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Message: [QUOTE="Niastri, post: 5727975, member: 722"] Watching the Duke Siena "full game highlight" leads me to believe that Siena was lucky in the first half. A team that shot .308 on the season went 5/11 on threes against a team that was taking them lightly. Conversely Duke was 2/15 on three pt attempts. That was the half. In the second, Siena shot a far more typical 4/15 (remember, this is a team that only shot 17 per game all season) and Duke shot 3/11... Still not good, but they were doing a lot more dunking in the second half than the first. I think McNamara and his staff correctly decided that they didn't have the horses to compete with Duke and the only chance they had was the proverbial perfect game... They shot out of their minds the first half, got a lead using the bombs away strategy, but couldn't sustain it against renewed intensity from Duke in the second half. Duke is really good, and has a lot of good players. But what stood out to me is Riley Mulvey playing a *lot* like Craig Forth from our championship season. Box out, set hard picks, move the ball to the right guy, don't screw things up. Mulvey even took Maliq Brown into the post at times, which we saw can be really productive when he was here, Brown just shouldn't be trying to guard guys 3 inches taller and 20 pounds heavier in the post. Mulvey isn't talented enough to embarrass Brown the way Clemson did two years ago. I would have made them double team to help Brown by posting Mulvey more than it seems GMAC did. Even a pedestrian talent like Mulvey can pressure a defense if they try to guard him with Brown alone. Siena made a consistent and persistent effort to box out. Siena made defensive switches without wandering lost around the court. Siena made no subs. Or, more accurately, their only sub was out there a short enough time where he was credited with a full line of 0 in every category including minutes. Considering Siena was missing a few key players, including a starter who was deemed ineligible right before the conference tournament, GMAC didn't pull any punches in giving his best shot. A single elimination game is the definition of "must win" and he went with his best players. It was probably the one thing that looked most like a JB protege. I would like to watch more video, but I am excited by watching his team compete against a team that was a lot more talented and a heavy favorite. One thing I noticed about his team was roster construction. McNamara has two bigs that look very "Forth-like," Mulvey and Goodrick. Mulvey was actually the reserve center most of the season, but Goodrick was injured for the tournament, along with Antonio Chandler who was suspended for eligibility reasons. With Mulvey and Folefac, GMAC had two guys inside that were bigger (in Folefac's case, heavier) than average for their position. The wings, Doty, Coyle had decent P4 height for their position, and Shoats is a little lead guard, who is very quick. He actually had the best defensive rebounding percentage for Siena against Duke, being quick to the ball and taking advantage of solid boxing out by his teammates. One thing to note, Siena was a very bad shooting team, but they had the confidence to let them fire away against Duke and almost snuck a victory on arguably the best team in the country. With a better NIL and recruiting situation at Syracuse, that is a lineup construction that can win. The key is a good point guard, and bigs that can guard the middle, but when isn't that true. I suspect that we are done with undersized but athletic big men like Kyle and Soure. Bigs in McNamara's system might be expected to be good passing, good rebounding, excellent pick setting big guys who clog up the middle on defense and move the ball effectively without scoring too much on offense. In other words, Craig Forth clones. I think GMAC might be able to recruit guys to Syracuse like Doty and Coyle, good overall players, but ones that can shoot. The Siena recruit that is widely rumored to be flipping to Syracuse, Moesch, seems a little bit in the mold of Shoats, undersized, quick, athletic... Though I fear, unlike Shoats, Moesch is listed as a combo guard only because he is short and not because he is actually a scoring point guard. I would like to watch more video to confirm my impressions of McNamara's Siena teams... I watched the Duke Siena game live with only half an eye, and a 9 minute highlight clip isn't really adequate. But I have been excited to think it through, and see what trends and expectations we might have for our next basketball roster and team composition. Only Two Weeks before Portal Season! [/QUOTE]

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