Sucks we're wasting rak's year

[CorduroyG]

if you put senior rak on any of the last 4 or 5 cuse teams we probably got a title or 2. It's rare in college ball to have a dominant low post presence. With a decent supporting cast, or at least a deeper supporting cast, he's playing well enough to carry a team to F4. Really too bad everything broke wrong for us. Ennis, grant, McCullough, Coleman. Not meant to be.

 

[cuseattle]

I like to think of it like Rak is saving our year!

 

[sufandu]

I've been thinking it sucks that it took this long for either Rak to put all of this together or for JB to finally use it. Even if he was only 75% as productive last year as he has been this year, our year could've finished differently.

 

[SUintheVille]

If things were different this year, i.e., Ennis, Grant, DC2, and McC were all here and/or playing/not injured, Rak may not have had as much of a transformation this year as he has. Of course, I would want those other guys available, but Rak is doing all he can for SU, plus earning himself a nice future payday.

 

[Jasoncuse]

Imagine how mind-boggling bad this team would be if we had last year's Rak. We'd be under .500 for sure.

 

[M2MPrinciples]

The dirty secret is that Rak was actually really good last year, too, he just had a smaller role. Obviously this year's performance is much more impressive because he's doing it with guys draped all over him and very little help, but he wasn't the scrub last year that some make him out to be.

 

[triplethrea]

The dirty secret is that Rak was actually really good last year, too, he just had a smaller role. Obviously this year's performance is much more impressive because he's doing it with guys draped all over him and very little help, but he wasn't the scrub last year that some make him out to be.

He was showing flashes last year. I'm still convinced this is more on Rak than JB. He seems more of the passive leader, taking charge because nobody else will. He never seemed upset he wasn't getting the ball. He seemed content to be the 4th or 5th option over the years.

 

[sufandu]

He was showing flashes last year. I'm still convinced this is more on Rak than JB. He seems more of the passive leader, taking charge because nobody else will. He never seemed upset he wasn't getting the ball. He seemed content to be the 4th or 5th option over the years.

It's hard to know whether he was content or if he was told he was the 4th or 5th option and as a good team player accepted his assigned role.

 

[triplethrea]

It's hard to know whether he was content or if he was told he was the 4th or 5th option and as a good team player accepted his assigned role.

Yeah, but that still shows his character regardless. His alpha side only comes out when it has to, not when he wants.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

not ten games

 

[sufandu]

Yeah, but that still shows his character regardless. His alpha side only comes out when it has to, not when he wants.

Since JB is the alpha and he made that abundantly clear to Rak his first 2 years, why would Rak feel like it was his place to assert himself more unless JB told him too? If JB expressed to Rak increased expectations and Rak didn't deliver it's on him. If JB assigned a role and Rak did what he was told, it's on JB.

 

[triplethrea]

Since JB is the alpha and he made that abundantly clear to Rak his first 2 years, why would Rak feel like it was his place to assert himself more unless JB told him too? If JB expressed to Rak increased expectations and Rak didn't deliver it's on him. If JB assigned a role and Rak did what he was told, it's on JB.

It doesn't matter what JB says. Think of MCW or Dion. Those guys were pissed when they weren't on the court and didn't like it when the offense didn't run through them. Those personality traits come out regardless of Boeheim says. Rak doesn't have that.

And every year we've been complaining about Christmas not being aggressive enough. Even Boeheim.

 

[OrangeFoo]

In all of the Tyler Ennis in hindsight retrospectives people really overlook the fact that he was really really bad at throwing a post entry pass. He didn't know how to create the proper angle, where to throw the ball and more importantly when to throw the ball. Additionally he never looked to pass on the pick n roll, he always shot or took it to the rim.

The other problem for Rak is that Melo sets that we ran last year really depended on CJ being the dominant guy and Rak was used as a decoy to free CJ up on the baseline just like we used Melo. If we used Rak last year like we do this year he would have clogged up all the space in the paint for CJ and Grant who were perceived by coach as better offensive players. JB's offense is all about the small forward and guards dominating the ball and the stretch 4 getting the ball at the free throw line. To JB's credit he's adapted his O this year to feature Rak but I do wonder what would have happened if we did so last year. The results were good the few times we tried it but Ennis wouldn't stick with it.

