Postgame Thoughts… VCU

[AZOrange]

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.

That and the scheme. Not sure if any of you have seen UofA play this year under first year coach from Zags but that’s how I want to play.

 

[Cuse'91]

Can't afford to wait much longer, need to shake up things starting today. Start Benny; bring a veteran spark plug, Jimmy, off the bench. That, at the very least, needs to be done immediately. Hopefully, Sidibe is close to trying to give it another go soon.

 

[Nicknack]

My postgame thoughts are boooooooooo

Well said and I concur.

 

[baggerbob]

Coach is saying in the postgame presser that Jesse has to stay in the game for us to be successful and he's right. The problem is that Jesse has an impossible job. If the top of the zone can't stop dribble penetration, then it's essentially 3 on 1 or 3 on 2 in the paint and Jesse can't be expected to stay out of foul trouble if he's repeatedly put into that situation. The top of the zone is the weakest it's been since White-Gillon and Edwards can't be expected to clean up the mess every possession.

Coach is saying in the postgame presser that Jesse has to stay in the game for us to be successful and he's right. The problem is that Jesse has an impossible job. If the top of the zone can't stop dribble penetration, then it's essentially 3 on 1 or 3 on 2 in the paint and Jesse can't be expected to stay out of foul trouble if he's repeatedly put into that situation. The top of the zone is the weakest it's been since White-Gillon and Edwards can't be expected to clean up the mess every possession.

Girard 0 assists in 37 minutes. We need a forward who can pass in the lane, and we need Girard at SG tonight, we didnt have a 2nd threat from deep.

0 assists and 4 turnovers, that should get anyone a permanent seat on the bench. Not counting 2 for 10 in shooting.

 

[kirbivore]

At the simplest level, the zone is built on the fact that college players are poor three point shooters … so the offense is built around college players shooting three pointers.

Not true anymore. In the age of Steph Curry the zone is obsolete.

 

[kirbivore]

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.

I watched the 2nd half of Texas A&M / Notre Dame and the Aggies would make hockey style line change substitutions, bringing in 4 dudes at a time.

 

[Sherman20]

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.

It’s not that I necessarily disagree that it could be true. It’s that I just can’t bring myself to believe a HOF coach with 50 years of experience has devolved so mentally over the past few years that he would make decisions based on his fear of fan criticism of playing time. I mean, if it’s true, that is total insanity and means JB is no longer a capable head coach. The current situation is due to complete coaching malpractice in the off-season roster construction. The portal was a prime opportunity to bring in some high level transfers.

 

[Alsacs]

It’s not that I necessarily disagree that it could be true. It’s that I just can’t bring myself to believe a HOF coach with 50 years of experience has devolved so mentally over the past few years that he would make decisions based on his fear of fan criticism of playing time. I mean, if it’s true, that is total insanity and means JB is no longer a capable head coach. This is total and complete coaching malpractice in the off-season roster construction. The portal was a prime opportunity to bring in some high level transfers.

Not if he wants to win his way.
Which is what I am saying.
We neglect positions and depth and have round peg into square hole for years.
I am not saying he is trying to lose but he wants to his way.

 

[djcon57]

It’s not that I necessarily disagree that it could be true. It’s that I just can’t bring myself to believe a HOF coach with 50 years of experience has devolved so mentally over the past few years that he would make decisions based on his fear of fan criticism of playing time. I mean, if it’s true, that is total insanity and means JB is no longer a capable head coach. The current situation is due to complete coaching malpractice in the off-season roster construction. The portal was a prime opportunity to bring in some high level transfers.

was obvious when we brought in Symir what the play was, I posted this on March 31st

”despite what others have posted here, that next year will be Joe for 30+ mins a game. I truly believe this move solidified it. I don’t expect them to bring in any other guard to challenge for playing time.”

Symir Torrence Transferring from Marquette to Syracuse

Gbinije wasn’t turning heads at Duke. it’s ridiculous to have G and Elijah comparisons for the sake of powdering up this acquisition, but it is fair added perspective considering this kid did reclassify. Who knows what hes capable of. Im confident though that hes better than what his Marquette...

syracusefan.com

he wanted to prove a point for whatever reason that he was right about his decision at PG. so this is what we got.

 

[CousCuse]

SU was ahead at halftime, no reason to change the game plan that much then.

 

[oTTo113445]

I said a lot of things wrong on meltdown last night. My apologies. I can see that after watching the replay.
1. we were acceptable 1 half on defense 0 halfs on scoring. 1-4, and still in the game late. We were up because of defense the first half.
2. Need a 4th scorer until that happens Joe might have a lot of 1-2 assist games shooting 30% from the field as our 3rd option when he's overs-hadowed. Its more that than it is pg vs sg.
3. Sy throws short passes against pressure better compared to Girard, needs a 3rd scorer to help. Frank isnt as ready as Edwards to rebound. Edwards no stupid fouls.
4. Boxscore tells it all about this team until we fix the above because we do nothing great as a whole yet.
5. We might see 3 guards the last 3 minutes of halfs early on to prevent losses. Jimmy being the 4th.

It is possible, the pressure made a 4-man team become a 3-man team making Girard half as effective, and 4 subs( including swider) fighting for minutes last night. We need time and lots of patience.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

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.

I think he was satisfied with the roster.

Didn't he say recently that there were portal guys willing to come that he turned away?

I just don't understand why.

Bring in as much talent as possible and let the cream rise to the top.

Instead we got to 8 dudes and were like "nah."

