Postgame Thoughts… VCU

[Orangeman]

I guess that’s the part I don’t understand. How did our recruiting collapse so badly?

non-stop 2-3 Zone, no up-tempo, boom

 

[Jake]

It’s just the overall lack of athleticism that is killing us. We don’t win that battle at any position on the floor. It’s really glaring at the forward positions.

Can’t win without somebody being able to win a 50/50 ball at 10 feet in the air.

 

[Sherman20]

It’s crazy how much of a difference those guys made last year in the zone. None of them were even particularly good defenders (Braswell was solid, AG was the worst) but at least last year we didn’t look completely outmatched athletically.

Griff and Q were a bit undersized but good athletes. Griff could really get off the floor. He blocked lots of shots for us underneath. His biggest problem was between his ears.

 

[jdubs30]

It’s just the overall lack of athleticism that is killing us. We don’t win that battle at any position on the floor. It’s really glaring at the forward positions.

Can’t win without somebody being able to win a 50/50 ball at 10 feet in the air.

It’s funny watching Jimmy and Cole go for a board compared to Benny. VCU was able to easily out jump everyone for boards but Benny gets higher than everyone

 

[Alsacs]

It’s just the overall lack of athleticism that is killing us. We don’t win that battle at any position on the floor. It’s really glaring at the forward positions.

Can’t win without somebody being able to win a 50/50 ball at 10 feet in the air.

Shooting and spacing though.
The HC pounded those words into this fanbase heads.
Athleticism can make up for spacing.
Shooting is nice when you have point guard play. Not just saying make your shots and get assists off jumpers.
We built a team that nobody could question the rotation about. We literally don’t have a roster after the top 8 players and the 8th player is struggling and 9th player is hurt.

Our players are going to get worn down the next 2 days even though TV timeouts give them rest.

People on this board saw this coming and were called negative and haters.

We all want to win. Our lack of the athleticism wasn’t hard to predict.

 

[jdubs30]

Griff and Q were a bit undersized but good athletes. Griff could really get off the floor. He blocked lots of shots for us underneath. His biggest problem was between his ears.

Agreed. AG had some insane help side blocks

 

[Cusefan0307]

The fact that Jimmy Boeheim is our best all around FC player is a problem. We need Benny and Cole to be good to be good and Edwards needs to stay out of foul trouble.

I realize Joe struggled last night, but the Front court is a mess and I personally expected a lot more from Benny and Swider.

 

[jdubs30]

I just can’t believe we heard from JB for 3 years how Tyler Roberson couldn’t rebound. Now look at our forwards 5 years later

 

[Sherman20]

It’s funny watching Jimmy and Cole go for a board compared to Benny. VCU was able to easily out jump everyone for boards but Benny gets higher than everyone

Totally. VCU has some good athletes but no one who’s super skilled. I still can’t believe Tsonis, Hop’s former PG from Washington, killed us from all over the floor and knocked down all those shots. Didn’t Washington fans think his transfer loss was addition by subtraction?

 

[OrangeDW]

Agreed. AG had some insane help side blocks

Saved the season with that Buffalo block on a fast break.

 

[Alsacs]

J

The fact that Jimmy Boeheim is our best all around FC player is a problem. We need Benny and Cole to be good to be good and Edwards needs to stay out of foul trouble.

I realize Joe struggled last night, but the Front court is a mess and I personally expected a lot more from Benny and Swider.

I wish Benny could get 10 minutes stretches to play where any mistake he makes wouldn’t get him scrutinized and kill his confidence.

Swider should have sat the second half yesterday and just given those minutes to Benny but nope.

If you are predictable it’s not hard to beat us if we don’t make 3’s. Sometimes making the opponent think will allow them to mess things up.
VCU face guarded the crap out of our team and only Jimmy Jr was able to take advantage of that.

 

[Jake]

Totally. VCU has some good athletes but no one who’s super skilled. I still can’t believe Tsonis, Hop’s former PG from Washington, killed us from all over the floor and knocked down all those shots. Didn’t Washington fans think his transfer loss was addition by subtraction?

I thought he was a good player…outplayed Quade many nights.

 

[althea]

If Cole doesn’t start putting up some decent numbers in the next few games, I would play Benny more. At least he seems to have potential. Cole has been very disappointing.

 

[Sherman20]

Shooting and spacing though.
The HC pounded those words into this fanbase heads.
Athleticism can make up for spacing.
Shooting is nice when you have point guard play. Not just saying make your shots and get assists off jumpers.
We built a team that nobody could question the rotation about. We literally don’t have a roster after the top 8 players and the 8th player is struggling and 9th player is hurt.

Our players are going to get worn down the next 2 days even though TV timeouts give them rest.

People on this board saw this coming and were called negative and haters.

We all want to win. Our lack of the athleticism wasn’t hard to predict.

Do you really think JB simply constructed the roster to avoid criticism of the rotation? I mean, I’ve heard this theorized on the board, but I just can’t bring myself to believe that a 77 year old HOF coach, no matter how insanely thin skinned he is, would commit that kind of coaching malpractice to avoid fan criticism. He claims the smaller roster was to avoid chemistry issues, which I think is also stupid. It’s the damn coaches’ jobs to foster good team chemistry! Other teams can do just fine with large rosters. I do think it’s the height of insanity that we were basically done with the portal in the first week after the season ended(!), and we went into the season with only 3 forwards. All the coaches’ evaluations of players is sorely lacking, but JB is mostly to blame for his poor roster construction.

