The Jim Boeheim Show - before Christmas | Syracusefan.com

The Jim Boeheim Show - before Christmas

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Jim Boeheim’s radio show is on Thursdays, (Wednesdays until the Dino Babers Show ends) from 7-8 or 9PM on ESPN Radio in Syracuse, which is AM1200 or FM 97.7 on the dial. The show is at Carrabba's Italian Grill at 550 Towne Drive, Fayetteville, NY. The first hour, hosted by Matt Park, the Voice of the Orange, is on their general network. The second hour, which usually begins with the conference season, is hosted by Gomez, a local radio personality. Last year they did a third half hour segment on Twitch.
Their schedule: Americu Jim Boeheim Show Starts Nov. 9 - Syracuse University Athletics

You can call into the show locally at 315-424-8599 or nationally at 1-888-746-2873. For Gomez’s portion, use 315-424-8599. Or you can submit questions from this page:
Submit a Question! - Syracuse University Athletics
Or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MattPark1 or https://twitter.com/hashtag/AskBoeheim?src=hashtag_click

The show can be heard in Syracuse on FM 99.5. It’s sometime simulcast on AM 1200 or FM 97.7. You can also get it on: TuneIn | Free Internet Radio | Live News, Sports, Music, and Podcasts
There’s now a third segment where Jim and Gomez can be seen on camera at:
The early shows tend to be in a one-hour format. I'll post a summary of them the same night. When they do two hour shows. I will do two posts: the Matt Park segment the night of the show and the Gomez segment the next day.




MY QUESTIONS/COMMENTS

For the Matt Park Segment:

“Coaches often tell fans who question their line-up “We put the players out there that we think give us the best chance to win the game.” Sometimes, it seems to me that a coach will put a player out there because he hopes the player will become the best player the team could have at that position. Is that what you’ve been doing with Bennie Williams and Chris Bell? With the bad starts is it time to put the players out there that give us the best chance to win the game?”

For the Gomez segment:

“Coach, against Pittsburgh your team scored 26 points off turnovers, had 27 fast break points and 27 bench points. You had 9 blocks, 9 steals and 15 second chance points. Your team erased 19 of a 20-point deficit in 10 minutes of play. You have two shot-blocking centers, go three deep at each forward spot and have a strong three-man rotation in the backcourt, with plenty of athletic players but few reliable shooters. Why isn’t this a good pressing team? Or do you just dislike the press as a strategy, regardless of what team you have?”


(For the third segment on Twitch I’ll improvise a question or two after listening to the rest of the show.)

I’ll ask this question on Twitch:

“Does Joe Girard do better when he just looks for an open shot, regardless of whether it’s from three point range?”



COACH BOEHEIM
(I have, in some instances, put together statements from different parts of the broadcast on the same subject. The quotes may not be verbatim –they are from my scribbled notes. I have not knowingly changed the meaning.)

Jim pronounced his team’s performance for the first 25-30 minutes of the game “awful. Our offense was terrible and our defense wasn’t much better. We’re trying to make 3’s and can’t. When a player says after a game that he just couldn’t get going, that’s a problem. We’re not a good pressing team. Jesse gets in foul trouble because we have to double and he’s facing 2 on 1’s. We got them taking jumpers and missing.” [Jesse’s fouls came with 3:28 and 1:33 left in the first half and 17:23 and 6 second left in the second half, the last coming after the pass to him by Mintz was stolen. He never fouled while we were pressing. His fouls per 40 minutes in his career have been 5.8, 7.5, 5.3 and 3.2 this year. And “Getting them taking jumpers and missing could be the result of pressing them.)

