Random Pittsburgh Thoughts

[Niastri]

I said in the pregame thread that Syracuse would win because we were the better team. The major question is whether we would win in a grind it out game, or if we would finally put it all together and blow their doors off. As has been a tradition with Red coached teams, we did a little bit of both.

At 14:36 in the first half, Starling made a layup to put us up 11, at 13-2. We were clearly the better team, Pitt was showing their offensive versatility (read: nobody can score), and Syracuse their defensive intensity. Syracuse was on pace to win a 96-15 blowout. Not that anybody would have expected that end result, but it looked like we finally might be actually blowing out a bad conference opponent. Instead, we went into what I am starting to call "Autry mode," where we play nice for a while. We never really put the screws to Pitt in the first half, pushed the lead as high as 15, but ended the half at that same 11 point margin.

The second half was more of the same, but a little worse. At 14:14, we expanded the lead to 18, winning the first ~6 minutes of the half by 7 points. After that we coasted to a mere 11 point victory of a team that is probably a 25 point underdog by raw talent. Pitt eventually cut the lead to 6 at 6:33, before Syracuse pushed the lead back to 13 and settled for a final margin of 11. Letting lessor teams hang around is a weakness that will continue to bite us if we don't clean it up.

This team, led by a really nice guy, just doesn't have the @hole in them needed to crush a bad team. Even the Mad Mouse, S&C coach Rob Harris, has been less visible on the bench showing his unique brand of intensity. They just don't get excited by killing teams. I remember a legend of Kobe Bryant beating his best friend 101 to 0 in pickup basketball. Can you imagine the heartless competitor you have to be to do that to your best friend? We could use some of that in the program.

Speaking of guys with killer instincts, William Kyle is just amazing to watch play basketball. At 18:16 in the first half, Kyle had a steal and dunk on 6'10 235lb Cameron Corhen that would have been the best dunk in about 95% of Syracuse games in history. Absolutely put him on a poster. It was the second best dunk of the game for Kyle. The kid is just amazing. If he had the ability to shoot, he would be a lottery pick, no doubt. As it is, he went 5-7, scored 11 points and 4 steals and 4 rebounds after sitting most of the first half with foul trouble. Kyle getting his second foul forced him to the bench for the last 15 minutes of the first half, and Syracuse lost its vim and vigor with Kyle gone. Souare isn't a bad player, but he is a decent rotation player on an average ACC team, not a guy who is going to win games for you.

Kyle had the best dunk in a generation at 19:04 in the second half, a putback monster that defies description. It is a sign of the decline of society that there aren't more clips of Kyle making this dunk on the internet. I won't post a tweet. I am sure you have seen it. It was so good it gave a Pitt cheerleader under the basket an "O" face.

But my favorite part is Kyle celebrated less than anybody in the building. The man just "killed 'em" and went back to play defense. After watching NFL players dance after making routine tackles all weekend, I am developing a man crush for how Kyle goes about his business. Act like you aren't surprised you succeeded, I say.

While Kyle will be the highlight that everybody remembers, Starling and Freeman were the stars of the game. Freemand scored a cool 22 in 30 minutes on .763 TS% (True Shooting% for those who don't love advanced stats), Starling was even better scoring 19 in 32 minutes on .795 TS%. Starling shot 3-4 from 3pt range in this game and looked as good as we get to see him. In addition to insane offensive efficiency shooting, he passed for 4 assists with only a single turnover, and pulled down 4 rebounds. He was As somebody said in the game thread, it is games like this that make you so mad at Starling for his stinkers... He just seems like he should be better, more consistently, than he is. That said, this was a great game for him. Freeman seems to have established a baseline of performance not unlike Achilles or Hercules of legend.

One thing I was disappointed with is us getting outrebounded again. Pitt isn't a great rebounding team, they aren't particularly big, either. Yet we gave up 39% of their missed shots as offensive rebounds. I really thought Freeman's return would have helped with this problem, he is at times an elite defensive rebounder, but didn't do much today.

Considering how well we shot, both from the 3pt range (10-22) and from the FT line (15-18), it actually is disappointing we only won by 11. I don't think this team is good enough to play in second gear for extended periods, but it seems like that is their psychology.

Nobody can complain about a double digit victory on the road against a conference opponent (exact quote from a similar post against Georgia Tech a few days ago) but I would love to see Syracuse actually blow out an overmatched opponent. Against the cupcakes, they looked like they had a bit of that killer instinct, but aren't demonstrating that now.

