The Downside- Pittsburgh

[SWC75]

- We played well but…. Put that on “copy” and paste it after most if not all of our remaining games.

- When Trevor Cooney hit his first shot, a three, I smiled because I knew that meant he was going to have a good game. What do I know? After that he was 2 for 11 and 0 for 6 from the arc. 2 for 6 and we’re still playing.

- The refs finally decided to call some fouls, 42 of ‘em. Unfortunately, 22 of them were on us. Four of our starters had 4 fouls at the end and a fifth had 3.

- You can’t say we lost it from the foul line: both teams missed 10 fouls shots. But if we’d shot better than 20 of 30, the last couple of minutes might have been a little different.

- The rebounding wasn’t too bad at 33-35 but we couldn’t get any of them down the stretch.

- Kaleb Joseph had a good scoring game with 9 points, including 4 for 4 from the line and three pointer that took the tour. But 0 assists to 3 turnovers isn’t exactly the ratio you want. Maybe he’s really a ‘2’ guard.

- I wonder how good Chris McCullough would have been by now.

- Chris Jones came in averaging 8.7ppg and shooting 33% from three point range. He got 15 points and was 3 of 6. Sheldon Jeter was averaging 2.9ppg and scored 18 on 7 of 9 shooting. With Christmas having no back-up and defensive lapses all around him, we’re just not a good defensive team right now. And with our offense consisting of three players, we’re not very good on offense either. It’s a wonder these games are even close, (and a credit to the effort of the team that they are).

- My main goal for the rest of the season is modest: I want at least one more win. With the loss of all post season activity, including the ACC tournament, 16 wins would give us a winning record. That would keep our streak of winning seasons going at 45, a national best. The record is 54 straight winning season by UCLA from 1948-49 to 2001-2002. If we keep our streak going, we could break that record by 2024-25. That’s a reachable goal. If we could reach it, that would be an accomplishment that all the coaches, players and fans of Syracuse basketball for more than a half century could share in. This game was a chance to keep that steak alive and we let it slip away. Let’s get it done the next time.

 

[AlaskaSU]

Agree; the success of this season boils down to getting one more win.

 

[bballbeadle]

Agree; the success of this season boils down to getting one more win.

Mio tambien. Please just beat a team we should have no chance beating. It would make our season.

 

[SBU72]

Agree; the success of this season boils down to getting one more win.

I saw that out of the last 10, SU needed to go at least 2-8 for at least a 500 season (including losing first round in ACC-T) With the win against VT, 1 more was needed. That one will give over 500 now. A last thought is that if SU goes 0-9 after the announcement there will be plenty of detractors who will insist that the team gave up no matter what the scores or how badly under manned they are.

 

[Ghost]

- Kaleb Joseph had a good scoring game with 9 points, including 4 for 4 from the line and three pointer that took the tour. But 0 assists to 3 turnovers isn’t exactly the radio you want. Maybe he’s really a ‘2’ guard.

I would give Patterson more minutes, and play Joseph off the ball a little when possible. You could use him to give Cooney a breather here or there.

The kid seemed a tad more comfortable playing off the ball - maybe use that to boost his confidence a bit before it's completely shattered. He's been a net positive on the court once in ACC play, Patterson has been a positive 7 times and their differential is going to hit 100 points soon the way they're going (and we're not being blown out).

 

[Henny & Coke]

"- I wonder how good Chris McCullough would have been by now."

I have mentioned this before, but will repeat it cause I think it's incredible:

In McCullough's 1st 8 games of the season, these were his averages - 14.4 ppg, 34.5 mpg, 570% FG, 8.8 rpg, 1.4 asp, 1.9 spg, 2.4 bpg, 2.6 tpg. In these 8 games he had 3 double-doubles. These are his first games as a Freshman. (And how's this for efficiency: He averaged 14.4 ppg on only 9.9 shots per game...as a Freshman! A guy playing in his first college bball games ever. Unreal!)

Then, the next 8 games Chris failed to reach double-digits in rebounding or scoring in any game. The difference between the 1st 8 games & 2nd 8 games are really night / day and I'm not sure what happened to cause it.

But, to me, the McCullough that played in those 1st 8 games was a difference maker. He was putting up stats the approached those that RAK is putting up this year.

If Chris McCullough comes back next year (a proposition that I thought was maybe a 5% chance up until his injury...but now think is a 95% chance he does come back) and he plays more like the player he was those 1st 8 games, I'm not sure there are 5 more talented players returning to college basketball next year than him. That's an exciting thought. The McCullough of those 1st 8 games showed star potential. And a McCullough that has a year of experience in the program, learning the defense, learning to deal with JB and what he expects, even though he'll be recovering from knee surgery...if he builds on those 1st 8 game stats, that's a game changer for Syracuse.

