Tennessee Postgame Luau

[swish7]

We played better then UT for 7 minutes, from 3 to 10 minutes in. Other than that, UT had full control. They are a great collection of individuals. Annoying, but talented.

We cannot win with one scorer, which is what we are when Mintz is off.

Exciting to see Bell start off well on D.

Nice to see Williams start off well on O.

Long ways to go.

 

[tptcuse]

This team has potential and will improve, but this OOC schedule is such bad timing for this season.

 

[bballbeadle]

I am not hanging my head about this game. We played great defense and also rebounded the first half of the first half. We were up by 8. I thought we would be massacred. I do hate that the final score didn’t reflect our effort in this game, but it is worrisome that we fell apart so easily at the end.

 

[FrancoPizza]

Also remember: this season is building blocks for the future. Hoping to make the tourney this year and talent boost next year with two legit studs coming in.

We need portal help as well. Another shooting guard and a forward who can score at all 3 levels. Red's coaching is going to have to be overcome with a huge talent infusion if he hopes to make it to a 2nd contract.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

A quick observation, we need to involve Taylor early in the offense. He rebounded awesome, but he needs shots. Need a second shooter on this squad besides Bell.

He can’t get goose egged in a game like that when he’s rebounding and doing ok on D. Knect and him look identical can’t let a dude who looks like you drop 20 and get 0.

 

[hoopsupstate]

What’s sad is this team sends no one to the offensive boards and they still don’t get back. That should be addressed NOW. It’s disgusting and can’t be accepted. JJ and Bell don’t guard. Bell tries, but his footwork is poor and he doesn’t play guys strong hand. JJ is just lazy on defense and Mintz just wants to steal the ball. Someone on this coaching staff needs to become a hard ass. Playing time needs to be earned by everyone. We can’t get Westry soon enough. He will be our best defensive player and most willing passer.

 

[jgeorge322]

this team has a bunch of mediocre players and not enough good players.

 

[kingtidge]

Not impressed by Mintz today.

Him playing like that, team missing way too many free throws, and running out of gas in the final minutes... recipe for a double-digit spread loss.

Team has potential but have a long way to go in playing up to it.

Tennessee didn't play exceedingly well either.

 

[Cuse181]

Some here need some perspective. This Cuse team got blown out by a mid Illinois team last year and now they’ve show they’re capable of playing close with the #7 in the nation for 37 minutes. We’re moving in the right direction.

Give me two of those in a row and I will feel good, one can always be a fluke

 

[two3zone]

Judah 1-1. It's not ideal. But it's what we got right now.

I would like to see it change, but I dont see it happening.

That’s my point, that’s not a plan, he’s not driving to the rim three times in a row and scoring if we need 6 points. He tried that stuff last year and it didn’t work. At least with Girard he would hit some big threes here and there.

 

[Bayside44]

They have to clearly shoot better from the line, and finish at the rim, Had a few too many spin out. Generally encouraged, want to see Chance in there and QC not whenever that can happen.

 

[djcon57]

Red's first four games I think the team has very few positives and lots of questions:

Positives :

Team seems to play hard most if not all the game
M2M defense seems to be at worst solid right now

Negatives/Questions

Selfish on offense
Low basketball IQ as a team
Lack basic fundamentals
Players don't know roles or are allowed to play outside of role
Rotations aren't sharp
Use of zone seems strange
Use of the press seems strange
Use of timeouts


I like that the team is playing super hard for Red but he has a much bigger learning curve on coaching than I expected. I expect someone sitting on the bench for as long as Red did he would have some of those things cleaned up.

These are my biggest Red concerns right now. As I said as much in game thread, the play of the zone felt like "Oh, hey, we're Syracuse so we play 2-3 zone" vs who was on the floor for us defensively. I get that Knecht was off the floor, but as we saw, there's more that just open 3's in the zone.

 

[UpstateSM]

Blow for blow? I didn’t think for a second we could take control of this and win.

They definitely were in control the last 25 or so minutes but I thought we belonged on the court with them. That's a huge improvement from the last couple of seasons against elite teams.

 

[tbonezone]

It didn’t decide the game but
They shot 74%
We shot 47%

Macleod 1-4 expected. Mintz 6-10. disappointing.

 

[pwong]

Effort was better but Tenn played so poorly and we couldn’t even capitalize when Knecht was hurt. Hopefully we are close in other games but that felt like it was very winnable until we imploded at the end.