Georgia Tech and Pitt are 111 and 146 in the NET rankings, and our next two opponents are Florida State and Boston College, 133 and 176, respectively. They are the cupcakes of our conference schedule. After that, the real games start up again.

One thing to consider: other than Tennessee, Pitt is our best victory according to the NET this season. After a couple more dangerous conference cupcakes, we play 12 conference opponents, and every single one of them is better than our second best victory this year.

Assuming we handle Florida State and Boston College, even a .500 record in the next 12 will put us in a very good position to make the NCAA tournament, which is a bare minimum expectation for this team. Anything above that would be putting us into a conversation about seeding, not about being on the bubble.

If Freeman can continue to play like he has been playing against better teams, and Starling has turned the corner (seems unlikely after 95 games, but players do suddenly get better sometimes) in his consistency, things look really good.

I think a team of Kyle, Freeman, Kingz, Starling and George, with our depth, can go 8-4 or even 9-3 against the upcoming murderer's row of opponents. I would love to be proven right.

 

[Orangezoo]

I said in the pregame thread that Syracuse would win because we were the better team. The major question is whether we would win in a grind it out game, or if we would finally put it all together and blow their doors off. As has been a tradition with Red coached teams, we did a little bit of both.

At 14:36 in the first half, Starling made a layup to put us up 11, at 13-2. We were clearly the better team, Pitt was showing their offensive versatility (read: nobody can score), and Syracuse their defensive intensity. Syracuse was on pace to win a 96-15 blowout. Not that anybody would have expected that end result, but it looked like we finally might be actually blowing out a bad conference opponent. Instead, we went into what I am starting to call "Autry mode," where we play nice for a while. We never really put the screws to Pitt in the first half, pushed the lead as high as 15, but ended the half at that same 11 point margin.

The second half was more of the same, but a little worse. At 14:14, we expanded the lead to 18, winning the first ~6 minutes of the half by 7 points. After that we coasted to a mere 11 point victory of a team that is probably a 25 point underdog by raw talent.

This team, led by a really nice guy, just doesn't have the @hole in them needed to crush a bad team. Even the Mad Mouse, S&C coach Rob Harris, has been less visible on the bench showing his unique brand of intensity. They just don't get excited by killing teams. I remember a legend of Kobe Bryant beating his best friend 101 to 0 in pickup basketball. Can you imagine the heartless competitor you have to be to do that to your best friend? We could use some of that in the program.

Speaking of guys with killer instincts, William Kyle is just amazing to watch play basketball. At 18:16 in the first half, Kyle had a steal and dunk on 6'10 235lb Cameron Corhen that would have been the best dunk in about 95% of Syracuse games in history. Absolutely put him on a poster. It was the second best dunk of the game for Kyle. The kid is just amazing. If he had the ability to shoot, he would be a lottery pick, no doubt. As it is, he went 5-7, scored 11 points and 4 steals and 4 rebounds after sitting most of the first half with foul trouble. Kyle getting his second foul forced him to the bench for the last 15 minutes of the first half, and Syracuse lost its vim and vigor with Kyle gone. Souare isn't a bad player, but he is a decent rotation player on an average ACC team, not a guy who is going to win games for you.

Kyle had the best dunk in a generation at 19:04 in the second half, a putback monster that defies description. It is a sign of the decline of society that there aren't more clips of Kyle making this dunk on the internet. I won't post a tweet. I am sure you have seen it. It was so good it gave a Pitt cheerleader under the basket an "O" face.

But my favorite part is Kyle celebrated less than anybody in the building. The man just "killed 'em" and went back to play defense. After watching NFL players dance after making routine tackles all weekend, I am developing a man crush for how Kyle goes about his business. Act like you aren't surprised you succeeded, I say.

While Kyle will be the highlight that everybody remembers, Starling and Freeman were the stars of the game. Freemand scored a cool 22 in 30 minutes on .763 TS% (True Shooting% for those who don't love advanced stats), Starling was even better scoring 19 in 32 minutes on .795 TS%. Starling shot 3-4 from 3pt range in this game and looked as good as we get to see him. In addition to insane offensive efficiency shooting, he passed for 4 assists with only a single turnover, and pulled down 4 rebounds. He was As somebody said in the game thread, it is games like this that make you so mad at Starling for his stinkers... He just seems like he should be better, more consistently, than he is. That said, this was a great game for him. Freeman seems to have established a baseline of performance not unlike Achilles or Hercules of legend.

