Class of 2018 SF/PF Robert Braswell (SC) SIGNED WITH SYRACUSE

[pfister1]

So, unless we have the front court flexibility (maybe Marek gives us that like Lydon and Rick Jackson did ...), I think we're going to see 8 guys this year, and unless one of the forwards can really dependably shoot the three (either Hughes or Brissett), then I think one of Buddy or String Bean is going to get some court time especially against zones.

Long answer, but hopefully you follow my thinking.

As you are saying the rotation is heavily reliant on personnel and their capabilities. That said we have two centers (PC and BS) that, if healthy, are both going to get minutes. As a result I don't see anyway we play less than 8 guys regularly. Unfortunately for Braswell, I think its unlikely, barring injury, that that leaves room for him to get minutes once we get to the conference season.

Guards - Howard, Battle, Carey
Forwards - OB, Dolezaj, Hughes
Centers - PC, BS

I think that Braswell and Buddy are going to be struggling to fight there way ahead of one of those guys in the rotation and against each other, depending on what is needed. Braswell may have a better shot at minutes than Buddy only because we are much deeper in terms of the depth of talent at 2/3 than we are at 4/5.

 

[billsin01]

I don't think it's likely that both of them will play a meaningful role.

If our ball movement improves, we take better shots and our big three all shoot 35% or better, then great! Sign me up right now.

Hughes might be a terrific shooter, but we won't know until the lights go on. Geno, remember, came in with a much better resume, and averaged double digits at a somewhat better school than Hughes, and we got nothing out of him.

Maybe not all three of our "big three" makes that improvement to mid-to-upper 30% range. Maybe Brissett is so focused on finishing better through traffic near the rim that his outside shooting stays the same, or even gets a bit worse, because he could get streaky hot last year. People will be looking for him more this year. He won't have so many open outside shots.

In that case, if we've only got 2 out of 4 guys who are really reliable from deep, then someone is going to get some chances. Our best teams, historically speaking, usually have 3 guys who can shoot from three, two guards and a forward.

We usually play 2 centers, 3 forwards and 3 guards during the conference season. In preseason, you usually see the third center and the fourth guard. If either are terrible, you won't see them after December. If they are good, they might get the occasional cameo 5 minutes during conference season or the NCAA.

In the tournament, if one of the centers can play forward, or one of the forwards can play center, then you're going to see the dreaded "7 man rotation" - 4 front court players and 3 guards. But you have to have the flexibility, and over the years, as we've gone to bigger and bigger guards, you can't play only two guards, because they're going to get pressed by quick smaller guards, and most non-McDonald's forwards aren't good enough dribblers to be press breakers for us like a few guys have been in the past.

So, unless we have the front court flexibility (maybe Marek gives us that like Lydon and Rick Jackson did ...), I think we're going to see 8 guys this year, and unless one of the forwards can really dependably shoot the three (either Hughes or Brissett), then I think one of Buddy or String Bean is going to get some court time especially against zones.

Long answer, but hopefully you follow my thinking.

I get it and appreciate the line of thinking. I'm not really sure I agree, however, which is fine b/c we're both attempting to predict the future so who knows what can happen.

Here are my thoughts, bullet-pointed:

-- We would all love to have at least three shooters on the court if we can b/c not only does that open things up for the offense but it's the way most teams are going. However, having said that, we go defense first. We had a final four team where our two guards hoisted close to 300 threes and shot 29% (12-13 with Triche and MCW). Conversely we had a team with four guys shooting roughly 37% or better (Battle was technically 36.6%) miss the tourney all together.

Not knocking the need for shooters, but simply pointing out that the success of these teams starts with defense, or at least it has since the start of the 2012-13 season. The high-water mark for points on those six teams was the 16-17 group at 76 and they missed the tourney. Otherwise we've been in the 65-70 range.

-- Hughes and Thorpe are two pretty different animals in my book. That doesn't guarantee success for Hughes, nor that he's a great shooter by any stretch. But he's a kid they had a relationship with in the original recruiting process and then have had on campus for over a year at this point practicing with the team. Thorpe was a scramble-mode addition once we lost out on our primary PG options and, judging from the way it worked out, may have had a couple red flags to begin with. Just my opinion.

-- The guys who are returning have a huge advantage in today's game simply because so many teams are so young (probably also why we've seen the zone be even more effective in the postseason). Hughes/Howard/Chuckwu/Battle all are at least third-year guys who have logged a ton of minutes, Brissett played over 1400 minutes last year and Dolezaj logged more than a 1000 and he's a bit older than your typical sophomore (he's already 20). That's a lot for a young player to overcome.

