The real dilemma would be next year..

[Jake]

Do you honestly see any upside for next season? Let’s say Hughes is gone... with the way player development has gone over the last 5 or 6 years do you think the returning members of the team will make large jumps in playing ability and production? I don’t see a lot of high ceiling players. And I don’t think efficiency will improve because the offensive scheme is borderline non-existent. Shooting percentage is as much a function of shot quality as it is shooting form and mechanics.

No. I think it gets worse next year, but I think the school would look harsh firing him, and I don’t think he’s stepping down.

 

[HakAttack]

We’ve been on a steady slow dissent for the last 5 years. The 2016 Final Four miracle run just gave us all false hopes that we clung to for a few years.

Remember, JB was supposed to retire by now. This was supposed to be year 2 of Hop’s tenure.

That’s looking like a massive mistake right now.

Exactly my point. The decline already started 4-5 years ago. I would argue it started in earnest after the 2013 F4. Now we’re seeing the culmination of the slide to the bottom.

 

[HakAttack]

I guess but sanctions, a couple key recruiting misses (which happen sometimes), a steady stream of early nba departures, the awkward situation with Hop, the move to the ACC (which I don’t think helps basketball in any way), and the drastic change in the way the game is played have all contributed as well. I’m not making excuses or saying it hasn’t been ugly for a few years but there were other factors at play that didn’t help.

Sounds a lot like you’re making excuses.

 

[cuseinseattle]

Only time I go is when I get freebies, and there ain't no way I'm spending my limited time to see this product.

Yeah your too busy yelling at your kid for picking up his dribble in the open court

 

[phil77]

No. I think it gets worse next year, but I think the school would look harsh firing him, and I don’t think he’s stepping down.

Ouch, this is a sad post. JB is a smart man just wish he would see that he is destroying what he created.

 

[Toga]

I am not sure what worse would even look like because these last 3 games have been pretty awful. Keeping JB just because of Buddy is a massive mistake.

Nothing against the young man, but I was always fearful his signing would have a negative spin off effect of this nature.

 

[Ghost]

It happened so fast, in 7 days I've gone from "y'all are nuts, they're not very good but this is an 18-13 type team, no way Boeheim ever has a losing record" to "better than a 50/50 chance this team won't get above .500 again this year."

It's really sad, I feel bad for Boeheim as well, despite his rote and generally obnoxious press conference lines.

I know. I felt a tad pessimistic predicting we would go 1-4 in this stretch of games in that one thread, now, I realize I was probably too optimistic.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Yeah your too busy yelling at your kid for picking up his dribble in the open court

Made the varsity squad tonight. Coach told him he's one of the 2 best defenders on the squad.

So yeah, I've got other priorities this year.

 

[Jasoncuse]

Does JB even have the passion anymore? He just stands or sits there on sideline, brow furrowed and seemingly going through the motions. We know he cares but without the fire, what can he do to turn this around?

He’s coached Buddy for 2 years now. We are going to be worse next year and who knows beyond that. I doubt he does it, but stepping down after this season could be the best option for all parties. He can retire before really tainting his legacy and can watch Buddy/Jimmy play every game. The program can move forward again finally, bring in some fresh blood and right the ship (hopefully). The only question is what becomes of Buddy? He’s not an ACC level player and it seems, at least to me, that most coaches would quickly look to upgrade his spot. We need much better guards and athleticism to get the program back to where it belongs. my fear is JB will certainly do everything he can to keep Buddy in a prominent role. And would he have his swan song be at the same time his son is going through senior ceremonies?

So many factors and questions about the future of this program.Im sure many would agree that they can’t see it improving anytime soon. Wildhack needs to put the program ahead of the legend at some point and it’ll be curious as to what happens from there. It will get ugly, but may be necessary.

 

[billsin01]

Sounds a lot like you’re making excuses.

So they aren’t factors. It’s just that JB can’t coach or recruit anymore?

 

[Madbiker]

Jake, it is over. This is 2002 in Football terms.

We've been spoiled as a fan base. We had not landed on the Moon yet when the last SU team was this bad. JB needs to do the right thing.

Even if JB stepped down after this season, the answer is not sitting on the bench of assistants. One will probably be chosen his successor. This is what usually happens in these situations. It's only after another couple of losing seasons that a new regime is brought in from the outside in desperation.

 

[Jasoncuse]

As I stated earlier this year is the bottom. The 2 guys we have coming in next year are prototype SU players, Hopefully we can bring in another big man this spring.

This team is a team full of role players, we have nobody they requires a double team and a couple of guys who don't need to be guarded.