One thing I was disappointed with is us getting outrebounded again. Pitt isn't a great rebounding team, they aren't particularly big, either. Yet we gave up 39% of their missed shots as offensive rebounds. I really thought Freeman's return would have helped with this problem, he is at times an elite defensive rebounder, but didn't do much today.

Considering how well we shot, both from the 3pt range (10-22) and from the FT line (15-18), it actually is disappointing we only won by 11. I don't think this team is good enough to play in second gear for extended periods, but it seems like that is their psychology.

Nobody can complain about a double digit victory on the road against a conference opponent (exact quote from a similar post against Georgia Tech a few days ago) but I would love to see Syracuse actually blow out an overmatched opponent. Against the cupcakes, they looked like they had a bit of that killer instinct, but aren't demonstrating that now.

Georgia Tech and Pitt are 111 and 146 in the NET rankings, and our next two opponents are Florida State and Boston College, 133 and 176, respectively. They are the cupcakes of our conference schedule. After that, the real games start up again.

One thing to consider: other than Tennessee, Pitt is our best victory according to the NET this season. After a couple more dangerous conference cupcakes, we play 12 conference opponents, and every single one of them is better than our second best victory this year.

Assuming we handle Florida State and Boston College, even a .500 record in the next 12 will put us in a very good position to make the NCAA tournament, which is a bare minimum expectation for this team. Anything above that would be putting us into a conversation about seeding, not about being on the bubble.

If Freeman can continue to play like he has been playing against better teams, and Starling has turned the corner (seems unlikely after 95 games, but players do suddenly get better sometimes) in his consistency, things look really good.

I think a team of Kyle, Freeman, Kingz, Starling and George, with our depth, can go 8-4 or even 9-3 against the upcoming murderer's row of opponents. I would love to be proven right.

The zone played a big role in being out rebounded. I’d wager 60 pct of their offensive rebounds came during zone possessions.

As for putting teams away we’ve had a combination of bad coaching and bad luck with the sub patterns and FTs the biggest issue and then having to deal with having lot of lower pct shots fall for our opponents as well. It’s hard to see that changing and then not biting us against better opponents.

 

[HyattsCuse]

They just don't get excited by killing teams. I remember a legend of Kobe Bryant beating his best friend 101 to 0 in pickup basketball. Can you imagine the heartless competitor you have to be to do that to your best friend? We could use some of that in the program.

Or your teammate and godfather of your kids?

 

[bballbeadle]

Thank you, Niastri!

Regarding lack of killer instinct, in Donna Ditota’s write up, she talked about the team building up a lead in the second half and then Autry “making his usual substitutions,” implying in a nice way that he messes up the aggressive chemistry. Is he afraid they are getting tired? Doesn’t he remember Boeheim declaring that college players don’t get tired? NC State beat Florida State something like 102-62. I’m afraid to meet NC State.

Have our guys been practicing free throws? I am going to ask Mike Waters to take on this case.

Starling had such a great game and I was so pleased for him. We need that Starling!

Now for some REALLY IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: is the latest thing in college basketball for the players to hold their heads after a really great play? Also, when they cover their noses with their hands, is that saying, “Man, that was disgusting!” (Like good disgusting) I enjoy these mannerisms.

The Kyle dunk. I like how you point out that he is workmanlike while all his teammates are holding their heads or covering their noses while falling all over the place. I have not noticed that because I am too busy falling all over the place. Yowzer!

 

[newmexicuse]

Very nice post, but a big reason that the lead shrunk was TOs and carelessness, particularly by our PG. This team will go nowhere if George continues to have 5 to 6 TOs per game. He needs to get that down to 2 or less - 3 at the very most.

 

[General20]

I thought we really saw in this game how much better SU is when Starling is playing up to his potential.

I've seen so many people on this board talk about Red's loyalty to JJ as if Red is more interested in being JJ's friend than keeping his multi-million dollar job. It has always sounded ridiculous to me.

What I think Red sees is what I see. Syracuse's only chance to make a real splash on the college basketball landscape this year is if Starling is playing well, playing with confidence, unafraid to knock down a jumper when open and drive to the basket and draw a foul when its there.

