Random Binghamton Thoughts

[Niastri]

I haven't rewatched the game yet, but a few things stood out.

Freeman is figuring out defense. He had two blocks in a game zero times last season, and only 5 total in 14 games. He had two last night. Freeman becoming a strong help defender will be extremely helpful to the team reaching it's ceiling. Kyle, Souare and Freeman as a big man rotation is potentially elite at protecting the basket.

I'm disappointed with the pace of the team so far. Last year, St John's led D1 with 65.7 shots attempted per game. Last night, we won the rebounding battle by 9, forced 22 turnovers while only giving up 5, and still only took 66 shots. We were supposed to play faster.

In the good news/bad news category, we were terrible at shooting 3s, making 4 of 21. On the plus side, we were 31 of 45 inside the arc, and scored 85 despite our moderate pace and bad outside shooting. In my quixotic quest for the team to score 100 points, I'm actually enthused. They only needed to make five more threes, which would still have been a pedestrian percentage to reach that goal.

When was the last game we gave up zero steals? I can't imagine it happens to any team very often. The ball possession was world's better than the exhibition games.

The 38 point victory was driven by good defense against a bad team, but holding any team to only 45 shots while you take 66 is a dominant defensive performance. We also held them to 33.3% shooting, which is pretty sweet defense. In spite of missing 30 shots, Binghamton had only 7 offensive boards. I seem to remember Mike Sweetney of Georgetown getting that many in a single possession once upon a time.

The minutes distribution and rotation seemed to make more sense. It's hard to complain about lineups when you smoke a team and a starter is injured, but Red didn't try to play any weird tricks with the rotation. My only possible exception is that it is starting to feel like Red sees Zephir as part of the rotation. Any minute he's on the court is a minute taken away from the development of our highly ranked freshman class. You can't take minutes from Fennell, Anthony and Womack so you can have a senior transfer who was a below average player at Montana State get on the court. It's malpractice if it continues. We're going to need those freshman at some point, and they need to be ready. Zephir isn't going to help the team win, he is who he is. He turned in a -4.7 BPM and a 6.9 PER (average starter is a 15) in a game we won by 38. Put the kids out there, Red. Reward Zephir some other way than taking minutes from the kids.

All things considered, this was a terrific end result after a couple lackluster exhibition games.

I have been saying for months that we need 40 point blowouts against the cupcakes to maximize the margin of victory portion of the NET ranking that is so critical. 38 isn't 40, but I'll allow it.

 

[CardiacCuse]

4 for 21 on 3s and winning by 40 is very promising

I think the 3s will come around...have enough good shooters to do better - kingz, kiyan, george, betsey, etc...these guys will start hitting

 

[hoopsupstate]

I haven't rewatched the game yet, but a few things stood out.

Freeman is figuring out defense. He had two blocks in a game zero times last season, and only 5 total in 14 games. He had two last night. Freeman becoming a strong help defender will be extremely helpful to the team reaching it's ceiling. Kyle, Souare and Freeman as a big man rotation is potentially elite at protecting the basket.

I'm disappointed with the pace of the team so far. Last year, St John's led D1 with 65.7 shots attempted per game. Last night, we won the rebounding battle by 9, forced 22 turnovers while only giving up 5, and still only took 66 shots. We were supposed to play faster.

In the good news/bad news category, we were terrible at shooting 3s, making 4 of 21. On the plus side, we were 31 of 45 inside the arc, and scored 85 despite our moderate pace and bad outside shooting. In my quixotic quest for the team to score 100 points, I'm actually enthused. They only needed to make five more threes, which would still have been a pedestrian percentage to reach that goal.

When was the last game we gave up zero steals? I can't imagine it happens to any team very often. The ball possession was world's better than the exhibition games.

The 38 point victory was driven by good defense against a bad team, but holding any team to only 45 shots while you take 66 is a dominant defensive performance. We also held them to 33.3% shooting, which is pretty sweet defense. In spite of missing 30 shots, Binghamton had only 7 offensive boards. I seem to remember Mike Sweetney of Georgetown getting that many in a single possession once upon a time.

The minutes distribution and rotation seemed to make more sense. It's hard to complain about lineups when you smoke a team and a starter is injured, but Red didn't try to play any weird tricks with the rotation. My only possible exception is that it is starting to feel like Red sees Zephir as part of the rotation. Any minute he's on the court is a minute taken away from the development of our highly ranked freshman class. You can't take minutes from Fennell, Anthony and Womack so you can have a senior transfer who was a below average player at Montana State get on the court. It's malpractice if it continues. We're going to need those freshman at some point, and they need to be ready. Zephir isn't going to help the team win, he is who he is. He turned in a -4.7 BPM and a 6.9 PER (average starter is a 15) in a game we won by 38. Put the kids out there, Red. Reward Zephir some other way than taking minutes from the kids.

All things considered, this was a terrific end result after a couple lackluster exhibition games.

I have been saying for months that we need 40 point blowouts against the cupcakes to maximize the margin of victory portion of the NET ranking that is so critical. 38 isn't 40, but I'll allow it.

Subbing always look better when guys come into games and perform well.

 

[Orangefizz]

I haven't rewatched the game yet, but a few things stood out.

