The Downside - Rider

[SWC75]

- As in many early season games that turn into blow-outs, the game had a sloppy feel to it. We had 16 turnovers to Rider’s 14. We now have 47 turnover sin three games. That’s too many.

- We had a pretty goo drought of our own in mid-game. We were up 46-20 with 3:29 left in the first half. With 14:57 left in the second half it was 54-35. That’s an 8-15 run over 8:32 against an inferior team.

- I’m really rooting for Robert Braswell to make his case with Buddy out. If he doesn’t the door might shut on him with Guerrier, griffin and newton all plying well and Bennie Williams coming in next year. He’s playing as if he knows he has to make an impression and the smoothness and poise we’ve seen in the past had been replaced by a desperation that hasn’t served him well. He was 1 for 13 on the season, 0 for 10 from the arc with 3 turnovers and 5 fouls in limited play when he made a late floater to give him 2 points.

- Have we played a game that would beat Rutgers yet? I don’t know either. Tune in Tuesday night.

 

[bballbeadle]

I feel badly for Bras. Painful to watch.

First half we looked like we could fly to the moon. Second half we came back to earth, but the thud was soft, not hard. And we recovered our poise.

 

[Ceerqqq]

- I’m really rooting for Robert Braswell to make his case with Buddy out. If he doesn’t the door might shut on him with Guerrier, griffin and newton all plying well and Bennie Williams coming in next year. He’s playing as if he knows he has to make an impression and the smoothness and poise we’ve seen in the past had been replaced by a desperation that hasn’t served him well. He was 1 for 13 on the season, 0 for 10 from the arc with 3 turnovers and 5 fouls in limited play when he made a late floater to give him 2 points.

Yeah, it's pretty sad to see Braswell struggling to deal with the competitive situation. You can see he's got skills, but that he's really messed up mentally on the court, constantly appraising his performance from one second to the next and that's inhibiting his performance.

What he needs to do is blow it all out of his head and really not give a damn about what ultimately befalls him. He has to reject the importance of what he knows is important. That's the mental trick you have to figure out to do your best against tough competition.

You can tell that Boeheim understands what he's dealing with and wants to give him a chance to shake it off, but both Robert and Jim know that at some point, Jim is going to have to make a decision based on the performance he sees in games. And that of course is what messing him up.

The best attitude for him to adopt is to accept that it may not work out for him at Syracuse, but no matter what, he should take full advantage of the opportunity he has to play right now, this season, against tough opponents for as long as it lasts here at Syracuse. At worst, it's an opportunity to finish another year of college, continue to compete and improve his game under good coaching and then he'll decide to do what's best for him.

In the meantime, go out and compete, enjoy the opportunities that arise, and just enjoy playing basketball worry-free. Best of luck, Robert!

 

[SWC75]

Yeah, it's pretty sad to see Braswell struggling to deal with the competitive situation. You can see he's got skills, but that he's really messed up mentally on the court, constantly appraising his performance from one second to the next and that's inhibiting his performance.

What he needs to do is blow it all out of his head and really not give a damn about what ultimately befalls him. He has to reject the importance of what he knows is important. That's the mental trick you have to figure out to do your best against tough competition.

You can tell that Boeheim understands what he's dealing with and wants to give him a chance to shake it off, but both Robert and Jim know that at some point, Jim is going to have to make a decision based on the performance he sees in games. And that of course is what messing him up.

The best attitude for him to adopt is to accept that it may not work out for him at Syracuse, but no matter what, he should take full advantage of the opportunity he has to play right now, this season, against tough opponents for as long as it lasts here at Syracuse. At worst, it's an opportunity to finish another year of college, continue to compete and improve his game under good coaching and then he'll decide to do what's best for him.

In the meantime, go out and compete, enjoy the opportunities that arise, and just enjoy playing basketball worry-free. Best of luck, Robert!

Robert Braswell could have been a star. He needed an open opportunity to show what he could do without pressure but that opportunity never came and now we've got plenty of better options who can also be stars. It happens.

 

[orangeinnyc]

Robert Braswell could have been a star. He needed an open opportunity to show what he could do without pressure but that opportunity never came and now we've got plenty of better options who can also be stars. It happens.

I disagree about the pressure bit. This is high level bball, there is pressure the minute you step foot on campus at a school like Cuse. He has had his opportunities to show what he can do and has not made the most of them, something that Woody has. Which stinks because much like Moyer, he seems like a great kid.

 

[UpstateSM]

Robert Braswell could have been a star. He needed an open opportunity to show what he could do without pressure but that opportunity never came and now we've got plenty of better options who can also be stars. It happens.

Like three years of practice?

 

[SWC75]

Like three years of practice?

It's the games that count. I would think that doing well in games increases confidence and lowers desperation.

 

[moqui]

What he needs to do is blow it all out of his head and really not give a damn about what ultimately befalls him. He has to reject the importance of what he knows is important. That's the mental trick you have to figure out to do your best against tough competition.

you sound like kunu

 

[IthacaMatt]

I feel badly for Bras. Painful to watch.

First half we looked like we could fly to the moon. Second half we came back to earth, but the thud was soft, not hard. And we recovered our poise.