JJ has all the tools needed. He needs to get his mind right. If I was Autry Id put everything into making sure that happens as well. Let's hope it pays off.

 

[Orangezoo]

I thought we really saw in this game how much better SU is when Starling is playing up to his potential.

I've seen so many people on this board talk about Red's loyalty to JJ as if Red is more interested in being JJ's friend than keeping his multi-million dollar job. It has always sounded ridiculous to me.

What I think Red sees is what I see. Syracuse's only chance to make a real splash on the college basketball landscape this year is if Starling is playing well, playing with confidence, unafraid to knock down a jumper when open and drive to the basket and draw a foul when its there.

JJ has all the tools needed. He needs to get his mind right. If I was Autry Id put everything into making sure that happens as well. Let's hope it pays off.

I would counter only with it’s about both he and Kiyan and one of them has to be that piece that was expected at the 2G spot.

I expect the higher likelihood is that JJ will still be inconsistent but we shall see. In that case it’s important Kiyan stays locked in and keeps working.

 

[Niastri]

Very nice post, but a big reason that the lead shrunk was TOs and carelessness, particularly by our PG. This team will go nowhere if George continues to have 5 to 6 TOs per game. He needs to get that down to 2 or less - 3 at the very most.

Funny thing about turnovers, the team only had 11, which is a good total. George having 6 of them might be a problem, but he is handling the ball more than everybody, and usually his turnovers are of the aggressive kind, not the "dribbling the ball off his leg in response to token pressure" sort. I will live with George happily.

 

[Orangezoo]

Funny thing about turnovers, the team only had 11, which is a good total. George having 6 of them might be a problem, but he is handling the ball more than everybody, and usually his turnovers are of the aggressive kind, not the "dribbling the ball off his leg in response to token pressure" sort. I will live with George happily.

George needs another year. He is too loose with his handle and too cavalier with some of his passing. One of his biggest issues is he is still learning how to play the PG position outside of just a pick and roll system.

At times he reminds me of Marcus Paige at UNC before Paige figured things out. He has been good for us in many spots but he’s been average as a P4 level PG this year.

I’m hoping that he gets to that comfort level as the season comes down the stretch much like he played his best basketball during that stretch last year as he really was figuring things out and had some huge games.

 

[GoSU96]

I thought we really saw in this game how much better SU is when Starling is playing up to his potential.

I've seen so many people on this board talk about Red's loyalty to JJ as if Red is more interested in being JJ's friend than keeping his multi-million dollar job. It has always sounded ridiculous to me.

What I think Red sees is what I see. Syracuse's only chance to make a real splash on the college basketball landscape this year is if Starling is playing well, playing with confidence, unafraid to knock down a jumper when open and drive to the basket and draw a foul when its there.

JJ has all the tools needed. He needs to get his mind right. If I was Autry Id put everything into making sure that happens as well. Let's hope it pays off.

It looks like he’s 100% for the first time in 2 yrs. I think his wrist/thumb injuries messed with his form.

 

[GoSU96]

I know White is Freeman’s primary backup but I’d rather have him on the floor than Kingz.

 

[Orangezoo]

I know White is Freeman’s primary backup but I’d rather have him on the floor than Kingz.

Kingz is our best perimeter defender and White is only a threat on the lob or in the lane. We would struggle even more to score with that switch.

 

[Nicknack]

One thing I was disappointed with is us getting outrebounded again. Pitt isn't a great rebounding team, they aren't particularly big, either. Yet we gave up 39% of their missed shots as offensive rebounds. I really thought Freeman's return would have helped with this problem, he is at times an elite defensive rebounder, but didn't do much today.

Good post!

I agree with the rebounding. They had 14 offensive rebounds. 14! When they were shrinking our lead a lot of it came when they were outrebounding us and getting multiple chances to score. That was so frustrating to watch. It's one thing if a team gets hot and starts making shots but we just kept allowing them second chances.

Consider this... they shot worse in the 2nd half (42.9%) than the 1st half (44.8%) yet they went on a run. The way that happens is repeated second chance opportunities. They got off 35 shots in the 2nd half!

 

[HyattsCuse]

I've seen so many people on this board talk about Red's loyalty to JJ as if Red is more interested in being JJ's friend than keeping his multi-million dollar job. It has always sounded ridiculous to me.

JJ has all the tools needed. He needs to get his mind right. If I was Autry Id put everything into making sure that happens as well. Let's hope it pays off.