 

[oTTo113445]

We might see a bit of 3 guards in the next few weeks to see what Sy can really do unless Cole gets consistant. Jimmy being the 4th man. Need Edwards rebounding in that lineup though to do so. Maybe a box and one? Jimmy and Buddy are doing everything we can ask from them, atm.

 

[Fly Rodder]

Jimmy has been and looks better than I expected, the rest of the starters (sans Cole) have met my expectations. I was hoping for more passing and screens to find the open man, but we have 4 guys hunting their own shot - however they aren’t real capable of creating their own.

I’m curious to see if there are any changes in game plan today.

 

[Alsacs]

Jimmy has been and looks better than I expected, the rest of the starters (sans Cole) have met my expectations. I was hoping for more passing and screens to find the open man, but we have 4 guys hunting their own shot - however they aren’t real capable of creating their own.

I’m curious to see if there are any changes in game plan today.

Jimmy was the only player who could drive the ball on his defender and he made buckets as a result.
Buddy tried the buddy backdown yesterday and he didn’t finish.
Swider had a bunch of open shots he missed.
Jimmy is a less athletic CJ Fair.

He can get buckets but if we have to rely on him we are in trouble.
I don’t blame Buddy yesterday he had the defense all over him. If we actually ran plays in the half court we could use Buddy like the Pacers used Reggie Miller screens galore to help get him clean looks and ball movement.

Instead it’s just everyone go iso.

 

[jdubs30]

Jimmy was the only player who could drive the ball on his defender and he made buckets as a result.
Buddy tried the buddy backdown yesterday and he didn’t finish.
Swider had a bunch of open shots he missed.
Jimmy is a less athletic CJ Fair.

He can get buckets but if we have to rely on him we are in trouble.
I don’t blame Buddy yesterday he had the defense all over him. If we actually ran plays in the half court we could use Buddy like the Pacers used Reggie Miller screens galore to help get him clean looks and ball movement.

Instead it’s just everyone go iso.

Jimmy will clearly be our most consistent scorer all year. There will be games where Buddy is going up against an elite defender or he’s just off. Jimmy can score at all 3 levels and get to the line. He’s crafty and is good at creating space. I think he will be a hard guard for a lot of teams. The problem is he isn’t a good passer or creator for others. He will score in double digits every game this year

 

[OrangeDW]

Teams like UConn and St. Bonaventure being ranked and Colgate kicking our teeth in….this is just completely unacceptable. Those programs don’t have one single advantage over us: resources, conference, facilities, recruiting territory, history, brand, etc.

Completely ridiculous. Get some players.

 

[oTTo113445]

Cole took 14 shots yesterday. I like to see that. He was only 3-8 and 4-8 the last two in the dome, probably because Girard was playing awesome. When your top four scorers all shoot 30% though and you give up 55% from the field in the second half.

 

[NorSyr66]

We gave up 44 points in the SECOND half to a team that averages 50 points a game.

This post sums it up best!!!

 

[STEVEHOLT]

That and the scheme. Not sure if any of you have seen UofA play this year under first year coach from Zags but that’s how I want to play.

aZ was very impressive vs Michigan .. but the level of athletes they have on that roster is so far beyond what we have .. that’s it’s hard to say we could even play that way ..

 

[STEVEHOLT]

Teams like UConn and St. Bonaventure being ranked and Colgate kicking our teeth in….this is just completely unacceptable. Those programs don’t have one single advantage over us: resources, conference, facilities, recruiting territory, history, brand, etc.

Completely ridiculous. Get some players.

I can think of one huge advantage they all have

 

[crv1728]

Girards close outs drive me insane. He never even tries

I watched Joe Girard play in the section 2, class B championship game when he was a senior in high school and had committed to SU. My wife, my son and I all noticed and commented early on in that game that he just didn’t seem to try on the defensive end. Maybe that was because he was everything offensively for his high school team, but not much seems to have changed. Defense seems to be for others, but not him.

 

[CuseTroop]

At the very least couldn't CuseTroop keep us posted of whatever shenanigans he's up to in Atlantis?

I had planned to keep you guys better updated, but yesterday got away from me. Craps table got me good, then the dance floor reallllly got me


Woke up this morning feeling rouggghhh. Like my limbs literally wouldn’t work.

Looks like that loss pulled Alsacs outa retirement, so It’s not all bad.

Tonight was good, tomorrow will be epic.

 

[Fat tire 13]

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.

Of all the points, this one rings the most true

I said before the year started, even if Jesse has made the leap (which is awesome), he only played over 20 minutes in a game three times last year. Two of those times he was in foul trouble. You can't count on him playing the entire second half like he did last night.

Taking it one step further - if JG, Buddy, or Jesse gets hurt, banged up, or even gets the flu - does anyone see any chance of Cuse winning a game? When you play all the starters 35-40 minutes you are rolling the dice on their health too. Even the best NBA players sit 10-15 minutes per game

 

[CardiacCuse]

I suspect teams will press us all year, even if they aren’t typically pressing teams. It totally throws off any sort of rhythm on offense

yeah I can see why JB and staff might have thought beating pressing teams wasnt too much of an issue ...last season it didnt really hurt much...except for the Houston game. But I agree. I think they are underestimating how much opponents might do it...the blueprint is out ...on both sides of the ball.

I think just because syracuse doesnt really change up their defense they might be assuming other teams wont either...which would be a mistake. Its actually the exception to only stick with one system no matter what, not the rule.