Rewatched the Carleton game, a few observations... | Syracusefan.com

Rewatched the Carleton game, a few observations...

Lawrinson14

Lawrinson14

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On Sunday, I only gave half of my attention to the SU basketball game (NFL the other half). So last night, I decided to re-watch the game and had a few observations:
  • The back of the zone is definitely a work in progress. Numerous times throughout the game Roberson and CMac got caught flat footed instead of jumping out to the wing...which resulted in open 3's. They also seemed to be too quick on some occasions to crash the middle when they would have been better served guarding the wings (especially given our size advantage down low)

  • Christmas has been given the green light. In baseball, only a select few are allowed to swing on a 3 and 0 count. Well, Christmas is our version of that this year. When he got the ball there was no more hot potato back out to a guard. Instead, he took a jumper. He drove to the lane. He attemped a jump hook. He threw a cross court pass that resulted in a wide open 3.

  • The return of the high-low. In the second half, SU tried to have Christmas stand above the foul line and pass it down to CMac. Given that few team will have the height to guard 6-9 Christmas and 6-10 CMac, I see this as being a go-to play later in the season. In fact, off the top of my head I can't really think of any teams outside of Duke or Louisville that will be able to match the height/athleticism of Christmas and CMac while they are on the court at the same time.

  • Cooney really did not have many open shots. He was well guarded the entire time he was on the court. Even the threes he took were tough shots.
  • It's nice to see the team push the ball after getting a rebound. Last year's tempo nearly put me to sleep. Every time Gbinije got a rebound he was off to the races.

  • Gbinije seems to really have worked on his handles. He looked completely comfortable bringing the ball up court. I lOVE the fact that he basically plays every position but center.

  • Kaleb Joseph is nearly the exact opposite of Tyler Ennis in every way. He plays up-tempo. He appears to have a shoot-first mentality.
 
The uptempo is the most important thing to me. The defense should improve over the course of year but easy buckets were so hard to come by after the first Duke game. Ennis was very good for a freshman, but his unwillingness or inability to push the ball made that a really difficult team to watch.
 
;):)Well, I did not see the game, but I like most of your comments. The one thing you said that I find disturbing is that Cooney did not have open shots. Are we not running sets to try and free him up or is he still running around in circles as he did much of last season ? Point is - other than maybe an odd game here or there nobody is going to be leaving him open for trey shots. There has to be some combination of our system getting him some looks and his being able to free himself up for some looks. Probably those oportunities will be limited unless he has expanded his game from last season. He needs a consistent pullup J and at least some capability to drive and finish at the rim. Any improvement in those areas ??

We all know that Trevor can fill it up in bunches, but we all also know he can be shut down for entire games. He doesn't necessarily have to be great too often, but he has to be much more consistent if we are to be elite. Of course, if Buss can fill it up the way he did then what Trevor does or doen't do will matter a lot less.
 
Good observations. I've been meaning to get a second watch in myself but yesterday was one of my kids birthdays and then later I had to suffer through that Giants game. Perhaps tonight.

I am not too worried about the defense as over the years its seems the young wing defenders always struggle the most in the beginning. They will certainly improve as they play more.

I also loved seeing Mike sky for a rebound and then just take off with the ball. I wondered if we might see some of that out of Roberson or Chris but both seemed to look for Mike or Kaleb on all of their defensive rebounds.
 
newmexicuse said:
;):)Well, I did not see the game, but I like most of your comments. The one thing you said that I find disturbing is that Cooney did not have open shots. Are we not running sets to try and free him up or is he still running around in circles as he did much of last season ? Point is - other than maybe an odd game here or there nobody is going to be leaving him open for trey shots. There has to be some combination of our system getting him some looks and his being able to free himself up for some looks. Probably those oportunities will be limited unless he has expanded his game from last season. He needs a consistent pullup J and at least some capability to drive and finish at the rim. Any improvement in those areas ??

