St. John's Thoughts

[tee1222]

BMK has no business being up top, the only thing his screens do is make the player with the ball get double teamed as he never ever gets the ball on the roll because he catches the ball like Helen Keller would.

I think you and BMK need to work out your feelings.
My man is going to come through in key situations late in the season. Call me a Pollyanna. I'll still believe.

 

[two3zone]

I think you and BMK need to work out your feelings. My man is going to come through in key situations late in the season. Call me a Pollyanna. I'll still believe.

I'll give him props for his motor, defensive footwork, and desire but it does irk me when he's setting screens, just seems counter productive.

 

[tee1222]

I'll give him props for his motor, defensive footwork, and desire but it does irk me when he's setting screens, just seems counter productive.

No doubt, he is a source of frustration at times on offense. He needs to stick to his niche. I would just like a solid defensive effort night in and night out. The good news is that JB has learned to go with the hot big on a given night.

 

[jordoo]

I think those that are complaining about Cooney or saying he had this horrible game are missing the fact that we scored the ball at about 55% clip and many were shots in the paint or very close to it. 55% means that we didn't struggle on offense at all and actually were excellent. If you can toss it to a guy on the block shooting well or drive right to the basket shooting 3's is really not a priority. It seems easy for people to see when Ennis is being a distributor and not scoring as a contribution but apparently its hard to understand how a guy standing 25 feet away from the basket being hugged by a defender is a big contribution.

 

[SoBristol]

I think those that are complaining about Cooney or saying he had this horrible game are missing the fact that we scored the ball at about 55% clip and many were shots in the paint or very close to it. 55% means that we didn't struggle on offense at all and actually were excellent. If you can toss it to a guy on the block shooting well or drive right to the basket shooting 3's is really not a priority. It seems easy for people to see when Ennis is being a distributor and not scoring as a contribution but apparently its hard to understand how a guy standing 25 feet away from the basket being hugged by a defender is a big contribution.

And, why is that surprising? When a guard is making passes leading to baskets (finding the open man, feeding the post, drive and dish, whatever), it is a direct contribution to points. Being hugged by a very good defender, and moving around on the perimeter, is far less obvious as a contribution. It leaves it to teammates to actually beat their defender and put up points.

I think most posters are hoping (as is JB) that we can find ways to get Cooney open, and that TC himself will find ways to get open on a cut, or make a dribble move to get himself open. So, we don't have to make subtle observations about the value of being a decoy.

 

[Flacusian]

Look, let's face it, Cooney ain't Superman... but he's freakin' close!

 

[moqui]

And, why is that surprising? When a guard is making passes leading to baskets (finding the open man, feeding the post, drive and dish, whatever), it is a direct contribution to points. Being hugged by a very good defender, and moving around on the perimeter, is far less obvious as a contribution. It leaves it to teammates to actually beat their defender and put up points.

I think most posters are hoping (as is JB) that we can find ways to get Cooney open, and that TC himself will find ways to get open on a cut, or make a dribble move to get himself open. So, we don't have to make subtle observations about the value of being a decoy.

You can game plan to take away any player - Fair, Grant, or Ennis could be gimmicked out of a game, too. I wouldn't be surprised to see someone else try it again on Cooney, Lavin put his most athletic guy on him, no switching off screens and no help off of him at any time. Someone else might try a box and one zone. But the larger point that is being lost is that Lavin's defensive strategy was a complete failure. He gambled that taking Cooney away and forcing others to beat him would work; it didn't. SU had an efficient offensive game even without Cooney's outside shooting.

I'm going to sound like a broken record, but where Cooney fell down was on the defensive end. St. John's made it a game not by their defensive effort, but by continually getting inside the zone for easy shots or drawing fouls. Cooney and Ennis both were culprits here; neither were able to close off that penetration. JB could just as well have taken Ennis out for defensive purposes; he was just as ineffective defensively. But Cooney was the easy choice because (a) SU needs their point guard and (b) SJU had chosen to take Cooney out of the offense anyway.