The problem isn’t a lack of SU prototypes, it’s a lack of guards and interior play. We haven’t had an athletic shot blocker in ages. We haven’t had a legit PG in forever and perimeter athleticism seems to shrink every year.

its possible that next year is even worse if we don’t see major improvement from the freshmen.

 

[kcsu]

Ouch, this is a sad post. JB is a smart man just wish he would see that he is destroying what he created.

Thats not who he is. Its not in his DNA. If you haven't ever had a debate with Jim on something and want some insight listen to his recent exchange with the reporter who questioned him on a quick hook with players. Its a great exchange and for the most part i agree with Jims position however its very telling. Simply put JB actually always believes he is right. I have never once heard Jim exclaim he was wrong.

 

[oTTo113445]

I just don't get it 2 years ago we lost to duke in the sweet 16 by like 5 points.

Last year we were not allowed to play battle/howard for the last 3 games, and beat duke on the road, and lost to unc by 2 (in a game with about 14 points off of bad calls in the first half).

Feels like we have one bad year because we didn't grab the upperclassmen at center and buddy turned into a redshirt freshmen like cooneys jr year, and everyone acts like JB has complete memory loss.

I can get the anger over lack of bumping bigs the last 4 years, the rest not so much.

70% of major conference teams would sign jb for 3 years right now without looking back.

 

[We Are Syracuse]

No way should JB be coaching this team next year... why I wanted him to step down when he was planned to bc I feared this was going to be the case. He cannot be the coach of this team next year. He’s always recruited great talent and has had a ton of amazing players here. I don’t see any of that now and let’s be honest, JB isn’t going to out-coach a ton of ACC coaches.

 

[TinyManInside]

As I stated earlier this year is the bottom. The 2 guys we have coming in next year are prototype SU players, Hopefully we can bring in another big man this spring.

This team is a team full of role players, we have nobody they requires a double team and a couple of guys who don't need to be guarded.

We’ve been saying the answer is in the next recruiting class for like 5 years now. Carey was gonna be better than Howard, Guerrier is gonna be an upgrade over Brisset, now Kadary is gonna be an upgrade... it hasn’t panned out yet because the player development has not been on par with what it was for the previous 38ish years.

 

[Alsacs]

I just don't get it 2 years ago we lost to duke in the sweet 16 by like 5 points.

Last year we were not allowed to play battle/howard for the last 3 games, and beat duke on the road, and lost to unc by 2 (in a game with about 14 points off of bad calls in the first half).

Feels like we have one bad year because we didn't grab the upperclassmen at center and buddy turned into a redshirt freshmen like cooneys jr year, and everyone acts like JB has complete memory loss.

I can get the anger over lack of bumping bigs the last 4 years, the rest not so much.

70% of major conference team would sign jb for 3 years right now without looking back.

Last year we brought our entire starting 5 back from the previous season. The only P5 team to do so and the team underachieved.

No way 70% of the P5 would sign JB up for 3 years.
We have been mediocre the last 5 years in the regular season. We won some tournament games in 2016 and 2018 but that doesn’t change the fact we have been mediocre in regular season.
We haven’t had a pure PG since Tyler Ennis.
We haven’t a legit post presence since Rak Christmas.

The brand of basketball we play is slow, ugly, grinding basketball.
It’s not sanctions either.

 

[orangepassion]

The best hope is Juli stepping up and convincing him to get ahead of the "mob" and go out as smoothly as possible

 

[hungrychuck]

If you’ve lost Jake (sort of), it’s like Nixon losing Cronkite.

This also reminds me of the P situation in football. Both programs were declining for some time and were able to disguise it with a spike that didn’t really reflect the state of the program.

It’s not whether JB deserves to go.

He does.

But let’s not hire Gerg.

 

[Cuse9292]

In what universe would JB ever think this is acceptable? He built the standard and this team is not even close to that standard and with next year not looking promising, I believe it'd be best for the program to move on at the end of this season. We need a complete roster overhaul and system overhaul to get this program back on track. There's literally no rhyme or reason behind our recruiting methods and how our roster has been constructed. That's just blatant arrogance on JBs part if he thought this team could survive in the ACC with how they lack athleticism/size/talent. It's funny he wants to coach Buddy and all when I'm of the opinion that pressure could be hindering Buddy and his minutes and usage are being completely mismanaged out of need for scoring but things just aren't falling currently. I see Buddy as someone who would be perfect coming off the bench getting 15-20 and trying to aim for 40% from 3 in a spot up roll, enough with the off the dribble garbage, play to your strengths. Buddy and Girard both are severely effected by nobody having the ability to get to the rack off the dribble causing the defense to make a decision on leaving their man to help. I'd say 65-70% of D1 could play this team straight up man to man, that's truly sad when you think of the athletes we've had the pleasure to watch over these years.

