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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 3205697, member: 289"] - For the third straight game we arm-wrestled with a veteran, physically stronger team and it was ‘knuckles on the table’. - It’s the worst record we’ve had in the first eight games since we started 3-5 in 1968-69, the last year in which we had a losing record. With the youth and other deficiencies of this team and the beefed up schedule with 20 ACC games, the ACC-Big Ten challenge, the preseason NIT and the Georgetown game, this may be our first losing record since then, ending our nation leading streak at 49 winning seasons in a row, 5 short of UCLA’s all-time record of 54. - We aren’t just losing. We’re getting thumped: by 14 points to Virginia and Oklahoma State and tonight and by 21 to Penn State. - Those of us who are also SU football fans have a strong sense of de ja vu: we look good enough against non-power conference teams but we can’t handle the power conference teams, which means that we are arguably the worst power conference team in the country right now, or close to it. These last three teams aren’t ranked. They are probably middle of the pack teams in their conferences. We look like bottom feeders by comparison. Instead of waiting for the elephants and hippos to grow up, we are waiting for the giraffes and ostriches to grow up. The problem is, all the games matter in terms of our goals so waiting for players to grow up isn’t good enough. - You’ve got to put the ball in the basket. In our four losses Elijah Hughes is 18 for 53 (34%), Buddy Boeheim is 12 for 49 (24%) and Joe Girard is 7 for 34 (21%). We’ve got no chance when those guys aren’t hitting. Boeheim is getting open shots but he’s stopped shooting the ball into the basket and is instead throwing it at the basket, with a lower trajectory and greater velocity than he normally has. With Girard the problem is that he can’t seem to get his shot off against an aggressive man for man. His only two makes were on drives to the basket. Hughes hit a couple of deep threes but had trouble getting past his defender. Jimmy Satalin kept calling for more picks and screens to get these guys open. They seemed to be on their own and it wasn’t working. - What was working were the two big guys Iowa had inside, 6-11 245 Luke Garza and 6-10 255 Ryan Kriener Garza in particular killed us with 23 points and 9 rebounds. Kreiner added 5 rebounds of his own. They sometimes played in tandem and he followed up on one of Garza’s rare misses. We had no answer for them. - One thing we had bene avoiding was turnovers but tonight we made 16 of them. Many came in a stretch in the first half when we kept making risky passes that wound up in the hands of the Hawkeyes. Some were telegraphed cross-court passes. Some were fancy, behind the back stuff to players not ready for it. Some were to no one in particular. - Quincy Guerrier is the one player we’ve got who can compete inside with muscle men. But everything he does seems so awkward. He tries hard but doesn’t know how to use his strength yet. And he’s not the outside shooter he thinks he is, (2 for 11). - And what did we ever see in Brycen Goodine? He has a weak handle, can’t shoot and doesn’t do much of anything else. He’s 6 for 21 on the season, 0 for 10 from three point range and has an 8 assists to 12 turnovers ratio. JB in his presser said “I don’t know what’s going on with him? - The lack of an inside scoring game is hurting us. The other teams get to extend their defense and challenge every drive to the basket and we have nothing else. The irony is that Sidibie, Edwards and Dolezaj all have good moves in the paint to score. They are big offensive upgrade over Paschal Chukwu but we haven’t figured out how to use their skills yet. - Jim Boeheim’s post-game interview with Matt Park ended with a tired-sounding sigh. [/QUOTE]

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