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In a lot of ways this game was a worst case scenario for Syracuse. St. John's is statistically the best shot blocking team in the country, and I can't think of a more inopportune time to face great shot blockers than the first game back after a week away from basketball.
The first game after finals is usually ugly (for understandable reasons) but to both Syracuse's and St. John's credit, turnovers were relatively scarce and offensive sets seemed to be fairly well executed. Rust could, however, be seen in the jump shots, where the two teams went a combined 2-23 from behind the arc. This lack of shooting left Syracuse with the unenviable task of trying to beat the nation's best shot blocking team around the basket, with the added pressure of being on the road against the single team with the most incentive to beat them (St. John's is upset that SU is more popular than they are in NYC).
To my surprise Syracuse converted an astoundingly high percentage of shots around the basket (64% from inside the arc to be exact). Coleman, Christmas, Grant, Fair and Ennis seemed to take turns finishing over Obekpa (the nation's leading shot blocker). This is a very good sign. Three point shooting, by its very nature, will come and go but if you can bottle the kind of finishing around the basket that Syracuse had against St. John's, you're not going to lose very many games.
Going into the game I expected the low shooting percentage from three. I also expected a few more turnovers than we got. Because of this, I expected a game where points were hard to come by. Once Syracuse proved that it could scored over the top of St. John's shot blockers, I expected Syracuse to win fairly easily. At halftime, it looked liked this was going to be the case.
In the second half, St. John's decided to attack the basket with reckless abandon, and they had very good success doing it. Of course, success is a relative term. Harrison and Jordan were the two St. John's players responsible for attacking the basket, and they only shot a combined 29% from the floor. However, they went to the line 19 times and made 17 free throws. These 17 free throws are the difference between a close game and a blow out. Last year those same drives probably earn six or eight free throws and result in four or five extra turnovers. This year, initiating contact is more likely to be rewarded.
A lot of people talk about how the new rules will benefit zone defenses, but I have never been so sure. Syracuse's zone is predicated on cutting off penetration. When penetration is rewarded (either by scoring or earning fouls) everything else becomes more difficult to stop. Without being able to hit anything from deep, St. John's didn't really have a successful avenue for attacking Syracuse's zone, but they do have a lot of athletes, so they decided to attack the basket hard (without much of a plan) and hope for calls. For a long time they got those calls and the game turned in their favor.
The bad news is, if teams can figure out how to penetrate the zone and draw fouls regularly, Syracuse might be in some trouble. The good news is, St. John's has a rare combination of elite athleticism and substandard shooting. I'm not sure how many other teams want to make wild drives to the basket and circus shots a regular part of their offense.
So my overall take away from this game is, the offense looks fantastic and continues to improve. At the same time, the new rules of emphasis really made things hard on Syracuse defensively, and could emerge as a weak spot if teams can study this tape and figure out ways to exploit Syracuse's zone like St. John's did. At the very least, it will provide teams with a desperation tactic to try if they fall behind by a lot.
Individual performance evaluations:
Ennis: Makes the game of basketball look much easier than it is. He blew two completely wide open layups, and still finished with an incredibly impactful 21 points. Our guards compliment each other so well that its almost impossible to shut them both down. More on this coming.
Cooney: I don't have access to the +/- numbers, but I know Cooney's +/- was great, and might have been the best on the team. This can't be considered a coincidence despite Cooney failing to generate a single point. St. John's paid a lot of attention to him which allowed Syracuse to space the floor effectively - the proof of this is in the stats. Trevor played 16 minutes in the first half and Ennis went 4-7 from the floor and scored 15 points (should have been 6-7 and 19 as he missed two uncontested lay ups). In the second half Trevor played five minutes less, only logging 11 minutes, and Ennis went 1-5 with 6 points. There is simply less room for Ennis to operate when Cooney is not on the floor. Both of our guards are great, but the sum is even better than the parts because they compliment each other so well. If St. John's had decided to play zone, Ennis would not have had 21, but you can bet Cooney would have scored a bunch. There is just no strategy that stops both. In this game, St. John's was very focused on stopping Cooney, so Syracuse looked in other directions. He only had one play run for him that I can remember, and rightfully so. Why shoot threes when you are finishing 64% of your shots around the basket? Its a testament to Syracuse's balance that the one guy St. John's paid the most attention do, did not even have to be part of our gameplan.
