Syracuse is 3-0!

[Hopkins16]

I'm trying to be optimistic. It's been ugly, but we are 3-0 and I believe we will figure things out both offensively and defensively. Right now, I think the biggest problems are Bell (should be providing more scoring consistently, and as a Junior, provide leadership and stop pouting/sulking) and Carlos (should be better defensively and running the offense better). Coach Red should not be afraid to limit their minutes if they do not improve.

 

[Cuse181]

St. Bonnie pasted LeMoyne today by 19, just sayin.'

Not a fair comparison, we were le Moyne’s Super Bowl, we played way more possessions, and they were a well coached team 2 weeks ago

 

[Bulldog04]

Langel has coached circles around red two years in a row, might as well start with him.

You think he’s going to get a top 5 recruiting class and McDonald’s all Americans ?

 

[MikeSU02]

This team does not and will not have enough talent combined with bad coaching to do anything this year. A number of us have been saying this for a while against the voices who think we were haters.

If Red only wins these current 3 games (I'm alluding to Bulldog04 's post from prior), he better be gone. That is absurd.

And he has the #5 class, as of now. Not all HS kids are committed and there are no portal guys. I had to sit through the nonsense about how good our current roster commits were for months before seeing these terrible performances.

We just barely beat:
Lemoyne
#344 KenPom
1-4

Colgate
#230 KenPom
1-2

Youngstown St
#181 KenPom
1-2

Now, onto our most important recruit in 20 years? You are way, way, way overrating social media. Results matter.

JB had a run within those 20 years (and, to be clear, if you see my end-of-JBs-tenure-posts, you will know I was insanely harsh on him) where he had 28, 30, 27, 34, 30 and 28 wins. Would have won a chip if AO doesn't get hurt. And had the only team that could have competed with AD's UK team.

So you tell me what Kiyan will do for the results in terms of being the most important recruit in two decades. Because results are what matters.

The only guys on this team that I hope stay for next year are Choppa and Donnie if he wants to stay another year. Every other guy can go.

And, your post about him struggling on the "coaching stuff" -- if he can't do that and can only recruit, make him the GM. Or, if he can't figure it out, he needs to fire his whole staff and get new assistants.

Red isn't some young buck. He's 52. He's been on a D1 bench since 2010. It's go time. Want to give him next year? Cool. But stop telling me about the recruits like y'all did this year. Put up wins and make the tournament and do some damage.

And we absolutely can get a good coach if we can Red. Stop worrying about next year and try to win some games.

If I put our o/u for wins in our next five games at 2.5, who is taking the over?

 

[two3zone]

And from a reactionary fan point of view, we have no idea whether or not Red has the ability to turn things around. We always knew JB "had it in him" to turn things around, for lack of a better term. I think it is too early to tell.

Last year happened. That was the opposite of turning it around.

 

[IthacaMatt]

And from a reactionary fan point of view, we have no idea whether or not Red has the ability to turn things around. We always knew JB "had it in him" to turn things around, for lack of a better term. I think it is too early to tell.

The thing about Boeheim teams is that we almost always got off to fast starts, winning our first 10 or 15 games seemingly every year for a decade or more. And then we always fell apart for a couple weeks in mid-January / early February. Then it was whether we could get back our mojo.

I don't recall him taking many teams that started the season badly and turning it around. Usually, if we started the season badly, we missed the tournament.

 

[IthacaMatt]

I'm trying to be optimistic. It's been ugly, but we are 3-0 and I believe we will figure things out both offensively and defensively. Right now, I think the biggest problems are Bell (should be providing more scoring consistently, and as a Junior, provide leadership and stop pouting/sulking) and Carlos (should be better defensively and running the offense better). Coach Red should not be afraid to limit their minutes if they do not improve.

This is the key, and he hasn't yanked guys yet. He did more of it last year, but he already knew all those guys from having them the year before as an assistant.

This year, with so many new guys, he's been giving people more time than he should, but I remain convinced that the intention is to build chemistry among relative strangers. They did look much more like a team beginning in the 2nd half against Youngstown State, so maybe it's something to build on.

 

[Cuse1055]

Recruiting is nice, but you know what’s nicer? Winning games. Winning 30 games with under the radar recruits like Wes Johnson, AO, Triche and Andy Rautins (where the highest recruit on the team was probably Scoop or Kris) is better than winning 18-20 games with 5 stars and McDonald’s All Americans.

