Postgame Thoughts… Duke game 2

[IthacaMatt]

I feel like his blame for certain guys is pre meditated... how on earth can you blame frank when they made 7 out of 8 wide open threes to start the game

8 transfers the last 2 years. Correlation or causation?

 

[miamicuse]

That's too bad. It was 48-18 at one point in the first half.

That's rough.

That's the precise moment I left the bar. I have tickets to Heat vs Spurs this evening and went down to Miami early, walked over to the intercontinental hotel and sat at the bar to watch Cuse/Duke. At 48-18 I closed the tab and walked back to the arena.

 

[Alsacs]

This is Axe trying to stay in JB’s good graces.

Buddy is a number 2 or 3 option on a good team.
Usage inflates his numbers.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Is he trying to get Frank to hit the portal? Frank wasn't why we gave up 15 treys.

Next year, Frank, Jesse, Joe, Benny and (*hopefully) Swider are the core of a terrific, Sweet 16 level kind of team. That's a team, plus all the new guys, that's good enough to be ranked again. Come on, let's try to keep this team together!

 

[kuethstheman]

This is Axe trying to stay in JB’s good graces.

Buddy is a number 2 or 3 option on a good team.
Usage inflates his numbers.

I don't get your first sentence. Agree completely with the second.

Fans must be blind to complain about Buddy, except around the edges. Sure, you can tell that he's not going to pass, most of the time. Yet, we lose if he doesn't score, pretty much every time he touches the ball.

Not his fault that he's the best (only, most nights?) scorer on the team.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

it’s Not his fault that he thinks he’s the only scorer on the team.

Fify

that’s what the coach has told him for a couple years now

 

[Dinkyspond]

Next year, Frank, Jesse, Joe, Benny and (*hopefully) Swider are the core of a terrific, Sweet 16 level kind of team. That's a team, plus all the new guys, that's good enough to be ranked again. Come on, let's try to keep this team together!

I think that team may be worse than this year's if that's possible

 

[Jake]

On 21 shots though

Meh. I have issues with his shot selection sometimes, but who else is going to shoot?

Buddy is an ACC caliber player, no ifs ands or buts about it. He’d be more effecient scorer (maybe even higher scorer), if he had another player who you had to respect on the floor offensively.

But he’s paired with an inconsistent point guard who can’t get to the rim and finish off the bounce, and two forwards who are unathlectic role players at best.

If you simply replace Jimmy with Quincy - the dynamics completely change. He may enjoy playing with his brother tremendously, but it’s been bad for his game this year.

 

[kuethstheman]

Fify

that’s what the coach has told him for a couple years now

If that's the case, JB proves once again that he knows more about basketball than his detractors.

And, for those paying attention, the problem is not JB's strategy, or his kids, it's that Buddy is his best player,

Or Tyus,

Or Marek.

Or Tyler.

 

[TinyManInside]

Meh. I have issues with his shot selection sometimes, but who else is going to shoot?

Buddy is an ACC caliber player, no ifs ands or buts about it. He’d be more effecient scorer (maybe even higher scorer), if he had another player who you had to respect on the floor offensively.

But he’s paired with an inconsistent point guard who can’t get to the rim and finish off the bounce, and two forwards who are unathlectic role players at best.

If you simply replace Jimmy with Quincy - the dynamics completely change. He may enjoy playing with his brother tremendously, but it’s been bad for his game this year.

Buddy also misses Marek, who really helped open up the floor for him. It was nice to have a player on the court who thought "pass first" instead of "we're down 20, time to make sure I get my points".

 

[MikeSU02]

Meh. I have issues with his shot selection sometimes, but who else is going to shoot?

Buddy is an ACC caliber player, no ifs ands or buts about it. He’d be more effecient scorer (maybe even higher scorer), if he had another player who you had to respect on the floor offensively.

But he’s paired with an inconsistent point guard who can’t get to the rim and finish off the bounce, and two forwards who are unathlectic role players at best.

If you simply replace Jimmy with Quincy - the dynamics completely change. He may enjoy playing with his brother tremendously, but it’s been bad for his game this year.

We’ll never know. It’s not only that Buddy is shooting a ton but it’s a feature, not a bug, and has been set up this way.

He’s at an absurd 16 and a half FGA per game this year. He was slightly lower (at 16 or so) with Jesse who was top 5 in the country in fg% and Joe with improved percentages.

He was at 15 last year and 13.5 the year before.

He is a volume shooter because that’s what he does and what his coach lets him do at a career 41% from the field with truly bad defense.

Yes, he can play at this level. But him shooting as much as he does will never be a winning recipe bc he doesn’t make the rest of the team better with it.

Yes, he would be better if he played with better players. So would anyone.

 

[MikeSU02]

Buddy also misses Marek, who really helped open up the floor for him. It was nice to have a player on the court who thought "pass first" instead of "we're done 20, time to make sure I get my points".

I agree, but no one stat hunts more than Buddy.

Is what it is with that, and he’s def not the only one, but I’m also not sure how fun it is to be deferential to a volume shooter that isn’t banking you a 4 or 5 seed in the tourney.

