SWC75
Bored Historian
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I previewed the two games together as if they were one event and they seemed like the same game when they were played, so here goes.
- Watching these two games was like having two root canals, at least until we rallied at the end. Bryant totally outplayed us in the first half. We couldn’t get the ball past their two guards who played very aggressively out front. We could get it to the corner to Chris Bell but he couldn’t hit anything. Jesse Edwards was getting muscled around underneath. Bryant was able to penetrate our defense and also hit a few key three pointers, including a miracle one at the half that gave them a 29-40 halftime lead.
- The situation was exacerbated by our personnel problems. Moumir Hima had injured himself somehow and was unable to practice Friday or play today. Benny Williams had an upset stomach and tried to play but could only offer an ineffectual 9 minutes. Maliq Brown hasn’t played much in recent games and only played 4 minutes in this one, (although he was able to get 2 rebounds and an assist in that time). Then Judah Mintz got called for a second dubious charge, got tangled up in the feet of a fallen Bryant player and slapped Doug Ebert, who threw a punch at him. Both of them got ejected. We wound up with John Bol Ajak, arguably the #13 guy on the roster, playing 22 minutes and Justin Taylor, who seemed glued to the bench, playing 26 and, fortunately, becoming the star of the game.
- The loss of Mintz, who JB called “our best player” in his presser seemed huge since he had scored 7 of our 17 points to that time. But how well was Mintz playing at the time? He was 2 for 7 from the field, had 1 assist and 3 turnovers, as well as three fouls, the last one of which booted him from the game. He’s supposed to be a three level scorer but the elevator doesn’t yet go all the way to the top.
- Joe Girard was not “our best player”. In his last two games he is 2 for 22 from the field and 1 for 12 from the arc. 4 for 22 would have been enough to win both games for us if it meant one more basket in regulation in both games. The dream this year is that he would be a more efficient scorer this year because Mintz and Torrence would handle the ball, penetrate the defense and dish it out to Joe at the three point line for some wide-open shots. Instead we still have “Logo Joe”, jacking the ball up as soon as he gets downcourt. The fact that he occasionally hits one from there doesn’t mean that that’s the best thing for him to do. When he scored those 31 points against Richmond he was 7 for 13 inside the arc. What happened to that? The guy’s a senior and he plays like he was still a freshman and that’s very disappointing.
- Jesse Edwards is clearly the best player on this team at this point but, as JB pointed out: If he doesn’t get those two early fouls he always gets, he would have been in the game at the end and he would have blocked Gross-Bullock’s winning shot.
- But that shot went in and our basketball team is 3-3 with games at Illinois and Notre Dame coming up next week. They have yet to play a game that would beat either team. And, having lost to two mid-majors, (are they even that?), our fate in future games is dubious unless this team gets an awful lot better.
- Some thoughts on what’s wrong with the team: It’s a group of ‘new’ players, that is a combination of freshmen, a transfer, some guys who were reserves getting more playing time and a change of responsibilities for veteran players. Trying to teach them both a zone and man-for-man at the same time may have been a bit much. The zone, when aggressively played, can have the virtues of a man defense. It’s really about division of responsibility: follow a man or guard an area. What I’d really like to see is proactive use of defensive pressure: a guy to rag the point guard as he brings it up, a trap past mid-court, and surprise full court press coming out of a time out or halftime. Then settle back into the zone. Joe Girard needs to play like a 22 year old, (today, in fact), not a 2 year old. Judah Mintz needs to continue to learn how to share the ball. Jesse Edwards needs to learn that when you are 7 feet tall, you don’t need to step into the guy you are defending. Let him step into you. Benny Williams and Chris bell need to hit the boards. Sy Torrance needs to penetrate and dish, not play ring-around-the-rosy 20 feet out. Justin Taylor and Maliq Brown need more playing time. I don’t see this as a flawed roster like last year, just a team that needs to mature and play together a lot more than we are seeing.
