Some Lemoyne Thoughts

[Niastri]

Yeah, Davis, Lampkin and Freeman combined for 42 points and we out rebounded Lemoyne by 15.
Other than terrible defense, my biggest concern is why didn't we take advantage of our size advantage from the first moments of the game?

It was like Red didn't take the game seriously at first, playing Lemoyne like a D2 exhibition game. If the coaching staff isn't getting game ready, neither will the players.

Most games we aren't going to miss 18 of 22 threes, but we needed to adjust the offense sooner.

Regarding the defense, was McLeod injured? When we were giving up way too many easy layups, would it have hurt to put him in?

Freeman needs instruction on help defense. He could be good at it, he's agile and extremely long limbed. I look forward to him being on time to block shots in the future.

Davis isn't going to be able to big boy ACC teams. I hope this great game isn't a false hope that we cling to all season, to the teams detriment. That said, he looked great. He can help us.

Defense was going to be a weakness, we knew that. But I didn't think it would be this bad.

 

[shu 49]

Yeah, Davis, Lampkin and Freeman combined for 42 points and we out rebounded Lemoyne by 15.
Other than terrible defense, my biggest concern is why didn't we take advantage of our size advantage from the first moments of the game?

It was like Red didn't take the game seriously at first, playing Lemoyne like a D2 exhibition game. If the coaching staff isn't getting game ready, neither will the players.

Most games we aren't going to miss 18 of 22 threes, but we needed to adjust the offense sooner.

Regarding the defense, was McLeod injured? When we were giving up way too many easy layups, would it have hurt to put him in?

Freeman needs instruction on help defense. He could be good at it, he's agile and extremely long limbed. I look forward to him being on time to block shots in the future.

Davis isn't going to be able to big boy ACC teams. I hope this great game isn't a false hope that we cling to all season, to the teams detriment. That said, he looked great. He can help us.

Defense was going to be a weakness, we knew that. But I didn't think it would be this bad.

I almost disagree withthe Davis thing. He is extremely quick on second bounce and third he is up and in. Really impressed. Now if he was 6'7" like they said i would be extatic. He is all of 6'5 and is explosive so im good. Really strong kid.

 

[AZOrange]

We took advantage of our size and missed 100 shots in the lane

 

[grepal]

Yeah, Davis, Lampkin and Freeman combined for 42 points and we out rebounded Lemoyne by 15.
Other than terrible defense, my biggest concern is why didn't we take advantage of our size advantage from the first moments of the game?

It was like Red didn't take the game seriously at first, playing Lemoyne like a D2 exhibition game. If the coaching staff isn't getting game ready, neither will the players.

Most games we aren't going to miss 18 of 22 threes, but we needed to adjust the offense sooner.

Regarding the defense, was McLeod injured? When we were giving up way too many easy layups, would it have hurt to put him in?

Freeman needs instruction on help defense. He could be good at it, he's agile and extremely long limbed. I look forward to him being on time to block shots in the future.

Davis isn't going to be able to big boy ACC teams. I hope this great game isn't a false hope that we cling to all season, to the teams detriment. That said, he looked great. He can help us.

Defense was going to be a weakness, we knew that. But I didn't think it would be this bad.

We did try to score down low, just missed a ton of shots we need to make. Defense might get torched.

 

[corpjet]

We escaped and lets leave this game in the past, lots to improve on from the coaches on down!

With that said Davis gets my star of the game!

 

[billsin01]

Yeah, Davis, Lampkin and Freeman combined for 42 points and we out rebounded Lemoyne by 15.
Other than terrible defense, my biggest concern is why didn't we take advantage of our size advantage from the first moments of the game?

It was like Red didn't take the game seriously at first, playing Lemoyne like a D2 exhibition game. If the coaching staff isn't getting game ready, neither will the players.

Most games we aren't going to miss 18 of 22 threes, but we needed to adjust the offense sooner.

Regarding the defense, was McLeod injured? When we were giving up way too many easy layups, would it have hurt to put him in?

Freeman needs instruction on help defense. He could be good at it, he's agile and extremely long limbed. I look forward to him being on time to block shots in the future.

Davis isn't going to be able to big boy ACC teams. I hope this great game isn't a false hope that we cling to all season, to the teams detriment. That said, he looked great. He can help us.

Defense was going to be a weakness, we knew that. But I didn't think it would be this bad.

I agree on Red. This team wasn't ready for the intensity and execution LeMoyne brought to the floor. Rooting for Red and it's one game (and two exhibitions) in Year 2 ... so I'm not flipping out. But it wasn't a good look.

