The Downside (Georgetown)

[SWC75]

- For most of that game it looked like the 2013 game on the same court, with the Syracuse offense looking pitiful.

- Except that Georgetown was scoring at will on the other end, which made it look like the 2006 DePaul game.

- You wondered if Mike Hopkins in his coaching debut, was in over his head. Of course, this really wasn’t his coaching debut. He was clearly running the team when JB had his surgery 14 years ago. And he went 0-2 then.

- Our freshmen looked like freshmen. It may have been an early look at what it will be like when the freshmen “hit the wall” when the conference season begins.

- Malachi Richardson’s day: 1 for 8 from the field, 0 for 2 from the line, 2 points 1 rebound, 1 assists, 2 steals, 0 blocks 2 turnovers and 4 fouls in 28 minutes. That’s -9 net points, folks. Minus 9! In all my years of computing an SU player’s net points, I don’t remember, (I don’t keep individual game records), a score that low. Since he hit that crazy three pointer to being the Wisconsin game, Mal has missed 11 treys in a row.

- Tyler Lydon was having a similar game but rallied a bit at the end as the team did the same and wound up with +8NP. But he had only 2 rebounds in 31 minutes.

- Frank Howard finally got a serious chance to play, (13 minutes) but didn’t take advantage of it, having a -2NP game. He was 2 for 8 from the field and fouled out in those 13 minutes. When we needed threes to give us a chance to win at the end, Frank was still putting his head down and driving to the basket, earning one of the three charges we got called for.

- We found out how much confidence Mike Hopkins has in Kaleb Joseph. He was a billionaire tonight, three times over. He had three minutes played and the rest were all zeros.

- Which leaves us without a true point guard to take over in the tough spots, settle everyone down and get the team into their offense. We get assists but they are rarely the result of our drives to the basket.

- We continue to have problems rebounding and with interior defense. We made Bradley Hayes look like Elvin Hayes with 21 points on 8 for 12 shooting and 10 rebounds. These problems aren’t going to go away.

- Also not going away is that we are a two trick pony: treys and drives to the basket. When the treys aren’t falling, we’re going to be bulling into the heart of the defense and picking up those charging calls, (all of which looked like good calls to me).

- We seem to have left out game in the Bahamas. I don’t blame it for not wanting to leave but we’ve got 23 games to go and they need to be better than these last two.

 

[br801]

I read somewhere on this board (can't remember where) that Joseph may have been ill yesterday. Not sure if that is accurate, but might explain the limited minutes if true.

 

[Madbiker]

The drop off in shooting stats could also be that Wisconsin and Georgetown play better defense than what we saw from UConn and A&M.

 

[shermstheman]

With Howard in there was a third option other than shooting 3's or driving hard to score (or try to)- that was driving and keeping the dribble so you can pass or shoot. I really like the aggressiveness of the guards but keeping the dribble does allow for more good things to happen.

 

[SoBristol]

Why your repeated comment about "true point guard"? Gbinije is a better contributor than most true PGs. Would not be an issue at all if his teammates on the perimeter were hitting shots or making plays.

The downside is that our centers and forwards can't defend true centers, so we give up a lot of easy finishes. Cooney can drive, but he often can't finish and he has failed to connect, time after time, when he tries to feed a big off his drives. Richardson is struggling against the better defenders, and Hop may have no choice other than to cut back on his minutes.

I don't mind the charge calls -- at least Coleman, Roberson and others are being aggressive, and they will figure out when to pull up, and when to adjust the drive.

 

[SWC75]

Why your repeated comment about "true point guard"? Gbinije is a better contributor than most true PGs. Would not be an issue at all if his teammates on the perimeter were hitting shots or making plays.

Because we don't have a true point guard. Gbinije contributes in many ways, which is why I've referred to him as playing at an all-american level. But he doesn't do what a point guard does, which is to get the team into an offensive flow, break down the defense, control the tempo and set up his teammates. It's like we're running the wildcat with Jim Brown. He's great but can't do everything a quarterback would do.

 

[SoBristol]

Because we don't have a true point guard. Gbinije contributes in many ways, which is why I've referred to him as playing at an all-american level. But he doesn't do what a point guard does, which is to get the team into an offensive flow, break down the defense, control the tempo and set up his teammates. It's like we're running the wildcat with Jim Brown. He's great but can't do everything a quarterback would do.

Interesting analogy -- Jim Brown would win a lot of games from a single wing formation.

It is a matter of emphasis. No true point guard -- everyone knows that.
A lot of teams (including a lot of recent SU teams) have not had a true point guard. Our starting 2003 team did not. Flynn and the General fit the description, maybe Autry, or Z. Triche was not a true point guard in the sense you are using, or Scoop, but they were paired with a second guard with combo skills (Rautins, or Waiters, or played together and shared the roles). And most of our lead guards had better play from the SF than we are getting this season.

Wishing we had a true PG -- not going to happen. Better perimeter play at SG & SF? Should be possible.

 

[Dave85]

I read somewhere on this board (can't remember where) that Joseph may have been ill yesterday. Not sure if that is accurate, but might explain the limited minutes if true.

1 gram of vitamin C per day starting in October. When my kids where in daycare I never got sick. My wife was sick every other week.

 

[tbonezone]

"When the treys aren’t falling, we’re going to be bulling into the heart of the defense and picking up those charging calls, (all of which looked like good calls to me)."

i can't ever remember a year with so many charging calls and scream murder. but when i watch the replay i say well ok.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

"We made Bradley Hayes look like Elvin Hayes"

No joke, Elvin Hayes is my neighbor.

 

[SWC75]

"We made Bradley Hayes look like Elvin Hayes"

No joke, Elvin Hayes is my neighbor.

Does he look like Bradley Hayes?

 

[STEVEHOLT]

Does he look like Bradley Hayes?

Actually, I think he could do what Bradley did to our frontline even in his advanced age. He actually owns the local Zoes' kitchen and several others.