Gbinije: If Cooney did so much good, why did Boeheim sit him when St. John's made a run? The answer to that is 100% defense. Right now Ennis and Cooney have the same weakness, shutting down dribble penetration. Gbinije is the best of our guards in this area. The game situation was this: Syracuse had a lead, and most of St. John's points were coming off dribble penetration. Boeheim correctly assumed Fair could handle most of the scoring burden, so Gbinije came in for a long stretch with Cooney being benched. Keep in mind that Cooney will get benched in this situation simply because Ennis is our only point guard – if Cooney was our only shooting guard and we had a great defensive back up point the situation could have been reversed. This is another way our guards compliment each other. We have a ball handler in Ennis, a shooter in Cooney, and a defender in Gbinije. Gbinije didn't score in this game, but it would be a mistake to undervalue everything he gives us on the defensive end.
Fair – Played like an all-american. Nobody hit a jumpshot the entire game until Fair hit a series of them down the stretch with an NBA talent in Jakarr Sampson all over him. Make no mistake, the difference in this game was that we had Fair and they did not. In a post before the game I predicted the close score, and the fact that one of Fair, Cooney or Ennis would make some shots late putting us over the top. Fair turned out to be the guy. Gbinije playing shooting guard put a lot of pressure on Fair to score. Every play going down the stretch was the same, run Fair off a double screen to the baseline. On a side note, Fair has become the best baseline shooter we have had since Billy Owens. Few college players have that shot in their repertoire, and having a player on the baseline really helps to spread the court. When he leaves, our brand of basketball will get just a little uglier because of it.
Grant – In a game full of athletes, Grant stood out as by far the most athletic - and he will continue to stand out this way all year long. Grant made a few plays on both ends that really impacted the game. His amazing block came when Syracuse was probably going to win anyway, but it took away all doubt. St. John's had driven the ball inside just about every possession in the second half. Grant's block immediately made them think twice. If the game had continued for another twenty minutes after that block Syracuse would have won by 20+ points. That is the kind of impact Grant's athleticism had. If the light continues to stay on for him, there is no reason why he can't have this kind of impact in every game. Going into the game I thought Grant would struggle driving to the basket against St. John's shot blockers, but instead he showed that he has another level he can go to.
Coleman – Played 10 minutes at center. All year, center minutes have been divided by the formula – a 10 minute audition for each big guy, and the rest get distributed by merit. For one of the only times this year, fouls played a part in the minutes. I believe Coleman would have played more had he not gotten two early (and questionable) fouls called against him. The first two baskets of the game came from Coleman pushing Obekpa around and finishing over him. I was very pleasantly surprised to see this. To me it looks like a light has gone on offensively, and I was sorry to see foul troubles keep Coleman on the bench, however, he would have played more than 10 minutes in this game if he knew the difference between Obepka (who cannot hit a jump shot and should be left alone) and Sampson (who can hit a jump shot and must be closed down on).
Christmas – Played 11 minutes at center (20 overall). When Coleman went out, Christmas seemed to pick right up where he left off. Finishing inside with apparent ease over the nations top shot blocker. Boeheim made a point after the game to say the team needs to look for him more inside, which is a very good thing. Like Coleman, fouls became an issue. Christmas sat when we got his fourth foul, and did not come back in because Keita was playing increasingly solid defense, and could afford to be more aggressive (with only 2 fouls) than Christmas and Coleman could (with 4 fouls a piece). I will be looking for Syracuse to practice feeding Christmas and Coleman in the post early and often in their next game against High Point.
Keita – Played 19 minutes at center. Christmas and Coleman are clearly more talented than Keita offensively, and both have higher upsides, but don't use stats to gauge what Keita brings to the table. First of all, he only picked up two fouls in a game where the refs blew the whistle on almost any contact and St. John's scored +30% of their points from the free throw line. His ability to get in the way but not foul (instead doing things like forcing the pass that lead to the shot that Grant blocked) played a big part in Syracuse coming away with a win. I've also noticed that Keita seems to improve with long stretches of playing time. This might not be a good thing considering the way center minutes will be distributed this year, but Keita is a smart player, and the more he plays the more he figures out what the opposing team is doing and how to shut it down.