 

[Cuse181]

You think he’s going to get a top 5 recruiting class and McDonald’s all Americans ?

I couldn’t care less about his McDs AA count i care about tourney bids. If langel can come in here with classes in the 50s but make the tournament that is far better than a guy coming in who can talk a big game to recruits and struggle to beat tier 4 teams. Kenny Payne recruited really well for 3 years, his teams sucked because he was a bad coach and he destroyed Louisville. Everyone loved him as a person but he couldn’t coach his way out of a paper bag. I’m not saying red is Kenny Payne bad, but was last season red coaching a team to semi-sucess or a team playing successful in spite of their coach. Right now it appears to be the latter.

 

[5OutFred]

Not to make this about Langel, but since he was brought up: when you have the option to choose between teaching a coach to recruit, and teaching a recruiter to coach, you always choose the former.

I worry Red is a recruiter trying to figure out how to coach.

 

[Cuse1055]

Not to make this about Langel, but since he was brought up: when you have the option to choose between teaching a coach to recruit, and teaching a recruiter to coach, you always choose the former.

I worry Red is a recruiter trying to figure out how to coach.

And as a coach, you can always get assistants who are recruiters.

 

[Red2003]

Just wondering if people think this team can actually shoot 3’s, make layups and make free throws?

Those 3 stat categories alone if they are just below average in all 3 games would be handily won, maybe even covering spreads. Instead they were just terrible.

We’ve seen this a lot the last few years on the hill. When open shots don’t go in there is just zero focus on defense.

No excuses it’s not good all around anywhere on the roster of staff. I’m just in the boat wondering if there’s a spark in this team or if this is just one of those years to be forgotten.

Maybe this is the 2002 season, it would make sense with a Young Melo coming in next year.

 

[Bulldog04]

Not to make this about Langel, but since he was brought up: when you have the option to choose between teaching a coach to recruit, and teaching a recruiter to coach, you always choose the former.

I worry Red is a recruiter trying to figure out how to coach.

That was going to be my next question is do people want a coach who is getting middle of road players or want a guy like Fran who is going to recruit and figure out the coaching later ? I don’t think there’s a perfect model bc a great coach can’t coach average players to victory always and great players can’t win always with average coaching.

 

[Frozen]

Let’s see what Red can do with K. Anthony, White, and Carmelo’s $$$.

 

[SYRtoBOS]

The problem is it isn't just coaching, the talent evaluation and roster decisions have been awful. Carlos doesn't belong here and as good as Lampkin is on offense he is even worse on defense, was film watched or stats even looked at?

You can't make those decisions and beat the teams like they did and expect good faith, this stuff can't be defended.

Nobody is going to care about our social media presence if we're on the bubble year after year. If it's about that stuff then roll out a goddamn red carpet and have Adam W walk down and pull his pants down so Wildhack and give it a nice smooch.

This era of basketball blows.

Maybe I’m old school (and I’m not that old) but I feel like social media stars aren’t the ones making the big highlights under the lights, it’s the guys sitting on the bench who can let social media be their focus over actually playing the game. I don’t want players like that because that just breeds more of that nonsense.

 

[SYRtoBOS]

That was going to be my next question is do people want a coach who is getting middle of road players or want a guy like Fran who is going to recruit and figure out the coaching later ? I don’t think there’s a perfect model bc a great coach can’t coach average players to victory always and great players can’t win always with average coaching.

I guess I’d ask what’s the end game of those two paths? If it takes 3 more years to figure out coaching, I don’t think you’re making the tourney anytime soon and you’re probably losing significant monetary support which results in losing players. If you’re making the tournament for the next 3 years but struggling to break through to the second weekend, I think you earn a lot more good will and you are able to sell the “we have the coaching but we need the players” vision to get more cash.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

That was going to be my next question is do people want a coach who is getting middle of road players or want a guy like Fran who is going to recruit and figure out the coaching later ? I don’t think there’s a perfect model bc a great coach can’t coach average players to victory always and great players can’t win always with average coaching.

As long as the great players have a great attitude, I would take that.

 

[5OutFred]

That was going to be my next question is do people want a coach who is getting middle of road players or want a guy like Fran who is going to recruit and figure out the coaching later ?