LeMoyne, for their part, was completely unafraid from the jump and executed extremely well offensively. Analytics nerds would love that offense -- attack the rim or shoot the three. I only remember one mid-range jumper off-hand. I'm sure there were more, but not a ton. Defensively, thought they made it a point to play physically even if the foul trouble eventually did them in. The gamble worked ... we didn't finish real well around the basket and missed a ton of free throws. That's the reason it was a game, even more than a bunch of missed threes, IMO. Also liked that they threw two different zones and an aggressive m2m at us.

Bottom line -- LeMoyne knew exactly what it wanted to do.

Syracuse ... thought they were just going to win by 30+. In the first five minutes we fouled two 3-point shooters (6 points), coughed up four live-ball turnovers, and missed three free throws of our own. Brutal.

LeMoyne got away with moving screens a bunch during that time but got dinged twice late at crucial moments, which hurt.

On the positive side -- totally different Davis tonight, absolutely living in the paint. Bell showed off a well-rounded offensive game. Carlos ran the point well and defended well. I saw some folks saying he got torched all night defensively ... dude fought around about 900 screens. That's why you need a defensive system, not 5 dudes on 5 islands. Lampkin makes the offense click when he's out there. Freeman had some nice moments. JJ was OK. He'll have better ones I think, but had some key moments late. Nice energy from Majstorovic, nice defense from Taylor.

On the negative side -- Lampkin defensively works decently hard but really struggles. Our defensive philosophy means this team rarely imposes it's will on opponents. It's far, far, far too simplistic. If you had five plus defenders on the floor, fine. We don't. Gotta finish at the rim, at least against a LeMoyne. Freeman was lost for long stretches as well. Our 'depth' at this point is just players. Davis was excellent, Majstorovic and Taylor can do some things. That was it. Shooting (FT and 3-pt) was ugly, offensive execution was wobbly until we went to that double-high post look late. Seven steals against a DII team is really, really poor.

It's one game, but lots o' work to do.

 

[Cheriehoop]

No one has said much about Chris Bell. I was shocked how sneaky quiet he was in having a 20 point game on 7-12 fg’s. He attacked the basket this game much better than he has his first 2 years at SU. I also thought that at least one foul he was called for was a bad call. Maybe I just expect him to score and shoot well and since he did most of his damage with 2’s, instead of 3’s, that I overlooked it during the game?

Davis is one tough,strong player. Love his energy out there and hustle to the ball, he plays hard. Glad to see JJ come alive offensively towards the end of the game after a pretty lackluster start. Lampkin does sure like to pass - that wrap around pass was really nice and he did a nice dive to the basket receiving a pass. Petar had 4 offensive rebounds in just his 5 minutes, got to love how active he is. Really looking forward to his development over time. Carlos had his first rough game, they made him pay for his aggressiveness on D but he works hard and seems like a player who’s hard on himself when he makes mistakes. He still had 6 assists and just 1 turnover. Freeman was just 3 for 12 but had 11 rebounds, defense uggh.

Free throws - the team really has to work on this. We missed 11 free throws - uggh giving away freebie points. At this level we should be making at least 70% of our free throws. 64.5% as a team is not good. Team defense and team communication seems poor - hesitation on whether to go over or under screens, to switch or not, getting caught flat footed on drives to the basket and not hustling to get back into the play when beat nor communicating that you need help. Defense needs to be a team effortl Enough from me.

 

[richmondcuse03]

No one has said much about Chris Bell. I was shocked how sneaky quiet he was in having a 20 point game on 7-12 fg’s. He attacked the basket this game much better than he has his first 2 years at SU. I also thought that at least one foul he was called for was a bad call. Maybe I just expect him to score and shoot well and since he did most of his damage with 2’s, instead of 3’s, that I overlooked it during the game?

Davis is one tough,strong player. Love his energy out there and hustle to the ball, he plays hard. Glad to see JJ come alive offensively towards the end of the game after a pretty lackluster start. Lampkin does sure like to pass - that wrap around pass was really nice and he did a nice dive to the basket receiving a pass. Petar had 4 offensive rebounds in just his 5 minutes, got to love how active he is. Really looking forward to his development over time. Carlos had his first rough game, they made him pay for his aggressiveness on D but he works hard and seems like a player who’s hard on himself when he makes mistakes. He still had 6 assists and just 1 turnover. Freeman was just 3 for 12 but had 11 rebounds, defense uggh.

Free throws - the team really has to work on this. We missed 11 free throws - uggh giving away freebie points. At this level we should be making at least 70% of our free throws. 64.5% as a team is not good. Team defense and team communication seems poor - hesitation on whether to go over or under screens, to switch or not, getting caught flat footed on drives to the basket and not hustling to get back into the play when beat nor communicating that you need help. Defense needs to be a team effortl Enough from me.

agree with all of this.

Davis reminded me of a better, more in control paul harris.