(On the last play) we wanted to go to Jesse. He was double-teamed, so we had to go somewhere else. Malik and probably a couple other guys were open.” Dave in Dwaynesburg(?) asked if Joe Girard was an option on that play JB: “If I had to do it again I wouldn’t. Malik was wide open. I’d probably go with a Judah drive. They were face-guarding Joe. We did have an advantage. Malik and Quadir were being guard by one short guy. We just didn’t get him the ball.” Matt Park said that we have three go to players and that the defense knows who they are. He said the pass was telegraph and Jim agreed. “Judah was trying to do what I asked him to do.” [Jimmy Satalin after the game said that he’d never heard of designing a last second play to go to a big man for the shot. He said that you need to get the ball up and have the bigs go for the rebound.]

Jim may have read my questions ahead of time: “We go through practices and start the best players proven in practice. They’re just not playing well in the games.” [That IS a problem.] “Quadir played a good game, but he hasn’t been the best all year. Malik has been very steady. Benny has not been playing well. We need more defense and offense from the forwards. The zone has been good. We’d been holding teams to 15-20 points before their scoring average. We didn’t execute against Pitt. They can play much better than they have. If they were playing as well as they can and losing, that would be a problem.” Jim revealed that John Bol Ajak is dealing with some academic problems: “He’s got stuff to do. He was horrible in his last two games."

I called in my first question, but Jim did not accept the premise that coaches sometimes start guys hoping that they will develop into the players the coach hope they can be. “Absolutely not. By far Benny and Chris are our best players, (at forward). Benny is a little better than Malik and Chris is better than Justin or Quadir. When Benny plays like he did, anyone is better. Chris and Benny have had a couple of really good games. Their rebounding and defense have been up and down a little bit.” [Not how you put it in the press conferences.] They were just no shows against Pitt. You can’t play 24 minutes (between them: actually, it was 26) and get 1 rebound. We have to get somebody playing better at those positions. Whoever plays the best in the 6 days of practice after Christmas will start against Boston College.” [I have an old theory that coaches prefer practice to games because they are in control of the practices. If you want to impress the coach, play well in practice: he in his happy place then.]

John from Boulder asked if Judah should be shooting three pointers. JB: “I’d like to point out two things. 1) He can get by people wherever they are. 2) He’s 5 for 29 from three. What would you say?” Josh suggested that developing a three point shot or at least a pull-up would round out his game. Jim thought he recalled that josh had had some coaching experience. Josh said that was not correct and admitted he didn’t know much about college basketball. JB: “You are correct. He’s 3 for 17 from 10-17 feet and 5 for 29 from three. He’s one of the best drivers in the country. He has to try to figure out if we have a better shot. If you can make at least 30%, you can shoot threes. If you make dramatically less than that, you can’t. if they are playing off him, that puts four guys in the lane and that’s a problem. It’s not a huge leap to go from 5/29 to 10/30.” [It is if you have to make five baskets on one shot.] “it’s one for three. If you are making it in practice…Three is not something we do well.”

“It’s the fundamental things we’re not doing. If you aren’t going after rebounds and loose balls. You have to play this game hard. You can’t shy away from rebounds. You have to go get the ball. Usually players don’t admit they could have tried harder so we have to show them on tape. You can’t just be a shooter. I thought we were getting better but that’s out the window. Quadir and Malik make mistakes but they go for the ball. Pittsburgh had good veterans. One is 25 years old.” Matt said that the NBA all-rookie team will be younger than Pitt’s line-up.

Nicholas in Syracuse praised the coach for still being and good health and coaching at his age. JB: “If we keep playing like this, I might not be (so healthy).” Nicholas asked what qualities the 2003 team had that made they so successful. JB: “We had a superstar and a lot of really good players. We were good at shooting the ball, handling the ball, passing and rebounding and we could guard guys. We had great size: 7 feet, 6-9, 6-8, 6-6 plus Gerry. Carmelo was good but not great until the Final Four. Texas had Royal Ivy, the national defensive player of the year and Kansas had probably the best team in the country. I think Carmelo scored 31 and then 28 points. {33 with 14 rebs and 20 with 10] “We made the tourney the next year but didn’t have that one guy.” Matt said that that team was successful in the “funneling everything to Jeremy McNeil”. JB: “That was one game. (Oklahoma State in the NCAAs) We were down 8-27. Jeremy blocked two and they missed 2 and we made 4 shots in a row and suddenly it was 17 (-27)…We can’t press with Jesse back there. We might use Noumir. Jesse is not anywhere near where he has been.”

