HCJB
Matt talked about what a big win the Cincinnati game was, coming after the Notre Dame defeat and how we have a couple more big games coming up against West Virginia and St. John’s. JB: “They’re all big. They all count the same. You have to focus and go out with that mindset for each game to be successful in college basketball. At Notre Dame we played as poorly as we could and when you do that you‘re going to lose. Cincinnati was playing as well as they could and I was very satisfied with that win.”
Matt asked him what he could tell us about Fab Melo. JB: “There won’t be anything, not for a while- until we know. We have to be patient.” That’s all he would say about it. (But see below)
I called in my question about the coach’s varied descriptions of the Notre Dame game. He disagreed with coach Mac that player listen more to you after a win than a loss. “After a loss they realize they may have made some mistakes. After a win they don’t think they did anything wrong. We played hard vs. Notre Dame. We weren’t very successful in what we were doing. We missed easy shots, made crucial mistakes and didn’t rebound. We weren’t getting good shots or getting much done on offense. against Cincinnati. We played good offense even if we missed shots.”
Coach said he had a question for me but Matt had cut me off already. I spent the next hour very nervous about what he was going to ask me. Was he mad about something? Was he going to ask where I get off saying something or asking something? I felt like I was in the waiting room of the principal’s office.
Paul in Texas wanted to know what it was like “to have your career in the hands of teenagers”. Jim said that “when you are a teacher, you could be teaching 11-12-13 year olds and that’s difficult, too. Coach 19-20-21 year olds may actually be easier. And the other coach is coaching the same age group.”
A caller wanted to know if “Rak can keep up with Big East bodies”. JB: We’ll see.” The caller said Rakeem Christmas was “190 pounds dripping wet”. JB said he was 230 pounds and will be about 245 next year. Baye is 215.
PJ in Syracuse said he hopes that Rakeem Christmas “improves even 50% as much as Fab and Dion did. If so he’ll be a monster“. JB: “He’s plenty strong enough. But he’s learning how physical you have to be to compete in this league. It will be the same in the NBA. Big guys generally improve a little most than little guys, but not always.”
Another asked “What was a going through your head when we went 1 for 7 at the line at the end of the Cincinnati game.” JB: “I was glad we were still ahead. We had been 2nd-3rd in the league in free throw shooting and we had our two best guys at the line. I didn’t think we could lose at that point. If we had had a 3-4 point lead, I’d have been distraught. We probably would have lost.”
They talked about the Infinti charity tournament. “My wife is upset that Kentucky is back ahead of us. I didn’t know they had that many computers down there.”
Troy called in from Morgan City, Louisiana, home of Dave Johnson. He said he’d been a classmate of Dave’s He asked the coach to compare this team to the ’03 team. Coach said he didn’t compare one team to another but this team has done as well as that team at a similar stage of the season. Also, there are less stars now than in past years because they jump to the pros.” Of course they did that in ’03 as well.
Somebody called in to invite Jim to a Super Bowl party in Liverpool. The coach said he’d be pretty busy that day because his kids all have games that day. He’s always been a Patriot fan but will have to root for Tom Coughlin. He thinks the Giants are coming on strong and will win. Matt asked him what he liked to eat at a Super Bowl party. “Any kind of appetizer- I’m definitely an appetizer guy.” But he doesn’t like chili- if you are thinking of getting him to your party with chili, forget it.
Kevin in North Syracuse praised the coach for the style of play he uses and the athletes he gets to play it. Coach said that he wants to win but he wants it to be fun, too, because both the players and fans like that.
Kevin was concerned about having the defenders “drop down too far in the zone” and being vulnerable to back-screens. JB got into discussing Yancey Gates: “Due to his conditioning, he can’t play the whole game. I think they defend better without him. He’s a liability on defense but he’s a good player in the low post.” I didn’t hear any answer to Kevin’s question.
