gmacfor3
Walk On
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2014
- Messages
- 153
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- 953
Sadly enough, today has been years in the making. I've been a fan for over 30 years and today was the first time I've ever turned off a game before it was over, and what is worse is that when I turned it off we were only down 7 points with around 14 mins left. However, I (like many of you) had seen enough. It is not the losing so much as it is how they are losing.
First off, I enjoyed watching JG play last year...he played with energy, confidence and flair and although inefficient I thought he would really build off the experience he got last year coming into this year. What happened was he put on 15-20 pounds of bad weight which has made him slower, play with less bounce off the dribble, and completely unable to finish going to the basket. Even worse, his energy and effort have been absolutely terrible. With that said, we have a freshman in Richmond who was praised by JB heading in to this season as "one of the best young guards in the country" or something to that effect, and JB basically refuses to give him an actual shot on the floor. To make matters worse, when he air balled a three a few games ago, JB got all over him about shooting a WIDE OPEN three (and JB had commented preseason how Richmond was a better shooter than they thought) and now Kadary wont shoot from the outside and teams are sloughing off him and clogging the lane. I don't care if Girard was averaging 15 points or more a game, his disinterest in playing defense alone is reason to sit him on the bench. Richmond has proven to be a VERY good defender in the zone, and the analytics prove that. But it is as if the more JB is questioned for playing JG so much by media and people in the community (and don't think for a second JB doesn't know this is being questioned by people in the community), the more he digs his stubborn heels in. Someone mentioned the other day on this board that JB will keep using the same golf club over and over again when he's struggling with it until he hits a good shot, even to the detriment of his overall game. Well that is exactly what is happening here.
Now on to Buddy...I LOVE Buddy. He is a tremendous kid, unbelievable work ethic, and has developed into an offensive weapon at times. However, he is being asked to carry this team offensively and that is not and never will be his game. His Dad is actually doing a disservice to him by 1)having him do things offensively he can't do (ie break people down off the dribble, create for others, play with a PG who can't collapse the defense, ect.), 2) playing him 36-40 mins every game when he clearly gets tired toward the end of games, and 3) not sitting him when he is struggling and allowing him to keep struggling. Buddy would play an integral role on any team in America, but he should never be counted on to carry such a heavy load as he's being asked to. Part of that is recruiting, and I had a source close to the program years ago tell me that when it was clear Buddy was good enough to come to SU, JB told his assistants to stop recruiting several high profile guards that they were after. If that isn't negligence/nepotism, I don't know what is. It is not like Buddy was a sure fire 4/5 star recruit that was destined to come in and play big minutes. And now there is no way guards are going to want to come play at Syracuse when Buddy and Joe will be dominating the minutes for the next 2 years going forward.
As for the center position, yes losing Sidibe has hurt. But not having a capable back up behind him again is pure coaching/recruiting negligence. Marek should never be asked to play anything other than emergency minutes at center. It is great having 5 players on the floor that can play outside the three point line, but defensively it is embarrassing to watch what teams do to us inside. Marek is 200 lbs for gods sake, and that is with the 15 lbs he put on this offseason. How can you expect a 200 lb player in the ACC to patrol the middle every possession (because in the zone he obviously never leaves the middle) and be productive. I actually think he'd be more serviceable guarding the 5 position in a man defense because he could use his quickness/agility to neutralize bigger/slower players (I know that is not going to happen, just making a random point). But in the middle of the zone he is a sitting duck. The effort is there, but his skinny body just wears down toward the ends of games, which is to be expected. And now Edwards (who played some important mins last year) and JBA (who is apparently too small but weighs more than Marek, Edwards, and Sidibe) have their confidence relegated to nothing as JB tears them down in press conferences and says the team has no other options. Edwards and JBA are in their second year, if they aren't an option than much of the blame for that is on the coaching staff.
