Postgame Thoughts… VCU

[Ajflood12]

you forgot anselem and benny

I think my point overall still stands.

 

[CardiacCuse]

We all saw Joe has trouble bringing the ball up against pressure last year. But Richmond would come in and bail us out. There's nobody to do that this year. Symir is a better ball handler but teams know they don't need to guard him because he can't shoot a lick. The offense stagnates so he has to go out pretty quickly. The cavalry isn't coming to fix this.

its like the coaches didnt actually watch the houston game.

any team with the athleticism of houston/vcu/etc...there are many will watch this and apply the same recipe...and there is no answer for it. its over.

 

[JeremyCuse]

you forgot anselem symir and benny

Frank was on the roster last year.

 

[crv1728]

My birthday was great except for this game.

Same here! I think I realized last year that we have the same birthday. Great day here - no work, a few Old Fashioneds at happy hour, but then I came home to witness this horrible game. Ugh! Just turned sixty, and if thats not depressing enough, witnessed one of the worst SU teams I’ve ever watched!

 

[djcon57]

its like the coaches didnt actually watch the houston game.

any team with the athleticism of houston/vcu/etc...there are many will watch this and apply the same recipe...and there is no answer for it. its over.

sure, but Houston was a final 4 team...and they shut down our offense.

The issue with this team is and will continue to be is ultimately the defense.

defense (and buddy getting hot) were the reason we even make the tourney last year, there were MULTIPLE games we were on track to lose until certain players game in off the bench and turned it up on D. Multiple.

unfortunately it was poo-poo’ed. Coach pointed to steals as a sign of playing good defense Instead of analytics. It was the forwards fault, etc etc.

...and here we are.

 

[tptcuse]

Same here! I think I realized last year that we have the same birthday. Great day here - no work, a few Old Fashioneds at happy hour, but then I came home to witness this horrible game. Ugh! Just turned sixty, and if he hats not depressing enough, witnessed one of the worst SU teams I’ve ever watched!

Happy Birthday!

 

[supp]

Noone knew how bad Swider and Benny would be at least compared to expectations. Swider might have been the most popular near miss I can recall on this board. Even when he was just OK at Villanova people somehow continued to gush about him. Benny same thing since he committed so early I remember before we got Buddy people talked about JB hanging around to coach him he cooled off as a recruit but if his rankings were higher people would have been comparing him to Anthony before he dribbled a ball.


JB didn't want someone better than Joe or Jimmy on the roster and that is why we are (intentionally) thin there.

This is a disaster and it looks like we have 2 more years of it. How does Buddy leave if he regresses this year and can't sniff the NBA?

Agreed on Swider even though there were definitely lots of warning signs out there. Benny in the summertime I heard from people who would know that the ceiling the staff saw for him was 10/5 a game. That seems super-optimistic now but he remains the biggest unknown commodity on this team and so a big jump in improvement from him is still possible in my mind. Less so for some of the other guys. The most egregious sin committed is definitely in the backcourt. Egos got involved and that's never a good thing in team sports or in coaching. Another year even under better circumstances isn't going to improve Buddy's draftability. NBA drafts on potential anyway. Advanced age is a strike against you.

 

[Newhouser]

I never say this, but the sky is falling on this program. This team had really high expectations. These two performances show absolutely zero adjustments and the worst coaching I have seen from JB ever. Yet he will blame the players and not take accountability. Boy oh boy what the

JB has been dominated the last two games.

 

[CardiacCuse]

Frank was on the roster last year.

he wasnt in the rotation, this year he is.

its really this:

marek, kadary, AG, QG, woody, braswell

OR

Symir, Frank, Swider, Jimmy, Benny,

clear downgrade but still not 6 players for 2.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Agreed on Swider even though there were definitely lots of warning signs out there. Benny in the summertime I heard from people who would know that the ceiling the staff saw for him was 10/5 a game. That seems super-optimistic now but he remains the biggest unknown commodity on this team and so a big jump in improvement from him is still possible in my mind. Less so for some of the other guys. The most egregious sin committed is definitely in the backcourt. Egos got involved and that's never a good thing in team sports or in coaching. Another year even under better circumstances isn't going to improve Buddy's draftability. NBA drafts on potential anyway. Advanced age is a strike against you.

Well, playing against guys on this SU team, I can totally see Benny going off like that.

 

[HurleyForHeisman]

I've long suspected, and looking at this year's roster I think I'm right, that Boeheim's sole motivation is to get to 1,000 wins. Yeah, we fans and he can pretend that we don't care about the NCAA wiping away all those wins, but it is a fact that Boeheim has not yet won 1,000 games. I think that infuriates him and he will coach as long as it takes to reach that number. How awesome would it be if he could get the honor while his two sons are on the team? That certainly seemed plausible before the season and explains the roster. Now it looks like an impossibility.

