The Downside- Miami | Syracusefan.com

The Downside- Miami

SWC75

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- My radio wasn’t getting very good reception in the men’s room. I was trying to listen to Jim Boeheim’s post- game interview with Brian Higgins. I could just hear occasional words, with alternating static. All I got was : free throws….free throws….free throws….

- In ACC games we are shooting 93 for 150 from the line, (62%). I don’t have the end of the game percentage but it can’t more than about 50%. Even our best gun, Trevor Cooney is only 21 for 33 in those games (64%). In the pre-conference games he was 32 for 37 (.865). We nearly blew the Virginia Tech and Boston College games because of this and we blew any chance to come back and win this one because of it today.

- A term you hear a lot regarding Syracuse is “margin for error”. We can’t give away games, (Villanova) or a chance to win them, (Michigan and Miami) and expect those games to be ignored on selection Sunday. We won’t get credit for “valiant efforts”.

- I said the formula for us to beat good teams in for the “Big Three”, Christmas, Gbinije and Cooney, to all have productive games, stay out of foul trouble and play good defense for 40 minutes. “Silent G” was silent much of the first half and missed a couple of dunks in the second half. One of them, on a great feed from Christmas sure looked like it was in. I was jumping up and down and celebrating when I noticed the scoreboard didn’t change. Matt Park said that he’d grabbed the rim. The basket bent down and the ball fell forward out of it rather than down through the hoop. We sure could have used those two points at the end.

- Cooney made some big shots but one of the was about ¾ down and spun out, it the backboard and spun out again. 3 points we also could have used. Miami seemed to get all the rolls.

- We did stay out of foul trouble and played good defense for about 30 of the 40 minutes. But we again got off to horrendous starts in each half, this time 1-9 and 6-15 instead of 2-9 and 2-11 as in the Boston College game. Much of our troubles in these stretches have been offensive but we did a poor job of finding the shooters against two essentially perimeter teams. We then got up on them and got back into these games. But 30 minutes of good defense won’t get it done.

- Miami played very good- and very physical defense. On the one hand, I would like to have seen a lot of what they did called. But it occurred to me that if the refs were calling more fouls on them, they might call more fouls on us to even things out in the box score. And we can’t afford that.

- Kaleb Joseph and Ron Patterson played 40 minutes between them and scored 6 points on 2 for 7 shooting.

- The other four guys played 40 minutes each. Talk about going 6 deep. We’ve got at least 13 games below, (assuming we get to play in the post season). That’s got to take a toll. Maybe it already is with our late foul shooting.
 
There are so many things to wince about! It doesn't seem that our team is learning. There are individual regressions and progressions, and nowhere can we put together a good half of basketball.

We will just have to endure this season. I know how I feel, and I can only imagine how the players and coaches feel. One of my Carolina friends texted me last night: "Are you now going to get REVENGE on Carolina?" I just had to laugh. I don't think "revenge" is in this team's mentality.

I will be so proud of them if they come out and give Carolina a heck of a game, but am not sure they will have the spirit to do so. Please surprise me!
 
There are so many things to wince about! It doesn't seem that our team is learning. There are individual regressions and progressions, and nowhere can we put together a good half of basketball.

We will just have to endure this season. I know how I feel, and I can only imagine how the players and coaches feel. One of my Carolina friends texted me last night: "Are you now going to get REVENGE on Carolina?" I just had to laugh. I don't think "revenge" is in this team's mentality.

I will be so proud of them if they come out and give Carolina a heck of a game, but am not sure they will have the spirit to do so. Please surprise me!


What would be getting revenge for? The 1988 tip-off classic? Losing to Michael Jordan twice? We beat them last year.
 
One comment Matt Park made last night stayed with me. He said last year Miami was "short on players but you knew they'd be good this year." I think that's what other schools might be saying about SU this year.
 
What would be getting revenge for? The 1988 tip-off classic? Losing to Michael Jordan twice? We beat them last year.

I know! Revenge for humiliation? Hey, he's 80 and one of my dearest friends. I think he was implying Carolina should be scared of us.
 

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