 

[jdubs30]

Totally. VCU has some good athletes but no one who’s super skilled. I still can’t believe Tsonis, Hop’s former PG from Washington, killed us from all over the floor and knocked down all those shots. Didn’t Washington fans think his transfer loss was addition by subtraction?

We left him WIDE open for 3 several times, no one even close to him - he does have a weird, elongated release but he had so much time to get his shoot off vs us.

And he was just another in the line of VCU guards who bothered Joe. It didn’t matter who guarded him, he was still dribbling with his back to the basket 35ft from the hoop

 

[Sherman20]

I thought he was a good player…outplayed Quade many nights.

I mean, I still hope Cole can get it going. But we should have been begging Griff to come back, especially after Q left.

 

[Sherman20]

We left him WIDE open for 3 several times, no one even close to him - he does have a weird, elongated release but he had so much time to get his shoot off vs us.

And he was just another in the line of VCU guards who bothered Joe. It didn’t matter who guarded him, he was still dribbling with his back to the basket 35ft from the hoop

Our defensive rotations are atrocious right now. One guy messes up and we’re completely out of sync. And we can’t make up for it with high level athleticism. Painful.

 

[Alsacs]

Do you really think JB simply constructed the roster to avoid criticism of the rotation? I mean, I just can’t bring myself to believe that a 77 year old HOF coach, no matter how thin skinned he is, would commit that kind of coaching malpractice to avoid fan criticism. He claims the smaller roster was to avoid chemistry issues, which I think is also stupid. It’s the damn coaches’ jobs to foster good team chemistry! Other teams can do just fine with large rosters. I do think it’s the height of insanity that we were basically done with the portal in the first week or two after the season ended(!), and we went into the season with only 3 forwards. All the coaches’ evaluations of players is sorely lacking, but JB is mostly to blame for his poor roster construction.

I honestly believe it. It’s part of his thought process.
Thin skinned and it’s been more and more transparent in postgame press conferences.
The idea we have 4 wasted scholarships this season is insane. Then people will bring up sanctions where we lost 2 for 2 seasons, 3 for 1 season and 1 for season.

There is no way anyone can complain about the backcourt PT anymore. We literally have no options.
Yes I believe that is for a reason. Not one person expected the PG to be a 4 year starting PG over 30 MPG. Except our HC. One person is determined to make him GMac2.0 when GMac had Edelin for 2 years. Why can’t we find a Edelin or Scoop who grew every year from bench to starter for the latter.

You can disagree the idea is not ridiculous one iota with the way things have been going.

 

[jdubs30]

Our defensive rotations are atrocious right now. One guy messes up and we’re completely out of sync. And we can’t make up for it with high level athleticism. Painful.

Girards close outs drive me insane. He never even tries

 

[CU44SE]

After rewatching this is Swider even makes three more shots we are about a point away…maybe once he gets going we willl have better results

The VCU team that is now 3-2. And has scored 48 and 44 points this year? This was there season high of 67, 10 more points then any other game and they have played the likes of St. Peter’s, Wagner, Vanderbilt, and Chattanooga. Offense isn’t the only problem!!!! This isn’t a good team we lost too by double digits yesterday.


My point is, even if swider hits more shots, we have other issues that will hold us back against better teams. This wasn’t a hit a few more shots kind of a night. Because our next 5 opponents are all much better then VCU.

 

[SUFan44]

Coaches did too

Fans will be fans. They have optimism (preseason at least). Bulldog and those that have influence on this board and elsewhere are influenced by coaches and their opinions. And what else are the coaches supposed to say? We stink?

This is squarely on the coaches from every angle possible.

 

[Red Holzman]

Ugly game got far worse when starters became fatigued from high minutes.
Imagine the level of fatigue if Buddy/Joe/etc actually MOVED on offense!
Athletic/pressing VCU had two guys play 32", the rest 25" and under.
SU's lesser athletes played 36-39".

Lesser athletes need lower minutes to put in the huge effort needed vs better athletes.
The players on this roster need to play with a high energy level to make up for low athleticism -
But they can't give a full effort while playing 36-39". SU has no bench, so here we are again.

Need my best pair of Orange -Colored glasses to avoid despair thinking about rest of this season.

 

[CU44SE]

Ugly game got far worse when starters became fatigued from high minutes.
Imagine the level of fatigue if Buddy/Joe/etc actually MOVED on offense!
Athletic/pressing VCU had two guys play 32", the rest 25" and under.
SU's lesser athletes played 36-39".

Lesser athletes need lower minutes to put in the huge effort needed vs better athletes.
The players on this roster need to play with a high energy level to make up for low athleticism -
But they can't give a full effort while playing 36-39". SU has no bench, so here we are again.

Need my best pair of Orange -Colored glasses to avoid despair thinking about rest of this season.

But college kids don’t get tired I thought?

 

[Red Holzman]

But college kids don’t get tired I thought?

Still thinking that?
Expect this season to provide ongoing opportunity to debate this one -unfortunately.

 

[CU44SE]

Still thinking that?
Expect this season to provide ongoing opportunity to debate this one -unfortunately.

I just love how Jim says stuff. People then believe it because Jim said it and he knows what he is talking about. But then literally we watch it play out with our own eyes!!! He has contradicted what he says a lot these last few years. I don’t know if he thinks we’re stupid but it’s very insulting.