I want to qualify all of this in advance by pointing out that this report wont convey anything earth shattering. But I saw the post yesterday clamoring for information from practice, and thought I'd pass along a few tidbits. I apologize in advance that this is second hand, from my father, who had the opportunity to go up to the Melo Center last week to catch about two hours of one of the team's early preseason practices. It's tough to draw any definitive conclusions from just one practice--especially with young players--but nonetheless he had some interesting observations. In no particular order...
- What do you do when you have a team full of new faces, many of whom have never played significant minutes at he collegiate level? Answer: you spend a lot of time in preseason teaching them principles of the defensive system. The coaching staff was taking advantage of the new rules allowing teams to start practicing earlier in the fall by having this largely green group team focus on zone defense--spacing, movement, switches, hedging out on shooters, etc. It wasn't a full practice in the sense where they scrimmaged--it was all drills and defense, so everything he saw was mostly in contrived, half court situations. No fast breaks or transition scoring opportunities. Offense came only in the context of the team working on zone defense.
- In terms of the looks test, McCullough looks like a bigger, stronger, potentially better version of Jerami Grant. Nice muscle definition for an incoming frosh. Active rebounder.
- On that last point, it looks thinks we're going to be a much better rebounding team this year. McCullough / Roberson = better tandem on he boards than Fair / Grant were last year. Both of these kids seem to have a nose for the ball. Rak rebounded well, too. Frontcourt should be really strong, especially on the offensive glass.
- When they rotated onto offense as JB ran guys in and out of roations on both sides of the ball, Roberson and McCullough both looked to put the ball up when the opportunity presented itself. Neither one of them had a particularly strong day shooting the ball, but both displayed solid form--the shots just weren't dropping.
- Rak looks much more assertive, although how that translates into on-court performance is anybody's guess. Hit that medium range jumper that he started showing confidence in last year, and showed that he could finish inside with that little hook when challenged. He looks even stronger than last year, really looking to carve out position in the low post. But like usual, we never feed the post. My father mentioned that it is impossible to know what we're going to get from Rak [it could be 4/4 or it could be 12/9], but that he looks poised for a big year. Which we need from him as the team's lone experienced big.
- BJ shot the ball better than Roberson / McCullough, and looks like he's going to get quite a bit of run this year. Taller than last year, but according to my dad he still looks like a human hyphen. BJ's dad has posted pictures on the forum all offseason, and I think BJ has clearly added some good weight / size / mass, but that speaks to how skinny he was coming in. According to my dad, BJ looks like he has a size 24 waist--unbelievably thin, in other words. But he's got length and bounce, and looked comfortable putting the ball on the floor and attacking. Nice versatility. Again, this was in half court drills, not full court game action, where he might really excel
- Since the majority of practice was spent working on zone defense with a lot of new faces, Boeheim was quite animated, stopping practice several times to correct players and provide instruction when players were out of position. New team, lots of new faces stepping into bigger roles--so no surprise there.
- My dad mentioned that he didn't see Joseph shoot the ball one time the entire two hours. He was running the offense in the drills, and just didn't shoot. This isn't a good nor bad thing--just how practice went down. Someone from the Syracuse newspapers also in attendance mentioned to my dad that when he'd seem practice the previous week, Joseph seemed to shoot it pretty well--especially mid range / in the lane.
- Another observation about Joseph was that he looked very skinny, too. Not BJ skinny, but like a true frosh who needs to get in the weigt room. My father's comment: "I hope he doesn't get muscled off of the ball defensively."
- Cooney looked fine. Spent most of the practice on defense, not really shooting. Again, as with Joseph above, that's just the way that practice ebbed and flowed.
- Gbinije looked like he was a little bit stronger--noticably more cut--and more aggressive offensively. Take that with a grain of salt--this wasn't a live game or even a scrimmage, but Gbinije appeared to be looking to score more. Last year, he looked more like he was just trying to fit in. This year, he's more assertive.
- One final note--the skuttlebutt from the Melo Center is that Coleman playing this year is totally 50/50 at this point. The coaching staff just doesn't know yet how quickly he'll bounce back, and it is impossible to speculate until they see what he can do [or can't do]. Point being, none of the reports out of summer about Coleman are being evasive--they literally can't project how far along his recovery will be until he's cleared to do more.
Like I said, nothing earth shattering. It will be interesting to see how the team looks when they begin full scrimmages in practice, and open the offense up a little instead of focusing the entire session on defensive basics.
Lots of question marks entering this year! I don't think that I can remember an SU team that had as many unknowns as this one has. Will be fun to see how it all plays out!
Let's Go Orange!!!