 

[GardenOrange]

I would give Patterson more minutes, and play Joseph off the ball a little when possible. You could use him to give Cooney a breather here or there.

The kid seemed a tad more comfortable playing off the ball - maybe use that to boost his confidence a bit before it's completely shattered. He's been a net positive on the court once in ACC play, Patterson has been a positive 7 times and their differential is going to hit 100 points soon the way they're going (and we're not being blown out).

Play Patterson and Joseph more and Cooney less. These games mean nothing. Lets see if Patterson can play and lets get Joseph as much experience as possible.

 

[TBCuse11]

Play Patterson and Joseph more and Cooney less. These games mean nothing. Lets see if Patterson can play and lets get Joseph as much experience as possible.

agree. nothing to gain from having Cooney jack 12 threes a game at this point. we know his game. lets learn about the others.

 

[rrlbees]

agree. nothing to gain from having Cooney jack 12 threes a game at this point. we know his game. lets learn about the others.

1. Joseph and Patterson have gotten plenty of run this year to show if they can score. Joseph has averaged 30mpg for the year and Patterson about 14mpg, which has been closer to 20mpg lately. Neither are scorers right now. Patterson is averaging 2.5ppg and Joseph 7ppg.

2. Cooney averages 7.5 three point attempts per game.

3. If you have Cooney out too much, watch Raks offense go backwards. Teams don't worry about anyone on the perimeter except Cooney. Not Joseph, not Patterson, not G. Sit Cooney and watch teams play all their guys with at least one foot in the paint.

4. I think Cooney is trying to do too much, especially since McCullough went down. He's shooting more 3's and taking deeper shots. He and JB know we only have 3 scorers on this whole team.

 

[Jake]

Play Patterson and Joseph more and Cooney less. These games mean nothing. Lets see if Patterson can play and lets get Joseph as much experience as possible.

We won't win a game the rest of the year without Cooney logging near 40 minutes.

 

[tbonezone]

i want to beat duke away and pitt at home. and it's got nothing to do with streaks. duke away means the CUSE is a still player. and pitt at home is the louie and bouie tribute game and i'll be standing up and cheering loud and proud.

 

[Ghost]

1. Joseph and Patterson have gotten plenty of run this year to show if they can score. Joseph has averaged 30mpg for the year and Patterson about 14mpg, which has been closer to 20mpg lately. Neither are scorers right now. Patterson is averaging 2.5ppg and Joseph 7ppg.

2. Cooney averages 7.5 three point attempts per game.

3. If you have Cooney out too much, watch Raks offense go backwards. Teams don't worry about anyone on the perimeter except Cooney. Not Joseph, not Patterson, not G. Sit Cooney and watch teams play all their guys with at least one foot in the paint.

4. I think Cooney is trying to do too much, especially since McCullough went down. He's shooting more 3's and taking deeper shots. He and JB know we only have 3 scorers on this whole team.

Since I kicked this off, let me clarify my side of that initial post.

Patterson has the most positives on the plus/minus side in ACC play. Nobody else approaches his overall totals in ACC play - not even close. That alone warrants more minutes for him IMO. At the expense of Joseph...

I think Cooney needs a blow now and again. I'm just not sure why JB, in this specific scenario (8-2 run in about 2 minutes of him off the floor) brought him back in so very quickly.

It does make me wonder if he just blindly plays these guys 40 w/out regard for fatigue, etc...because in that scenario, with 4 fouls, there was zero reason to have him back in the game so quickly. If we can get Cooney some more rest, and have him fresh at the end - why not stay with what's working as long as you can. It's not like Rak where we have ZERO option behind him, our whole roster is two guards (Joseph, Patterson, Johnson, Cooney, G - some better than others).

Joseph to me seems more comfortable off the ball anyway - he sure isn't close to comfortable playing PG of late. If he can get some confidence up playing SG, and spell Cooney a couple minutes here or there when when he's not playing PG - why not try it (may not work obviously)?

Every game isn't going to be an 8-2 run in our favor with one of our big 3 on the bench, and our best lineup has Cooney in it for most of the 40 minutes, but the short rests have to help. We flat out look broken at the end of games - fatigue may be a contributing factor. G shows little fight on the defensive glass any more, and Roberson has looked pretty dead on the defensive glass of late as well. Get them some rest if you can imo (Roberson is the most difficult to replace).

Cooney has been forcing (often out of necessity) - but it is strange that he seems to hunt shots for small stretches which include some early shot-clock heaves. Not sure what sets that off - but maybe that's when you sit him down for a couple minutes here or there.

I know u weren't replying to me directly - some of these are just thoughts, more than counter-points.