The Downside - Drexel

[SWC75]

- We were out-rebounded by 4, (26-30) by a smaller team. Jim pointed out that we had 20 takeaways to 11 so we came out +5 in what I call “manufactured possessions”. But what if the other teams has good ball-handlers and doesn’t turn it over 20 times? And what if they have good rebounders and crush us on the boards by 14 rather than 4?

- Indeed, Benny Williams is not where Jimmy Boeheim is right now. He was scoreless in 16 minutes, missing all three of his field goals, while Jimmy went 6 for 10 and scored 14 points.

- I’m not sure what to make of this: We got 25 points off 20 turnovers and had 15 fast break points. Makes sense. They had 22 points off just 11 turnovers but only 4 fast break points. I’ll try to figure that out in the morning.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

The rebounding, especially against teams that attempt 27 threes and miss 17 of them, will always be rough for us. Those long rebounds very often end up in the hands of the offense again, especially since the guys out on the arc have a great view of where the ball is going off the miss.

 

[hplare]

Surprised no mention of how easily Drexel managed to get the ball into the middle. The game plan was obviously to go in and out to the the shooters, but the center was wide open too often. With a dominate player in the middle that could be a big problem going forward.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Surprised no mention of how easily Drexel managed to get the ball into the middle. The game plan was obviously to go in and out to the the shooters, but the center was wide open too often. With a dominate player in the middle that could be a big problem going forward.

Yeah, that big guy needed to hit a couple shots from the foul line area to drag Jesse out away from the basket. That would have given them the option of dumping the ball inside to another forward cutting to the basket, or out to the opposite corner for an open three ball. They ran a nice set, just didn't make the basket every time.

 

[MDCuse]

- We were out-rebounded by 4, (26-30) by a smaller team. Jim pointed out that we had 20 takeaways to 11 so we came out +5 in what I call “manufactured possessions”. But what if the other teams has good ball-handlers and doesn’t turn it over 20 times? And what if they have good rebounders and crush us on the boards by 14 rather than 4?

- Indeed, Benny Williams is not where Jimmy Boeheim is right now. He was scoreless in 16 minutes, missing all three of his field goals, while Jimmy went 6 for 10 and scored 14 points.

- I’m not sure what to make of this: We got 25 points off 20 turnovers and had 15 fast break points. Makes sense. They had 22 points off just 11 turnovers but only 4 fast break points. I’ll try to figure that out in the morning.

The rebounding is going to be an issue this year. I've said it on another thread. Jim can point to the turnover differential all he wants, but that isn't happening against Duke/UNC/UVA etc. There is a high ceiling for this team, but I believe the rebounding margins could be what holds this back in some games. They aren't going to shoot 60% every game.

 

[Dave85]

- We were out-rebounded by 4, (26-30) by a smaller team. Jim pointed out that we had 20 takeaways to 11 so we came out +5 in what I call “manufactured possessions”. But what if the other teams has good ball-handlers and doesn’t turn it over 20 times? And what if they have good rebounders and crush us on the boards by 14 rather than 4?

- Indeed, Benny Williams is not where Jimmy Boeheim is right now. He was scoreless in 16 minutes, missing all three of his field goals, while Jimmy went 6 for 10 and scored 14 points.

- I’m not sure what to make of this: We got 25 points off 20 turnovers and had 15 fast break points. Makes sense. They had 22 points off just 11 turnovers but only 4 fast break points. I’ll try to figure that out in the morning.

I think the rebounding comment happens every year. I think you have to take into account the number of steals and turnovers because of the zone. There's lots of ways to win by making up deficiencies with other stats. I heard it said the nature of the zone makes it more difficult to get good rebounding numbers.

"Syracuse had 15 steals and scored 25 points off 20 Dragons turnovers and outscored Drexel 40-16 in the paint."

 

[Dave85]

The rebounding is going to be an issue this year. I've said it on another thread. Jim can point to the turnover differential all he wants, but that isn't happening against Duke/UNC/UVA etc. There is a high ceiling for this team, but I believe the rebounding margins could be what holds this back in some games. They aren't going to shoot 60% every game.

I think the bigger issue this year will not be rebounding but not having Sidibe available and Edwards getting into foul trouble. Anselem played pretty good be he really needs to step up.

I can't argue with you with the idea rebounding is important. It's just that over the years when JBs teams lose to high profile programs is usually because the other team is shooting lights out or the other team is really good at shredding the zone with good passing.

Generally, when the other team is shooting really well you are not going to win. Okros was 4 for 7 from 3. I was really concerned he was going to pull a Dave Robinson on the Orange yesterday! But luckily Drexel cooled off in the second half or the Drexel wasn't smart enough to keep feeding Okros the ball.