We all know that Trevor can fill it up in bunches, but we all also know he can be shut down for entire games. He doesn't necessarily have to be great too often, but he has to be much more consistent if we are to be elite. Of course, if Buss can fill it up the way he did then what Trevor does or doesn't do will matter a lot less.
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There was not much if any crazy half court running by Trevor off of screnes to get open. There was some basic screne action and one backdoor cut if I recall. Trevor will be getting his shots differently this season because we will be more of an inside out, drive and kick offensive team. Its not going to be nearly as much screne/motion style stuff from what I can see. He will need to learn to leak to open area's and run to the line on 2ndary breaks. I'm sure we will run stuff for him but not like last year IMO. He will get a lot of close outs because of this and needs to pump fake and then create for himself or others. JB mentioned he missed some driving opportunities that he needs to take so that tells me its part of the plan for the offense this year.

Another thing to note was that Ennis was extremely good at following things in the half court sets last year and getting the ball to Trevor in the shooting pocket right on time so he was catching it ready to go with his feet set. He also was great at feeding the hot hand. This season not only is the offense different but Trevor is working with a new PG so it may take a couple of games for him to get going.
 
jordoo said:
There was not much if any crazy half court running by Trevor off of screnes to get open. There was some basic screne action and one backdoor cut if I recall. Trevor will be getting his shots differently this season because we will be more of an inside out, drive and kick offensive team. Its not going to be nearly as much screne/motion style stuff from what I can see. He will need to learn to leak to open area's and run to the line on 2ndary breaks. I'm sure we will run stuff for him but not like last year IMO. He will get a lot of close outs because of this and needs to pump fake and then create for himself or others. JB mentioned he missed some driving opportunities that he needs to take so that tells me its part of the plan for the offense this year.

Another thing to note was that Ennis was extremely good at following things in the half court sets last year and getting the ball to Trevor in the shooting pocket right on time so he was catching it ready to go with his feet set. He also was great at feeding the hot hand. This season not only is the offense different but Trevor is working with a new PG so it may take a couple of games for him to get going.
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Although, seems there might be a greater chance for Cooney to get some open looks from pushing the ball / secondary breaks where he can spot up - as well as drive and kick-outs. I think those are situations where his shooting can excel - as opposed to him running around like a crazy person trying to get open and taking shots where he might not be set.
 
Toga said:
Although, seems there might be a greater chance for Cooney to get some open looks from pushing the ball / secondary breaks where he can spot up - as well as drive and kick-outs. I think those are situations where his shooting can excel - as opposed to him running around like a crazy person trying to get open and taking shots where he might not be set.
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Agreed better shots an better on his legs for the season. My point is its still an adjustment from what he was doing last season so it may take him a few games to start recognizing when and where his good looks will be coming from.
 
Cooney will get looks off the double team too. Xmas did a good job passing out of it. The question is whether ACC teams with much interior presence will need to double team Rak and/or McC.
 
HoustonCuse said:
Cooney will get looks off the double team too. Xmas did a good job passing out of it. The question is whether ACC teams with much interior presence will need to double team Rak and/or McC.
Expand...

Yes this is what I meant by inside out and Trevor needing to slide to the open spaces.
 
Lawrinson14 said:
On Sunday, I only gave half of my attention to the SU basketball game (NFL the other half). So last night, I decided to re-watch the game and had a few observations:
  • The back of the zone is definitely a work in progress. Numerous times throughout the game Roberson and CMac got caught flat footed instead of jumping out to the wing...which resulted in open 3's. They also seemed to be too quick on some occasions to crash the middle when they would have been better served guarding the wings (especially given our size advantage down low)

  • Christmas has been given the green light. In baseball, only a select few are allowed to swing on a 3 and 0 count. Well, Christmas is our version of that this year. When he got the ball there was no more hot potato back out to a guard. Instead, he took a jumper. He drove to the lane. He attemped a jump hook. He threw a cross court pass that resulted in a wide open 3.

