Tennessee Postgame Luau

[cali315phan]

Cautious optimism is OK... but until they can put a reasonable 40 minutes of effort and performance together, hard to see them doing much of anything.

Early days of course and Rome wasn't built in a day...

oh for sure, this is also a team that could struggle to win 10 games.

 

[DCUNITED13]

Someone else saw that Taylor only got 4 shots. Mintz was horrible today. He is showcasing himself instead of playing for the team. Pass the ball to the open man (who is a better shooter by the way) Good teams are starting to play the drive against both Starling and Mintz making it more challenging to make easy layups. If they can dribble penetrated and kick out to Bell and/or Taylor they open up the game.

We were in it until Mintz messed up. First he gives up the ball 2x to Benny in the right corner. Why, BW cant do anything going to his left on the dribble and would only dribble himself into a corner going right. He is not getting calls and he is not finishing because the lane is clogged. Make the pass.!!!!

We have people taking 3 pointers at the wrong time this game. Copeland and Starling helped us loose the lead in the 1st half (last 3 minutes). Mintz is playing very selfishly.

That is lots of negatives above and lots of shade. However, did like that we took the lead in the 1st half and made a modest comeback in the 2nd. We poked a few balls loose and had we kept possion on the breakaways we would be in much better shape. There is hope that we can turn this season back to positive.

Go CUSE!!!!

 

[Jake]

So overall I’m encouraged. This program was not competitive two years ago. Last year was a step forward athletically. This year it’s a further step forward athletically.

We’ve got a first time head coach who is still feeling his way around.

I was not expecting much early this year…let’s see what happens in Jan - Feb.

The defensive transition looks pretty good right now. The problem is on the offensive end. It’s hard when your best player needs to be ball dominant.

I thought the possession down 63-56, Judah made a really selfish play, they got the ball converted and we folded.

I love the depth, but it takes a while for the rotation to flush itself out. Copeland cannot play if he’s going to shoot 3’s. We hated the JB quick hook, but it has it place in that situation. Cope has to learn that’s a horrible shot- no matter how open.

JJ is struggling now. It’s not pretty. I wouldn’t mind seeing Taylor, Bell, and Benny together with Taylor at the 2 for stretches. But JJ needs the leash to play through this.

All I really want to see this year is a step forward toward competitiveness. I want to see Red settle into an identity. He’s gotta clean up the execution on the offensive end and the inbounds plays which are inexcusable. I don’t think we’ll know what we have hear in the sideline until much later in the season.

It’s going to be a year where we’re probably going to have to live and die with Judah being ball dominant on the offensive end. Next year, JJ probably slides over to the point and you insert Moore and Freeman into the rotation - two pieces we really need.

We really need an inside presence on the offensive end and someone to stretch defenses.

Patience grasshoppers.

 

[NKR1978]

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.

I'm not a big believer in something being closer than the score indicates. There's some truth to it, but ultimately it just gets sad looking for moral victories.

 

[Scott11]

A few thoughts.
-I’m someone encouraged by the game. Unlike the last few years we could play with a good team athletically and basically did stay in the game for 35 minutes. We had plenty of chances to make it really close in the second half.
-Also on the bright side, Judah showed some heart and came back and played well in the second half. But he needs to grow up and play smart from the beginning of the game. He can’t get himself in foul trouble with stupid plays like he did in the first half. And frankly, if he ever wants to play in the NBA, he needs to learn to make other players better around him and distribute. A guy with his handle should be setting guys up for dunks.
-I thought Red showed some inexperience today. For the second game in a row, he had a lineup out there in the second part of the first half that simply couldn’t score and was not getting it done and he did not make a change. He also did not call timeouts when possessions were going badly or we were having trouble getting the ball in bounds. This has to get better.
-Red also needs to get the shot selection to improve all around. First, he cannot have Quadir shooting three pointers in close games. And when Maliq is chucking up a three that shows you that guys have not committed to their roles yet or at least have not been coached enough about what a good shot is and what isn’t.
-Also on two or three occasions, guys simply didn’t get back which allowed for easy scores for Tennessee. Red needs to cut that out and hold people accountable.
-Benny hit some shots which was nice to see. But he was awful defensively and rebounding.
-it was good to see Bell recognize that he could put the ball on the floor and go to the basket when guys were flying out at him. Taylor needs to do the same. It was nice to see Taylor bust his ass to get all those rebounds and on d. It would be nice to see Bell do the same.
-unfortunately I think this team is going to be limited offensively if JJ is the shooter he looks like he is and not the one he was in high school or with the City Rocks. He plays hard and it is good to have him as a ball handler and on defense but his shot is broken and I don’t know how you fix it.
-I thought McLeod did a lot of good things defensively and overall I would’ve preferred he got more minutes than Brown.
-I have to admit it was a nice feeling in the first half when we were making a run and playing well against a good team. Haven’t felt that in some time. I’m kind of disappointed by the final score because it doesn’t indicate how close we were for the overwhelming majority of the game. I know many will disagree but I feel like we are actually on the right track here. This is a young team and they play hard and I’m confident they will improve and win a bunch of games.