What I like about this year's teams is the Orange have 3 or 4 legitimate 3-pointer shooters. Hopefully, on any given night, one or two will be on fire in case the other one or two are not shooting well. When the Orange made their national championship run it wasn't always Melo coming up big.

 

[OrangeFoo]

- We were out-rebounded by 4, (26-30) by a smaller team. Jim pointed out that we had 20 takeaways to 11 so we came out +5 in what I call “manufactured possessions”. But what if the other teams has good ball-handlers and doesn’t turn it over 20 times? And what if they have good rebounders and crush us on the boards by 14 rather than 4?

- Indeed, Benny Williams is not where Jimmy Boeheim is right now. He was scoreless in 16 minutes, missing all three of his field goals, while Jimmy went 6 for 10 and scored 14 points.

- I’m not sure what to make of this: We got 25 points off 20 turnovers and had 15 fast break points. Makes sense. They had 22 points off just 11 turnovers but only 4 fast break points. I’ll try to figure that out in the morning.

On the "what to make of this" point... seemed to me that Drexel was coached to take the air out of the ball and let the shot clock get to the 10 second mark before getting a shot off. They weren't looking to push the ball because they knew they would lose an uptempo game so even after turnovers they didn't really push it to get a fast break. Worked for a half...

 

[MDCuse]

I think the bigger issue this year will not be rebounding but not having Sidibe available and Edwards getting into foul trouble. Anselem played pretty good be he really needs to step up.

I can't argue with you with the idea rebounding is important. It's just that over the years when JBs teams lose to high profile programs is usually because the other team is shooting lights out or the other team is really good at shredding the zone with good passing.

Generally, when the other team is shooting really well you are not going to win. Okros was 4 for 7 from 3. I was really concerned he was going to pull a Dave Robinson on the Orange yesterday! But luckily Drexel cooled off in the second half or the Drexel wasn't smart enough to keep feeding Okros the ball.

What I like about this year's teams is the Orange have 3 or 4 legitimate 3-pointer shooters. Hopefully, on any given night, one or two will be on fire in case the other one or two are not shooting well. When the Orange made their national championship run it wasn't always Melo coming up big.

The 3 point shooting will keep them in just about every game. When a couple of those guys get hot at the same time, they will blow some teams out. The issue will be when 3 of those guys are struggling on a given night, they are going to get absolutely smoked if they can't rebound. Look at the Houston game last year. Buddy struggled and Houston POUNDED them on the boards. Those are the games I'm afraid of.

 

[benjams77]

The 3 point shooting will keep them in just about every game. When a couple of those guys get hot at the same time, they will blow some teams out. The issue will be when 3 of those guys are struggling on a given night, they are going to get absolutely smoked if they can't rebound. Look at the Houston game last year. Buddy struggled and Houston POUNDED them on the boards. Those are the games I'm afraid of.

Houston out-rebounded us on offensive glass 11-5 ...But that wasn't our big issues.. They absolutely shut us down defensively... We had no playmakers to handle them ...Have more options this year... Rebounding may catchup to us but I don't think it will have this massive negative impact.. If we shoot well we will get beat on OFF glass anyway because of opportunities for other team... OREB is really the stat to look at... The only team that seems to make a massive difference on boards against us North Carolina... but they haven't been able to shoot and we have seen that make a difference in recent years

 

[SWC75]

Houston out-rebounded us on offensive glass 11-5 ...But that wasn't our big issues.. They absolutely shut us down defensively... We had no playmakers to handle them ...Have more options this year... Rebounding may catchup to us but I don't think it will have this massive negative impact.. If we shoot well we will get beat on OFF glass anyway because of opportunities for other team... OREB is really the stat to look at... The only team that seems to make a massive difference on boards against us North Carolina... but they haven't been able to shoot and we have seen that make a difference in recent years

We have a bigger team this year and big men score when they go get the ball.

 

[MDCuse]

Houston out-rebounded us on offensive glass 11-5 ...But that wasn't our big issues.. They absolutely shut us down defensively... We had no playmakers to handle them ...Have more options this year... Rebounding may catchup to us but I don't think it will have this massive negative impact.. If we shoot well we will get beat on OFF glass anyway because of opportunities for other team... OREB is really the stat to look at... The only team that seems to make a massive difference on boards against us North Carolina... but they haven't been able to shoot and we have seen that make a difference in recent years

Oh, for sure. There were other issues in that game. But, those are the types of performances that will cap this teams potential. They got beat 9-5 on the offensive boards like that. Drexel isn't skilled enough to make that hurt. Teams Cuse will face in the over the next few weeks are.