The Power Forward.

[SUSScuse]

This team might be in trouble with the lack of size at the 4 position.
CJ got outplayed today by a bigger forward and I don't think it was a factor of him having his worst game at SU as stated by JB in the post game. I think CJ's game is alive and well.
He may not have played his best game but, this was the first time this year that I can remember that he was up against a power forward with more size and experience.
Putting Southerland there didn't help much either.
I hope we can get better minutes out of them next time we face another team with the experience at the 4 or we are in trouble.

 

[OttoMets]

Certainly this is looking like one of our two biggest flaws right now (along with our poor half-court offense).

We need Christmas to be ready to play real minutes at the 4, but he's not. Maybe later this year, but not yet. We're going to get whipped on the glass by teams with good 4s.

 

[iommi]

This team might be in trouble with the lack of size at the 4 position.
CJ got outplayed today by a bigger forward and I don't think it was a factor of him having his worst game at SU as stated by JB in the post game. I think CJ's game is alive and well.
He may not have played his best game but, this was the first time this year that I can remember that he was up against a power forward with more size and experience.
Putting Southerland there didn't help much either.
I hope we can get better minutes out of them next time we face another team with the experience at the 4 or we are in trouble.

Great point, big concern. Coleman will be huge next year (pun intended) taking up space inside and dominating the glass. By all accounts, Coleman is a beast on the boards.

 

[bleeding orange]

I am not prepared to put too much into tonight... CJ has not been outplayed by any other team to this point and this is the typical sluggish game that we as Syracuse fans have all grown to tolerate over the years. It was coming after a big win, we have all been reading the press about how great they are, and unfortunately we were just due for a bit of a let down. I will say CJ looked very sluggish tonight and I was unimpressed. This Marshall team, although not great, did go into Cincy and beat them on their home floor earlier this year. Until this team gives me a real reason not to celebrate it's efforts (anything less than 16-0 when we welcome Marquette to town) I am going to sit back and enjoy what is looking to be a great year!!

 

[orange2win]

This team might be in trouble with the lack of size at the 4 position.
CJ got outplayed today by a bigger forward and I don't think it was a factor of him having his worst game at SU as stated by JB in the post game. I think CJ's game is alive and well.
He may not have played his best game but, this was the first time this year that I can remember that he was up against a power forward with more size and experience.
Putting Southerland there didn't help much either.
I hope we can get better minutes out of them next time we face another team with the experience at the 4 or we are in trouble.

Totally agree. We also are very weak with our outside shooting. Same thing as last year. We shot just 27% today.

These two issues need to be fixed as the season progresses or we will fold once again at the end.

 

[SUintheVille]

Great point, big concern. Coleman will be huge next year (pun intended) taking up space inside and dominating the glass. By all accounts, Coleman is a beast on the boards.

Isn't this what folks were saying last year what Rak would do for us this year?

 

[OrangeMuskyFish]

Isn't this what folks were saying last year what Rak would do for us this year?

There were always concerns about Rak's "readiness." In some aspects he actually looks better than I expected.

 

[OrangeMuskyFish]

CJ hasn't been outplayed often, but even in games that he has finished with a good line, there were a handful of times he was caught playing beneath the rim. The fact he has expanded his game means that I am very intrigued to see him play 30 minutes at the 3 next year. But we have to continue to prepare Rakeem, otherwise we are just going to have to hope that Fair is going to be able to out-position and out-work the likes of Davis, Henson, and Plumlee when we meet up with them.

 

[BlueCurtain]

Rak might as well have redshirted if he's just going to be yanked after 2 minutes every game. No chance in hell he will develop or get comfortable at this pace.

 

[Cuseball]

Rak might as well have redshirted if he's just going to be yanked after 2 minutes every game. No chance in hell he will develop or get comfortable at this pace.

I believe Fab developed after going through a season such as this. I suspect the coaches are all over Rak in practice to get him to make positioning improvements. Battling Fair, Baye and Melo inside each day will surely up the learning curve. He'll be better by end of the season and there will be some games where he is needed (Melo in foul trouble, Baye ineffective etc)

Cuse!