I think a big part of that was that Joe and Griffin started the second half in love with the three ball, and both of them put up a couple bad, early ones in our first handful of possessions. We wasted about 5 or 6 possessions in the first 5 minutes or so of that second half. A better team could have made us pay for that more.

 

[IthacaMatt]

It's the games that count. I would think that doing well in games increases confidence and lowers desperation.

Well said. It's surprising that more people don't simply understand this.
Some people thrive under pressure.
Others don't want the pressure of having to make "the shot", or make "the play".
Boeheim even admitted in the post game that he was "surprised" by how good Woody was, that he hadn't seen that from him in practice. How about that?

 

[IthacaMatt]

I disagree about the pressure bit. This is high level bball, there is pressure the minute you step foot on campus at a school like Cuse. He has had his opportunities to show what he can do and has not made the most of them, something that Woody has. Which stinks because much like Moyer, he seems like a great kid.

Let me offer you a bit of info that might surprise you. In his first 5 seasons in the NBA, Michael Jordan was a terrible outside shooter. And I do mean "terrible".

He won the NBA MVP Award in 1988 for the first time, and did you know that he was MVP despite shooting 13% (!!) from three for the entire season. Thirteen percent?!

Now, if you played him at guard early in his career when he couldn't shoot a lick from outside - and remember, this was before he became a point guard later in his career - well, some other coaches wouldn't have played Jordan enough minutes for the MVP to emerge from that awful outside shooting he saw in practice every day.

Food for thought. Michael Kidd Gilchrest was a Michael Jordan clone as a young player. But he also couldn't make an outside shot early in his career. His early coaches didn't believe in him in the NBA, and he only played a "full season" once in 7 years. He did eventually turn into a more serviceable outside shooter later in his career, averaging around 30% over his last three years.

But that same thing might have happened to Michael Jordan if he didn't have a coach who believed in his positives and ignored his negatives, to an extent, until he got better at those things. Of course, Jordan was a workout savage, always trying to better his game. Maybe Kidd-Gilchrest wasn't as committed.

 

[orangeinnyc]

Let me offer you a bit of info that might surprise you. In his first 5 seasons in the NBA, Michael Jordan was a terrible outside shooter. And I do mean "terrible".

He won the NBA MVP Award in 1988 for the first time, and did you know that he was MVP despite shooting 13% (!!) from three for the entire season. Thirteen percent?!

Now, if you played him at guard early in his career when he couldn't shoot a lick from outside - and remember, this was before he became a point guard later in his career - well, some other coaches wouldn't have played Jordan enough minutes for the MVP to emerge from that awful outside shooting he saw in practice every day.

Food for thought. Michael Kidd Gilchrest was a Michael Jordan clone as a young player. But he also couldn't make an outside shot early in his career. His early coaches didn't believe in him in the NBA, and he only played a "full season" once in 7 years. He did eventually turn into a more serviceable outside shooter later in his career, averaging around 30% over his last three years.

But that same thing might have happened to Michael Jordan if he didn't have a coach who believed in his positives and ignored his negatives, to an extent, until he got better at those things. Of course, Jordan was a workout savage, always trying to better his game. Maybe Kidd-Gilchrest wasn't as committed.

Honestly I don’t get this comparison at all. There are no similarities here. The issue with Bras is that he looks uncomfortable out there and unable to contribute as much as his peers. When you compare him to the competition he has for PT in woody, Q and AG all these guys offer more and look better than Bras unfortunately. I think this board has unfairly expected too much of him, I just don’t see him as a contributor. It’s year 3 here and he still doesn’t look confident. Compare him to woody who has 3 games it’s not hard to see who deserves more mins.
I hope I’m wrong though because he seems like a great kid but again, not everyone can play at this level, you need to contribute when you can when your number is called. This is how you’ll earn more PT, always has been. No excuses, he just hasn’t done that to this point in his career.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Honestly I don’t get this comparison at all. There are no similarities here. The issue with Bras is that he looks uncomfortable out there and unable to contribute as much as his peers. When you compare him to the competition he has for PT in woody, Q and AG all these guys offer more and look better than Bras unfortunately. I think this board has unfairly expected too much of him, I just don’t see him as a contributor. It’s year 3 here and he still doesn’t look confident. Compare him to woody who has 3 games it’s not hard to see who deserves more mins.
I hope I’m wrong though because he seems like a great kid but again, not everyone can play at this level, you need to contribute when you can when your number is called. This is how you’ll earn more PT, always has been. No excuses, he just hasn’t done that to this point in his career.

It wasn't a comment aimed at Braswell, in particular. It was about players turning it on when they're are under the lights, and playing better than they show at practice. That was the point.

 

[orangeinnyc]

It wasn't a comment aimed at Braswell, in particular. It was about players turning it on when they're are under the lights, and playing better than they show at practice. That was the point.

View attachment 192520

So in order to make your point you used the greatest basketball player of all time and a top 3 draft pick to compare to the kid who is at best our 4th or 5th forward? Just irrelevant to this situation and a pretty poor comparison as well. But hey, cool graph!