Staff has done a great job but has work to do.

[cuseincincy]

JB and his staff have done a phenomenal job of assembling top to bottom probably the most talented roster SU has ever had. But now they've got to mold a team out of this roster. JB has usually done a great (imo) job of this which is why his rotation shrinks to 7-8 players. This season he has more parts to play with, but, he also has more players with certain expectations. In order to mold the best team some feelings are going to need to be hurt. Every player on the team has fans and to be honest, people that think they are not the best option at their position with the possible exception of Joseph. We have 3 guards that each have a large number of doubters and supporters. And at least one non-starter is considered one of out top 5 players by many. I have tried and will continue to try and not be negative towards any player. That may be tougher when the season really starts and some players are noticibly not improved from last year. It is highly unlikely that they all will have made the needed improvements.
We must remember how young this team really is, 7 sophmores and freshman will play key roles. My key players this season are Triche and Cooney. Brandon simply has to be a consistent 3 point shooter or Cooney will have to play. Brandon accepting this role is important. He can no longer think he is a point guard. Shooting ability needs to be what seperates him and Waiters. Without it he and Dion are too similar in what they offer and Dion has more ability to take it to the rim (imo). Up front Joseph needs to want to be the guy. The 3 big guys just need to play big and CJ needs to be the garbage man. I think their roles are fairly defined.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Keith Hughes. Earl Duncan Richard Manning and Tony Scott were a really good bench

Sent from my Vortex using Tapatalk

 

[dash-30-dash]

how about douglas, Monroe, Walker, triche on the bench for the 1985 team.

 

[cuseincincy]

Douglas was a freshman in 85-86 and Triche was a starter the only 2 years he played with Sherm. Hughes and Duncan were never on the same team as Scott and Manning. But, I get you points. However, every year we thought we could go 9 deep but never did. I'm talking 1-12, total roster. Those teams you guys reference also had guys like Joel Katz, Erik Rogers, Dave Siock and bless his knees Herm Harried who could hardly get on the court until his senior year due to health reasons.

 

[AZOrange]

We must remember how young this team really is, 7 sophmores and freshman will play key roles.

You know its crazy. I follow this team like crazy and I lost sight of this until the game the other night. We are loaded and young!

As for your comment about the bench and other comments about the bench, I think tourney success is often influenced by a short bench. I watch UNC nearly year after year fall short, Texas year after year fall short, and others and I think one reason they do is not because they lack talent or coaching. I think they play too many guys. Put me on record as saying I want to be 7-8 deep only going into the tourney. If people's feelings get hurt so be it.

 

[cuseincincy]

You know its crazy. I follow this team like crazy and I lost sight of this until the game the other night. We are loaded and young!

As for your comment about the bench and other comments about the bench, I think tourney success is often influenced by a short bench. I watch UNC nearly year after year fall short, Texas year after year fall short, and others and I think one reason they do is not because they lack talent or coaching. I think they play too many guys. Put me on record as saying I want to be 7-8 deep only going into the tourney. If people's feelings get hurt so be it.

The problem this year will be the frosh. CJ, Dion and Baye are going to play, I don't think anyone refutes that. That's 8. I've gotta believe MCW is going to get time and though many doubt it, I think Cooney will be needed. In my magic 8 ball I see Cooney getting very little to zero time in 20+ games. But in the rest he might get 10+ if we need a shooter. IMO James and Mookie are 11 & 12.

 

[TinyManInside]

If you look at the numbers, historically, Boeheim only goes deep when his teams are pretty mediocre (SWC can back this up) and he doesn't have a real "step up" go-to guy. Using depth isn't really his strength. He's at his best when he's got 7 or 8 guys who can really play, and a handful of practice players who know they aren't going to get minutes.

mason

 

[SoBristol]

Always wonder when fans say we are "young". This team is much more experienced than the 2010-11 bunch, when we had 4 frosh in the top 8 players. More experienced than the 2003 championship team which played 3 frosh and was basically led by one of its frosh.
The 2009-10 team was, of course, exceptionally old, as Andy & AO were RS-seniors, and Wes was a senior in class standing.
According to an article cited in another thread, this team has more returning fire power than all but 4 or 5 of the ranked teams; the perimeter guys who will start and handle the ball, have tons of starting experience.

 

[AlaskaSU]

A lot of our guys are old for their class standing.

 

[pfister1]

how about douglas, Monroe, Walker, triche on the bench for the 1985 team.

That team had Douglas, Monroe, Walker and Michael Brown (until he left the team). That team had 3 McDonald's All Americans on it (Pearl, Walker & Brown). I didn't remember JB having teams with that many McDs at the same time.

 

[arbitragegls]

...the reason depth is so important is because it provides a back-up for an injured player. If someone had been ready to play, presuming that player was good, when AO went down we would still have been ok...not as good but at least good enough.

In order to have that player ready and prepared, he has to play. How JB manages that and to what number of total players play will be a primary decision as to our winning the NC...practice does not get the player ready for games...so this year; JB needs to go 10 deep....even if that is 3-5 minutes a game for #s 8-10

 

[SoBristol]

JB would say that guys get prepared by practicing (as with Riley versus AO) more than by playing 3 minutes in mop-up time.
As for 10 deep, sure -- in Nov and Dec except the NIT games at MSG and the challenge game against Florida. Guys like MCW, Southerland, Cooney will have a chance to show what they can do. If MCW is the best point guard behind Scoop (better than Triche or Waiters), he can play some in January. If Southerland has something other than chucking from long range (for example, the ability to slash & finish), he might get minutes in January. You could say that it is up the players (not the coaches) to determine the shape of the rotation, within that guideline of 8.5.

 

[Knicks411]

You know its crazy. I follow this team like crazy and I lost sight of this until the game the other night. We are loaded and young!

As for your comment about the bench and other comments about the bench, I think tourney success is often influenced by a short bench. I watch UNC nearly year after year fall short, Texas year after year fall short, and others and I think one reason they do is not because they lack talent or coaching. I think they play too many guys. Put me on record as saying I want to be 7-8 deep only going into the tourney. If people's feelings get hurt so be it.

I guess there is something to this, but UNC falls short year after year? I mean when you come right down to it, there's only one champion, so everyone falls short year after year, so by that definition, no strategy really works. But since 2005, has anyone had more success in the NCAA tourny than UNC? You really wanna match their success with their deep rotation against our short rotation?

2005: NCAA title
2006: Second round
2007: Lost in overtime of the elite 8
2008: Final four
2009: National champs
2010: Missed
2011: Elite 8

What is the stat, we've made 3 elite 8's since 1990 or something? Carolina has made 3 elite 8's in the last 4 years, 4 in the last 5, and 5 in the last 7, to go along with 2 national titles.

I guess the larger point is that if UNC's recent history is proof that a deep bench doesnt work, then there's no strategy that works.