From what I've read on this board, the criticism towards Red and his loyalty is not because he wants to be JJ's friend, it's for the exact reason you mention in bold above. Red is dying on the hill that we need JJ to be one of our go-to guys. JJ is not that guy.

JJ is who he is at this point. I agree it's definitely mental which is unfortunate. He's going to have the occasional good game or moments. But he also needs to know when to stop shooting when he's having a game where he can't hit from outside and/or shooting poorly overall. Up to this point, he keeps shooting which I'm sure he's being told to do. I disagree with that approach given the other talent on the team.

The good news from the last two games is we now have Donnie back so JJ doesn't have to be our go-to guy.

 

[Orangezoo]

Good post!

I agree with the rebounding. They had 14 offensive rebounds. 14! When they were shrinking our lead a lot of it came when they were outrebounding us and getting multiple chances to score. That was so frustrating to watch. It's one thing if a team gets hot and starts making shots but we just kept allowing them second chances.

Weak side rebounds while we were in Zone almost single handedly was the reason for this. I like we have a zone to use but if the offensive glass and second chance points are that much of a gimme it’s not worth it outside of a possession or two. Capel immediately saw that Siulepa would have a field day on the boards and Red took too long to adjust out of it at times. Luckily Siulepa was struggling on defense and collecting fouls to limit his time.

If you watch how the zone was setup there was almost always no one on the weak side down by the short corner. It happened at least 5-6 times if not more.

 

[Nicknack]

Weak side rebounds while we were in Zone almost single handedly was the reason for this. I like we have a zone to use but if the offensive glass and second chance points are that much of a gimme it’s not worth it outside of a possession or two. Capel immediately saw that Siulepa would have a field day on the boards and Red took too long to adjust out of it at times. Luckily Siulepa was struggling on defense and collecting fouls to limit his time.

If you watch how the zone was setup there was almost always no one on the weak side down by the short corner. It happened at least 5-6 times if not more.

Yeah, I agree. I love to see Red switch up the defense but man, we've GOT to do better rebounding. They almost had as many offensive rebounds as defensive! That's just not good.

 

[newmexicuse]

Yeah, I agree. I love to see Red switch up the defense but man, we've GOT to do better rebounding. They almost had as many offensive rebounds as defensive! That's just not good.

In my opinion, in the modern game the Zone was three major insurmountable weaknesses:

1. Makes rebounding harder
2. Top of key vulnerability
3. Three point shooting defense

The Zone is only good for a change of look D and to slow the pace down (unless a team absolutely cant make treys in which case it can be packed, but that is very few teams nowadays). Despite the rebounding woes from the Zone, I thought Red switched back and forth wisely last game as the different look at least slowed their mo for a possession or two at a time.

 

[Orangezoo]

In my opinion, in the modern game the Zone was three major insurmountable weaknesses:

1. Makes rebounding harder
2. Top of key vulnerability
3. Three point shooting defense

The Zone is only good for a change of look D and to slow the pace down (unless a team absolutely cant make treys in which case it can be packed, but that is very few teams nowadays). Despite the rebounding woes from the Zone, I thought Red switched back and forth wisely last game as the different look at least slowed their mo for a possession or two at a time.

I think he probably ran it about 7-8 possessions too many but it did help generate some turnovers and force Pitt to take some bad shots which they cleaned up too many of.

 

[MikeSU02]

I said in the pregame thread that Syracuse would win because we were the better team. The major question is whether we would win in a grind it out game, or if we would finally put it all together and blow their doors off. As has been a tradition with Red coached teams, we did a little bit of both.

At 14:36 in the first half, Starling made a layup to put us up 11, at 13-2. We were clearly the better team, Pitt was showing their offensive versatility (read: nobody can score), and Syracuse their defensive intensity. Syracuse was on pace to win a 96-15 blowout. Not that anybody would have expected that end result, but it looked like we finally might be actually blowing out a bad conference opponent. Instead, we went into what I am starting to call "Autry mode," where we play nice for a while. We never really put the screws to Pitt in the first half, pushed the lead as high as 15, but ended the half at that same 11 point margin.

The second half was more of the same, but a little worse. At 14:14, we expanded the lead to 18, winning the first ~6 minutes of the half by 7 points. After that we coasted to a mere 11 point victory of a team that is probably a 25 point underdog by raw talent. Pitt eventually cut the lead to 6 at 6:33, before Syracuse pushed the lead back to 13 and settled for a final margin of 11. Letting lessor teams hang around is a weakness that will continue to bite us if we don't clean it up.