 

[hoopsupstate]

Just got back from the game. Sure the game was over early, but we kept playing. With Ajax, Sid and Benny on the front line we were much better on defense.. We were so much better challenging their bigs inside. Ajak actually challenged their bigs on defense. Buddy and Joe actually scored today when they couldn’t get shots off in the first game. We just don’t have an answer for Williams without Jessie. Like JB said on Thursday night, teams are better equipped to play against the zone today. Duke has every piece to eat up a zone and they did today. This team has zero chance trying to play man. We have some pieces for next year. Ajax can have a role on this team.

 

[Jake]

We’ll never know. It’s not only that Buddy is shooting a ton but it’s a feature, not a bug, and has been set up this way.

He’s at an absurd 16 and a half FGA per game this year. He was slightly lower (at 16 or so) with Jesse who was top 5 in the country in fg% and Joe with improved percentages.

He was at 15 last year and 13.5 the year before.

He is a volume shooter because that’s what he does and what his coach lets him do at a career 41% from the field with truly bad defense.

Yes, he can play at this level. But him shooting as much as he does will never be a winning recipe bc he doesn’t make the rest of the team better with it.

Yes, he would be better if he played with better players. So would anyone.

He’d be less of a volume shooter with a better team make up…that’s my point.

And I agree, we’re not winning much if he has to take 21 shots a game….especially when none of them are open looks.

 

[MikeSU02]

He’d be less of a volume shooter with a better team make up…that’s my point.

And I agree, we’re not winning much if he has to take 21 shots a game….especially when none of them are open looks.

I agree it would be less, but guessing not too much less. He had Q last year and still threw up 15 a game. He was also a flamethrower at the end, so maybe I’m being nit picky and a little unfair.

Regardless, like you said, we aren’t doing much of anything if he’s throwing it up 20+ times a game.

Unfortunately, I’m guessing he’s going 18 shots or more the rest of the year.

 

[TinyManInside]

I agree, but no one stat hunts more than Buddy.

Is what it is with that, and he’s def not the only one, but I’m also not sure how fun it is to be deferential to a volume shooter that isn’t banking you a 4 or 5 seed in the tourney.

It's just so frustrating the 7 or 8 times a game that he puts his head down and you KNOW that there will be no other result from the play than either him shooting or turning the ball over.

To his credit he's stopped with the "I'm going to back down my defender from 18 feet from the basket" nonsense that was leading to him being stripped from behind multiple times a game... I just wish he wouldn't make up his mind what he is going to do with literally no sense of what the other 9 guys on the floor are doing.

That said, Buddy isn't really the problem with this team. There isn't really a single player that's the problem, it's more the total construction/ensemble that doesn't really fit. Buddy would literally be the missing piece on about ten or twelve other really good but not great SU teams from the past.

 

[MikeSU02]

It's just so frustrating the 7 or 8 times a game that he puts his head down and you KNOW that there will be no other result from the play than either him shooting or turning the ball over.

To his credit he's stopped with the "I'm going to back down my defender from 18 feet from the basket" nonsense that was leading to him being stripped from behind multiple times a game... I just wish he wouldn't make up his mind what he is going to do with literally no sense of what the other 9 guys on the floor are doing.

That said, Buddy isn't really the problem with this team. There isn't really a single player that's the problem, it's more the total construction/ensemble that doesn't really fit. Buddy would literally be the missing piece on about ten or twelve other really good but not great SU teams from the past.

100% agree.

If nothing else, we’ll have that fun run last year when he was NBA Jam level flame throwing.

 

[kcsu]

The problem is that we dont have a single player that can take their man off the bounce other than Sy and he usually cant finish. We have a bunch of outside shooters who as a group are one dimensional and lack athleticism. Its not a winning formula.

 

[Orangefan1]

Buddy gives it his all every game I can’t knock the kids effort I just can’t

 

[kirbivore]

Buddy gives it his all every game I can’t knock the kids effort I just can’t

Not on defense

 

[NineOneSeven]

What don't you get? We haven't been ranked in the regular ACC season since 2014. That isn't acceptable to a lot of us. Its a combination of things. The recruiting misses aren't just a coincidence.

This point gets mentioned a good amount, but still not enough. It's actually ridiculous, when you truly think about it. Slowly.

It is 2022.

 

[NineOneSeven]

There were what, 7 or 8 losses by top 10 teams today? Some crazy basketball. And we lost by 25 in the dome with 32k in the stands to one of those top 10 teams. I understand we lost to a top team. But that performance is just not acceptable against any team.

 

[CU44SE]

I don’t know why anyone is surprised about bashing frank. Jim was bashing Edwards all year even though he was the best player on the court. Now Edwards goes out and Jim says how important he was for us and how much we miss him. So Jim, which one is it?

 

[phil77]

I have an honest question...What kind of offense do we run? There is no movement or motion? Everyone just stands around.

 

[CU44SE]

Buddy is a high end ACC player, he without a doubt deserves a spot on a high major team. The problem is though, Buddy is not and should not be a #1 guy. He is asked to do it on this team because we run 0 offense and honestly, have no one on the team that can run the offense and get guys open looks. So we need him to jack up shots to get some points. It amazes me that jim goes out and gets all these shooters. But then doesn’t have a point guard to break down the defense to get it to these shooters. He has shooters without point guards and plays. Crazy offensive strategy.