So Who Is The First Portaler?

[FrancoPizza]

Red held guys out multiple times, suspended a player, and possibly didn't start Quadir in part because of some things he felt Quadir needed to work on.

Red presented lots of consequences.

He threatened consequences but how many times did he actually act on those threats? Seems like my wife is when she says she gonna throw out my son’s playstation if he acts up one more time. Yeah right…

 

[FrancoPizza]

stop

If they played well enough to make the tournament, I could understand Red’s delicate balancing act. But in the end he put up with this BS for what? 20 wins gets you a cup of coffee at Denny’s. Big deal.

Ultimately it’s unfair for fans to take some insider’s verdict on Red as gospel when we’re only allowed to evaluate half the evidence.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Q, and Judah, then Taylor, Bell

That would be losing a lot.
Roddy Gayle for Judah, I guess.
But we need to replace a lot of offense if that happens.

 

[kingtidge]

If he has all 's how does he just transfer and play?

The world needs ditch diggers too

 

[FrancoPizza]

That would be losing a lot.
Roddy Gayle for Judah, I guess.
But we need to replace a lot of offense if that happens.

Don’t be afraid of change, Matt. This way we’ll see if Red has the chops to pound the portal like a top 25 CEO. We’ll know soon enough.

 

[Cuse House]

This hasn’t been Syracuse for almost a decade.

Precisely. That’s my point. We need to quit taking on projects and get starters out of the portal. No more excuses. The time is now to turn it around.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

He threatened consequences but how many times did he actually act on those threats? Seems like my wife is when she says she gonna throw out my son’s playstation if he acts up one more time. Yeah right…

HE HELD GUYS OUT OF GAMES AND SUSPENDED A PLAYER

 

[Jake]

HE HELD GUYS OUT OF GAMES AND SUSPENDED A PLAYER

And kicked a guy off the team mid season. I think that’s 1 more mid season termination that the previous coach had in 47 years.

 

[50YRsofCuse]

i agree. red knows basketball...some of the pieces he brought in for year 1 didnt work out...a lot actually...
but the plan was pretty good. (I didnt like the center plan but that was kinda forced by jesse leaving...and the forwards were very dicey but red's relationships there were likely very hard to walk away from)

i think he knows what needs to be done and will do his best to get it done...always takes a bit of luck, though.

but i anticipate a big portal season...players should want to play for red...they like wht he brings and he has shown he can get it done no matter what...

give him a loaded roster and they will take off.

At least 2 of the 4 portals from Red’s 1st year were probably made under JAB‘s last year/time. JAB once stated that he was getting a number of a transfer requests. Believe that Starling and Westry probably had contacted Boeheim and McNamara prior to JABs stepping down. Macleod and Cuffe, Jr signed later in the portal cycle and probably with Red’s blessing. I believe someone will comment on/correct this assumption.

This portal season and the commits from it will be all under HCAA purview.

 

[FireballPhil]

My dad just called me. He's mainly an Iowa fan but cheers for Syracuse also and watches all of our games. He's never been on this board in his life, so he hasn't been influenced at all.

Dad - "Say I haven't had time to talk to you since the NC State game the other night. What do you think of Mintz? It seems like he's always looking for his own shot, isn't a great shooter and is constantly whining to the refs. Now granted, sometimes he's right, but after every play? Do you think they might be better off trying to replace him?"

Me "Funny you should say that Dad. I don't think you're alone with those thoughts."

So it's not just the board picking on Judah.

It's funny you should say that. I have mentioned before one of my USDA inspectors graduated from Iowa State and is a huge fan. We have each started to follow each others teams and converse a lot about them. He basically says the same thing, tell him to quit whining and get back in the game, because he can't seem to do much right. Of course the Cyclones have Lipske who isn't much better. Rob Jones is making their team right now, without him they would be in the same boat as we are. And my inspector hates Jones, so I give him crap about how he is carrying them.

 

[Melancer46]

Yep, I've had casual fans in my life say similar things without prompting. The crying to refs doesn't usually go over great to the casuals.

The crying annoys me a lot but it’s so much worse in the NBA that I hardly notice it from Syracuse lol.

 

[Cuse181]

HE HELD GUYS OUT OF half a GAME AND SUSPENDED A PLAYER

FIFY, and it sounds like the real problem child, Q, wasn’t punished at all. Listen, if he lost control of the team and did what he could, fine. But let’s not pretend like he didn’t deal himself this hand.

 

[chuck]

Taylor . And very soon. But he won't be the last. We have to clean up the culture on this team. Not that Taylor is a culture problem. He isn't. Others are. And the talent.

Cleaning the culture of the team includes cleaning the culture of the university and fans that are no it all and fans only when things are looking good for the team.

 

[orangefog]

Cleaning the culture of the team includes cleaning the culture of the university and fans that are no it all and fans only when things are looking good for the team.

I don't know it all but I know it's "know".