Dave in Minnesota called. [People freezing their butts off in this storm have nothing else to do but to call into radio shows.) He wanted to know “what makes players tick – with some guys their energy jumps out at you”. JB: “Playing hard has never been an issue. Kueth Duany and Wendell Alexis were laid-back guys who needed to be pushed. Wendell was a finesse player. His father urged me to yell at him more, the only time a parent has told me that. He went on to play in Europe for 15 years and made a ton of money. My job is to make them play hard and get the ball. John Bol and Quadir are not as talented but they go get the ball. Jesse is really good. Nobody thought he’s get 11-12 rebounds a game. The way he and the guards have played we should be 11-2.”

“(Against Pitt) maybe we played like we had half a foot out the door (for Christmas). It would have been one of the best comebacks ever. We probably should not have been in the game. we haven’t gotten consistency from the forwards. One guy has a good game and then another guy does. Judah Mintz is one of the best freshmen in the country. Three guys won’t win a game. You need 5 guys. You can’t coach effort. We’ve had some guys we can push. But what we’re doing just isn’t working. We’ve had the hardest practices ever as far as just pushing. It’s not just a game of shooting.” Gomez asked who the easiest guys were to coach. “The guys who won the most games were the most coachable. There’s certain guys you want to push but not this much. John Bol has developed aggressiveness but he’s not as good as the other guys. (In practice), the first group can’t stop the second group and the second group can’t stop the first group.”

I called in my second question about whether he just doesn’t like the press and thinks his teams can do it well because of that. “Not at all. You have to double team and they get to go 2-1 on Jesse. He’d have two fouls right away and I’d have to take him out. You can’t have your best player in foul jeopardy. Most team can handle it. Pitt missed 5 open shots and 2 layups. In the past we’ve had 5 guys playing 40 minutes. Buddy and Joe were not quick. (In 2003), we had Warrick, Duany, Melo. Hak and Josh Pace were quick. We had a good pressing team.” I suggested that Mounir Hima could be used like Jeremy McNeil, positioned under the boards with orders to make them come to him. “Hima is no Jeremy McNeil – right now. Watch the top 20 teams. You won’t see one that presses. Watch 100 games you might see one team that presses. Cornell uses 9-10 guys and we got easy baskets against them. The best teams are straight up man for man.” I suggested that Fred Lewis once had a top team that pressed. (The 1966 team with Jim Boeheim that scored almost 100 points a game.) “We were small 6-6, 6-5, 6-4, 6-2. We pressed everybody. More teams pressed back then, even into the 70’s and 80’s. If you press, you give up too many easy baskets. There’s too many guys who can shoot. It’s hard to get good at both half court and full court at the same time. You’ll weaken your half-court defense…it’s not just rebounding. Our defense hasn’t been good. You can make up a rebounding deficit with turnovers.”

Switching to Twitch, (Twitching to Switch?), JB continued: “Malik is playing starter’s minutes. He’s a low post power forward who doesn’t do other things we want. We haven’t given up the other forwards. They’ve done things in sports.”

Someone asked why we don’t trap in the corners like we used to 5-10 years ago. “We’ve tried it. We have a young team. They manage to trap someone then let them out of one.”

I asked my question about Joe Girard just looking for open shots. “Of course, 3 counts more than 2. And he’s too small to really get to the basket. But he can pull up for two. That’s a very good point.”

Someone asked if Chris Bell could fill in at the 2 guard spot for Joe. “Chris doesn’t have the ball skills to play guard at this point. Down the road – maybe.”