This team, led by a really nice guy, just doesn't have the @hole in them needed to crush a bad team. Even the Mad Mouse, S&C coach Rob Harris, has been less visible on the bench showing his unique brand of intensity. They just don't get excited by killing teams. I remember a legend of Kobe Bryant beating his best friend 101 to 0 in pickup basketball. Can you imagine the heartless competitor you have to be to do that to your best friend? We could use some of that in the program.

Speaking of guys with killer instincts, William Kyle is just amazing to watch play basketball. At 18:16 in the first half, Kyle had a steal and dunk on 6'10 235lb Cameron Corhen that would have been the best dunk in about 95% of Syracuse games in history. Absolutely put him on a poster. It was the second best dunk of the game for Kyle. The kid is just amazing. If he had the ability to shoot, he would be a lottery pick, no doubt. As it is, he went 5-7, scored 11 points and 4 steals and 4 rebounds after sitting most of the first half with foul trouble. Kyle getting his second foul forced him to the bench for the last 15 minutes of the first half, and Syracuse lost its vim and vigor with Kyle gone. Souare isn't a bad player, but he is a decent rotation player on an average ACC team, not a guy who is going to win games for you.

Kyle had the best dunk in a generation at 19:04 in the second half, a putback monster that defies description. It is a sign of the decline of society that there aren't more clips of Kyle making this dunk on the internet. I won't post a tweet. I am sure you have seen it. It was so good it gave a Pitt cheerleader under the basket an "O" face.

But my favorite part is Kyle celebrated less than anybody in the building. The man just "killed 'em" and went back to play defense. After watching NFL players dance after making routine tackles all weekend, I am developing a man crush for how Kyle goes about his business. Act like you aren't surprised you succeeded, I say.

While Kyle will be the highlight that everybody remembers, Starling and Freeman were the stars of the game. Freemand scored a cool 22 in 30 minutes on .763 TS% (True Shooting% for those who don't love advanced stats), Starling was even better scoring 19 in 32 minutes on .795 TS%. Starling shot 3-4 from 3pt range in this game and looked as good as we get to see him. In addition to insane offensive efficiency shooting, he passed for 4 assists with only a single turnover, and pulled down 4 rebounds. He was As somebody said in the game thread, it is games like this that make you so mad at Starling for his stinkers... He just seems like he should be better, more consistently, than he is. That said, this was a great game for him. Freeman seems to have established a baseline of performance not unlike Achilles or Hercules of legend.

One thing I was disappointed with is us getting outrebounded again. Pitt isn't a great rebounding team, they aren't particularly big, either. Yet we gave up 39% of their missed shots as offensive rebounds. I really thought Freeman's return would have helped with this problem, he is at times an elite defensive rebounder, but didn't do much today.

Considering how well we shot, both from the 3pt range (10-22) and from the FT line (15-18), it actually is disappointing we only won by 11. I don't think this team is good enough to play in second gear for extended periods, but it seems like that is their psychology.

Nobody can complain about a double digit victory on the road against a conference opponent (exact quote from a similar post against Georgia Tech a few days ago) but I would love to see Syracuse actually blow out an overmatched opponent. Against the cupcakes, they looked like they had a bit of that killer instinct, but aren't demonstrating that now.

Georgia Tech and Pitt are 111 and 146 in the NET rankings, and our next two opponents are Florida State and Boston College, 133 and 176, respectively. They are the cupcakes of our conference schedule. After that, the real games start up again.

One thing to consider: other than Tennessee, Pitt is our best victory according to the NET this season. After a couple more dangerous conference cupcakes, we play 12 conference opponents, and every single one of them is better than our second best victory this year.

Assuming we handle Florida State and Boston College, even a .500 record in the next 12 will put us in a very good position to make the NCAA tournament, which is a bare minimum expectation for this team. Anything above that would be putting us into a conversation about seeding, not about being on the bubble.

If Freeman can continue to play like he has been playing against better teams, and Starling has turned the corner (seems unlikely after 95 games, but players do suddenly get better sometimes) in his consistency, things look really good.

I think a team of Kyle, Freeman, Kingz, Starling and George, with our depth, can go 8-4 or even 9-3 against the upcoming murderer's row of opponents. I would love to be proven right.

