The Ghost of MCW

[VaBeachOrFan]

SWC posted an excellent analysis of what the offense needs to do to improve, but I'm going to add an heretical postscript concerning what I perceive as a flaw in Tyler Ennis' game:

Ennis has been praised for his deliberate pace and for the fact that no team has yet forced him to operate faster than he wants to. And it goes without saying that no one expects a freshman to play that way and play that well at playing that way. The benefit is that he plays extremely well at crunch time and, by controlling the tempo controls the game throughout, never letting a game get out of hand.

However, it also means SU is playing a style with which we've become unfamiliar over the years, essentially a half-court game that has little in common with the Pearl, Sherm, and GMAC years and especially with the MCW year. We know MCW would have pushed the ball on the fast break, would have made sometimes wild 3/4 court passes, and would have tosses a couple of oops to the hoop along the way. Some would backfire, and we'd roundly criticize him for being reckless and creating turnovers.

So we replaced MCW with his antithesis, and we're overjoyed to see someone make sensible plays, never get flustered, and make the smart play when few alternatives remain. That's carried us to 25-0 and we're giddy, right?

But that deliberate, low-risk offense also: (a) plays into other teams' strategy of slowing pace to negate SU's speed and athleticism, (b) keeps opponents in the game much longer than they should be, (c) produces, at best, one good run during the game vice the 2-3 runs the Cuse used to make regularly (and no good runs at all against BC!), and (d) gives the fans heart failure in place of excitement when the Cuse of old would go on one of those 16-3 runs. This team never torches an opponent for a win, it just pries it open like an oyster. Good when it works, but wouldn't it be better to look for more fast-break opportunities and apply pressure that way? Tyler has the team mates to pull it off, but does he have it in his game?

Just askin'-VBOF

 

[HakAttack]

Excellent, excellent post. Great analysis. I completely agree. Ennis has been great but it still remains to be seen if this team can muster enough offense in the half-court to make a run deep into March.

 

[cuseguy]

Very good post. And the thing is, JB has ever been a master at the half court offense. He relies on good to great players to make pays in isolation. When that doesn't work, we're usually out of answers. We've rarely been a good passing team or good at running half court sets.

 

[CorduroyG]

ennis is gonna play at this pace, im fine with that and its worked and its not gonna change. but i think what he needs to do is just be more aggressive offensively. he doesnt need to speed up his game or look to run, he just needs to take the open 3 when its there and not wait till theres 5 minutes left to drive and look to score.

 

[newmexicuse]

Good points, but a big reason we ran better last year wasn't because of the difference in O mindset as much as it was the difference in D/transition mindset. Our guards last season created more of the types of TOs that lead to runouts. Also, if there was a TO in the frontcourt our guards last season released and ran the court, this season it seems like they go back to get the ball.

 

[VaBeachOrFan]

Good points, but a big reason we ran better last year wasn't because of the difference in O mindset as much as it was the difference in D/transition mindset. Our guards last season created more of the types of TOs that lead to runouts. Also, if there was a TO in the frontcourt our guards last season released and ran the court, this season it seems like they go back to get the ball.

By design (coaching)? Or by personal preference (Ennis/Cooney vs MCW/Triche)?-VBOF

 

[HoustonCuse]

I see your point for sure. I think TE forced it a little in the late going last night. Bottom line - he wasn't superman in the last 5 minutes and OT and it is shocking because has been the whole year. We knew it wasn't reasonable to expect that every single time out.

To me the issue we have against these lower level teams is that we seem to be just on the verge of building an insurmountable lead and then we will suddenly give up 3 3-poiners in a row. It has happened now 3 or 4 times. I feel that our 3 point defense is the issue that needs to be corrected. If we can do a better job, we'll beat duke. If we play the game we played last night, duke could beat us by 40 or more... I feel that we will play well and will be right in that game.

 

[Madbiker]

SWC posted an excellent analysis of what the offense needs to do to improve, but I'm going to add an heretical postscript concerning what I perceive as a flaw in Tyler Ennis' game:

Ennis has been praised for his deliberate pace and for the fact that no team has yet forced him to operate faster than he wants to. And it goes without saying that no one expects a freshman to play that way and play that well at playing that way. The benefit is that he plays extremely well at crunch time and, by controlling the tempo controls the game throughout, never letting a game get out of hand.

However, it also means SU is playing a style with which we've become unfamiliar over the years, essentially a half-court game that has little in common with the Pearl, Sherm, and GMAC years and especially with the MCW year. We know MCW would have pushed the ball on the fast break, would have made sometimes wild 3/4 court passes, and would have tosses a couple of oops to the hoop along the way. Some would backfire, and we'd roundly criticize him for being reckless and creating turnovers.

So we replaced MCW with his antithesis, and we're overjoyed to see someone make sensible plays, never get flustered, and make the smart play when few alternatives remain. That's carried us to 25-0 and we're giddy, right?

But that deliberate, low-risk offense also: (a) plays into other teams' strategy of slowing pace to negate SU's speed and athleticism, (b) keeps opponents in the game much longer than they should be, (c) produces, at best, one good run during the game vice the 2-3 runs the Cuse used to make regularly (and no good runs at all against BC!), and (d) gives the fans heart failure in place of excitement when the Cuse of old would go on one of those 16-3 runs. This team never torches an opponent for a win, it just pries it open like an oyster. Good when it works, but wouldn't it be better to look for more fast-break opportunities and apply pressure that way? Tyler has the team mates to pull it off, but does he have it in his game?

Just askin'-VBOF

Good post. Tyler is good at that oyster game. I don't think a fast break offense fits his skill set. I'd like to see him pick up the pace a little though.