- Then came the football game, which seemed like an instant replay of the basketball game with different equipment. With a chance to put the brakes on a 5 game losing streak and still save the season, (we can wind up a very credible 8-5), we came out flat as a pancake against a team that just playing out the string of what is now a 3-9 season. A fumble and a blocked punt put us in a 0-10 hole that we took three quarters to crawl out of, thanks to a ridiculous 13 penalties, including an ill-advised punch from Enrique Cruz. Our offensive line is thin as tissue paper as it is with Kalen Ellis hurting and Dakota Davis already removed for the game for injury. We’re down 13 players from the original two deep overall, (that number again). Cruz isn’t as prominent a player as Mintz is to the basketball team but given the circumstance, he might have been as important.
- The nadir was just before the half, when down 3-10, we got the ball on a strop-sack, only to be called for “excessive celebration” (do these things happen to anyone else?). We advanced to the BC 6 with hopes of tying the game for halftime and then winning it in the second half. On second down, Tucker tried to go wide but got corralled for a 6 yard loss to the BC 12. Shrader threw a touchdown pass to Gadsden, only to have the celebration halted by a holding call, which moved the ball back to the 22. Then Shrader missed Gadsden on the play that Cruz decided he was Mike Tyson, which sent it back to the 37, from where a third straight pass on 4th down was incomplete. BC then got the ball with 29 seconds left and drove to the SU 28, where they attempted a field goal that would have given them a 10 point half time lead. Fortunately, it missed but the sour taste in SU fans mouths was getting too strong to bear.
- BC, the worst rushing team in FBS, (#131 with 60 yards a game: #130 averaged 77 yards a game), came out determined to run the ball in the second half and drove to the Cuse 35, mostly on the ground, where they decided to punt. SU drove to the BC 3 where two false starts from senior Carlos Vettorello and a sack forced a 29 yard field goal attempt by our injured kicker, Andre Szmyt. His low line drive made it over the crossbar but not to the net. BC then put on a long drive, again mostly running the ball and scored early in the fourth to take a 6-17 lead and I was beginning to wonder if there was a good movie on TCM.
- Brent Axe said that if one word defined SU’s efforts on Saturday or even throughout the season, it was a lack of discipline. Dumb and ill-timed penalties, pointless ejections and false starts and logo shots by seniors. Sometimes we forget that all college players are still young. They say the part of your brain that governs judgement doesn’t fully mature until age 25 and all these guys are under that. Being a college sports coach must be like herding cats… Still, look finished at the bottom of the list in avoiding penalties among all 131 FBS teams:
NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com
It also doesn’t help when you coach is jawing with the other team’s coach after the game or a player tries to ‘plant the flag’ on the field after the game – and then hands it to the coach! Are the inmates running the asylum? The disappointing thing is that while Bryant’s players seem to reflect the feisty, street-smart personality of their coach, (I’m not sure what BC’s Jeff Hafley is like), the actions of the SU players don’t seem to reflect the personalities of their coaches. Dino is a decent and focused man and while JB can be feisty, he’s not one to slap people around. It suggests that they aren’t getting through their players.
- As we went from 6 to 12 to 18 points, I couldn’t help but think of the Schwartzwalder Era when we never seemed to have a good kicker on the team and often wound up with those numbers as our final score. I looked back and counted them. I didn’t find an 18 but I found eleven ‘12’s and seven 6’s: Syracuse Historical Scores
- Of course, we rallied to win, something like catching the delicate Christmas ornament you dropped before it hits the floor. I had to remind myself that we won several times that evening before finally going to bed, (too tired to complete this write up until today). Being a sports fan is supposed to be fun. But how can you have fun watching that 6 hour slog. There’s been too many college football Saturdays ruined in recent years by having to watch a miserable SU performance in that sport or in basketball. I can understand why fans are angry, depressed, or increasingly disinterested. I enjoyed watching the Michigan- Ohio State game and would have enjoyed watching South Carolina knockoff Clemson or Oregon State upset Oregon and several other games but I felt obligated to suffer through the SU games, hoping that something good would happen. Eventually, good things did happen and we almost swept the double-header but victory in the nightcap brought a sense of relief more than excitement or joy. Maybe it would be better to not care who wins games and just enjoy the sports for their artistry, toughness and thrills. But I’ve followed SU football since 1961 and basketball since 1966 and it’s in my DNA that I must care and I must watch and I’ll be doing it again Tuesday night when our guys go up against Illinois in roundball. It’s just the way I am and I can’t do much about it now. I’d just like the games to be fun to watch and my team to make me proud.