Matt said the station would lose their license if he didn’t ask about the “grey” uniforms. Coach again asserted that they were “platinum”, that it was for one game and commemorative things. “We aren’t going to change to those uniforms permanently. Most people think they look pretty good. People who don’t are conservative people who don’t want any change. If it were just a promotion we’d wear them for a UCONN game.” Matt said that Syracuse is fortunate to be a “Nike Elite School”, which gets to try out things for them, such as lighter, more comfortable uniforms.
Bob in Syracuse thanked the coach for giving his daughter an autograph on a hat. “She was so shy a friend had to ask for it. Now she won’t let it out of her site.” Coach said that he signs lots of autographs but especially loves to do it for children and likes it when he hears that “it means something to them”.
An E-mailer asked if the coach ever listens to the TV analysts when he watches the tapes of the game and “do they ever make any good points”. Coach laughed and said that they often do. “Most commentators are pretty good.” He said he watches a tape of the game on the plane on the way back from games and has usually seen it before they touch down in Syracuse.
Bill called in and suggested that recruiting was very difficult- you can spend up to three years trying to get a kid to come here and then sometimes he comes and sometimes he doesn’t. What was the recruit he was most excited to get and which one was the biggest disappointment. Ever the “glass is half empty” guy, coach started with his greatest disappointment. “Easily, Sam Perkins,. I made 37 trips to Albany back when you could do that and it was huge disappointment when he didn’t come here.” JB has said in the past that Sam would have been the perfect center for us at that time because we basically had no center. Andre Hawkins, a power forward listed at 6-7 played the position until Seikaly showed up and we would have been much stronger with Perkins in there. But I’m sure Sam didn’t regret playing for North Carolina with Michael Jordan and winning a national championship. The biggest catch was Pearl Washington, who got “a lot of attention for the school and for the league. He was a New York City recruit and we hadn’t been getting those.” Matt Park compared him to Tim Green in football in that they started Syracuse getting more attention from top recruits after that.
Larry in Venice, Florida predicted that the players would learn to play well without Fab and that we’ll be stronger than ever when we got him back. JB: “I hope he’s right.”
They talked about Greg Schiano moving to the NFL and whether that might enable Syracuse to get some of Rutgers’ recruits away from them. JB didn’t think that would happen because “the assistant coaches are still there and they go for the school anyway. It might matter to some undecided players.”
They talked about West Virginia, who, according to Matt, had “the most accomplished player so far in the Big East”, Kevin Jones. JB said he was very good and they had Truck Bryant. “They almost had Baylor beat. They just didn’t make shots against St. John’s zone….St John‘s is a good defensive zone team and they made everything- and they usually don‘t shoot the ball too well.”
A caller wondered if we had a new basketball court in the Dome- it seems shinier. JB said we’d gotten a new court last year. Matt said that there was new logo in the center of the court. The caller thought maybe that was what was shinier. He wanted to know how the team would handle going to Cameron to play Duke someday. “Cameron is tough but not much tougher than what we had to face at Notre Dame or Cincinnati. It’s the players that make those places tough. We’ll face that, (Cameron), when the time comes. Right now I’m worried about the next game.”
At that point, An NC State played scored on an 85 foot heave at the end of the half. “That’s as long as shot as I’ve ever seen.” It reminded Matt of the Notre Dame pass against the press that went in as a basket for Syracuse. “I’ve never seen a play like that either.” Then Matt said that there had been a high school team that was down by 29 points and scored the last 30 points of the game. “That’s one for Ripley’s Believe it or Now- and you’d better not believe it.”
Gomez took over for the second hour and asked if the coach was surprised we fell all the way to #4. He was. “I voted us #2. Sometimes people vote on what they think is going to happen. It’s a good thing nit doesn’t matter- only the tournament matters.”
Gomez noted that Bruce Springsteen will be coming to Albany on April 16 and wonder if the coach will be there since he’s a big fan of “The Boss”. He didn’t think so but is checking his schedule. He’s seen him perform live 6 times, including the last time he was in Albany. On that occasion, he sat next to a guy who had seen 56 Springsteen concerts. That person pointed to another who had seen EVERY one. I like Bruce but I don’t need to see him 40 times a year for 20 years.”