 

[two3zone]

Losing by 1, 2, 3 or 4 is a close game...

We lost by 17.

Without a player for most of the game and another for the end while having about 10 unforced turnovers.

 

[tbonezone]

as for the D mccloudswatter had 4 impressive blocks and taylor somehow again leads us in boards.

 

[MGraves5]

Without a player for most of the game and another for the end while having about 10 unforced turnovers.

We were also without a player the whole game...

 

[Madbiker]

My takeaways for going forward:

- We prob aren't a top 25 team yet. To anyone with a brain and any knowledge of basketball, this should have been known

- Effort has to be there for 40 mins. We aren't skilled enough to beat good teams (or even Colgate apparently).

- The use of the zone. Enough. It's not working.

- Carey. Can't play him outside of mins vs crummy teams. He's not an option.

- Inbounds plays need to be remedied ASAP. It's unacceptable to turn it over that many times.

Boxing out was an unknown concept for the last 40 years at Syracuse. So it's going to take time to instill that skill and effort.

 

[Todoubled23]

I think we all can agree it was an ugly type of game, very physical. And barring the collapse at the end of the game we hung in there despite our horrific FT shooting, bad isolation looks we kept taking, and a lack of rebounding.

There is a solid baseline here. Adding Freeman and Moore to the team next season are the types of players we need badly.

At this rate, both JJ and Judah will be back too. Can we see some Judah/Moore backcourt and then JJ/Taylor off the bench?

If most everyone stays we could really be good next year if the frosh can come in and step into a role immediately. And yes, this scenario would mean we take some lumps this season.

If we get some transfers out I think Red can bring in some plug and play transfer to further bolster the overall team. Hopefully more shooters.

 

[two3zone]

We were also without a player the whole game...

Who? Westry?

 

[OrlandoCuse]

Boxing out was an unknown concept for the last 40 years at Syracuse. So it's going to take time to instill that skill and effort.

Taylor has seemed to figure it out within the first 4 games

 

[Grbac]

I thought we played the best we could considering how aggressive TN was playing us. Several fouls were not called and it just encouraged them to keep hacking. And they did. Hard to score like that.

I also loved Red’s rotations. He was constantly bringing guys in and rotating guys out. It’s a breath of fresh air.

Games like Colgate and this one today will only help us grow for the future.

 

[MGraves5]

Who? Westry?

Yep, possibly our best player.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

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

Huge whiff to this point I think he was better at ND. Can easily turn it around plenty of talent.

We win today if him and Judah play well.

Red has to get Cuffe in for him quicker. He’s trying and playing hard of course.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Threes from Cuffe and Benny will be critical to offensive success. Bell and Taylor will make their share, but we definitely will take anything from those 2. Justin will have much better games and we will need them.

Lack of scoring inside is definitely an issue. I love Maliq Brown, but I was hoping he'd be more of a threat to actually initiate offense inside. McLeod is about what I expected, but he does need to get better at clearing defensive boards. The blocks have been great. Not much to speak of on offense outside of put backs but never expected many games over 6 pts. Would be nice if we can get some lobs to him at some point considering how frequently our guards are likely to be driving.

Not surprised we saw a lot of lineup combinations trying to figure out what works.

The inbounding also has to be cleaned up quickly. That should be an obvious fix.

 

[kingtidge]

It was close with 3 minutes left, then we had to resort to desperation and they ran it up at the end. The final score isn't always as indicative of how close the game really was.