The first game after finals is usually ugly (for understandable reasons) but to both Syracuse's and St. John's credit, turnovers were relatively scarce and offensive sets seemed to be fairly well executed. Rust could, however, be seen in the jump shots, where the two teams went a combined 2-23 from behind the arc. This lack of shooting left Syracuse with the unenviable task of trying to beat the nation's best shot blocking team around the basket, with the added pressure of being on the road against the single team with the most incentive to beat them (St. John's is upset that SU is more popular than they are in NYC).
To my surprise Syracuse converted an astoundingly high percentage of shots around the basket (64% from inside the arc to be exact). Coleman, Christmas, Grant, Fair and Ennis seemed to take turns finishing over Obekpa (the nation's leading shot blocker). This is a very good sign. Three point shooting, by its very nature, will come and go but if you can bottle the kind of finishing around the basket that Syracuse had against St. John's, you're not going to lose very many games.
Going into the game I expected the low shooting percentage from three. I also expected a few more turnovers than we got. Because of this, I expected a game where points were hard to come by. Once Syracuse proved that it could scored over the top of St. John's shot blockers, I expected Syracuse to win fairly easily. At halftime, it looked liked this was going to be the case.
In the second half, St. John's decided to attack the basket with reckless abandon, and they had very good success doing it. Of course, success is a relative term. Harrison and Jordan were the two St. John's players responsible for attacking the basket, and they only shot a combined 29% from the floor. However, they went to the line 19 times and made 17 free throws. These 17 free throws are the difference between a close game and a blow out. Last year those same drives probably earn six or eight free throws and result in four or five extra turnovers. This year, initiating contact is more likely to be rewarded.
A lot of people talk about how the new rules will benefit zone defenses, but I have never been so sure. Syracuse's zone is predicated on cutting off penetration. When penetration is rewarded (either by scoring or earning fouls) everything else becomes more difficult to stop. Without being able to hit anything from deep, St. John's didn't really have a successful avenue for attacking Syracuse's zone, but they do have a lot of athletes, so they decided to attack the basket hard (without much of a plan) and hope for calls. For a long time they got those calls and the game turned in their favor.
The bad news is, if teams can figure out how to penetrate the zone and draw fouls regularly, Syracuse might be in some trouble. The good news is, St. John's has a rare combination of elite athleticism and substandard shooting. I'm not sure how many other teams want to make wild drives to the basket and circus shots a regular part of their offense.
So my overall take away from this game is, the offense looks fantastic and continues to improve. At the same time, the new rules of emphasis really made things hard on Syracuse defensively, and could emerge as a weak spot if teams can study this tape and figure out ways to exploit Syracuse's zone like St. John's did. At the very least, it will provide teams with a desperation tactic to try if they fall behind by a lot.
Individual performance evaluations:
Ennis: Makes the game of basketball look much easier than it is. He blew two completely wide open layups, and still finished with an incredibly impactful 21 points. Our guards compliment each other so well that its almost impossible to shut them both down. More on this coming.
Cooney: I don't have access to the +/- numbers, but I know Cooney's +/- was great, and might have been the best on the team. This can't be considered a coincidence despite Cooney failing to generate a single point. St. John's paid a lot of attention to him which allowed Syracuse to space the floor effectively - the proof of this is in the stats. Trevor played 16 minutes in the first half and Ennis went 4-7 from the floor and scored 15 points (should have been 6-7 and 19 as he missed two uncontested lay ups). In the second half Trevor played five minutes less, only logging 11 minutes, and Ennis went 1-5 with 6 points. There is simply less room for Ennis to operate when Cooney is not on the floor. Both of our guards are great, but the sum is even better than the parts because they compliment each other so well. If St. John's had decided to play zone, Ennis would not have had 21, but you can bet Cooney would have scored a bunch. There is just no strategy that stops both. In this game, St. John's was very focused on stopping Cooney, so Syracuse looked in other directions. He only had one play run for him that I can remember, and rightfully so. Why shoot threes when you are finishing 64% of your shots around the basket? Its a testament to Syracuse's balance that the one guy St. John's paid the most attention do, did not even have to be part of our gameplan.
