The Real Bottom Line.....

[Cuse'91]

What makes good basketball ? Coaching - Jimmy does what he does. Some fans here love it, others think he is Jurrassic. Other than blaming Jimmy for roster construction, i think it is fair to say that nobody could make a top 25 team out of this group, but it is also certainly fair to say that there is room for coaching improvement. What bothers me the most, is last night's game was not the first time this season that the team got in a hole against a team with comparable talent and just failed to show the guts and moxie to claw back.

I don't remember how JB was is the past, but he doesn't seem to bother these days with managing player in-game minutes. Even excluding last year's player paucity, JB plays his 5 1/2 players 35+ minutes per game. Bench development is only in reaction to suspension, injury, et al. Imo, just seems like a very lazy way to coach a game. But hey, I'm sure JB puts in just as much hard work recruiting and coaching Syracuse basketball in 2019, as he did in 1989...

 

[Eric15]

Are you claiming that JB ordered all of his players to shoot worse? I guess I missed that chapter in "Boeheim on Basketball".

But if we're a below average shooting team, then why is our entire offense basically predicated towards below average shooters playing iso ball and taking contested outside shots? That's on JB.

 

[Madbiker]

I've come around to the belief that our style of play is now a major impediment to recruiting. We do not get the quality of players we used to. Who wants to play this slow pace (we are ranked in the bottom 20% pace of play every year lately and it's by design). I've given up believing we play this slow, no ball movement offense because we don't have enough talent. It's more we don't have talent because nobody wants to come here to play this.

 

[Zelda Zonk]

Are you claiming that JB ordered all of his players to shoot worse? I guess I missed that chapter in "Boeheim on Basketball".

You consistently seem to assert that shooting is a skill that is executed in isolation, not dependent on any other offensive factors. Do you really not believe there are reasons why any given individual might shoot a higher or lower percentage in any given game?

 

[orangecuse]

I get what you are saying but if his assistants can’t tell him what he needs to hear we are screwed. Idiots like me that is what JB should say but I really don’t think anybody challenges JB which is why the status quo doesn’t change.

Well, I don't think anyone of our assistants will 'tell' him as much as perhaps suggest quite passively. The fact that all of JB's assistants are considerably younger, relatively green, and have all played under him speaks for itself relative to them "telling" him anything. Especially with JB's apparent insecurities on anything that may expose his possible weaknesses, short comings, etc. Just look how sensitive he was a few years back when he kept losing to Pitino and Dixon. He actually replied why doesn't anyone talk about my record against John Beilein, etc.