  • The return of the high-low. In the second half, SU tried to have Christmas stand above the foul line and pass it down to CMac. Given that few team will have the height to guard 6-9 Christmas and 6-10 CMac, I see this as being a go-to play later in the season. In fact, off the top of my head I can't really think of any teams outside of Duke or Louisville that will be able to match the height/athleticism of Christmas and CMac while they are on the court at the same time.

  • Cooney really did not have many open shots. He was well guarded the entire time he was on the court. Even the threes he took were tough shots.
  • It's nice to see the team push the ball after getting a rebound. Last year's tempo nearly put me to sleep. Every time Gbinije got a rebound he was off to the races.

  • Gbinije seems to really have worked on his handles. He looked completely comfortable bringing the ball up court. I lOVE the fact that he basically plays every position but center.

  • Kaleb Joseph is nearly the exact opposite of Tyler Ennis in every way. He plays up-tempo. He appears to have a shoot-first mentality.
Expand...

Really like your comments on the high-low. I was impressed by Rak's agressiveness in the second half, but also his improvement as a passer. Hopefully it continues.

One thing that I find interesting... Even though we lost most of our production from last year, we seem to have more 3-point options and more low-post options. I think our personnel will allow us to space the floor better and hopefully offense is less of a struggle as a result.
 
The Corner/Opposite wing three should be wide open this year if Rak can be the force he showed the other day. Thats where Ron got his open looks. The double team is going to come from the opposite side and Rak can kick it out to that opposite wing for open shots all day long if he feels the double team. I saw Trevor open a couple of times on TV and I think Rak just didn't see him. I'm sure thats something that will be worked on this week in practice.
 
Last edited:
HoustonCuse said:
Cooney will get looks off the double team too. Xmas did a good job passing out of it. The question is whether ACC teams with much interior presence will need to double team Rak and/or McC.
Expand...
TC was open and calling for the ball several times when Rak was double-teamed; Rak just kicked it out elsewhere. No big deal, it will work out.
 
Btw, it's scary to think that Kaleb's confidence is only growing with these early games. He's going to be a special leader for us. Really showed me something even though most of us already have high expectations.
 
jordoo said:
Agreed better shots an better on his legs for the season. My point is its still an adjustment from what he was doing last season so it may take him a few games to start recognizing when and where his good looks will be coming from.
Expand...
Carleton played zone so Cooney didn't have a guy glued to him like last year so he didn't have to run around like a chicken with his head cutoff. He did seem to do a lot of standing around but having other shooters teams will pay for paying so much attention to Cooney. Hopefully going forward Cooney will be better but he also didn't force a ton of 3's. He did do a nice job of passing out of the double teams and played good defense. Cooney needs to put the ball on the floor more and drive to the basket didn't see that from him but Carleton does a good job at taking that away although KJ was able to get to the basket several times. If he doesn't do this he will get very few good looks from 3 if he is only a one dimensional offensive player. I will be interested to see what happens when teams play us man to man if Cooney will be running around and coming off screens like last year?
 
Jamesvillecuse said:
Carleton played zone so Cooney didn't have a guy glued to him like last year so he didn't have to run around like a chicken with his head cutoff. He did seem to do a lot of standing around but having other shooters teams will pay for paying so much attention to Cooney. Hopefully going forward Cooney will be better but he also didn't force a ton of 3's. He did do a nice job of passing out of the double teams and played good defense. Cooney needs to put the ball on the floor more and drive to the basket didn't see that from him but Carleton does a good job at taking that away although KJ was able to get to the basket several times. If he doesn't do this he will get very few good looks from 3 if he is only a one dimensional offensive player. I will be interested to see what happens when teams play us man to man if Cooney will be running around and coming off screens like last year?
Expand...

It looked like Carlton picked up full court m2m most of the game and then in the halfcourt dropped back into a junk sagging m2m where they always helped in the post and always helped on drives. I could be wrong but I don't think it was a zone. It was certainly unlike any defense we will see most of the season. I agree with Cooney needed to use the drive more this year and I would prefer we don't have to see the chicken run with him anymore.
 
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