So JB will be back next year.

 

[Toga]

Things are so blah there isn't even anyone in the doghouse.

 

[supp]

the transfers out ...even though they are not shining at their new spots...really start to hit different the worse this team does.

could really use some of those players now...and I feel for them more seeing how bad this version of the team is. they mustve been disgruntled knowing what was going on and thats why they left...at least partially. i wonder how much of it from them was not wanting to be a miracle on buddy and the miracles.

Those kids were recruited for this system so I'm not surprised they're struggling a bit out of the gate. They could pull it together eventually. I'm less optimistic about the kids on our current roster. They don't have that excuse.

 

[CardiacCuse]

sure, but Houston was a final 4 team...and they shut down our offense.

The issue with this team is and will continue to be is ultimately the defense.

defense (and buddy getting hot) were the reason we even make the tourney last year, there were MULTIPLE games we were on track to lose until certain players game in off the bench and turned it up on D. Multiple.

unfortunately it was poo-poo’ed. Coach pointed to steals as a sign of playing good defense Instead of analytics. It was the forwards fault, etc etc.

...and here we are.

its also the offense. its both

any coach that has athletes and watches this tape and its curtains.

 

[Trueblue25]

And if we do both?

Have no idea what our ceiling is, so wont even bother. It is my opinion we’ve already seen our floor though. May have more losses but this is the worst we’ll look imo

 

[OrangePA]

It just seems that there is not enough talent on this team

 

[Sherman20]

JB’s roster construction is atrocious and has been for several years now. Our athleticism is completely gone. If we’d been able to hold onto Kadary and Quincy or Braswell in the off-season (to go with adding Jimmy and Cole), we could have had a functional team with some athletes and experience and also some skilled players. At least some options at forward and guard. Cole looks clueless out there and is playing with zero confidence.

 

[djorange1989]

Why?

So they can beat us by 30 tomorrow?

 

[oTTo113445]

Is it too late to turn Jimmy into a Gbinje esque pg? No joke.

 

[jdubs30]

2 years ago we got housed back to back games against OK State and Penn State. Joe looked awful, team looked bad. But we had Eli, Q, Marek —- you could see the talent and were just hoping it would mesh. Eli and Marek absolutely carried us and did so many unnoticed things.

Flash forward to today, we get housed by 2 teams that are way worse than OK State and PSU were that year, like 100 times worse. And there is no Eli and Marek on the roster this year. Buddy can score. Not sure what else anyone can do on this roster consistently? I’ll give Jimmy credit I guess and say he seems like a guy to me that will end up scoring in double digits every game this year. But there’s no one else that has a consistent and reliable skill - not rebounding, passing, play making, defense, etc

 

[Briancuse]

So they can beat us by 30 tomorrow?

Arizona st might do that anyway.

 

[jdubs30]

Is it too late to turn Jimmy into a Gbinje esque pg? No joke.

Lol. Jimmy is light years behind Marek as a playmaker/passer, let alone wanting to be similar to G

 

[supp]

It is my opinion we’ve already seen our floor though. May have more losses but this is the worst we’ll look imo

Would hope so. How much worse could it be? Losing while getting de-pantsed Washington Generals style?

 

[hoopsupstate]

One problem with this team is they drive only looking to score instead of finding a teammate. Players have to move when someone drives too. We are way too easy to defend. Where is the Villanova jump stop from Swider?

 

[dcw914]

Noone knew how bad Swider and Benny would be at least compared to expectations. Swider might have been the most popular near miss I can recall on this board. Even when he was just OK at Villanova people somehow continued to gush about him. Benny same thing since he committed so early I remember before we got Buddy people talked about JB hanging around to coach him he cooled off as a recruit but if his rankings were higher people would have been comparing him to Anthony before he dribbled a ball.


JB didn't want someone better than Joe or Jimmy on the roster and that is why we are (intentionally) thin there.

This is a disaster and it looks like we have 2 more years of it. How does Buddy leave if he regresses this year and can't sniff the NBA?

This is a good point on Benny and Cole. Most thought Jimmy would be our worst wing when thus far, he may very well be our second best player.

The last 5+ years we’ve really struggled against legit teams particularly early in the season. This team feels different in that our defencies are far more severe than in years past. We have 1.5 players who can create for themselves, we won’t defend well, we won’t rebound well, we are the least athletic team in our conference.

We’ll likely become more cohesive and improve later in the year as we typically do…. but this is the most blatantly flawed team we’ve had since 2014-15 and that team may have actually been solid had mccullough not torn his acl. It’s going to be a long year.