Gomez had watched the Joe Paterno services. He wasn’t going to watch the whole thing but couldn’t get away from it. JB: “He effected a lot of players, a lot of kids.” He seemed to catch the unintended double meaning. “It’s unfortunate the way it ended. We’ll never know exactly what happened. I don’t know him. I never met him. But I know he was involved in what his players were doing. One guy was injured throughout his career and he said Joe not only kept track of how he was doing but continued to follow him throughout his life.” Too bad he didn’t keep track of Sandusky.
They’d wondered how Springsteen was going to “replace the big guy”. A caller asked how WE were going to do it. How have the players responded to the loss of Fab? JB: “They know they have to step up. Rak has been playing in his place. Baye has been with the program for two years. The forwards and guards are tested. We didn’t play well at Notre Dame and did get off to a good start against Cincinnati. But we got our offense going and got back into it rather quickly.”
Gomez asked if there was an “imaginary line” beyond which he would not extend his defense to cover shooters. JB: “We’re going to move out to where they are. There’s no limit.” Gomez asked if there was s certain number of shots they’d have to hit before we extend the defense. “If it were only 1-2 it wouldn’t be as pressing.”
Gomez said that JB was always looking for new stats in basketball. Maybe there could be one for “keeping the ball alive” by tipping it to teammates. Jim noted that Rakeem Christmas had done that a couple of times and we got lay-ups out of it. (I still think it’s better to grab it if you can. Too often we wind up tipping it to the other team. Craig Forth spent a career tipping the ball around.)
They got back to the St. John’s West Virginia game. JB was amazed that the Johnnies could win in this league starting five freshmen. “We’ve never been even close to doing that.”
A caller asked about Dion’s maturation process. JB interrupted him: “Ongoing maturation process”. The caller suggested that Dion “seems to lose his swagger when he misses a shot”. Jim: “Gerry never did that. He never thought about it. He just kept shooting. You’ve got to do that or maybe drive the ball to the basket. Dion tries the floater a bit too much. But in the second half Brandon and Scoop just took over so we went with them. It’s the nature of our backcourt.”
Another fan wanted to know if we could see CJ Fair at center “if we face a team with no one at the ’5’” JB: “Everyone we play will have someone at the ’5’. If we played CJ at the 5 it would only be for a few minutes. It’s about the defense, not the offense.”
Gene in Eastwood wondered why the Super Bowl wasn’t played Saturday night rather than Sunday night so that so many people wouldn’t call in sick the next day. He asked the coach to use all of his influence to get it changed. JB: “I have less influence than people think and there I have none.”
NC State was falling farther and father behind. “They haven’t made any shots. They were 15-5 and 4-1 in the conference. Gottfried has righted the ship there. But when UNC plays well- they have 2-3 inside guys who will play in the NBA and a great point guard. There’s a reason they were preseason #1. They are playing the way they were expected to. There’s not a lot of difference between the top teams and the rest any more. Kentucky, Ohio State, North Carolina and Syracuse when we are at our best, are a bit better than everyone else but not all that much.”
Gomez quoted Roy Williams as saying that he’d rather beat NC State than eat. JB: “For how long? One meal? He’d like to beat Duke 10 times as much.” They talked about the incident of Williams pulling his scholarship players off the court and leaving his walk-ons to face the court storming. “I don’t think anybody ever gets hurt in one of those things. But it’s safer to have 5 guys out there than 15.” Gomez noted that Florida State had lost to two Ivy league teams but beaten UNC and Duke. “That’s why they aren’t in the top 25. Florida also beat them by a lot.”
