The Downside - UNC III | Syracusefan.com

The Downside - UNC III

SWC75

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- We just didn’t play the game we needed to play to beat a superior team.

- Jim Satalin commented all game “We’re getting the shots we want”. But we didn’t make enough of them. IN the first half we were 8 for 21 inside the arc, 3 for 10 outside of it and the same at the foul line. North Carolina was 0 for 10 from the arc yet had an 11 point lead. With decent shooting that could have been an even game and it would have stayed that way.

- I was really disappointed in our defense at the top of the zone. We’ve got two 5th year seniors with size out there and they were too widely separated, too easily screened off and too slow to close on the ball. Carolina, especially Berry had no problem blowing by them and feeding their very talented big men. All of the big Heels can catch, pass, shoot and rebound and when they get the ball in the paint, any team is toast. We needed to stop the ball before it got there. Instead, they made 31 of 48 inside shots, 65%. You’re not going to win against those numbers. Our defense got us here and it really didn’t show up.

- I’ll remember five bad things about this team: bad passes, (we can’t seem to run a fast break any more), missed dunks, missed lay-ups, an inability to score when fouled and charging fouls. We must have set a team record for all of them.

- You can’t miss 9 of 13 fouls shot and pull off an upset. At lead one of those was the front end of a one and one. If we’d shot from the line as we have been doing in the tournament, we would have remained within range of them and our mini-rally would have closed the gap and made it a real game without having to resort to the press, which didn’t work well against UNC.

- Our senior heroes, dating back to Dave Bing, often seem to go out with a disappointing game. That was the case with Michael Gbinije, who did manage to get to 12 points and thus reach double figures in every game this season but was 5 for 18 from the field, including 0 for 5 from three point range. We needed to have him have one of his special games, like against NC State when he was 11 for 18 and scored 34. But he just couldn’t find his game tonight.

- I hate our offense. We have to have more options than three pointers and drive from the basket from 25 feet out, (which gives the defense way too much time to react to it). One poster in the chatroom said that we try too many “hero” plays- plays one guy tries to score alone. That’s what our offense sets up – hero plays. We had 5 assists in this game, to 18 for North Carolina. Normally I don’t think much of assists as a stat but in this case it’s very telling. It’s a team game and this offense is all about individual play. We need more options. We need to put a guy in the high post. We need to drive and dish, not just drive and plow into three guys. We need to get it inside and then throw it back out for open threes to a guy who is already squared to the basket. But we don’t do anything. This is a more serious issue that being in the zone all the time. I reminds me when Pasqualoni and DeLeone had the football team running the nearside option over and over again. It’s wistful to remember when Syracuse was known as a potent offensive team, the way North Carolina is.
 
Great wrap up. You're second point was driving me nuts all game. Those two simply don't have quick enough feet to prevent the guard from penetrating right down the middle. Was something that Coach Orange has complained about for years as well. If we want to beat UNC, we have to do better at the point of attack.

That one break with Cooney having the ball and throwing the pass behind G was indicative of nearly every fast break he's run where he doesn't dunk the ball - inept. If he hadn't pushed it so hard he could have set G up for an amazing alley oop.

On your last point - if we plan on running a pick and roll, just once or twice a game we should actually pretend to look for the roller. Otherwise, it's a stupid waste of time.
 
-

- I hate our offense. We have to have more options than three pointers and drive from the basket from 25 feet out, (which gives the defense way too much time to react to it). One poster in the chatroom said that we try too many “hero” plays- plays one guy tries to score alone. That’s what our offense sets up – hero plays. We had 5 assists in this game, to 18 for North Carolina. Normally I don’t think much of assists as a stat but in this case it’s very telling. It’s a team game and this offense is all about individual play. We need more options. We need to put a guy in the high post. We need to drive and dish, not just drive and plow into three guys. We need to get it inside and then throw it back out for open threes to a guy who is already squared to the basket. But we don’t do anything. This is a more serious issue that being in the zone all the time. I reminds me when Pasqualoni and DeLeone had the football team running the nearside option over and over again. It’s wistful to remember when Syracuse was known as a potent offensive team, the way North Carolina is.

I think most of this is about getting very little inside offensively from Roberson, Coleman and even Lydon. If the ball is delivered to them they have a hard time closing the deal against any type of defense and this was all the much worse tonight because UNC is so big inside. How many times this season have we seen the ball get dished to Roberson or Coleman and them fumble with it and give the defense enough time to recover and challenge their shot?

It's not meant to be a slight against them, it just is what they are at this point.
 
I think most of this is about getting very little inside offensively from Roberson, Coleman and even Lydon. If the ball is delivered to them they have a hard time closing the deal against any type of defense and this was all the much worse tonight because UNC is so big inside. How many times this season have we seen the ball get dished to Roberson or Coleman and them fumble with it and give the defense enough time to recover and challenge their shot?

Coleman finished both of his contested shots today. I think he went to the line the other time he touched it near the rim (off a drive). Perfect day for DC!!!
 
I think most of this is about getting very little inside offensively from Roberson, Coleman and even Lydon. If the ball is delivered to them they have a hard time closing the deal against any type of defense and this was all the much worse tonight because UNC is so big inside. How many times this season have we seen the ball get dished to Roberson or Coleman and them fumble with it and give the defense enough time to recover and challenge their shot?

It's not meant to be a slight against them, it just is what they are at this point.

Roberson was passed the ball in the post one time tonight. And it was a bullet pass from Frank that wasn't really catchable.

