Niastri
Two Time Iggy Award Winner: Edwards for Three!
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- Aug 28, 2011
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When I looked at our roster before the season, I really liked what I saw.
I am a noted fanboy/optimist/insane homer, to be fair.
But objectively looking at the roster, we had a lot to like. One of the few things I was worried about concerning the roster is exactly what happened against Tennessee. Jaylen Carey is a 6'8 267lb reserve forward for Tennessee who averaged 7.1 points and 6 rebounds against every team that is not Syracuse. Against us he went for 22 and 9. He played the way I wish we played Lampkin last year. Carey pushed our lighter, taller, more athletic big men under the basket and easily scored time and again. He got blocked a few times, but mostly, it was easy offense for Tennessee. He isn't the biggest or tallest guy we will play against, but he is the blueprint for players that could give us trouble going forward.
With just under five minutes to go, ESPN credits Kyle with a "made jump shot" in the play by play. I had to double check that... Note to ESPN, if you are so far in the paint that the ACC logo is behind you, it isn't a jump shot, its a layup.
I feel like JJ Starling is a max effort guy on defense. Sometimes people complain that it looks like he isn't working hard enough out there. Maybe that was true in previous seasons, but this season, I see him really trying hard. He just has no instincts. He falls for every pass and shot fake and puts himself out of position, he goes the wrong way on screens. He isn't terrible, he just seems to make the wrong defensive decision more often than not.
Against Iowa State and Kansas, we had let downs where we let a close game become a fairly comfortable victory for the opponent. We had another one of those let downs last night. At 11:50 Kiyan Anthony hit a three pointer to put us up 50-41. After that basket, the Dome was very loud and the crowd was very involved, we gave up an 0-11 run (SWC always said Syracuse score goes first, good or bad) over the next 3:12 of game time. We didn't score again until Anthony hit a free throw at 7:33, over 4 minutes of scoreless drought. It didn't give the game away, but we need to find a way to stop those streaks when they are about to happen. We had an official timeout and Red called a timeout, but we failed to score coming out of those timeouts and didn't score until Anthony was fouled far from the basket to stop the bleeding.
William Kyle, Free Throw Champion, is a title you will never hear non-ironically. But he hit 4 of them last night to defeat the Hack a Kyle defense he has been getting. Including the eventual game winning point. Too Short also blocked 6 shots, a couple of them against physical presence Carey who was pushing him around a lot of the game. If Kyle can hit 50% going forward, the defenses who run up their own foul totals will regret it. But opposing coaches might decide it is better for Kyle to go to the line 10 times instead of getting a bunch of dunks. Even if it means their big men in foul trouble.
A guy who was all over the highlights came away with 10 points and 9 boards. Sadiq White flashed a little post up game I didn't think he had last night, making a couple baskets using a soft baby hook. He is quick and he gets up high enough, even without the bulk to establish great post position. Later, White made a defender pay for sagging off him with a three pointer in his eye. If his all around offensive game includes driving, dunking, opportunistic 3 point shooting, and a little post game, he could become a really versatile guy. His defense is intimidating, and he is getting a lot of steals that are credited to his teammates. If a player slaps a ball away, and it happens to go straight to, say, JJ Starling, which player deserves the steal? Last night official scorer gave Starling at least one steal that should have been credited to White. Still, White had 3 steals. He was a really important player last night.
Speaking of important players, Starling played really well. He has his faults, and his defense is really frustrating at times, but he was able to make some plays when it looked like we were about to give the game away for the fourth game in a row. After we allowed Tennessee a run to come back, with the score 52-51, Starling made a series of plays to win the game for us. He scored 7 of his 12 points in crunch time in the last 7 minutes, and 7 of our final 10 points to ice the game. We absolutely don't win if he isn't willing and able to score those points. He also had two assists and only one turnover in a game where George was against sloppy with the ball. Starling also only took 10 shots to score his 12 points, which is yet another data point that his reputation (around here) as a ball hog is probably an artifact of his being the only good player on last years team.
Beating Tennessee to end our brutal schedule the last 8 days is a huge relief. Normally, Syracuse beating a 13th ranked team is not a good reason to rush the court, but it was like a purge of all the frustration from the three losses in Vegas. I feel great this morning about the team going forward.
I really didn't expect to win this game, and we pulled it out, in spite of a lot of things going against us. I could see us going into ACC play 10-3 and then going into the NC State game on a 13 games winning streak. That would put us at 17-3 with no bad losses and a couple Q1 wins.
A fanboy/optimist/crazy homer can dream again.