A mathematician had been on Orange Nation saying that there’s a 20-point differential between our starting five and the second group – in favor of the second group. He found our most productive line-up to be Judah, Joe, Justin, Malik and Jesse. JB: “He had a big game.” (I assume he meant Justin against Bryant.) “Against Pitt, our forwards were historically bad. Chris is a little better shooter than Justin. Malik is better than Benny but it’s not a dramatic thing. The bench is good one game and not good another game. Practice over two months means more than the games in who plays the most.”


NOTE: Despite what it said on the schedule they issued at the beginning of the season, it’s been decided that there will be no show next week. The show will be back on January 5th.

Also – printed tickets for the Boston College say it’s on the 30th but the game is on Saturday the 31st at 2PM
 
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Did JB really say this? If the best teams are straight up man to man, why do we only play zone???? Mind-boggling
Maybe because we aren’t good at playing straight up M2M? We aren’t one of the best teams (defensive ability) with this group.
 
Maybe because we aren’t good at playing straight up M2M? We aren’t one of the best teams (defensive ability) with this group.
Weird that every year we aren’t able to play it. Including a year we were the best team and won it all
 
Did JB really say this? If the best teams are straight up man to man, why do we only play zone???? Mind-boggling
So many mind-boggling things these days.
It's clear to me we didn't have a play set up at the end. To say Joe wasn't an option because he was face-guarded? Wth? Set some screens, move people around, put some pressure on the defense.
How do we not have a few half court plays that we spend a total of five minutes on every practice for these situations?
 
So many mind-boggling things these days.
It's clear to me we didn't have a play set up at the end. To say Joe wasn't an option because he was face-guarded? Wth? Set some screens, move people around, put some pressure on the defense.
How do we not have a few half court plays that we spend a total of five minutes on every practice for these situations?
we had like 6 secs. hard to set more than 1 screen for a player like Joe from that spot.. the play was fine but Judah just didnt handle it well.. You cant force a bad pass.
 
we had like 6 secs. hard to set more than 1 screen for a player like Joe from that spot.. the play was fine but Judah just didnt handle it well.. You cant force a bad pass.
I was talking about the set before that where we had 17.9 seconds.
 
I was talking about the set before that where we had 17.9 seconds.

Well if you’re talking about the next to last play, we did run something. We were going to Jesse inside.
 
Weird that every year we aren’t able to play it. Including a year we were the best team and won it all
So, when we won it all you think the zone did not help? Or in recent years where we got in off the bubble and made a run?

There might be some past SU teams that might have played good M2M — not in any recent years.
 
we had like 6 secs. hard to set more than 1 screen for a player like Joe from that spot.. the play was fine but Judah just didnt handle it well.. You cant force a bad pass.
I was referring to the first sequence with 18 seconds. But, 6 seconds is a lot of time, actually, unless of course, the plan is to wait until Judah has dribbled into the half court before anyone moves.
Other teams run plays in similar situations all season long. Teams seem to do it against us on the regular to get open looks at the end of halves.
 
Does Jim listen to himself?!? Rambles on about practice being the deciding factor on what happens in games...then proceeds to rag on Judah about his three point shooting...in games.
 
"Whoever plays the best in the 6 days of practice after Christmas will start against Boston College"

Come On Please GIF by NBA
 
So, when we won it all you think the zone did not help? Or in recent years where we got in off the bubble and made a run?

There might be some past SU teams that might have played good M2M — not in any recent years.
I don’t understand how you came to this conclusion based on what I wrote. If the best teams play man then how did a zone team win it all in 2003? Despite the zone? He’s arguing against himself.
 
"Whoever plays the best in the 6 days of practice after Christmas will start against Boston College"

Come On Please GIF by NBA
This is like basing your mlb roster on who has the best spring. So if some AAAA stooge has a hot spring he makes the roster over a better player who maybe just doesn’t get up for such things but instead shines when it’s showtime ?
 
I don’t understand how you came to this conclusion based on what I wrote. If the best teams play man then how did a zone team win it all in 2003? Despite the zone? He’s arguing against himself.
I think we know how we won in 2003 - an effective zone, plus Melo was the best player on the floor.