-- The guys coming in don't really fit the basic profiles of players who generally play early. Usually those guys fall into one of three categories: 1) Highly recruited big guy who the staff wants to get on the floor even if they're not ready (see: Christmas, Rak; Melo, Fab); 2) Highly recruited player; 3) The guys who have to play out of necessity. Beyond that you don't see a lot of frosh playing.

So at the end of the day, I would think it would be tough for Braswell and/or Buddy to work their way in (not to say they'll redshirt, per se). So I think they'll get some minutes here and there and if we're really improved maybe they even play a pretty fair amount the first 12 games or so. But a path to a spot in a rotation in key games would mean, IMO, either some sort of injury or Bras/Buddy proving to have been significantly underrated and ready for prime time. I don't think we'll see them because they may be (or are) better shooters than the guys in front of them in the rotation. Just my opinion.

 

[SmilinBob]

Jimmy will play the guys that can produce. If a team is playing a lot of zone I wouldn't be surprised if Braswell or Boeheim don't come off the bench as a hired gun. Depends on how frustrated Jim is with the starting 7. Curious if anyone plays box and 1 on Battle., that might open up these 2 shooters as well.

 

[newmexicuse]

Bras was recruited as freshman year fodder and for what the staff is projecting he will be able to do as a soph going forward. Plenty of upside, but he will need a year to work on his strength and learn our system. Kid could be a junior year star.

 

[chugg21]

Bras was recruited as freshman year fodder and for what the staff is projecting he will be able to do as a soph going forward. Plenty of upside, but he will need a year to work on his strength and learn our system. Kid could be a junior year star.

Hopefully becomes everything I hoped BJ would become and then did for another school.

 

[littlereg]

Hopefully becomes everything I hoped BJ would become and then did for another school.

The funny thing about BJ is that he ended up s bruiser of sorts at Lasalle. He was s shooter yes but if you look at his rebounding and blocking numbers, and combined that with his defensive numbers if you look into more anylitical numbers you can see he ended up being more like that than a pure shooter and only shooter like it seemed he may be.

 

[GooseMutt]

I don't know about how they might compare to 12, let alone 10. Those would both represent massive jumps from what we saw last season. The 10 team was an 81 ppg group whereas we put up 66.6 last season. Huge jump. The 11-12 team point production could be realistic (74 ppg), but they were 13th in offensive rating (we were 240th last season).

I think the bigger point would be that this should be a really, really good defensive team. A healthy center combo with the other four returning should at least put us in the neighborhood of where we were last season, if not better. Add in a capable scorer in Hughes and a potential offensive boost from Carey as well as a healthy Sidibe (please God, let Sidibe be healthy) and improvement from the rest of the group should mean we're at least a 70-72 ppg team. I would have to think that would net us a minimum of around 3 more Ws. Games like Bonaventure, ND, Ga Tech, NC STate and maybe even the Carolina/Wake/FSU OT games (Carolina was regulation, I guess) are all candidates to go our way if we're a bit more efficient offensively. Win three more of those and you finish the regular season at 22-9, which may not seem like a lot but you're safely in the tourney and that's just with modest improvement.

Anyway, trying to bring this back to Braswell -- It's awesome that he's looked good and I'm drooling at the idea of Buddy ripping the nets at 40% from three, but it's hard to imagine those guys cracking the rotation this year in meaningful games.

Being a 70 point team works for me as long as our competitors are 69 point teams

 

[IthacaMatt]

Hopefully becomes everything I hoped BJ would become and then did for another school.

My thoughts, too, as I read the post you were responding to.

 

[Todoubled23]

I personally am very excited to see what Bras can do to try and steal some minutes here and there. I think he will end up being a great player for us in the future. Also because there's so little tape on him I'd love for him to come out and surprise some people!

 

[Pearl309]

I personally am very excited to see what Bras can do to try and steal some minutes here and there. I think he will end up being a great player for us in the future. Also because there's so little tape on him I'd love for him to come out and surprise some people!

Yeah I can’t believe he’s on campus and we only have a few minutes of him essentially shooting wide open Js

 

[SUskibum]

-- Hughes and Thorpe are two pretty different animals in my book. That doesn't guarantee success for Hughes, nor that he's a great shooter by any stretch. But he's a kid they had a relationship with in the original recruiting process and then have had on campus for over a year at this point practicing with the team. Thorpe was a scramble-mode addition once we lost out on our primary PG options and, judging from the way it worked out, may have had a couple red flags to begin with. Just my opinion.

I agree with this entire post.

I would add 1 thing to the Thorpe/Hughes comparison.

Thorpe also showed up late to the team so he had even less time than other 1st year players, and was immediately hurt so we really don’t know what he might have been. I don’t think there are any parallels we can draw between the two.