 

[Niastri]

I agree on Red. This team wasn't ready for the intensity and execution LeMoyne brought to the floor. Rooting for Red and it's one game (and two exhibitions) in Year 2 ... so I'm not flipping out. But it wasn't a good look.

LeMoyne, for their part, was completely unafraid from the jump and executed extremely well offensively. Analytics nerds would love that offense -- attack the rim or shoot the three. I only remember one mid-range jumper off-hand. I'm sure there were more, but not a ton. Defensively, thought they made it a point to play physically even if the foul trouble eventually did them in. The gamble worked ... we didn't finish real well around the basket and missed a ton of free throws. That's the reason it was a game, even more than a bunch of missed threes, IMO. Also liked that they threw two different zones and an aggressive m2m at us.

Bottom line -- LeMoyne knew exactly what it wanted to do.

Syracuse ... thought they were just going to win by 30+. In the first five minutes we fouled two 3-point shooters (6 points), coughed up four live-ball turnovers, and missed three free throws of our own. Brutal.

LeMoyne got away with moving screens a bunch during that time but got dinged twice late at crucial moments, which hurt.

On the positive side -- totally different Davis tonight, absolutely living in the paint. Bell showed off a well-rounded offensive game. Carlos ran the point well and defended well. I saw some folks saying he got torched all night defensively ... dude fought around about 900 screens. That's why you need a defensive system, not 5 dudes on 5 islands. Lampkin makes the offense click when he's out there. Freeman had some nice moments. JJ was OK. He'll have better ones I think, but had some key moments late. Nice energy from Majstorovic, nice defense from Taylor.

On the negative side -- Lampkin defensively works decently hard but really struggles. Our defensive philosophy means this team rarely imposes it's will on opponents. It's far, far, far too simplistic. If you had five plus defenders on the floor, fine. We don't. Gotta finish at the rim, at least against a LeMoyne. Freeman was lost for long stretches as well. Our 'depth' at this point is just players. Davis was excellent, Majstorovic and Taylor can do some things. That was it. Shooting (FT and 3-pt) was ugly, offensive execution was wobbly until we went to that double-high post look late. Seven steals against a DII team is really, really poor.

It's one game, but lots o' work to do.

I agree with all your points...

Freeman seemed to be confused out there, especially on defense. A few times he was tentative on offense, as well.

What potential he has! He got a double double in a game where he seemed to be confused a lot of the time. It's going to be awesome when he really finds his feet and gets comfortable with the scheme, the speed of the game, and his new teammates.

At this point, he's completely unprepared to play center defensively. His help defense was really slow. But he had that one really nice block (invalidated by a Starling foul) where everything clicked. Hopefully we'll see more and more of that.

 

[richmondcuse03]

I agree with all your points...

Freeman seemed to be confused out there, especially on defense. A few times he was tentative on offense, as well.

What potential he has! He got a double double in a game where he seemed to be confused a lot of the time. It's going to be awesome when he really finds his feet and gets comfortable with the scheme, the speed of the game, and his new teammates.

At this point, he's completely unprepared to play center defensively. His help defense was really slow. But he had that one really nice block (invalidated by a Starling foul) where everything clicked. Hopefully we'll see more and more of that.

on the plus side...i was really impressed with his passing and ability to facilitate. I think his post up game is going to be great and you can see he's got that inside out potential. He's just not as polished yet but I think in a few months...he's going to be special.

 

[Niastri]

on the plus side...i was really impressed with his passing and ability to facilitate. I think his post up game is going to be great and you can see he's got that inside out potential. He's just not as polished yet but I think in a few months...he's going to be special.

Yeah, watching Freeman's video, I didn't get the sense he was much of a passer. He seems to be better on that area than I expected.

I'm actually a little disappointed in his scoring. Nobody is ever as good as their highlights, but I expected a little more.

However, his rebounding and passing seem to be better than I expected.

I would like to see Freeman set the screen and get the ball outside the three point line on the pick and pop. I don't think many teams are going to be able to keep Freeman from getting open threes in that situation. Especially if they switch, very few guards are going to challenge his shot effectively.

 

[Norman Dale]

Yeah, Davis, Lampkin and Freeman combined for 42 points and we out rebounded Lemoyne by 15.
Other than terrible defense, my biggest concern is why didn't we take advantage of our size advantage from the first moments of the game?

It was like Red didn't take the game seriously at first, playing Lemoyne like a D2 exhibition game. If the coaching staff isn't getting game ready, neither will the players.

Most games we aren't going to miss 18 of 22 threes, but we needed to adjust the offense sooner.

Regarding the defense, was McLeod injured? When we were giving up way too many easy layups, would it have hurt to put him in?

Freeman needs instruction on help defense. He could be good at it, he's agile and extremely long limbed. I look forward to him being on time to block shots in the future.