I think there are two extreme arguments being made in these threads - on the one hand, it is silly to say that Cooney was anything more than ineffective in this game - yes, the SJU defensive approach took their best defender out of any help situations, but that did not make that big a difference, IMO. But, it is also over the top to call his game "horrific." He was no worse on defense than was Ennis, and at least he didn't try to force the issue on offense. Some players would have hoisted shot after shot in the face of Lavin's defense, and might well have shot the team out of the game.

 

[jimsonjunction]

Great recap as usual, General. Keep 'em coming!

This point especially stood out to me: "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."

I thought that would be a problem as well, and in the early going, I think it was. Once he gets to the basket, he definitely has another level (like you said), but getting there is sometimes a rocky road. As he develops, his ball-handling will improve. Right now, I think he thrives more by playing off the ball - getting set up by teammates and attacking the glass.

It really makes me appreciate how CJ has expanded his game during his time at SU. And while Grant may head to the NBA after this year, just thinking about his development makes me salivate.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

I'm going to sound like a broken record, but where Cooney fell down was on the defensive end. St. John's made it a game not by their defensive effort, but by continually getting inside the zone for easy shots or drawing fouls. Cooney and Ennis both were culprits here; neither were able to close off that penetration. JB could just as well have taken Ennis out for defensive purposes; he was just as ineffective defensively. But Cooney was the easy choice because (a) SU needs their point guard and (b) SJU had chosen to take Cooney out of the offense anyway.

And I'm going to keep harping on this one all day long as well. Our bigs didn't help out by going for every ball or head fake, leaving their feet, and then fouling the guy that got by our guards. BMK didn't do this as badly later in the game so maybe that's part of the reason Silent G looked so good out there.

 

[two3zone]

You can game plan to take away any player - Fair, Grant, or Ennis could be gimmicked out of a game, too. I wouldn't be surprised to see someone else try it again on Cooney, Lavin put his most athletic guy on him, no switching off screens and no help off of him at any time. Someone else might try a box and one zone. But the larger point that is being lost is that Lavin's defensive strategy was a complete failure. He gambled that taking Cooney away and forcing others to beat him would work; it didn't. SU had an efficient offensive game even without Cooney's outside shooting. I'm going to sound like a broken record, but where Cooney fell down was on the defensive end. St. John's made it a game not by their defensive effort, but by continually getting inside the zone for easy shots or drawing fouls. Cooney and Ennis both were culprits here; neither were able to close off that penetration. JB could just as well have taken Ennis out for defensive purposes; he was just as ineffective defensively. But Cooney was the easy choice because (a) SU needs their point guard and (b) SJU had chosen to take Cooney out of the offense anyway. I think there are two extreme arguments being made in these threads - on the one hand, it is silly to say that Cooney was anything more than ineffective in this game - yes, the SJU defensive approach took their best defender out of any help situations, but that did not make that big a difference, IMO. But, it is also over the top to call his game "horrific." He was no worse on defense than was Ennis, and at least he didn't try to force the issue on offense. Some players would have hoisted shot after shot in the face of Lavin's defense, and might well have shot the team out of the game.

Lavin's defensive strategy was not a complete failure by any means. Johnnies were leading late in the game they really had no business being in, if Cooney hit two threes at any point before the 10 minute mark in the second half we have a very good lead that any team would have problems coming back from let alone an unranked team with a couple of bad losses. I'm willing to give the johnnies a round of applause for hanging with a team like Syracuse. They did an excellent job on the floor as well as the sidelines and that shouldn't be ignored let alone discredited. Most teams we play have to play a PERFECT game to beat us, the Johnnies played better than normal and were prepared, we're just far too talented for them to overcome it.

 

[moqui]

Lavin's defensive strategy was not a complete failure by any means.

they were leading because of SU's defensive breakdowns . . . offensively, Syracuse played a very efficient game. Lavin's strategy took Cooney out, yes, but he was betting that would degrade the overall offensive performance, and it did not. To the extent that SU's offense struggled in the first part of the second half, it had nothing to do with the Cooney strategy - it was a series of uncharacteristic unforced TOs from CJ & TE and TE's blown dunk.

 

[Francis03]

Salute. Great job once again my friend.

 

[OrangeTown]

Careful Tom!

The General's shooting for your job!

Great writeup as usual, General. Having two well written, thorough writeups for every game is damn near spoiling us. But I love it!