We ran out of gas against a better team and didn't cover the odds.

Plenty to work on to be sure.

If you think battling at arm's length with 5 minutes left before getting heel-on-thoated for 17-point loss in the final 2-1/2 minutes is a positive, ok, I guess.

Tennessee is good and they showed how good in the final minutes.

 

[dcw914]

Rebounding, free throw shooting, and bad offensive stretches was the difference. Game was closer than the final score and i do think the D was good for the most part against a top 10 team in the country. Ultimately, Judah, JJ, and Justin collectively shooting 25% isn't good enough to beat a team like that. This was the difference in my opinion. It was a poor offensive games from just about everyone not named Chris Bell and maybe Benny, but those three are critical for our success. They couldn't get out and run like they did against inferior competition. JJ and Judah also missed a couple bunnies at the rim.

A few random thoughts.

• Naheem was solid in the first half but man, when teams figure out that he isn't quick enough to handle pick and rolls, that gets exposed fairly quickly. IMO the center position is by far the biggest concern for this team moving forward.
• Why is Quadir allowed to shoot a 3? If he was out there for 30 minutes, sure fire one off like JJ but sheesh I thought he was a big net-negative today, including on defense. I think we're going to see him lose minutes with Benny getting back into the swing of things.
• Benny was by no means the problem today... I just think Cuse REALLY needs him to impact the game in other ways than hitting a few jumpers, especially defense & rebounding. This isn't really anything new with regards to Benny but it's something that very clearly to me would make a huge difference.
• Actually somewhat encouraged by the defense. They fell apart in the last 3-5 minutes of both halves but Tenn has a lot of dudes and we forced some tough shots for long stretches.

Sadly, I actually think we match up worse against purdue/gonzaga. Aidoo is a stud but he's not Edey or Graham Ike. Will need to shoot the ball better and limit production from the wings/guards. A win would be huge.

 

[pokercuse08]

Wow, people really need to calm down a bit. 3-1, with a win already over a likely tournament team, and a respectable showing against the #7 team in the country for those who watched instead of just checking the final score. We'll probably lose our next game, I mean, we'll be healthy underdogs of course but hopefully we pull it off.

Assuming the worst, we'll beat Chaminade and be sitting at 4-2 going into a really key stretch of five games with LSU, @ UVA, Cornell, @ GTown, neutralish/@ Oregon. Based on what I've seen so far, 4-1 is not at all unreasonable in that stretch. Tack on a win over Niagara, and they would be 9-3 going into the heart of the ACC schedule at 0-1 in conference, and a .500 season in conference should get us into the tournament.

My guess is this team wins ~19 games in the regular season, but anywhere from 17 to 22 wouldn't shock me.

Anyway the point is, nobody should be talking about this being a bad team and an awful season, or only winning 10 or 15 games because we lost a hard fought game to the #7 team in the country on a neutral court.

 

[upperdeck]

It isnt his job to handle the pick and roll..

The bad shooters have to learn not to take shots that we dont need.

rebound better but we did ok in spurts today

Make the Fts. Make them and we are up most of the game/

At least we saw some passes today

Taylor needs to get his 3-6 3's off

 

[hoopsupstate]

How does Taylor only get four shots?

He can’t create on his own and they didn’t run anything for him.

 

[Scott11]

Without a player for most of the game and another for the end while having about 10 unforced turnovers.

Dude, your act is so insufferable.

 

[swish7]

Yeah, I was going to mention something similar because it really bothered me that Mintz was on the bench so long just because he had picked up two fouls. The lead went from +9 to -5 at the half -- no offense whatsoever in last 10 minutes of the first half. Even though we made a run in the 2nd half, I thought that is where the game was lost.

MIntz would have fouled out and ended up with 2-3 more turnovers. He was not playing well.

 

[SUbear]

Didn’t like the effort today. I was not impressed with red today. This team still lacks the basics like they did with years prior. Too many turnovers. Missing foul shots left and right.

Just making foul shots would hav e kept us in the game.

 

[two3zone]

Dude, your act is so insufferable.

Yes, we played an excellent all around wonderful game, the individual effort by our guards and our amazing rebounding by our forwards. What a great game, we should play like this every single game.