 

[FrancoPizza]

These are my biggest Red concerns right now. As I said as much in game thread, the play of the zone felt like "Oh, hey, we're Syracuse so we play 2-3 zone" vs who was on the floor for us defensively. I get that Knecht was off the floor, but as we saw, there's more that just open 3's in the zone.

I agree on the zone thing, but Red deciding to play it 5 minutes a game is at the bottom of the list of problems.

 

[two3zone]

Effort was better but Tenn played so poorly and we couldn’t even capitalize when Knecht was hurt. Hopefully we are close in other games but that felt like it was very winnable until we imploded at the end.

They lost another player early on too.

 

[pokercuse08]

I'm surprised people are so upset. We proved we can play with the #7 team in the country for long stretches today. We also proved that if we let up at all or make any mistakes, we can give up a run in a hurry against a team that good. All in all, that bodes well for us being good enough to dance. Up to the kids to put complete games together and keep improving.

I felt like we got pretty lucky Tennessee kept stepping out of bounds, but we also got unlucky to shoot 8/17 at the line. So that feels like a wash. A few bad calls each way, we probably got a few more bad ones against us, but whatever.

As far as I'm concerned in terms of quality of the two teams, the score was misleading. Tennessee was about 7 points better today, and then they ran it up when we had to resort to desperation.

There's a lot of stuff on film to teach the kids with, especially in terms of what happens when you make poor decisions with regard to shot selection, and what happens when everyone stands around on offense. I thought that improved in the second half versus the end of the first half, so I assume Red coached them up on that at halftime. The key will be getting that lesson to stick so that they don't have lapses.

Hopefully we can pull off this next one and avoid playing Chaminade. It'd be pretty frustrating to battle Tennessee tough for 37 minutes, do the same against presumably Gonzaga but come up short, and then get stuck playing Chaminade.

On the other hand, even if that's the way it goes, these kids are going to know by Thanksgiving exactly the level they need to play to if they want to make the tournament and make some noise.

 

[Eric15]

I hope the guys treat tomorrow's game as simply the next regular season game on the schedule, and not as the consolation game of a tournament.

 

[Jasoncuse]

I'm so disappointed watching the exact same offense as we've seen for years. We don't have the talent, especially at forward, to play like this. Run some better sets and try to get some easy looks, trying going inside out, set up your movement closer to the paint, something. Watching JJ and Judah constantly try to beat their guy and miss some wild shot, or the rest of the squad just chucking 3's is rough. At least Chris Bell is showing some desire to drive and get some shots inside of 18 feet.

Falling back into the zone for a long stretch of the 2nd half

We desperately need a floor general and better frontcourt talent. This stretch is going to be rough and I'm not sure we have close to the talent many on here think we have. Going to have to grind out wins and hopefully start using more fullcourt pressure earlier and more often.

 

[JustPherU]

That’s my point, that’s not a plan, he’s not driving to the rim three times in a row and scoring if we need 6 points. He tried that stuff last year and it didn’t work. At least with Girard he would hit some big threes here and there.

Yeah but Girard would give up quite a few threes also

 

[23Zone]

JJ Starling is far worse than advertised. He attempts impossible shots going to his left with his right hand. Jumper is horrendous. Needs to sit a lot more than he is

 

[two3zone]

Yeah but Girard would give up quite a few threes also

Starling is a worse defender than Girard from what I’ve seen.

 

[llandz]

I must have watched the same game as Lukeyloo and Bballbeadle.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I'm so disappointed watching the exact same offense as we've seen for years. We don't have the talent, especially at forward, to play like this. Run some better sets and try to get some easy looks, trying going inside out, set up your movement closer to the paint, something. Watching JJ and Judah constantly try to beat their guy and miss some wild shot, or the rest of the squad just chucking 3's is rough. At least Chris Bell is showing some desire to drive and get some shots inside of 18 feet.

Falling back into the zone for a long stretch of the 2nd half

We desperately need a floor general and better frontcourt talent. This stretch is going to be rough and I'm not sure we have close to the talent many on here think we have. Going to have to grind out wins and hopefully start using more fullcourt pressure earlier and more often.

It’s not the same offense. We are playing 4 out. And we aren’t likely to ever play a stereotypical power forward with Red as coach. The was the number 4 defensive team according to KenPom and it was still a close game. I can’t believe some of you guys are this discouraged after what we saw the past two seasons.