So to answer your question, we've seen the ball passed to our bigs inside rarely this season. Very small sample size to make a judgement on whether or not they could. Hell, even tonight when G posted Paige up inside with a 5 inch height advantage, Cooney decided to dribble away from the post and pass to the other side of the court. WE ARE AWFUL AT GETTING THE BALL INSIDE! Which is why it took 4 years for us to finally realize Rak had some game. OUR OFFENSE SUCKS.
 
Roberson was passed the ball in the post one time tonight. And it was a bullet pass from Frank that wasn't really catchable.

So to answer your question, we've seen the ball passed to our bigs inside rarely this season. Very small sample size to make a judgement on whether or not they could. Hell, even tonight when G posted Paige up inside with a 5 inch height advantage, Cooney decided to dribble away from the post and pass to the other side of the court. WE ARE AWFUL AT GETTING THE BALL INSIDE! Which is why it took 4 years for us to finally realize Rak had some game. OUR OFFENSE SUCKS.


It doesn't get passed to them because of what they have done when it did get passed to them. They are typically very tentative with the ball. And Ghost is right, DC did finish his opportunities tonight, but I don't think he has done that consistently so our guards don't look for them consistently.
 
It doesn't get passed to them because of what they have done when it did get passed to them. They are typically very tentative with the ball. And Ghost is right, DC did finish his opportunities tonight, but I don't think he has done that consistently so our guards don't look for them consistently.

That's just not true. They don't get the ball inside because that's not our offense.

They are tentative with the ball because they so rarely get it in a position to do anything with it. Hell, DC2 had to drive from the top of the key to put himself into position to score on one of his chances tonight.

Our guards don't look inside PERIOD.
 
-

- I hate our offense. We have to have more options than three pointers and drive from the basket from 25 feet out, (which gives the defense way too much time to react to it). One poster in the chatroom said that we try too many “hero” plays- plays one guy tries to score alone. That’s what our offense sets up – hero plays. We had 5 assists in this game, to 18 for North Carolina. Normally I don’t think much of assists as a stat but in this case it’s very telling. It’s a team game and this offense is all about individual play. We need more options. We need to put a guy in the high post. We need to drive and dish, not just drive and plow into three guys. We need to get it inside and then throw it back out for open threes to a guy who is already squared to the basket. But we don’t do anything. This is a more serious issue that being in the zone all the time. I reminds me when Pasqualoni and DeLeone had the football team running the nearside option over and over again. It’s wistful to remember when Syracuse was known as a potent offensive team, the way North Carolina is.


JB commented on the poor offense all tourney in an after game interview.

I hope next year he'll be much more creative on O. this year was nothing but pointless high ball screens that never attacked and just wasted clock
 
Great wrap up. You're second point was driving me nuts all game. Those two simply don't have quick enough feet to prevent the guard from penetrating right down the middle. Was something that Coach Orange has complained about for years as well. If we want to beat UNC, we have to do better at the point of attack.

That one break with Cooney having the ball and throwing the pass behind G was indicative of nearly every fast break he's run where he doesn't dunk the ball - inept. If he hadn't pushed it so hard he could have set G up for an amazing alley oop.

On your last point - if we plan on running a pick and roll, just once or twice a game we should actually pretend to look for the roller. Otherwise, it's a stupid waste of time.

Feel terrible for Gbinije today, but that game was a microcosm of everything wrong with our offense. Oblivious on the pick and roll, clumsy on the fast break, too much one-on-one and awful jumpers in the half-court.

Great run, was nice to see those guys get an extra month of play, but now we're getting an instant upgrade in the backcourt. Happy times are ahead.
 
G was bad shooting all tournament. Really surprising we made it to the f4 with as bad as he shot.

The reason we don't have more assists is because we don't have a true pg. G has been good for us, but he is not a natural pg
 
If JB wants to just play half court basketball you need to have a couple of big guys who can score in the paint. Like (dating myself) when we had Derrick Coleman and Seikaly. Even then we had a potent fast break because of Sherm and Stevie Thompson. We don't seem to be recruiting bigs who can score on the blocks lately.
 
in (g)' s defense UNC made a point of taking him out of the offense by popping out quick double teams. that said 12 points on 18 shots. not good.
 
That's just not true. They don't get the ball inside because that's not our offense.

They are tentative with the ball because they so rarely get it in a position to do anything with it. Hell, DC2 had to drive from the top of the key to put himself into position to score on one of his chances tonight.

Our guards don't look inside PERIOD.

I too am frustrated that we didn't try to post Coleman or Lydon much this year though I'm sure JB knows what they are and are not capable.

However, challenging the opposing bigs to play post defense tires them out so they're not grabbing every rebound, gets them into foul trouble, and off the court. Adding an inside game to our offense, in my opinion, would have a synergistic effect on our other deficiencies: mainly rebounding and stopping opposing big men.
 
I too am frustrated that we didn't try to post Coleman or Lydon much this year though I'm sure JB knows what they are and are not capable.

However, challenging the opposing bigs to play post defense tires them out so they're not grabbing every rebound, gets them into foul trouble, and off the court. Adding an inside game to our offense, in my opinion, would have a synergistic effect on our other deficiencies: mainly rebounding and stopping opposing big men.

Exactly right. And you add in another element - the inside out game where bigs feed our 3 pointer shooters like Ochefu had that sweet no look pass to Ariciadiacnoonoallw (not even going to try).
 
If JB wants to just play half court basketball you need to have a couple of big guys who can score in the paint. Like (dating myself) when we had Derrick Coleman and Seikaly. Even then we had a potent fast break because of Sherm and Stevie Thompson. We don't seem to be recruiting bigs who can score on the blocks lately.


We had Rakeem Christmas last year. If we had him this year, we'd still be playing.
 

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