 

[SBU72]

Great point, big concern. Coleman will be huge next year (pun intended) taking up space inside and dominating the glass. By all accounts, Coleman is a beast on the boards.

Two years ago it was wait until Melo gets here, a true 7 footer to dominate. Then last year it was wait until Xmas get here. He is a defensive wiz and will clean the boards. Why does everybody think that the next guy coming in is going to be soooo much better than the current crop? Both Melo and Xmas were McD's AA and it looks like it will take Xmas at least a year to learn the ropes. Melo had other things to learn (get in shape) I say that Coleman is int he same boat. 6'9" and 280 is to heavy to be effective right away.

 

[KevMonstah]

Syracuse must not work too hard on the rebounding phase of the game, or specifically expects that the physical attributes of the players can make up for this. I don't think SU has been a dominant rebounding team except for when they had Seikaly and Coleman, and even then they could get pushed around and outrebounded by a team like Pitt, with guys who were several inches shorter, ie, "Send it in Jerome" should never have grabbed 14 rebs when matched against DC and Rony.

Other teams obviously put more emphasis on it and go hard to the boards, Syracuse doesn't. Should a lineup of AO-RJ-Wes ever get outrebounded? Physically, they had the tools to be a dominant rebounding team. SU seemingly always has guys who should be great, but they never are. I think the zone defense leaves guys a little out of position for the rebs: the long bounces off rocks from deep bounce over the defense, and the soft bounces off the rim don't bounce to where the wings are playing. Because the players are responsible for an area, and not a man, they don't get the opportunity to body up and box out while the shot's in the air. A team crashing the boards hard can get inside SU's wings fairly easily on a shot, especially one from outside.

Kev

 

[BlueCurtain]

Coleman's minutes will be quite limited next year if he doesn't get into a summer conditioning program. See Melo year 1.

 

[reedny]

Certainly this is looking like one of our two biggest flaws right now (along with our poor half-court offense).

We need Christmas to be ready to play real minutes at the 4, but he's not. Maybe later this year, but not yet. We're going to get whipped on the glass by teams with good 4s.

No question we need X-Mas to rebound better. I hope his learning curve intersects a long run in the tourney -- the point where the light comes on and he has one or two monster games on the glass.

The other factor is Fab's rebounding woes. A guy his size, playing 26 minutes, gets 4 rbs?? That's pretty weak (Tinnon had 15 at 6'8"). Don't get me wrong, FAb's game is light years better than last year. He has a couple of post-moves and loves the ooop. He's running the floor. He's passing the ball pretty well out of the post and at the top of the key. He's taking charges. And he's blocking shots -- that one sequence last night where he rejected two shots in a row and threw the second one off court ... that was sweet.

I just don't understand why a guy that big, who's moving so well, is having so much trouble getting and keeping position on the glass.

 

[OttoMets]

Two years ago it was wait until Melo gets here, a true 7 footer to dominate. Then last year it was wait until Xmas get here. He is a defensive wiz and will clean the boards. Why does everybody think that the next guy coming in is going to be soooo much better than the current crop? Both Melo and Xmas were McD's AA and it looks like it will take Xmas at least a year to learn the ropes. Melo had other things to learn (get in shape) I say that Coleman is int he same boat. 6'9" and 280 is to heavy to be effective right away.

Agreed, and the takeaway should be that we're probably never going to have a big who comes in ready to play.

That said, I wrote all summer that there was no way Christmas would start; he's raw and unskilled. He proved me wrong; he won the starting job and he's much more talented than I thought. Trouble is, it's not easy to play the wing in a 2-3 zone (Wesley Johnson was only barely adequate at it) and he's struggling badly on defense. And there's no way the reps he gets in practice will prepare him to succeed in a game situation.

So the 4 is a big problem.

 

[pfister1]

Rak might as well have redshirted if he's just going to be yanked after 2 minutes every game. No chance in hell he will develop or get comfortable at this pace.

Yet, Melo was able to do it.

 

[OttoMets]

Yet, Melo was able to do it.

Not so much within the course of the year, though. He did have a couple nice end-of-year games against DePaul and St. John's, but the great majority of his improvement came over the summer.