This is a very fair response, and an equally fair retort is you never know with a guy who excels at coaching at the mid-major level, because he's never been given the resources to get high-level recruits. But you do know that he can coach. Winning takes care of recruiting, typically.

But like you said, there's no perfect formula.

 

[two3zone]

Maybe I’m old school (and I’m not that old) but I feel like social media stars aren’t the ones making the big highlights under the lights, it’s the guys sitting on the bench who can let social media be their focus over actually playing the game. I don’t want players like that because that just breeds more of that nonsense.

I think this is where my disconnect is. I don't pretend to know what Duke, St John's, Alabama, and Uconns social media presence did for them to get them good, but my fingers are crossed.

If I'm a guy like Maliq Brown, or really any upper classman I'm not sure I want to walk into a circus that came off an awful season.

I just want to play basketball well, I also wish the decline the past five years didn't look like the most avoidable car wreck ever.

 

[AngryOtto]

I couldn’t care less about his McDs AA count i care about tourney bids. If langel can come in here with classes in the 50s but make the tournament that is far better than a guy coming in who can talk a big game to recruits and struggle to beat tier 4 teams. Kenny Payne recruited really well for 3 years, his teams sucked because he was a bad coach and he destroyed Louisville. Everyone loved him as a person but he couldn’t coach his way out of a paper bag. I’m not saying red is Kenny Payne bad, but was last season red coaching a team to semi-sucess or a team playing successful in spite of their coach. Right now it appears to be the latter.

He would not be making the tournament without talent playing in the acc.
Everyone is bashing Red about D. Red knows D is bad he mentions it in every press conference. He tried to get other players in the portal but it did not work. He’s playing what he’s got.
I expect the rotation to really tighten. Carols and Taylor were misses. Bell has been consistently bad on D but his O kept him on the court. If he continues to slump could see his minutes drop.
Team minutes will start to look a lot different going forward.

 

[bballbeadle]

We outscored a terrible team by 7 in the second half and first OT. Personally I wouldn’t call that “a lot” better but, in fairness, maybe I’m just quibbling.

Texas can only go one of two ways. This team will either surprise us and play them competitively. Or we’re gonna get our doors blown off like Hawaii last year.

 

[two3zone]

This is a very fair response, and an equally fair retort is you never know with a guy who excels at coaching at the mid-major level, because he's never been given the resources to get high-level recruits. But you do know that he can coach. Winning takes care of recruiting, typically.

But like you said, there's no perfect formula.

And with NIL, you don't need to recruit, you write a check.

Did Lampkin come here for Red? I think he came for money, car and saw McLeod sitting on the bench. I assume Langel could've gotten him, I'm sure FLJ could've gotten him if rules permitted.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

He would not be making the tournament without talent playing in the acc.
Everyone is bashing Red about D. Red knows D is bad he mentions it in every press conference. He tried to get other players in the portal but it did not work. He’s playing what he’s got.
I expect the rotation to really tighten. Carols and Taylor were misses. Bell has been consistently bad on D but his O kept him on the court. If he continues to slump could see his minutes drop.
Team minutes will start to look a lot different going forward.

Moore will probably end up with 20, maybe 30 minutes sliding between the 2 and 3. Depends on Westry as well.

 

[two3zone]

He would not be making the tournament without talent playing in the acc.
Everyone is bashing Red about D. Red knows D is bad he mentions it in every press conference. He tried to get other players in the portal but it did not work. He’s playing what he’s got.
I expect the rotation to really tighten. Carols and Taylor were misses. Bell has been consistently bad on D but his O kept him on the court. If he continues to slump could see his minutes drop.
Team minutes will start to look a lot different going forward.

You're contradicting yourself over and over. One post you say he's a great recruiter, the next you say he didn't get the guys he wanted and the ones he did he missed on?

What are we doing here bud? I appreciate your positivity but "well red knows the defense is bad, but that's the hand he's delt" is an absolutely remarkable thing to say.

 

[djcon57]

So you have no hope this team can improve significantly as the season goes on and the coaching staff figures out what works and what doesn’t and makes improvements to the team defense and offense?

I have hope that they like will be above 500 and maybe even win the mythical 20 games. I have little hope this will be a tourney team