 

[Sherman20]

he wants to start

he isnt starting here next season

some off court chit that makes coaching staff batty at times

hes gonzo

I think that’s wildly exaggerated and something that Red can have candid conversations with him about once the season is over. It’s not always easy to have the tough heart to hearts in season when you’re just trying to prepare for the next game.

 

[Sherman20]

based on what I heard I dont want him back...time to move on

yeah, I don’t believe rumors anymore. Stuff gets exaggerated…like the Maliq and Benny stuff from earlier in the season.

 

[Sherman20]

Based on his play Wednesday night, I don’t want him back. He’s unreliable. He could be so good, if he could control himself, but he does not seem to be improving in that regard.

He’s only a sophomore! I’m sure fans said similar things about Devo early in his career.

 

[kingtidge]

FIFY, and it sounds like the real problem child, Q, wasn’t punished at all. Listen, if he lost control of the team and did what he could, fine. But let’s not pretend like he didn’t deal himself this hand.

Of course not.

It's year 1.

He inherited a lot of this.

 

[grepal]

And an exciting year where we are relevant and playing important games will lead to a surge in donations.

Face it, if we don't raise competitive NIL we will see what irrelevant really looks like. We should all try and give something 10-25-100-1000 or more, face it, it depends on your circumstances as to what you can afford, but this is going to be the deciding factor in recruiting. The genie is out of the bottle, and it is not going back in, I fear.

 

[Sherman20]

It didn’t just start. He stopped going to class weeks ago..

I will say that’s a rumor that has come up about so many Cuse players over my decades of being a Syracuse fan. It may be true but I have a hard time taking those kinds of rumors as fact. Also, if he stopped going to class, he won’t be academically eligible to attend another school anyway

 

[Sherman20]

It's also not hard to read between the lines and understand the gist of what happened w/out knowing details

No. That’s actually how the truth gets twisted.

 

[Cuse181]

Of course not.

It's year 1.

He inherited a lot of this.

“Inherited” aka, chose to keep the problem children.

 

[Sherman20]

Because that's the program's history. The previous head coach wasn't the biggest disciplinarian, he was laissez faire relative to many other coaches with respect to keeping his players in line, and he put up with more than many other coaches might be willing to.

Not criticizing him, just describing.

The vast majority of kids in the rotation were recruited by the former HC, and played under him for at least a year. Red made some changes to the culture, which came with some new expectations -- and those new, more stringent requirements didn't sit well with a few of the players, who were accustomed to something else.

For the record, doesn't make them bad kids. But it wasn't what they signed up for, and wasn't what they were used to. So they chomped at the bit. And those three are pretty tight, so they became somewhat of a passive aggressive disruptive element, even though they weren't overtly "bad."

Red clamped down on some of it, so there WERE some consequences, and there was "control." He even booted a player [not one of the three described above] for repeated squireli-ness. And for a time, that got the attention of the others, and induced them to fall in line -- but it was temporary / short lived.

And now that we're at the end of the season, Red can be frank with them. Get with the program, or find a new place to play. Rest is up to them.

“And now that we're at the end of the season, Red can be frank with them. Get with the program, or find a new place to play. Rest is up to them.”
…I hope some of them respond to the challenge positively.

 

[Red2003]

He threatened consequences but how many times did he actually act on those threats? Seems like my wife is when she says she gonna throw out my son’s playstation if he acts up one more time. Yeah right…

There’s millions of dollars involved with these decisions and the consequences could last years for the program.

People act like it’s just so easy to just nip these things and all will be good. Or predict what young kids will respond and which won’t. This ain’t a McDonalds where 19 year old kids are making minimum wage and you tell them just not to show back up. These kids became highly paid pro athletes at very young ages and that isn’t always a great combination.

Let’s just play out the tough love approach some want to see. The punishment would have to be Judah or Q or even Bell sitting games and then ultimately leaving the program pissed. Multiple Suspensions or benchings this year could cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars in future NIL. That’s a big black eye on their resume.

Then you have let’s call them the good apples like Brown or JJ or even Taylor left even with less depth to get their asses kicked up and down the court for 40 mins.

Now all the sudden you have the class of ‘25 recruits that were looking to visit Cuse for a game seeing the best players on the team sitting the bench and wondering what’s going on.

Lastly the casual fans that aren’t so much interested in the things you guys are and they just want to see Cuse win and their favorite player play ie Judah or Q.

The whole ship starts to sink.

Autry may be right and these 20 year olds may be wrong but sometimes the best thing to do is survive the season and then clean house with players leaving mutually and happy.

Autry is responsible for this roster and my guess is managing them this year took some years off his life due to stress. I personally can’t wait to see what next years team does and who’s on it.

 

[OrlandoCuse]

Seems like the core team next year that Red is going to build around is Maliq, Westry, JJ, Freeman and Moore. I’m entirely fine with this as long as we add 3+ transfers to address shooting and rebounding.