What JB was saying is that the best teams don’t use a press; they play a half court M2M. He wasn’t talking about his teams from 20 years ago. His teams have used a press to get back into games. We saw that against Pitt, against UVA in the tournament a few years back, and even Melo’s team against Oklahoma St.

JB was responding to a question about why did we not use the press this season, as a basic defense, rather than when down 15 in the second half.

Have to take his comments in context.
 
"Whoever plays the best in the 6 days of practice after Christmas will start against Boston College"

Come On Please GIF by NBA
JB is clever always falling back on "practice", meaning he sees the PT determining factors that fans don't.
He uses it as "Questioning Fan Kryptonite".
So, questioning fans-
Anthony Fauci GIF by GIPHY News
 
Well if you’re talking about the next to last play, we did run something. We were going to Jesse inside.
Yup. Down one with the ball and 17 seconds on the clock, nothing wrong with the play. Judah just didn't read it right. It was a freshman mistake.
 
JB is clever always falling back on "practice", meaning he sees the PT determining factors that fans don't.
He uses it as "Questioning Fan Kryptonite".
So, questioning fans-
Anthony Fauci GIF by GIPHY News

I'm a JB fan since '76 but I have two major disagreements here:

- We are having trouble at the forward position and getting off to bad starts because Williams and Bell aren't getting the job done. Brown has been consistently productive. He has no jump shot but does everything else well and a jump shot is a luxury in a power forward. Williams can get double-doubles if he goes after the ball but in his mind, he's still a 6-4 guard, not a 6-9 forward. Taylor and Copeland have been inconsistent but so has their playing time. Bell does one thing and, so far, doesn't do it especially well, (32% from three - Taylor is 33% and has a 25-point game). There's no point in getting off to bad starts and then excoriating his two starters in the post-game press conference and then starting them again in the next game, claiming that they were better in practice. They are clearly in there because Jim thinks they have a greater upside than Brown, Taylor and Copeland. I'm not sure he's even right about that but it has yet to evidence itself in any case and we can't afford more losses to mediocre teams.

- We are a relatively deep team, (not with proven players is all cases but with guys who can and have played), above average athleticism and two shot blocking centers but only open reliable jump shooter. It's the perfect team to try to use defensive pressure to set up fast brakes, whether in an aggressive half court set-up or a full court press. It doesn't have to be 40 minutes of heck: we could dog the point guard and set up a trap at mid-court and maybe come out of a half or time out full-court to speed them up and shake them up. Jesse isn't as foul prone as he used to be: He averaged7.5 fouls per 40 minutes as a sophomore, 5.3 last year and 3.2 this year. And he doesn't play 40 minutes. In the Pitt game, he had four fouls. Two were in the first half. One was with 17:23 left in the second half, before started to press and the other was with 6 seconds left after Mintz's pass to him was intercepted. We pressed for 10 minutes, got 26 points off turnovers and 27 fast break points with 9 blocks and 9 steals while reducing a 20 point deficit to one without Jesse committing a foul. Jim just doesn't like to press and covers it up by claiming that his team "isn't a good pressing team".

He's not going to change his mind on the press but he might be ready to change his mind on Bell and Williams. We'll find out next Saturday.
 
Jim Boeheim’s radio show is on Thursdays, (Wednesdays until the Dino Babers Show ends) from 7-8 or 9PM on ESPN Radio in Syracuse, which is AM1200 or FM 97.7 on the dial. The show is at Carrabba's Italian Grill at 550 Towne Drive, Fayetteville, NY. The first hour, hosted by Matt Park, the Voice of the Orange, is on their general network. The second hour, which usually begins with the conference season, is hosted by Gomez, a local radio personality. Last year they did a third half hour segment on Twitch.
Their schedule: Americu Jim Boeheim Show Starts Nov. 9 - Syracuse University Athletics