 

[thebigeast44]

Good points and I agree that Tyler needs to improve at running the break - it appears it is not something he is comfortable doing at this point in his career. He almost always pulls back and plays half court. However, I will point out that we did have one run against BC last night - 12-0 run for Syracuse.

 

[VaBeachOrFan]

Good points and I agree that Tyler needs to improve at running the break - it appears it is not something he is comfortable doing at this point in his career. He almost always pulls back and plays half court. However, I will point out that we did have one run against BC last night - 12-0 run for Syracuse.

I stand corrected.-VBOF

 

[manleyzoo]

I see your point for sure. I think TE forced it a little in the late going last night. Bottom line - he wasn't superman in the last 5 minutes and OT and it is shocking because has been the whole year. We knew it wasn't reasonable to expect that every single time out.

To me the issue we have against these lower level teams is that we seem to be just on the verge of building an insurmountable lead and then we will suddenly give up 3 3-poiners in a row. It has happened now 3 or 4 times. I feel that our 3 point defense is the issue that needs to be corrected. If we can do a better job, we'll beat duke. If we play the game we played last night, duke could beat us by 40 or more... I feel that we will play well and will be right in that game.

At 33-20 there was only one way we were going to lose that game--BC milks the clock, barrages us with three pointers, we oblige by not extending the defense out to 20+ feet to cover their shooters and then we can't hit a layup or a free throw at the other end to keep them at bay. Pretty much what looked like happened is we didn't think their hot three-streak could last but it did, and presto, we can't summon whatever we needed to recover. Our last few possessions looked a lot like they did in the NC St game. It's obvious to think that any kind of defensive shift, say pressing for a bit to speed them up--or substituting for ineffective guys might have kept things in our favor but likely it wouldn't have made a difference.

Maybe it's because the players are worn out mentally from grinding since the summer. Our boy Seth Davis tweeted post game something that actually made sense to me--mental fatigue is much harder on players at this point in the season than being physically worn out. He has a point. JB only has addressed whether the players are physically tired, not whether they've hit a wall mentally. But that's really how it looks. It's damn near impossible to keep grinding at this stage in the season and the temptation to think you can turn it on when needed, especially against a bottom-feeder like BC, is difficult to resist.

Some teams recover and get a second wind like last year's team, some don't. Maybe this year the road helps sharpen their focus, maybe it makes it worse if they lose confidence from getting beat up.

My guess is we lose the next three for a four-game slide but win the last two to finish 27 - 4, the talking heads can't stop mentioning we lost 4 out of our last 6 and were overrated to begin with, but we recover to get to the ACC finals and get a 2 seed in the tourney. And from there, as we all know, it's completely about match ups.

 

[zhanjuzi]

.. Good when it works, but wouldn't it be better to look for more fast-break opportunities and apply pressure that way? Tyler has the team mates to pull it off, but does he have it in his game?

Just askin'-VBOF

Yup, only worked 25 times so far ..

Actually I agree with the gist of your post. I don't see us becoming an uptempo team .. we just have to get better at what we do best.

 

[anomander]

do i sense people starting to miss the jump pass?

 

[SWC75]

Good points, but a big reason we ran better last year wasn't because of the difference in O mindset as much as it was the difference in D/transition mindset. Our guards last season created more of the types of TOs that lead to runouts. Also, if there was a TO in the frontcourt our guards last season released and ran the court, this season it seems like they go back to get the ball.

Actually, we didn't run that much last year either because the guards were a big part of our rebounding, since we were getting very little form the center position. The last time we were a running team was 2011-12.

 

[ClamOtto]

Agree with what's been said but I'm not sure this is all on the guards. In 2009-10 for example, the fast break was more about Kris Jo and Wes than the guards. I seem to recall a cool breakdown (might have been Bobby Knight) showing Ricky Jackson grabbing a rebound and he's immediately looking downcourt to throw an outlet to Wes or Kris. I don't think Scoop or Brandon were any faster than Tyler, but Wes and Kris were fast and Ricky was great with the outlets. Our frontcourt doesn't seem built for that this year.

 

[SWC75]

Agree with what's been said but I'm not sure this is all on the guards. In 2009-10 for example, the fast break was more about Kris Jo and Wes than the guards. I seem to recall a cool breakdown (might have been Bobby Knight) showing Ricky Jackson grabbing a rebound and he's immediately looking downcourt to throw an outlet to Wes or Kris. I don't think Scoop or Brandon were any faster than Tyler, but Wes and Kris were fast and Ricky was great with the outlets. Our frontcourt doesn't seem built for that this year.

When I saw DaJuan in those HS all-star games he had a great outlet pass. I'm hoping to see it in future years.

 

[longislandcuse]

I see your point for sure. I think TE forced it a little in the late going last night. Bottom line - he wasn't superman in the last 5 minutes and OT and it is shocking because has been the whole year. We knew it wasn't reasonable to expect that every single time out.

To me the issue we have against these lower level teams is that we seem to be just on the verge of building an insurmountable lead and then we will suddenly give up 3 3-poiners in a row. It has happened now 3 or 4 times. I feel that our 3 point defense is the issue that needs to be corrected. If we can do a better job, we'll beat duke. If we play the game we played last night, duke could beat us by 40 or more... I feel that we will play well and will be right in that game.

This. Teams always seem to have at least one 3 point barrage against us at some point.

 

[VaBeachOrFan]

When I saw DaJuan in those HS all-star games he had a great outlet pass. I'm hoping to see it in future years.

I second the motion. Wes Unseld redux.-VBOF

 

[pulaski74]

good point, asked about this on su.com. couldn't get a reply. glad I found this forum, I've noticed in the games I've been able to watch that tyler pulls out when su has numbers even on d rebs. never seen this in over 40 yrs of following the orange. Not complaining , just wondering if this is by design, or if jb is ok w/ it. So far, its been alright, but may help the o to be a little more aggressive?