 

[PeteCalvin]

I feel for Roc, but after last night's game I know he's a shoo-in for an NBA slot next year. He'll earn a fine living at the next level. Any questions about Hop being able to develop bigs should be eased a bit. Imagine what we'll have with a 4-year Roberson?

Right now, Roc is playing the role of Dwight Freeney circa 2001. Unfortunately, Roc has less around him than Freeney did. As we saw last night, our margin for error is SLIM. We played a real solid game, not great, but solid. But UNC had their best shooting game of the year, and we let Mr. 5 points a game score 16 (3 huge threes in the second half), and that killed us. That was a game most other Syracuse teams could have won.

UNC is not that good.

 

[Nicknack]

It also reminds me of the McNabb years... if ONLY we had a good D to go with the offense that Donovan and company brought. That was the rub each and every year of his career at SU. We really could have easily been a championship contender had the D been a notch better. Instead, we had to put up big points or we would get beat. More times than not we did, but every year we got beat 2-3 times because we didn't. Back to b-ball... what Rak is doing we won't probably see in another 10+ years from a SU center. I REALLY hope I'm wrong but I doubt it; he is just absolutely a beast and he does his damage while usually double or triple teamed - sometimes four guys on him! What a special treat he is to watch but I agree, just too bad he doesn't have more to compliment his efforts night in night out.

 

[Ghost]

If things were different this year, i.e., Ennis, Grant, DC2, and McC were all here and/or playing/not injured, Rak may not have had as much of a transformation this year as he has. Of course, I would want those other guys available, but Rak is doing all he can for SU, plus earning himself a nice future payday.

I still buy into this - if Grant and Ennis returned Rak's otherworldly numbers, would be simply worldly. I doubt he gets many touches (or at least anywhere near as many).

 

[orangefan13]

It would have been great to have this years Rak on the 11-12, 09-10 or 12-13 teams any of those. Would have loved to see the backline presense, the stretching of the zone and rebounding.

 

[Nicknack]

I still buy into this - if Grant and Ennis returned Rak's otherworldly numbers, would be simply worldly. I doubt he gets many touches (or at least anywhere near as many).

Well sure, look at Virginia. I believe their highest scorer is around 14 ppg because they have so many guys who can score on any given day. Therefore, yes, no question about it his points would decrease because of other players but he would still likely average close to a double double each and every night out. He would also get MUCH more exposure like the Dookie Okie Dokie is getting. Exposure gains you a lot of things.

Another way to look at it is that he is getting that many points (and looking worldly) because we have so few other options on our team. Therefore, of course he's scoring nearly 20 a game - who else is going to do it aside from Cooney every so often. I'm not necessarily saying that (neither confirm or deny), but same point could be made the other way than what you suggested.

Bottom line is that he ROCKS. One of my favorite SU players in a long time for a variety of reasons.

 

[sufandu]

It doesn't matter what JB says. Think of MCW or Dion. Those guys were pissed when they weren't on the court and didn't like it when the offense didn't run through them. Those personality traits come out regardless of Boeheim says. Rak doesn't have that.

And every year we've been complaining about Christmas not being aggressive enough. Even Boeheim.

I know we've complained about that, but to say it doesn't matter what JB says is just stupid. Of course it matters. MCW and Dion never got the hook early in their careers the way Christmas did and to think that had no effect on how aggressive he felt he could be, especially when he knew he wasn't the primary scoring option makes is foolish.

 

[Cowtown]

Watch one of last year's games again and you'll quickly see a big reason why Christmas is having a better year. OrangeFoo touched on it in #13 above. Last year it was quite frustrating to watch Tyler jog the ball up the floor and then waltz it around the perimeter, possession after possession, and whenever he did pass to someone they just gave it right back to him. However, with the gaudy record SU had for a long time, it was impolitic to say so. But truthfully, a lot of times it reminded me of a fisherman rowing his boat around the lake waiting for a fish to jump in.