- Watching these two games was like having two root canals, at least until we rallied at the end. Bryant totally outplayed us in the first half. We couldn’t get the ball past their two guards who played very aggressively out front. We could get it to the corner to Chris Bell but he couldn’t hit anything. Jesse Edwards was getting muscled around underneath. Bryant was able to penetrate our defense and also hit a few key three pointers, including a miracle one at the half that gave them a 29-40 halftime lead.
- The situation was exacerbated by our personnel problems. Moumir Hima had injured himself somehow and was unable to practice Friday or play today. Benny Williams had an upset stomach and tried to play but could only offer an ineffectual 9 minutes. Maliq Brown hasn’t played much in recent games and only played 4 minutes in this one, (although he was able to get 2 rebounds and an assist in that time). Then Judah Mintz got called for a second dubious charge, got tangled up in the feet of a fallen Bryant player and slapped Doug Ebert, who threw a punch at him. Both of them got ejected. We wound up with John Bol Ajak, arguably the #13 guy on the roster, playing 22 minutes and Justin Taylor, who seemed glued to the bench, playing 26 and, fortunately, becoming the star of the game.
- The loss of Mintz, who JB called “our best player” in his presser seemed huge since he had scored 7 of our 17 points to that time. But how well was Mintz playing at the time? He was 2 for 7 from the field, had 1 assist and 3 turnovers, as well as three fouls, the last one of which booted him from the game. He’s supposed to be a three level scorer but the elevator doesn’t yet go all the way to the top.
- Joe Girard was not “our best player”. In his last two games he is 2 for 22 from the field and 1 for 12 from the arc. 4 for 22 would have been enough to win both games for us if it meant one more basket in regulation in both games. The dream this year is that he would be a more efficient scorer this year because Mintz and Torrence would handle the ball, penetrate the defense and dish it out to Joe at the three point line for some wide-open shots. Instead we still have “Logo Joe”, jacking the ball up as soon as he gets downcourt. The fact that he occasionally hits one from there doesn’t mean that that’s the best thing for him to do. When he scored those 31 points against Richmond he was 7 for 13 inside the arc. What happened to that? The guy’s a senior and he plays like he was still a freshman and that’s very disappointing.
- Jesse Edwards is clearly the best player on this team at this point but, as JB pointed out: If he doesn’t get those two early fouls he always gets, he would have been in the game at the end and he would have blocked Gross-Bullock’s winning shot.
- But that shot went in and our basketball team is 3-3 with games at Illinois and Notre Dame coming up next week. They have yet to play a game that would beat either team. And, having lost to two mid-majors, (are they even that?), our fate in future games is dubious unless this team gets an awful lot better.
- Some thoughts on what’s wrong with the team: It’s a group of ‘new’ players, that is a combination of freshmen, a transfer, some guys who were reserves getting more playing time and a change of responsibilities for veteran players. Trying to teach them both a zone and man-for-man at the same time may have been a bit much. The zone, when aggressively played, can have the virtues of a man defense. It’s really about division of responsibility: follow a man or guard an area. What I’d really like to see is proactive use of defensive pressure: a guy to rag the point guard as he brings it up, a trap past mid-court, and surprise full court press coming out of a time out or halftime. Then settle back into the zone. Joe Girard needs to play like a 22 year old, (today, in fact), not a 2 year old. Judah Mintz needs to continue to learn how to share the ball. Jesse Edwards needs to learn that when you are 7 feet tall, you don’t need to step into the guy you are defending. Let him step into you. Benny Williams and Chris bell need to hit the boards. Sy Torrance needs to penetrate and dish, not play ring-around-the-rosy 20 feet out. Justin Taylor and Maliq Brown need more playing time. I don’t see this as a flawed roster like last year, just a team that needs to mature and play together a lot more than we are seeing.