Davis isn't going to be able to big boy ACC teams. I hope this great game isn't a false hope that we cling to all season, to the teams detriment. That said, he looked great. He can help us.

Defense was going to be a weakness, we knew that. But I didn't think it would be this bad.

Our defense is terrible. Period. Zero weak side help on penetrations. In fact, weak side players aren’t even seeing the penetration let alone helping. They need to go back to the drawing board and coach better man to man concepts and execution.

 

[cjmurray34]

Is there a specific reason Kyle Cuffe Jr. can't crack the lineup? You need defense and some scoring he shot about 37 percent from 3 last year, I feel he can fill the void.

 

[Niastri]

Our defense is terrible. Period. Zero weak side help on penetrations. In fact, weak side players aren’t even seeing the penetration let alone helping. They need to go back to the drawing board and coach better man to man concepts and execution.

The problem of bad rotations was greatly exacerbated by not having a center out there. Freeman was late almost every time, Davis didn't seem to think it was his responsibility most of the game, and nobody else even tried.

Freeman got better towards the end, but then they went with Lampkin and Davis to finish the game.

Lampkin is limited physically, but knows his responsibilities, and doesn't get pushed around. That's what we get from him.

The fact no reporters asked why McLeod didn't go out there pisses me off. Did Red circulate a note saying "Don't ask about McLeod" before the press conference like Fran did for Zeed Haynes?

Ridiculous, both that McLeod would have solved one of our pressing issues (complete lack of rim protection) and that nobody asked about it. McLeod also would have had free rein catching lobs against guys at least 6 inches shorter and could have helped the offense as well.

I might join the press just so I can ask the obvious questions.

 

[Norman Dale]

Our defense is terrible. Period. Zero weak side help on penetrations. In fact, weak side players aren’t even seeing the penetration let alone helping. They need to go back to the drawing board and coach better man to man concepts and execution.

7:21 of the second half LeMoyne player drives from the 3 point line all the way to the basket and not one SU player helps. This is crazy bad D

 

[OrlandoCuse]

Maybe Red should try the old Box and 1 defense, letting Carlos chase around the ball handler while the others sit back in a zone?

 

[hoopsupstate]

When we play good guards we’re toast. Our perimeter defense is awful. How will we stop guards like the two we’ll face in our first ACC game at ND? Those two guys will score at will. Lampkin has to play off on the perimeter. Force bigs to shoot. He can’t defend players off the dribble. I want Red to explain our defensive philosophy. JJ is one of the poorest defenders I’ve seen with all the athletic ability he has. His footwork is worse than any high school player I ever coached. I’m not sure what his issue is. It’s unexplainable how bad he is in his defensive stance. He doesn’t slide his feet. He runs next to the player. He can’t stop anyone going right and he can’t go left. He made some big drives late and when he gets a step going right he blows by defenses. How can a kid with his size, strength, and explosiveness be that bad on defense? I can only surmise he’s not being held accountable in practice. Get the bricks out and do defensive slides all day. He seems like a great kid, but Red seems to coddle him. Taylor is very good defensively, but what the heck is that jumper? He should be throwing the shot put on the track team. All I can say is OUCH! I hope Chance comes back healthy because we really need his defense. I was shocked how LeMoyne‘s guards went around Carlos in the second half last night. They just took him in the lane and torched him. Theres no sugar coating this teams defensive play. There’s not a starter on this team that can consistently guard ACC players. They couldn’t guard LeMoyne. This team may have to play zone. That’s even scary. What‘s difficult to figure out is that we’re athletic enough, but just can’t defend. Coaching has to be questioned about their ability to coach defense. This is year two and it’s worse than last year. Bring Tony Bennett in as a consultant for one week and there would be a huge improvement. The wrong team won last night. LeMoyne deserved to win. They outplayed us most of the night. Our bigs just wore them down. Kudos to their coaching staff for the fight they put up. Kudos to SU for finding a way to grind out a game they could have easily lost. That might be the biggest thing to take away from SU is that they grinded out a win when they couldn’t shoot the entire night. That is encouraging. Red has a great teaching tool for this team on defense. Just watch the film. This makes the Colgate game even more interesting!

 

[Corpi33]

Do we really think we won't shoot the ball that badly again this year...We have been hearing that we are a good shooting team for the last 5 years now, not one team has proved two coaches that they are right. I certainly hope that the team shoots better, but until proven otherwise we will continue to struggle.

 

[Sbucketball]

I don't remember if I read it here or thought if for another reason, but why did I go into the season thinking Lucas Taylor was a 3 and D guy? You can tell as he's loading his shot he's going to miss.

Update after writing that -- Looked at his career stats and he shot 35% and 40% from 3 his last two years. Did something happen to his shot, or is it fine and he'll make those as the season goes on? What am I looking at?