You can call into the show locally at 315-424-8599 or nationally at 1-888-746-2873. For Gomez’s portion, use 315-424-8599. Or you can submit questions from this page:
Submit a Question! - Syracuse University Athletics
Or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MattPark1 or https://twitter.com/hashtag/AskBoeheim?src=hashtag_click

The show can be heard in Syracuse on FM 99.5. It’s sometime simulcast on AM 1200 or FM 97.7. You can also get it on: TuneIn | Free Internet Radio | Live News, Sports, Music, and Podcasts
There’s now a third segment where Jim and Gomez can be seen on camera at:
The early shows tend to be in a one-hour format. I'll post a summary of them the same night. When they do two hour shows. I will do two posts: the Matt Park segment the night of the show and the Gomez segment the next day.




MY QUESTIONS/COMMENTS

For the Matt Park Segment:

“Coaches often tell fans who question their line-up “We put the players out there that we think give us the best chance to win the game.” Sometimes, it seems to me that a coach will put a player out there because he hopes the player will become the best player the team could have at that position. Is that what you’ve been doing with Bennie Williams and Chris Bell? With the bad starts is it time to put the players out there that give us the best chance to win the game?”

For the Gomez segment:

“Coach, against Pittsburgh your team scored 26 points off turnovers, had 27 fast break points and 27 bench points. You had 9 blocks, 9 steals and 15 second chance points. Your team erased 19 of a 20-point deficit in 10 minutes of play. You have two shot-blocking centers, go three deep at each forward spot and have a strong three-man rotation in the backcourt, with plenty of athletic players but few reliable shooters. Why isn’t this a good pressing team? Or do you just dislike the press as a strategy, regardless of what team you have?”


(For the third segment on Twitch I’ll improvise a question or two after listening to the rest of the show.)

I’ll ask this question on Twitch:

“Does Joe Girard do better when he just looks for an open shot, regardless of whether it’s from three point range?”



COACH BOEHEIM
(I have, in some instances, put together statements from different parts of the broadcast on the same subject. The quotes may not be verbatim –they are from my scribbled notes. I have not knowingly changed the meaning.)

Jim pronounced his team’s performance for the first 25-30 minutes of the game “awful. Our offense was terrible and our defense wasn’t much better. We’re trying to make 3’s and can’t. When a player says after a game that he just couldn’t get going, that’s a problem. We’re not a good pressing team. Jesse gets in foul trouble because we have to double and he’s facing 2 on 1’s. We got them taking jumpers and missing.” [Jesse’s fouls came with 3:28 and 1:33 left in the first half and 17:23 and 6 second left in the second half, the last coming after the pass to him by Mintz was stolen. He never fouled while we were pressing. His fouls per 40 minutes in his career have been 5.8, 7.5, 5.3 and 3.2 this year. And “Getting them taking jumpers and missing could be the result of pressing them.)

(On the last play) we wanted to go to Jesse. He was double-teamed, so we had to go somewhere else. Malik and probably a couple other guys were open.” Dave in Dwaynesburg(?) asked if Joe Girard was an option on that play JB: “If I had to do it again I wouldn’t. Malik was wide open. I’d probably go with a Judah drive. They were face-guarding Joe. We did have an advantage. Malik and Quadir were being guard by one short guy. We just didn’t get him the ball.” Matt Park said that we have three go to players and that the defense knows who they are. He said the pass was telegraph and Jim agreed. “Judah was trying to do what I asked him to do.” [Jimmy Satalin after the game said that he’d never heard of designing a last second play to go to a big man for the shot. He said that you need to get the ball up and have the bigs go for the rebound.]

Jim may have read my questions ahead of time: “We go through practices and start the best players proven in practice. They’re just not playing well in the games.” [That IS a problem.] “Quadir played a good game, but he hasn’t been the best all year. Malik has been very steady. Benny has not been playing well. We need more defense and offense from the forwards. The zone has been good. We’d been holding teams to 15-20 points before their scoring average. We didn’t execute against Pitt. They can play much better than they have. If they were playing as well as they can and losing, that would be a problem.” Jim revealed that John Bol Ajak is dealing with some academic problems: “He’s got stuff to do. He was horrible in his last two games."