- Then came the football game, which seemed like an instant replay of the basketball game with different equipment. With a chance to put the brakes on a 5 game losing streak and still save the season, (we can wind up a very credible 8-5), we came out flat as a pancake against a team that just playing out the string of what is now a 3-9 season. A fumble and a blocked punt put us in a 0-10 hole that we took three quarters to crawl out of, thanks to a ridiculous 13 penalties, including an ill-advised punch from Enrique Cruz. Our offensive line is thin as tissue paper as it is with Kalen Ellis hurting and Dakota Davis already removed for the game for injury. We’re down 13 players from the original two deep overall, (that number again). Cruz isn’t as prominent a player as Mintz is to the basketball team but given the circumstance, he might have been as important.
- The nadir was just before the half, when down 3-10, we got the ball on a strop-sack, only to be called for “excessive celebration” (do these things happen to anyone else?). We advanced to the BC 6 with hopes of tying the game for halftime and then winning it in the second half. On second down, Tucker tried to go wide but got corralled for a 6 yard loss to the BC 12. Shrader threw a touchdown pass to Gadsden, only to have the celebration halted by a holding call, which moved the ball back to the 22. Then Shrader missed Gadsden on the play that Cruz decided he was Mike Tyson, which sent it back to the 37, from where a third straight pass on 4th down was incomplete. BC then got the ball with 29 seconds left and drove to the SU 28, where they attempted a field goal that would have given them a 10 point half time lead. Fortunately, it missed but the sour taste in SU fans mouths was getting too strong to bear.
- BC, the worst rushing team in FBS, (#131 with 60 yards a game: #130 averaged 77 yards a game), came out determined to run the ball in the second half and drove to the Cuse 35, mostly on the ground, where they decided to punt. SU drove to the BC 3 where two false starts from senior Carlos Vettorello and a sack forced a 29 yard field goal attempt by our injured kicker, Andre Szmyt. His low line drive made it over the crossbar but not to the net. BC then put on a long drive, again mostly running the ball and scored early in the fourth to take a 6-17 lead and I was beginning to wonder if there was a good movie on TCM.
- Brent Axe said that if one word defined SU’s efforts on Saturday or even throughout the season, it was a lack of discipline. Dumb and ill-timed penalties, pointless ejections and false starts and logo shots by seniors. Sometimes we forget that all college players are still young. They say the part of your brain that governs judgement doesn’t fully mature until age 25 and all these guys are under that. Being a college sports coach must be like herding cats… Still, look finished at the bottom of the list in avoiding penalties among all 131 FBS teams:
NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com
It also doesn’t help when you coach is jawing with the other team’s coach after the game or a player tries to ‘plant the flag’ on the field after the game – and then hands it to the coach! Are the inmates running the asylum? The disappointing thing is that while Bryant’s players seem to reflect the feisty, street-smart personality of their coach, (I’m not sure what BC’s Jeff Hafley is like), the actions of the SU players don’t seem to reflect the personalities of their coaches. Dino is a decent and focused man and while JB can be feisty, he’s not one to slap people around. It suggests that they aren’t getting through their players.
- As we went from 6 to 12 to 18 points, I couldn’t help but think of the Schwartzwalder Era when we never seemed to have a good kicker on the team and often wound up with those numbers as our final score. I looked back and counted them. I didn’t find an 18 but I found eleven ‘12’s and seven 6’s: Syracuse Historical Scores
- Of course, we rallied to win, something like catching the delicate Christmas ornament you dropped before it hits the floor. I had to remind myself that we won several times that evening before finally going to bed, (too tired to complete this write up until today). Being a sports fan is supposed to be fun. But how can you have fun watching that 6 hour slog. There’s been too many college football Saturdays ruined in recent years by having to watch a miserable SU performance in that sport or in basketball. I can understand why fans are angry, depressed, or increasingly disinterested. I enjoyed watching the Michigan- Ohio State game and would have enjoyed watching South Carolina knockoff Clemson or Oregon State upset Oregon and several other games but I felt obligated to suffer through the SU games, hoping that something good would happen. Eventually, good things did happen and we almost swept the double-header but victory in the nightcap brought a sense of relief more than excitement or joy. Maybe it would be better to not care who wins games and just enjoy the sports for their artistry, toughness and thrills. But I’ve followed SU football since 1961 and basketball since 1966 and it’s in my DNA that I must care and I must watch and I’ll be doing it again Tuesday night when our guys go up against Illinois in roundball. It’s just the way I am and I can’t do much about it now. I’d just like the games to be fun to watch and my team to make me proud.
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