Speaking of press conferences, JB has been an embarrassment in my opinion during them, and not just this year. I don't know of any other college coaches who routinely tear down their players to the media other than JB. How do you expect them to play with confidence when this is done?! Rip a kid in practice or on the bench, sure, I'm all for it. But too the media!? Case in point, Tyler Roberson. JB made him into a shell of the player that he could have been. He was once asked after a game against Louisville (when Roberson missed a big FT at the end of the game) what he was thinking when Roberson stepped to the line, and he answered that he figured that Roberson was going to miss it. That floored me at the time. Any coach knows, even if you think that, you always give the coach speak to the media that you had complete confidence in the kid and would have confidence in him if that situation arrived again...nope, not JB. To make matters worse, he NEVER gets on Buddy publicly. I've read that he is hard on him in practice...which is what he should be on all his players. But the fact is JB will tear down every one of his players to the media EXCEPT for his son...that speaks loudly to the other players on the team whether you want to believe it or not. Hell, when they lost to Baylor a few years ago in the tournament, a reporter asked him to talk about Buddy's struggles in the game (I believe he played 37 mins and scored 0 points) and JB gave the reporter a death stare and mumbled something to the effect of "that's wrong" and prematurely ended the press conference if I recall. He's also stated before that chemistry isn't important/is overblown (WHAT?!?). He doesn't teach boxing out/finding a body when rebounding because the zone doesn't allow it, and yet his teams are annually some of the worst defensive rebounding teams in the nation.
Which leads in to my final point, which is that JB's teams no longer play team basketball. The last few years, I always felt the other team had the advantage in a close game going in to the last few minutes because Syracuse has not had an identity. They rely on individuals to make plays offensively (which works when you have great players which Syracuse used to have) and they do not have the personal to play the zone and get stops. I don't have the actual data on this, but there have been many games the last few years where Syracuse held a lead with about 5/6 mins left to play, only to absolutely wither over the final mins and end up losing easily. The Rutgers, Pitt (at home), and UNC games from this year, and I know there were several from last year (NC State game comes to mind) where this happened. Listen, I get it, you are going to lose close games, and Syracuse has been in a lot of them the last several years. Again however, it is how they are losing. Terrible shot selection, wrong personal in the game, rushed turnovers by players trying to do too much, inability to get a stop/rebound, etc. Again, the team has no identity. Why aren't we playing through Quincy, when he is clearly the best and most efficient player on the team?!?
The record since 2014 speaks for itself...we have become an mediocre college basketball program. Yes, sanctions hurt us, but they've been over for years and IMO can't be used as an excuse anymore. I will say that it seems like JB gets out of shady recruitments and therefore isn't recruiting illegally like so many in the college game are, which I applaud him for...but John Belein did things the right way and never had a problem winning consistently. You could say the pandemic has not been kind to SU, but nearly all programs are dealing with that this year. JB is a legend, one of the all time greats. He has built this thing from the ground up. But the ship is sinking, and I fear that it could get worse before it gets better. I shudder to think that the basketball program could end up like the football program, but here we are.
First off, I enjoyed watching JG play last year...he played with energy, confidence and flair and although inefficient I thought he would really build off the experience he got last year coming into this year. What happened was he put on 15-20 pounds of bad weight which has made him slower, play with less bounce off the dribble, and completely unable to finish going to the basket. Even worse, his energy and effort have been absolutely terrible. With that said, we have a freshman in Richmond who was praised by JB heading in to this season as "one of the best young guards in the country" or something to that effect, and JB basically refuses to give him an actual shot on the floor. To make matters worse, when he air balled a three a few games ago, JB got all over him about shooting a WIDE OPEN three (and JB had commented preseason how Richmond was a better shooter than they thought) and now Kadary wont shoot from the outside and teams are sloughing off him and clogging the lane. I don't care if Girard was averaging 15 points or more a game, his disinterest in playing defense alone is reason to sit him on the bench. Richmond has proven to be a VERY good defender in the zone, and the analytics prove that. But it is as if the more JB is questioned for playing JG so much by media and people in the community (and don't think for a second JB doesn't know this is being questioned by people in the community), the more he digs his stubborn heels in. Someone mentioned the other day on this board that JB will keep using the same golf club over and over again when he's struggling with it until he hits a good shot, even to the detriment of his overall game. Well that is exactly what is happening here.
Now on to Buddy...I LOVE Buddy. He is a tremendous kid, unbelievable work ethic, and has developed into an offensive weapon at times. However, he is being asked to carry this team offensively and that is not and never will be his game. His Dad is actually doing a disservice to him by 1)having him do things offensively he can't do (ie break people down off the dribble, create for others, play with a PG who can't collapse the defense, ect.), 2) playing him 36-40 mins every game when he clearly gets tired toward the end of games, and 3) not sitting him when he is struggling and allowing him to keep struggling. Buddy would play an integral role on any team in America, but he should never be counted on to carry such a heavy load as he's being asked to. Part of that is recruiting, and I had a source close to the program years ago tell me that when it was clear Buddy was good enough to come to SU, JB told his assistants to stop recruiting several high profile guards that they were after. If that isn't negligence/nepotism, I don't know what is. It is not like Buddy was a sure fire 4/5 star recruit that was destined to come in and play big minutes. And now there is no way guards are going to want to come play at Syracuse when Buddy and Joe will be dominating the minutes for the next 2 years going forward.