Obviously, that wasn't possible without a huge win against Tennessee.
I am a noted fanboy/optimist/insane homer, to be fair.
But objectively looking at the roster, we had a lot to like. One of the few things I was worried about concerning the roster is exactly what happened against Tennessee. Jaylen Carey is a 6'8 267lb reserve forward for Tennessee who averaged 7.1 points and 6 rebounds against every team that is not Syracuse. Against us he went for 22 and 9. He played the way I wish we played Lampkin last year. Carey pushed our lighter, taller, more athletic big men under the basket and easily scored time and again. He got blocked a few times, but mostly, it was easy offense for Tennessee. He isn't the biggest or tallest guy we will play against, but he is the blueprint for players that could give us trouble going forward.
With just under five minutes to go, ESPN credits Kyle with a "made jump shot" in the play by play. I had to double check that... Note to ESPN, if you are so far in the paint that the ACC logo is behind you, it isn't a jump shot, its a layup.
I feel like JJ Starling is a max effort guy on defense. Sometimes people complain that it looks like he isn't working hard enough out there. Maybe that was true in previous seasons, but this season, I see him really trying hard. He just has no instincts. He falls for every pass and shot fake and puts himself out of position, he goes the wrong way on screens. He isn't terrible, he just seems to make the wrong defensive decision more often than not.
Against Iowa State and Kansas, we had let downs where we let a close game become a fairly comfortable victory for the opponent. We had another one of those let downs last night. At 11:50 Kiyan Anthony hit a three pointer to put us up 50-41. After that basket, the Dome was very loud and the crowd was very involved, we gave up an 0-11 run (SWC always said Syracuse score goes first, good or bad) over the next 3:12 of game time. We didn't score again until Anthony hit a free throw at 7:33, over 4 minutes of scoreless drought. It didn't give the game away, but we need to find a way to stop those streaks when they are about to happen. We had an official timeout and Red called a timeout, but we failed to score coming out of those timeouts and didn't score until Anthony was fouled far from the basket to stop the bleeding.
William Kyle, Free Throw Champion, is a title you will never hear non-ironically. But he hit 4 of them last night to defeat the Hack a Kyle defense he has been getting. Including the eventual game winning point. Too Short also blocked 6 shots, a couple of them against physical presence Carey who was pushing him around a lot of the game. If Kyle can hit 50% going forward, the defenses who run up their own foul totals will regret it. But opposing coaches might decide it is better for Kyle to go to the line 10 times instead of getting a bunch of dunks. Even if it means their big men in foul trouble.
A guy who was all over the highlights came away with 10 points and 9 boards. Sadiq White flashed a little post up game I didn't think he had last night, making a couple baskets using a soft baby hook. He is quick and he gets up high enough, even without the bulk to establish great post position. Later, White made a defender pay for sagging off him with a three pointer in his eye. If his all around offensive game includes driving, dunking, opportunistic 3 point shooting, and a little post game, he could become a really versatile guy. His defense is intimidating, and he is getting a lot of steals that are credited to his teammates. If a player slaps a ball away, and it happens to go straight to, say, JJ Starling, which player deserves the steal? Last night official scorer gave Starling at least one steal that should have been credited to White. Still, White had 3 steals. He was a really important player last night.
Speaking of important players, Starling played really well. He has his faults, and his defense is really frustrating at times, but he was able to make some plays when it looked like we were about to give the game away for the fourth game in a row. After we allowed Tennessee a run to come back, with the score 52-51, Starling made a series of plays to win the game for us. He scored 7 of his 12 points in crunch time in the last 7 minutes, and 7 of our final 10 points to ice the game. We absolutely don't win if he isn't willing and able to score those points. He also had two assists and only one turnover in a game where George was against sloppy with the ball. Starling also only took 10 shots to score his 12 points, which is yet another data point that his reputation (around here) as a ball hog is probably an artifact of his being the only good player on last years team.
Beating Tennessee to end our brutal schedule the last 8 days is a huge relief. Normally, Syracuse beating a 13th ranked team is not a good reason to rush the court, but it was like a purge of all the frustration from the three losses in Vegas. I feel great this morning about the team going forward.
I really didn't expect to win this game, and we pulled it out, in spite of a lot of things going against us. I could see us going into ACC play 10-3 and then going into the NC State game on a 13 games winning streak. That would put us at 17-3 with no bad losses and a couple Q1 wins.
A fanboy/optimist/crazy homer can dream again.
Obviously, that wasn't possible without a huge win against Tennessee.