I finally got up the gumption to call back and find out what the coach wanted to ask me. “You’re a good SU fan. What do you think of the new uniforms?” I told him at first I didn’t like them but them I realized it was to commemorate our winning a national championship and that it was really our new uniforms, so I don’t mind them so much. JB: “Besides I think they look pretty good.” I said they’d look great if Fab Melo was wearing one of them. I dispensed with the question about other teams scoring late in the shot clock. Instead I asked the coach if he could talk about the procedures involved with the Fab Melo decision. I told Him I realized that he couldn’t release any private information but when exactly are we waiting for and when is it likely to be decided. “It’s not a decision. It’s stuff that has to get done. That’s all I can tell you.” I told him that the absence of information has allowed the rumor mill to work overtime. I said the strangest one was that he’d submitted a test with the answers in Portuguese. he laughed and said that was not the problem. “There is no timetable for Melo. He’s able to practice. He still has to get done whatever needs to be done to get back.”
John Calipari had said he wouldn’t mind his team losing a game or two if they lost because they were out-muscled because it would teach them they have to be more physical. Jim doesn’t buy the “losing is good for you” theory but “you want to learn as much as you can before the tournament“. He noted that, despite our fine record, “we’ve played some close games this year” and said that we’d had an opportunity to learn about this team.
Tom Izzo won his 400th game and Gary Williams had the court at Maryland named after him. JB said that Williams deserved it for “resurrecting that program and winning a national championship. Good coaches are hard to spot. You just never know who will be the right guy.”
A fan wanted to know about rebounding in the zone. “the one thing I disagree with announcers on is that you can’t block out in the zone. You are between guys. But if you have two guys in your zone that means that they aren’t balanced and will tend to get bad shots.”
A caller said he’d seen a couple of kids in the J-D school district doing passing drills. JB laughed and said that his younger son likes to pass but his older son prefers to shoot.
“Shamus from across the bar” at Delmonico’s wanted to know how good West Virginia is. “They are a good team and have beaten a lot of good teams. They’ve got one of the best coaches in the country in Bob Huggins.” Gomez said Huggins had won a poll for “the coach you’d least like mad at you.” JB laughed and said he agreed with the choice. #2 in the poll was Frank Martin. “And t hey used to be together. They can kill you with a look. I know Georgetown players were scared to death of John Thompson.”
A caller noted we had recruited Dion Waiters very early. He wanted to know how early we can begin to recruit high school players. “You can watch them at any time. They can approach you at any time. But you can’t write to them until they are sophomores. Kids can say they are going to a school at any time. That’s got nothing to do with us. That’s what Dion did. When I started, players made their decision in the spring of their senior year. Now it’s in the summer before or after their junior years. There is going to be a change in the rules for next year- you can bring a junior in for a visit and pay for it.”
They talked about the Knicks and how Carmelo Anthony took only seven shots in a game after he’d been taking 30 a game. “He need sot take a lot of shots but needs to find a happy medium- maybe 20 a game. They just don’t have a good team- no guard play.”
A caller asked about Jonny Flynn: Is JB surprised that things didn’t work out better for him? “I was surprised. He hurt his hip. It’s not a good thing- a degenerative thing. It’s still bothering him. He’s small so he’s got to be explosive. He ahs two guys playing well ahead of him. He’s got a rich contract- $3½-4 million. They won’t trade him. But they haven’t extended his contract so he’ll have to try to find a spot I the summer leagues or training camps.”
Gomez noted that Dwight Howard has now added the Celtics to his ever growing list of teams he’d be willing to go to, a list that includes almost everybody but his current team, Orlando. “The Celtics don’t have anybody to trade. They’re all old guys. I don’t even think the Lakers should trade Andrew Bynum. He’s a good player when he’s healthy.”
Gomez ended by noting that this was the anniversary of Danny Heater’s big game. Who is Danny Heater? The coach knew. On January 26, 1960, Heater set a high school record by scoring 135 points in one game, a 173-43 victory by Burnsville High of Braxton County, West Virginia over Widen High. Heater, (what a name), made 53 of 70 field goal attempts and 29 of 41 free throws. He scored 50 points in the first half and 85 in the second. He also had 32 rebounds and 7 assists. (Missed a triple-double.) JB said “That’s quite a night but Heater never did much in college. He played at a very low level of basketball“.
http://www.wvculture.org/history/sports/dannyheater03.html