As for the center position, yes losing Sidibe has hurt. But not having a capable back up behind him again is pure coaching/recruiting negligence. Marek should never be asked to play anything other than emergency minutes at center. It is great having 5 players on the floor that can play outside the three point line, but defensively it is embarrassing to watch what teams do to us inside. Marek is 200 lbs for gods sake, and that is with the 15 lbs he put on this offseason. How can you expect a 200 lb player in the ACC to patrol the middle every possession (because in the zone he obviously never leaves the middle) and be productive. I actually think he'd be more serviceable guarding the 5 position in a man defense because he could use his quickness/agility to neutralize bigger/slower players (I know that is not going to happen, just making a random point). But in the middle of the zone he is a sitting duck. The effort is there, but his skinny body just wears down toward the ends of games, which is to be expected. And now Edwards (who played some important mins last year) and JBA (who is apparently too small but weighs more than Marek, Edwards, and Sidibe) have their confidence relegated to nothing as JB tears them down in press conferences and says the team has no other options. Edwards and JBA are in their second year, if they aren't an option than much of the blame for that is on the coaching staff.
Speaking of press conferences, JB has been an embarrassment in my opinion during them, and not just this year. I don't know of any other college coaches who routinely tear down their players to the media other than JB. How do you expect them to play with confidence when this is done?! Rip a kid in practice or on the bench, sure, I'm all for it. But too the media!? Case in point, Tyler Roberson. JB made him into a shell of the player that he could have been. He was once asked after a game against Louisville (when Roberson missed a big FT at the end of the game) what he was thinking when Roberson stepped to the line, and he answered that he figured that Roberson was going to miss it. That floored me at the time. Any coach knows, even if you think that, you always give the coach speak to the media that you had complete confidence in the kid and would have confidence in him if that situation arrived again...nope, not JB. To make matters worse, he NEVER gets on Buddy publicly. I've read that he is hard on him in practice...which is what he should be on all his players. But the fact is JB will tear down every one of his players to the media EXCEPT for his son...that speaks loudly to the other players on the team whether you want to believe it or not. Hell, when they lost to Baylor a few years ago in the tournament, a reporter asked him to talk about Buddy's struggles in the game (I believe he played 37 mins and scored 0 points) and JB gave the reporter a death stare and mumbled something to the effect of "that's wrong" and prematurely ended the press conference if I recall. He's also stated before that chemistry isn't important/is overblown (WHAT?!?). He doesn't teach boxing out/finding a body when rebounding because the zone doesn't allow it, and yet his teams are annually some of the worst defensive rebounding teams in the nation.
Which leads in to my final point, which is that JB's teams no longer play team basketball. The last few years, I always felt the other team had the advantage in a close game going in to the last few minutes because Syracuse has not had an identity. They rely on individuals to make plays offensively (which works when you have great players which Syracuse used to have) and they do not have the personal to play the zone and get stops. I don't have the actual data on this, but there have been many games the last few years where Syracuse held a lead with about 5/6 mins left to play, only to absolutely wither over the final mins and end up losing easily. The Rutgers, Pitt (at home), and UNC games from this year, and I know there were several from last year (NC State game comes to mind) where this happened. Listen, I get it, you are going to lose close games, and Syracuse has been in a lot of them the last several years. Again however, it is how they are losing. Terrible shot selection, wrong personal in the game, rushed turnovers by players trying to do too much, inability to get a stop/rebound, etc. Again, the team has no identity. Why aren't we playing through Quincy, when he is clearly the best and most efficient player on the team?!?
The record since 2014 speaks for itself...we have become an mediocre college basketball program. Yes, sanctions hurt us, but they've been over for years and IMO can't be used as an excuse anymore. I will say that it seems like JB gets out of shady recruitments and therefore isn't recruiting illegally like so many in the college game are, which I applaud him for...but John Belein did things the right way and never had a problem winning consistently. You could say the pandemic has not been kind to SU, but nearly all programs are dealing with that this year. JB is a legend, one of the all time greats. He has built this thing from the ground up. But the ship is sinking, and I fear that it could get worse before it gets better. I shudder to think that the basketball program could end up like the football program, but here we are.