I called in my first question, but Jim did not accept the premise that coaches sometimes start guys hoping that they will develop into the players the coach hope they can be. “Absolutely not. By far Benny and Chris are our best players, (at forward). Benny is a little better than Malik and Chris is better than Justin or Quadir. When Benny plays like he did, anyone is better. Chris and Benny have had a couple of really good games. Their rebounding and defense have been up and down a little bit.” [Not how you put it in the press conferences.] They were just no shows against Pitt. You can’t play 24 minutes (between them: actually, it was 26) and get 1 rebound. We have to get somebody playing better at those positions. Whoever plays the best in the 6 days of practice after Christmas will start against Boston College.” [I have an old theory that coaches prefer practice to games because they are in control of the practices. If you want to impress the coach, play well in practice: he in his happy place then.]

John from Boulder asked if Judah should be shooting three pointers. JB: “I’d like to point out two things. 1) He can get by people wherever they are. 2) He’s 5 for 29 from three. What would you say?” Josh suggested that developing a three point shot or at least a pull-up would round out his game. Jim thought he recalled that josh had had some coaching experience. Josh said that was not correct and admitted he didn’t know much about college basketball. JB: “You are correct. He’s 3 for 17 from 10-17 feet and 5 for 29 from three. He’s one of the best drivers in the country. He has to try to figure out if we have a better shot. If you can make at least 30%, you can shoot threes. If you make dramatically less than that, you can’t. if they are playing off him, that puts four guys in the lane and that’s a problem. It’s not a huge leap to go from 5/29 to 10/30.” [It is if you have to make five baskets on one shot.] “it’s one for three. If you are making it in practice…Three is not something we do well.”

“It’s the fundamental things we’re not doing. If you aren’t going after rebounds and loose balls. You have to play this game hard. You can’t shy away from rebounds. You have to go get the ball. Usually players don’t admit they could have tried harder so we have to show them on tape. You can’t just be a shooter. I thought we were getting better but that’s out the window. Quadir and Malik make mistakes but they go for the ball. Pittsburgh had good veterans. One is 25 years old.” Matt said that the NBA all-rookie team will be younger than Pitt’s line-up.

Nicholas in Syracuse praised the coach for still being and good health and coaching at his age. JB: “If we keep playing like this, I might not be (so healthy).” Nicholas asked what qualities the 2003 team had that made they so successful. JB: “We had a superstar and a lot of really good players. We were good at shooting the ball, handling the ball, passing and rebounding and we could guard guys. We had great size: 7 feet, 6-9, 6-8, 6-6 plus Gerry. Carmelo was good but not great until the Final Four. Texas had Royal Ivy, the national defensive player of the year and Kansas had probably the best team in the country. I think Carmelo scored 31 and then 28 points. {33 with 14 rebs and 20 with 10] “We made the tourney the next year but didn’t have that one guy.” Matt said that that team was successful in the “funneling everything to Jeremy McNeil”. JB: “That was one game. (Oklahoma State in the NCAAs) We were down 8-27. Jeremy blocked two and they missed 2 and we made 4 shots in a row and suddenly it was 17 (-27)…We can’t press with Jesse back there. We might use Noumir. Jesse is not anywhere near where he has been.”

Dave in Minnesota called. [People freezing their butts off in this storm have nothing else to do but to call into radio shows.) He wanted to know “what makes players tick – with some guys their energy jumps out at you”. JB: “Playing hard has never been an issue. Kueth Duany and Wendell Alexis were laid-back guys who needed to be pushed. Wendell was a finesse player. His father urged me to yell at him more, the only time a parent has told me that. He went on to play in Europe for 15 years and made a ton of money. My job is to make them play hard and get the ball. John Bol and Quadir are not as talented but they go get the ball. Jesse is really good. Nobody thought he’s get 11-12 rebounds a game. The way he and the guards have played we should be 11-2.”