Freeman is figuring out defense. He had two blocks in a game zero times last season, and only 5 total in 14 games. He had two last night. Freeman becoming a strong help defender will be extremely helpful to the team reaching it's ceiling. Kyle, Souare and Freeman as a big man rotation is potentially elite at protecting the basket.

I'm disappointed with the pace of the team so far. Last year, St John's led D1 with 65.7 shots attempted per game. Last night, we won the rebounding battle by 9, forced 22 turnovers while only giving up 5, and still only took 66 shots. We were supposed to play faster.

In the good news/bad news category, we were terrible at shooting 3s, making 4 of 21. On the plus side, we were 31 of 45 inside the arc, and scored 85 despite our moderate pace and bad outside shooting. In my quixotic quest for the team to score 100 points, I'm actually enthused. They only needed to make five more threes, which would still have been a pedestrian percentage to reach that goal.

When was the last game we gave up zero steals? I can't imagine it happens to any team very often. The ball possession was world's better than the exhibition games.

The 38 point victory was driven by good defense against a bad team, but holding any team to only 45 shots while you take 66 is a dominant defensive performance. We also held them to 33.3% shooting, which is pretty sweet defense. In spite of missing 30 shots, Binghamton had only 7 offensive boards. I seem to remember Mike Sweetney of Georgetown getting that many in a single possession once upon a time.

The minutes distribution and rotation seemed to make more sense. It's hard to complain about lineups when you smoke a team and a starter is injured, but Red didn't try to play any weird tricks with the rotation. My only possible exception is that it is starting to feel like Red sees Zephir as part of the rotation. Any minute he's on the court is a minute taken away from the development of our highly ranked freshman class. You can't take minutes from Fennell, Anthony and Womack so you can have a senior transfer who was a below average player at Montana State get on the court. It's malpractice if it continues. We're going to need those freshman at some point, and they need to be ready. Zephir isn't going to help the team win, he is who he is. He turned in a -4.7 BPM and a 6.9 PER (average starter is a 15) in a game we won by 38. Put the kids out there, Red. Reward Zephir some other way than taking minutes from the kids.

All things considered, this was a terrific end result after a couple lackluster exhibition games.

I have been saying for months that we need 40 point blowouts against the cupcakes to maximize the margin of victory portion of the NET ranking that is so critical. 38 isn't 40, but I'll allow it.

I think we’re going to see more of Zephir at back up point guard, at the expense of Fennell’s minutes. I just think red trusts him as an experienced player and a much better on-ball defender.

Fennell, Womack and Diawara as developmental players this year. I think we have accumulated a really good mix of players on this years roster.

LGO!!!

 

[IthacaMatt]

My only possible exception is that it is starting to feel like Red sees Zephir as part of the rotation. Any minute he's on the court is a minute taken away from the development of our highly ranked freshman class. You can't take minutes from Fennell, Anthony and Womack so you can have a senior transfer who was a below average player at Montana State get on the court. It's malpractice if it continues.

I kind of disagree here. I see your point about Fennell getting more minutes, but so far Zephir is earning them. He is a hound on defense, he made some nice passes. That 5 minutes of PG we need seems to be him, at least right now.

 

[Niastri]

I kind of disagree here. I see your point about Fennell getting more minutes, but so far Zephir is earning them. He is a hound on defense, he made some nice passes. That 5 minutes of PG we need seems to be him, at least right now.

As I pointed out in my post, your eye test and the available advanced statistics disagree. PER and BPM think he was bad all around. Though better on defense, with a positive 2 dBPM good for 6th on the team. He was 8th on the team in PER and 7th in BPM, both coming ranked lower than Fennell.

Advanced statistics take a little while to stabilize, but if Fennell is playing better now, and has much higher future upside (this season and in future seasons) why on earth would you play Zephir?

BTW, dBPM had Fennell ranked 3rd on the team in defense. I need to rewatch to decide if the eye test agrees.

One additional caveat is that the advanced metrics like PER and BPM take into account strength of competition, going for 30 points with 10 boards and 3 blocks against Duke is very different than doing the same against, say, Montana State or Binghamton. Even in a game where we had shut down defense and scored 85 points, only 4 of our players had positive BPM and only 5 of our players had above 15 PER. The advanced statistics think Binghamton is that bad...

 

[CuseTG2003]

I think Womack redshirting is the best thing for his development and bet that's the plan. I was impressed w/ Zephir. Good athlete and kept the ball moving on offense. Looks like a solid backup guard and pickup by the staff (i.e., Kline). Love what I saw Monday night, which was my first game. Red has a lot of interchangeable pieces to work w/.

 

[ar inj]

I kind of disagree here. I see your point about Fennell getting more minutes, but so far Zephir is earning them. He is a hound on defense, he made some nice passes. That 5 minutes of PG we need seems to be him, at least right now.

Disagree that Zephir is playing any PG. He is simply playing as a guard, and because he plays D not for his offense. There may be nights where his D is needed for a few minutes here and there.

 

[Orange315]

I was happy to see how athletic this team is. Red pulling all 5 starters when Cuse was up 10-0 seemed like an odd decision. Very few teams use this kind of 5 in 5 out substitution pattern and I worry that if it happens against better teams it will be costly. George and Freeman need 30 plus minutes every game.