Gbinije: If Cooney did so much good, why did Boeheim sit him when St. John's made a run? The answer to that is 100% defense. Right now Ennis and Cooney have the same weakness, shutting down dribble penetration. Gbinije is the best of our guards in this area. The game situation was this: Syracuse had a lead, and most of St. John's points were coming off dribble penetration. Boeheim correctly assumed Fair could handle most of the scoring burden, so Gbinije came in for a long stretch with Cooney being benched. Keep in mind that Cooney will get benched in this situation simply because Ennis is our only point guard – if Cooney was our only shooting guard and we had a great defensive back up point the situation could have been reversed. This is another way our guards compliment each other. We have a ball handler in Ennis, a shooter in Cooney, and a defender in Gbinije. Gbinije didn't score in this game, but it would be a mistake to undervalue everything he gives us on the defensive end.
Fair – Played like an all-american. Nobody hit a jumpshot the entire game until Fair hit a series of them down the stretch with an NBA talent in Jakarr Sampson all over him. Make no mistake, the difference in this game was that we had Fair and they did not. In a post before the game I predicted the close score, and the fact that one of Fair, Cooney or Ennis would make some shots late putting us over the top. Fair turned out to be the guy. Gbinije playing shooting guard put a lot of pressure on Fair to score. Every play going down the stretch was the same, run Fair off a double screen to the baseline. On a side note, Fair has become the best baseline shooter we have had since Billy Owens. Few college players have that shot in their repertoire, and having a player on the baseline really helps to spread the court. When he leaves, our brand of basketball will get just a little uglier because of it.
Grant – In a game full of athletes, Grant stood out as by far the most athletic - and he will continue to stand out this way all year long. Grant made a few plays on both ends that really impacted the game. His amazing block came when Syracuse was probably going to win anyway, but it took away all doubt. St. John's had driven the ball inside just about every possession in the second half. Grant's block immediately made them think twice. If the game had continued for another twenty minutes after that block Syracuse would have won by 20+ points. That is the kind of impact Grant's athleticism had. If the light continues to stay on for him, there is no reason why he can't have this kind of impact in every game. Going into the game I thought Grant would struggle driving to the basket against St. John's shot blockers, but instead he showed that he has another level he can go to.
Coleman – Played 10 minutes at center. All year, center minutes have been divided by the formula – a 10 minute audition for each big guy, and the rest get distributed by merit. For one of the only times this year, fouls played a part in the minutes. I believe Coleman would have played more had he not gotten two early (and questionable) fouls called against him. The first two baskets of the game came from Coleman pushing Obekpa around and finishing over him. I was very pleasantly surprised to see this. To me it looks like a light has gone on offensively, and I was sorry to see foul troubles keep Coleman on the bench, however, he would have played more than 10 minutes in this game if he knew the difference between Obepka (who cannot hit a jump shot and should be left alone) and Sampson (who can hit a jump shot and must be closed down on).
Christmas – Played 11 minutes at center (20 overall). When Coleman went out, Christmas seemed to pick right up where he left off. Finishing inside with apparent ease over the nations top shot blocker. Boeheim made a point after the game to say the team needs to look for him more inside, which is a very good thing. Like Coleman, fouls became an issue. Christmas sat when we got his fourth foul, and did not come back in because Keita was playing increasingly solid defense, and could afford to be more aggressive (with only 2 fouls) than Christmas and Coleman could (with 4 fouls a piece). I will be looking for Syracuse to practice feeding Christmas and Coleman in the post early and often in their next game against High Point.
Keita – Played 19 minutes at center. Christmas and Coleman are clearly more talented than Keita offensively, and both have higher upsides, but don't use stats to gauge what Keita brings to the table. First of all, he only picked up two fouls in a game where the refs blew the whistle on almost any contact and St. John's scored +30% of their points from the free throw line. His ability to get in the way but not foul (instead doing things like forcing the pass that lead to the shot that Grant blocked) played a big part in Syracuse coming away with a win. I've also noticed that Keita seems to improve with long stretches of playing time. This might not be a good thing considering the way center minutes will be distributed this year, but Keita is a smart player, and the more he plays the more he figures out what the opposing team is doing and how to shut it down.
