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Message: [QUOTE="billsin01, post: 5224207, member: 837"] 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. [B]On the positive side[/B] -- 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. [B]On the negative side[/B] -- 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. [/QUOTE]

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