 

[Trueblue25]

How nice it will be to be back ontop of the ACC where we belong again

 

[GooseMutt]

I know that last year and this year we were one of the tallest teams. I have to assume we will be again this year and should be near the top for avg minutes played per starter. This experience and cohesiveness is huge. Can’t wait to see Braswell live

 

[JazzNC]

I don't think, barring injuries, that Bras or Buddy see a lot of time this upcoming year. But, having them as depth is huge. In a given game, you never know who might come off the bench and be a spark plug. We were so limited last year depth wise, that it will be exciting to see how this team's chemistry develops. I know that JB usually narrows it down to a 6-7 man rotation (sometimes 8), but I really hope that we will be able to rest some of our players and use our bench a bit more this year. We'll be better for it come tournament time.

2018 should be a very fun team. I'm excited to get started. I think if we stay healthy an elite 8 or final four run is well within our potential.

 

[orangemass]

Bras-balls-well

 

[GooseMutt]

Bras-balls-well

We can only hope

 

[orangencpolice]

Went to the Charlotte Airport last night to pick up my sister who flew down from Syracuse. While walking back to the garage area, my son sees a tall kid standing at the front who appeared to be waiting for a ride. He had a backpack with number 20 and the S logo. I asked him if he was an SU basketball player. He said he was and said his name was Robert Braswell. I remembered that SU got a verbal commitment from a kid in South Carolina but wasn’t exactly sure. I told him that my son and I are huge fans.

Robert couldn’t have been more nice. He was very well mannered and polite. He agreed to a picture with the boy. We will definitely be pulling for this young man in the future as Syracuse player and hopefully beyond. BTW - He is as tall as reported, 6’8” and is still growing into his body. I would expect him to get a year of S&C and be a terror.

 

[orangemass]

Excellent, thanks for sharing...

 

[rrlbees]

Went to the Charlotte Airport last night to pick up my sister who flew down from Syracuse. While walking back to the garage area, my son sees a tall kid standing at the front who appeared to be waiting for a ride. He had a backpack with number 20 and the S logo. I asked him if he was an SU basketball player. He said he was and said his name was Robert Braswell. I remembered that SU got a verbal commitment from a kid in South Carolina but wasn’t exactly sure. I told him that my son and I are huge fans.

Robert couldn’t have been more nice. He was very well mannered and polite. He agreed to a picture with the boy. We will definitely be pulling for this young man in the future as Syracuse and hopefully beyond. BTW - He is as tall as reported, 6’8” and is still growing into his body. I would expect him to get a year of S&C and be a terror.
View attachment 136781

Cool story. Love random moments.

 

[orangencpolice]

I enjoy moments like this where you run into Syracuse athletes that are just good people. I have been fortunate coming into contact with this young man and Steven Ishmael when he was a Freshman. Both were very friendly and nice to my son. That is all I can ask for.

 

[moqui]

i realize the sample size is very thin, but every time i watch this kid i'm struck - in a good way - by his instincts. i think he's going to prove to be a very good long term player.

 

[SWC75]

i realize the sample size is very thin, but every time i watch this kid i'm struck - in a good way - by his instincts. i think he's going to prove to be a very good long term player.

Braswell has played 53 minutes, scored 26 points with 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 6 steals. He's shooting 67% from the field and 75% from the foul line. he's only committed 2 fouls, meaning he knows where he has to be to make plays. the one downside is 7 turnovers. of course that's against the other team's reserves but this guy seems to know how to play the game and is, of course, very athletic. He's basically looked good every time he's been out there.

 

[Orangefan1]

I’ll never understand why he didn’t play more this year even at center...how could it hurt?

 

[supp]

i realize the sample size is very thin, but every time i watch this kid i'm struck - in a good way - by his instincts. i think he's going to prove to be a very good long term player.

Yep, Boeheim knows small forward talent. He really understands that position the best of all.

 

[50YRsofCuse]

Braswell has played 53 minutes, scored 26 points with 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 6 steals. He's shooting 67% from the field and 75% from the foul line. he's only committed 2 fouls, meaning he knows where he has to be to make plays. the one downside is 7 turnovers. of course that's against the other team's reserves but this guy seems to know how to play the game and is, of course, very athletic. He's basically looked good every time he's been out there.

Yes, he played good against other teams’ reserves. So, the coaches don’t have confidence in playing him over Brissette, Hughes, Marek, Sidibe, or Chukwu. They are going with the comfort of experience over possible potential. He is also a typical Syracuse Forward (thin). Give him time and hopefully next year he will get more time (especially since Syracuse has not recruited anyone at the PF position other than Ajak).