The Downside | Syracusefan.com

The Downside

SWC75

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- We didn’t handle their press very well at the beginning. We seemed tentative, even leisurely at times. So long as we made them miss so they couldn’t set up the press, we dominated. When they made a shot, the game changed. They set up the press and started to get back into the game- until they missed, which fortunately they did 37 times. Still, we had 12 first half turnovers. The better teams noticed that.

- Oliver Purnell is famous for turning programs around and getting his team to 9-4 this season is a good sign but they will never become really good until they start playing defense. They had plenty of intensity in their press but they weren’t even matadors in the half court defense. They were cigar store Indians. SU found that their best strategy was to just drive directly to the basket and lay it in, without risking a pass that might be bobbled by our young big men. It gave us impressive numbers but was also misleading, because we are going to face some teams that actually play defense.

- Or risking an outside shot, which we don’t seem to be making much of just now. We were 2 for 13 in our last game and 3 for 12 in this one. The outside game comes and goes. Fortunately, we have other things going for us.

- One of them is steals and turnover margin, which we lead the country in. They were absent in the first half as both teams had 4 steals and 12 turnovers.

- We spun our wheels in the second half, , which was 42-42. Missing 7 of 18 free throws prevented us from increasing the lead but fortunately DePaul never made a run.
 
So yea basically the two weaknesses starting to manifest themselves:

1) Poor free throw shooting (every year, nothing different this time).

2) 3-point shot. Huge concern pre-season, but Waiters emergence and JSouth being more relevant alliviated that in most games. Unfortunately the trend in the BE so far is bad. I don't think we beat UK/OSU/UNC going 2 for 12, no matter what other "good" things we do. That's just wasting too many posessions.

Basically everything else with this team is either good or really good right now. So we gonna keep on rolling until Feb easily.
 
- We didn’t handle their press very well at the beginning. We seemed tentative, even leisurely at times. So long as we made them miss so they couldn’t set up the press, we dominated. When they made a shot, the game changed. They set up the press and started to get back into the game- until they missed, which fortunately they did 37 times. Still, we had 12 first half turnovers. The better teams noticed that.

- Oliver Purnell is famous for turning programs around and getting his team to 9-4 this season is a good sign but they will never become really good until they start playing defense. They had plenty of intensity in their press but they weren’t even matadors in the half court defense. They were cigar store Indians. SU found that their best strategy was to just drive directly to the basket and lay it in, without risking a pass that might be bobbled by our young big men. It gave us impressive numbers but was also misleading, because we are going to face some teams that actually play defense.

- Or risking an outside shot, which we don’t seem to be making much of just now. We were 2 for 13 in our last game and 3 for 12 in this one. The outside game comes and goes. Fortunately, we have other things going for us.

- One of them is steals and turnover margin, which we lead the country in. They were absent in the first half as both teams had 4 steals and 12 turnovers.

- We spun our wheels in the second half, , which was 42-42. Missing 7 of 18 free throws prevented us from increasing the lead but fortunately DePaul never made a run.
XMas got a lot of second half run. We are clearly not as good with him in there as compared to Fab or even BMK, plus in the 2nd half we were mostly on cruise control & even w that they never made a run.
 
We have been pretty good at the line this year, actually. At least for SU. 69.3% after yesterday. Better than Duke, UNC, Ohio State, Kansas, Florida, Michigan, Stanford, and Pitt. Not sure what last couple of years' teams have shot.

IMO, our issues are probably 3PT shooting and rebounding.
 
watch them at the line in the last few minutes-
outside shooting is a bit streaky -but we have mookie as our ace in the hole

defense will carry this team-the harder they play d the smoother the offense runs
 
So yea basically the two weaknesses starting to manifest themselves:

1) Poor free throw shooting (every year, nothing different this time).

2) 3-point shot. Huge concern pre-season, but Waiters emergence and JSouth being more relevant alliviated that in most games. Unfortunately the trend in the BE so far is bad. I don't think we beat UK/OSU/UNC going 2 for 12, no matter what other "good" things we do. That's just wasting too many posessions.

Basically everything else with this team is either good or really good right now. So we gonna keep on rolling until Feb easily.
We are shooting about 70% from the free throw line. I will take that every day of the week.
 
For me the downside of this game was how god awful Rak looked in the center of the zone. There may come a time when due to injury and/or fouls he is expected to give us some minutes at the 5...and he looked completely clueless out there.
 
We are shooting about 70% from the free throw line. I will take that every day of the week.

See my post above...pretty close at 69.3 % which I will take also.
 
If we handle the Louisville press like we did last night, we'll lose by 15.
Didn't like the ballhandling at all, & if DePaul was a halfway decent team, this game could've been close.
Also, Rak needs to man-up, this finesse game BS won't cut it in the BEast. He has the skills, but seems too timid.
If we get an injury or foul trouble, he'll have to step up & perform...& he didn't look good at all last nite.
 
Yes, Rak did not have a quality outing... That's why it is important to get him out there as much as we can afford to in order to give him some game experience. Look at Fab from last year. Playing the young guys will pay dividends down the line. We are fortunate to have the luxury to play him without any concern for keeping us on the winning side.
 

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