“(Against Pitt) maybe we played like we had half a foot out the door (for Christmas). It would have been one of the best comebacks ever. We probably should not have been in the game. we haven’t gotten consistency from the forwards. One guy has a good game and then another guy does. Judah Mintz is one of the best freshmen in the country. Three guys won’t win a game. You need 5 guys. You can’t coach effort. We’ve had some guys we can push. But what we’re doing just isn’t working. We’ve had the hardest practices ever as far as just pushing. It’s not just a game of shooting.” Gomez asked who the easiest guys were to coach. “The guys who won the most games were the most coachable. There’s certain guys you want to push but not this much. John Bol has developed aggressiveness but he’s not as good as the other guys. (In practice), the first group can’t stop the second group and the second group can’t stop the first group.”

I called in my second question about whether he just doesn’t like the press and thinks his teams can do it well because of that. “Not at all. You have to double team and they get to go 2-1 on Jesse. He’d have two fouls right away and I’d have to take him out. You can’t have your best player in foul jeopardy. Most team can handle it. Pitt missed 5 open shots and 2 layups. In the past we’ve had 5 guys playing 40 minutes. Buddy and Joe were not quick. (In 2003), we had Warrick, Duany, Melo. Hak and Josh Pace were quick. We had a good pressing team.” I suggested that Mounir Hima could be used like Jeremy McNeil, positioned under the boards with orders to make them come to him. “Hima is no Jeremy McNeil – right now. Watch the top 20 teams. You won’t see one that presses. Watch 100 games you might see one team that presses. Cornell uses 9-10 guys and we got easy baskets against them. The best teams are straight up man for man.” I suggested that Fred Lewis once had a top team that pressed. (The 1966 team with Jim Boeheim that scored almost 100 points a game.) “We were small 6-6, 6-5, 6-4, 6-2. We pressed everybody. More teams pressed back then, even into the 70’s and 80’s. If you press, you give up too many easy baskets. There’s too many guys who can shoot. It’s hard to get good at both half court and full court at the same time. You’ll weaken your half-court defense…it’s not just rebounding. Our defense hasn’t been good. You can make up a rebounding deficit with turnovers.”

Switching to Twitch, (Twitching to Switch?), JB continued: “Malik is playing starter’s minutes. He’s a low post power forward who doesn’t do other things we want. We haven’t given up the other forwards. They’ve done things in sports.”

Someone asked why we don’t trap in the corners like we used to 5-10 years ago. “We’ve tried it. We have a young team. They manage to trap someone then let them out of one.”

I asked my question about Joe Girard just looking for open shots. “Of course, 3 counts more than 2. And he’s too small to really get to the basket. But he can pull up for two. That’s a very good point.”

Someone asked if Chris Bell could fill in at the 2 guard spot for Joe. “Chris doesn’t have the ball skills to play guard at this point. Down the road – maybe.”

A mathematician had been on Orange Nation saying that there’s a 20-point differential between our starting five and the second group – in favor of the second group. He found our most productive line-up to be Judah, Joe, Justin, Malik and Jesse. JB: “He had a big game.” (I assume he meant Justin against Bryant.) “Against Pitt, our forwards were historically bad. Chris is a little better shooter than Justin. Malik is better than Benny but it’s not a dramatic thing. The bench is good one game and not good another game. Practice over two months means more than the games in who plays the most.”


NOTE: Despite what it said on the schedule they issued at the beginning of the season, it’s been decided that there will be no show next week. The show will be back on January 5th.

Also – printed tickets for the Boston College say it’s on the 30th but the game is on Saturday the 31st at 2PM
SWC75 - I cannot fully articulate how much I appreciate these write ups. Not having the opportunity to catch a show live, you are quite an amazing person for keeping us informed.

That said, I also want to applaud you sir quite vehemently. The stones it took to ask that first question and not get Boeheimed was quite unbelievable. Keep up the good work!
 

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