The Downside- St. Bonaventure

[SWC75]

- I was preparing at halftime to write a mournful assessment of why this will be a very long season for Syracuse. Well, it will be a very long season and we have some serious deficiencies on this team. The second half showed they could be overcome- against teams like Lehigh and St. Bonaventure. But we will be playing a lot of teams better than these- some of them a lot better.

- The most absurd thing was that we were out-rebounded 33-43 by a team shorter than us at virtually every position. At one point it was 7-18. The big problem was the offensive boards where the Boonies rebounded 24 of their 42 misses. They were quicker than we were hustled more, especially in the first half but especially knew how to get positon for the rebounds. Several times a single St. Bonaventure player, surrounded by Syracuse players, would come up with the ball. They “"got thar fustest with the mostest."” to quote General Forrest. If you do that, it doesn’t matter how tall the other guy is.

- Tyler Lydon is out best center and it isn’t even close. That’s good for him but it doesn’t say much for DaJuan Coleman and Chinoso Obkokoh. Obobkoh played only one minutes and his only stat was a foul, giving him 6 fouls in 16 minutes of play this year. Coleman managed to avoid foul trouble by not being anywhere near the ball. JB spent most of the first time-out just chewing DaJuan out. The big guy gave it a stronger effort in the second half, opening the scoring with an aggressive lay-up what looked like a good defensive play, halting a baseline drive by putting his body in the way with his arms straight up but got called for the foul. But it wasn’t long before Lydon was back in the game, (he played 31 minutes to 15 for Coleman and Obokoh). In the late going, after Roberson fouled out, Coleman played in tandem with Lydon and grabbed a couple of missed free throws, only to be surrounded by the other team, which stripped the ball from him. DaJuan is basically still a freshman in his development because his injury interrupted him on-court education. We need him to be the senior he actually is but he just can be that right now.

- If we do have to go with Lydon at center, is he going to be able to hold up against the big boys of the ACC? He was brought into the program to play forward because that’s what he really is. He’s doing a great job playing out of positon against smaller teams- so great that it’s easy to forget he is out of positon.

- Coleman and Obokoh were placed at a disadvantaged by the early failure of our backcourt to prevent penetration into the paint. The game turned around when JB decided to stick with his two fifth year seniors in the backcourt. Kaleb Joseph and Franklin Howards played only 13 minutes between them largely because they failed to stop that penetration. Malachi Richardson was also better on the wing than out front. It’s just one of those things that young players have to learn to do-move their feet and stay in front of people. It’s nice to be long but you’d better not be stationary.

- We are trying to become a perimeter team that uses the three pointer to score and opens up drives to the basket. St. Bonaventure already is that kind of team and they just did it better, especially in the first half. They wound up with 11 threes , two more than we got, including a couple of heaves at the shot clock buzzer after inbounds plays. They also scored a driving lay-up at the buzzer, also after a late inbounds play. Defensively, they guarded us as if it was the last possession and we needed a trey to tie or win the game. At least four defenders were at the arc at any one time and we had trouble getting shots off.

- We tried a couple of NBA threes but found we had to drive to the basket. Then problem with that is that it takes time to get there and the defense has time to react and collapse on the driver. But we had no reliable inside player to pass to. In the second half we did a better job of setting picks to free the drivers. But in the first half, our drivers looked like Custer at the Little Big Horn.

- We really don’t have a true point guard on this team: a guy who takes charge when things are going poorly, control the tempo and breakdown the defense with penetration to set up passes to open players. Gbinije did some of that in the second half and wound up with 6 assists. But he’s still a small forward playing the point. Nobody was in charge in the first half.

- We’re just pecking away at the eggshell right now. We’re going to have to be patient. But fans aren’t good at that.

 

[orangefan13]

Bonnaventure shot 19-44 with 10 threes with 11 minutes in the game left. That is 43% and 10 threes. That was a huge part of the story in this one. When you add the offesive boards to it tells even more.

That being said.

FG attempt differential. We were about tied again 2nd game in a row. This game they had 12 more FG attempts then us, but, We had 11 more free throw trips to the line for 2 shots 23 more freethrows so it was a push. When FG attempts are a wash its simple outshoot your opponents percentage wise adjusting for 3 point percentages as well. Nobody knows the deal with fg attempts pregame though and that is one of the fun things about basketball.


I think it was a big positive that we drove the ball off the dribble in the second half I didn't know malachi had that in him in the halfcourt in the fullcourt yes but not the half. I was watching UNI play a few nights ago and they had a big white kid who drove the lane from the perimeter and got to the tin, its good to have a forward who can do that and Lydon pulled one off.

Dajaun played a solid 5 mintues both halfs but we traded minutes and didn't go on runs. I don't know if it was a offensive thing or a defensive thing as much but, I forsee that Kaleb is going to have to play exclusively SG this year. Gbinije is going to run the offense with the ball out of his hands. Against 6'1 PG's, I forsee Gbinije taking them off the dribble and hitting those long two's in the lane being a focal point of his offense to get someone else guarding him and ease up his pg duties. I thought he would force doubles off from the perimeter but would rather see him just force taller defenders to play him more.

Maybe that is where KJO can get some p, on days Gbinije is not finding those and he has to pass the ball off quicker. But I don't see that happening to often. I think it is Malachi eating Kalebs minutes early on and a big part of that is he is going to hit a few big shots early. I think Gbinije also has enough work playing PG defensively to spend much time at forward.

I think On games when we are up KJO will get more of a loose opportunity to play then on games we are down. I see him being pure SG. He can still create assists out of SG though. Just a prediction though and I am not making to many of those.

I am pleased we are driving the ball I wasn't sure if we were going to have to depend on more motion and hoping to get behind the defense. It is looking like we won't after today. Much different the last 10 minutes then the first 3 1/2 games.

Sadly Lydon can't afford the foul trouble to attack the lane off the dribble more. Hes to key as a center. Can we please have a clone of him every recruiting class.

The first two games, defensively this team has two holes on it one of the forward spots and at center. When we get a game where both forward spots play tough we will notice the positive difference and we get a game where our center does on top of it we notice it even more.

 

[SoBristol]

Whether we have a true point is not even in the top 10 of possible issues with this team. Gbinije is a heck of a point guard, true point or not.
The 3 perimeter players need to drive the ball -- as they figured out in the second half. We won't have any inside scoring unless our perimeter trio makes it happen by driving, and more driving.

My downside is all about inside defense, rebounding, and scoring from the C and PF positions. Lydon's ability to shoot 3s from the top of the key (like a typical Wisconsin big) adds a dimension. He looks solid and confident handling the ball. But he isn't yet an inside scorer.

 

[OttoMets]

... Coleman played in tandem with Lydon and grabbed a couple of missed free throws, only to be surrounded by the other team, which stripped the ball from him. DaJuan is basically still a freshman in his development because his injury interrupted him on-court education. We need him to be the senior he actually is but he just can be that right now.

...

Thankfully our other center, an actual freshman, is able to gather himself after a rebound without bringing the ball to his waist.

He must've had a heck of an on-court education before matriculating.

 

[bballbeadle]

Those Native Americans were very highly muscled. Perhaps a Bowflex hidden away in a teepee?