

Cuffe - Stays, depth, can push for playing time.

Taylor - Goes, but I would feel pretty gross pushing him out because he's a serviceable depth player you can use in defensive situations and he sets a good example and works hard. I hate to force that type of guy out when he hasn't done anything wrong other than not be good enough. But, hopefully he wants to move down a level and play a bigger role somewhere else.

McLeod - Stays, depth player

Carey - Goes. I don't think he's put on enough weight, but I could be convinced he has potential. Just haven't seen enough to know. If one of the "stays" in this group leave, then no reason to push him out - seems unlikely we're going to get four portals.

Portal: A true PG, an experienced starting caliber C, and a 3-point shooter who's at least average defensively and/or can do more than just shoot 3's on offense.

New Rotation
1 - Portal PG/Q/Westry
2 - JJ/Q/Westry/Moore
3 - Freeman/Bell/Q/Westry
4 - Brown/Freeman
5 - Portal C/Patterson/Brown

Ideal Minutes
Portal PG 28
Q 22
JJ 22
Westry 22
Moore 6
Freeman 22
Bell 20
Brown 25
Portal C 23
Patterson 10

If you can get a third portal player who's starter caliber or close, obviously you plug them in there and that's perfect. They're going to eat into some of Bell's minutes. Then see how guys develop into their roles and adjust the rotation/minutes accordingly.

One thing I'm looking forward to is having enough depth that if someone is zoning out on defense, whining to Red during the course of play or yelling at the refs constantly, getting too out of control, or just plain doesn't have it that night, he can put them on the bench and not have the team suffer as a result.

This also allows the guys to play more aggressive defensively and push the tempo more. Let's see 100% effort for 20-25 minutes, not 80% effort for 38 minutes.

Also lets you do some fun things against the right opponents...

A small look...
1 - Portal PG
2 - JJ/Westry/Q/Moore
3 - JJ/Westry/Q/Moore
4 - Bell
5 - Brown/Freeman

A big look...
1 - Portal PG
2 - Q/Bell
3 - Freeman
4 - Brown
5 - Portal C

A 3 and rebound look...
1 - Portal PG
2 - Moore
3 - Bell
4 & 5 - Two of Brown/Patterson/Portal C

Imagine running screens and just cycling the ball around to get the 3-point shooters decent looks, and having two very tall, very good rebounders camped out on the glass ready to clean it up or kick it back out.

Hopefully some of the player movement I'm hoping for pans out and we can dream up different rotations and lineups to match up with different opponents. The exact opposite of this year's team that had too many fatal flaws and had to get the right matchup to have a chance.
Expand...
Westry will be back and hopefully healthy.
 
hoopsupstate said:
Judah had a crappy answer in the press conference. He said he had a new “head on the snake” this year and it was difficult at times. The kid is uncoachable and just doesn’t know how to play within a team concept.
Expand...
What does that even mean?
 
Not a single player on this roster is even worthy of draft consideration right now imo. Maliq could be a bench rotational front court player some day but nobody in the backcourt is close to rosterable.

Maybe I’m wrong. Certainly no expert.
 
NineOneSeven said:
Not a single player on this roster is even worthy of draft consideration right now imo. Maliq could be a bench rotational front court player some day but nobody in the backcourt is close to rosterable.

Maybe I’m wrong. Certainly no expert.
Expand...
Could Maliq even score in the league? Not sure he could ever get a shot off.
 
hoopsupstate said:
The NBA will tell JJ to improve his handle, improve your three point shooting, pass to your teammates and try to learn how to guard a chair. He has a long way to go. I’m not sure if he will beat out Moore next year. He also lacks some toughness. Other than this, he’s ready for the NBA.
Expand...
You forgot to mention “find a compatible point guard that cares more about team than self success”.

JJ’s got a lot to improve on but he’s clearly talented and improved throughout the season. We don’t win UNC without him. He’s a talent im surprised people arent looking forward to retaining.
 
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