If Freeman stays consistent and we get a bump up game from anyone (whether it be JJ, Kyan, Kingz, George... whoever), I think we'll be ok against teams we should beat and compete against teams that will be better than us.

I know I'm the board JJ hater in residence, but like you said, it's not fair to expect him to replicate that game. It's a dramatic outlier, but it doesn't mean he can't or won't contribute or even have another game like that down the line. And to argue against myself, the dude is shooting basically 35% from three which is a substantial jump from his career average and around 25 percentage points higher than his best year as a soph.

But I can see a game or two where Kingz hits a bunch of threes to push us to victory. Or George gets to the line where he has another 10 for 10 game.

Overall, it's nice just being, without question, better than other conference teams. We were better than Pitt, unquestionably. And that is a giant leap forward from last year.

My. biggest worry is we barely miss the NCAAT and it's a what-if season with Houston, Hofstra, etc losses. But they just need to keep winning now. Donnie will be the best player on the floor during a lot of games.

 

[tbonezone]

George needs another year.

another year ? this is his 3rd season at 30 minutes plus !

 

[Orangezoo]

If Freeman stays consistent and we get a bump up game from anyone (whether it be JJ, Kyan, Kingz, George... whoever), I think we'll be ok against teams we should beat and compete against teams that will be better than us.

I know I'm the board JJ hater in residence, but like you said, it's not fair to expect him to replicate that game. It's a dramatic outlier, but it doesn't mean he can't or won't contribute or even have another game like that down the line. And to argue against myself, the dude is shooting basically 35% from three which is a substantial jump from his career average and around 25 percentage points higher than his best year as a soph.

But I can see a game or two where Kingz hits a bunch of threes to push us to victory. Or George gets to the line where he has another 10 for 10 game.

Overall, it's nice just being, without question, better than other conference teams. We were better than Pitt, unquestionably. And that is a giant leap forward from last year.

My. biggest worry is we barely miss the NCAAT and it's a what-if season with Houston, Hofstra, etc losses. But they just need to keep winning now. Donnie will be the best player on the floor during a lot of games.

Donnie is starting to do the things we saw in Prep/EYBL where the game slows down for him more each game and he can carry a heavy load. Even seeing the difference from earlier games he’s growing into being really good at both ends and forcing his will on the outcome.

Everything else is spot on but seeing Donnie truly realize he can do nearly whatever he wants out there given all the tools he has in his hand is promising. Especially when we’ve watched highly regarded recruits underwhelm or bust way too much in recent history.

 

[Lame-0]

Weak side rebounds while we were in Zone almost single handedly was the reason for this. I like we have a zone to use but if the offensive glass and second chance points are that much of a gimme it’s not worth it outside of a possession or two. Capel immediately saw that Siulepa would have a field day on the boards and Red took too long to adjust out of it at times. Luckily Siulepa was struggling on defense and collecting fouls to limit his time.

If you watch how the zone was setup there was almost always no one on the weak side down by the short corner. It happened at least 5-6 times if not more.

Absolutely. I thought mixing in the zone was a good thing because it did seem to confuse them a little bit. Plus it threw them off their stride and forced them to use more time attacking it. Always a good thing when you have a second half lead.
But the trade-off of all the offensive rebounds was driving me crazy.

 

[Lame-0]

In my opinion, in the modern game the Zone was three major insurmountable weaknesses:

1. Makes rebounding harder
2. Top of key vulnerability
3. Three point shooting defense

The Zone is only good for a change of look D and to slow the pace down (unless a team absolutely cant make treys in which case it can be packed, but that is very few teams nowadays). Despite the rebounding woes from the Zone, I thought Red switched back and forth wisely last game as the different look at least slowed their mo for a possession or two at a time.

Of course, giving up offensive rebounds was always the primary weakness when JB ran it too.

 

[Newhouser]

We need Kingz to make shots. One shooter would help tremendously.

 

[DCUNITED13]

We hit a bunch of 3 pointers early. Opened up the inside as Pitt was hedging more. We still missed a SIGNIFICANT NUMBER of wide open 3 point shots.

When we are shooting hot we are very difficult to defend as it gives William Kyle and Donnie Freeman more room to operate.

So Close, No matter How Far
NOTHING ELSE MATTERS

if we dont hit our 3 pointers.