We need to start thinking about how we can help these young men achieve their ultimate dream of playing in the NBA. When you think of the money put into youth basketball development over the past 10-15 years it's crazy to see and even crazier a program like Syracuse can't take advantage of that. Whether you're talking EYBL/HS/Prep the skills these 18-19 year olds come in with is insane, when you're talking a true 5 star there's not much a coach needs to do but guide them mentally until they declare for the draft, 3-4 stars seem to be where the developing ability of the staff gets tested, that's the boat we're in and it's looking like the Titanic. We are a stale program in the eyes of people that understand anything about basketball. After the string of first round picks was over and gone with you could feel something was just different and missing out on countless recruits. This isn't football, we don't have to travel for recruits, we have a hotbed right in our backyard and we have to start winning some of those battles first and then go from there and I just don't get the feeling JB is a guy that wants to do that.

 

[jec1521]

I just don't get it 2 years ago we lost to duke in the sweet 16 by like 5 points.

Last year we were not allowed to play battle/howard for the last 3 games, and beat duke on the road, and lost to unc by 2 (in a game with about 14 points off of bad calls in the first half).

Feels like we have one bad year because we didn't grab the upperclassmen at center and buddy turned into a redshirt freshmen like cooneys jr year, and everyone acts like JB has complete memory loss.

I can get the anger over lack of bumping bigs the last 4 years, the rest not so much.

70% of major conference teams would sign jb for 3 years right now without looking back.

Stop it. You're pointing towards 2 or 3 individual games against the big dogs that we competed in? When has that been the standard? Stephen Austin just beat Duke on the road. One game does not make a program. We are really bad right now with no end in sight.

 

[Gabjon]

The problem isn’t a lack of SU prototypes, it’s a lack of guards and interior play. We haven’t had an athletic shot blocker in ages. We haven’t had a legit PG in forever and perimeter athleticism seems to shrink every year.

its possible that next year is even worse if we don’t see major improvement from the freshmen.

Since we went big where we play the wings of the zone up towards the 3pt line in 09-10, Hughes is the first guard to play any real minutes at the bottom of the zone.
From the 09-10 team though the 13-14 team we played long at every position. Ennis at 6'-3" was the shortest player to get minutes. Mike G is taller than Hughes.

Buddy is the only tall guard we have right now (I still want Hughes to move to the top of the zone)

Kardary is 6'-5" some have him listed at 6'-6". You put him on the top of the zone it changes the whole zone.

Newton is a 6'-8" wing with length who is not a project or from Canada, or Europe. He is from MD playing on a elite prep team.

Ladies and gentlemen this is not Football a couple of players can turn a bad team to decent team, we will need a quality big to be a great team lets see what the spring signing period brings.

 

[Gabjon]

We’ve been saying the answer is in the next recruiting class for like 5 years now. Carey was gonna be better than Howard, Guerrier is gonna be an upgrade over Brisset, now Kadary is gonna be an upgrade... it hasn’t panned out yet because the player development has not been on par with what it was for the previous 38ish years.

Not me. I was saying pump the breaks of Guerrier since the summer, and I was measured in my hope for Carey. Kadary is a different level athlete compared to Carey. Guerrier be better next year than this.

 

[Oakland]

Great thought! She certainly sees what is happening.

The best hope is Juli stepping up and convincing him to get ahead of the "mob" and go out as smoothly as possible

 

[oTTo113445]

Really last years recruiting class was the issue. Buddy and Carey only.

We needed another sophmore sg behind buddy, and a sophmore center because freshmen cuse centers are rarely ready for any minutes. Those both were big mistakes, imo, and we are paying for both, while buddy is playing like a not ready fresh next to goodine, girard and Guerrier (4 points today all transition).

Carey plus Girard was you pick em. I understand grabbing both. (and I think Girard is going to be special, and will hustle on defense, although make mistakes as well).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edwards and Guerrier probably both will Jump Dolezaj and Sidibe even with both being seniors. Dolezaj and guerrier getting another 5-6 minutes playing on the wings together some. Question is if hughes returns. Maybe Braswell finds his spot working dead on sprint, but he needs some token practice minutes. And we have a third center in Ajax who should be able to give us 5 minutes at least. Maybe we use Edwards in the press.

If Hughes were to return and we grabbed another sensation swingman hughes clone, who also can play guard and is ready for prime scoring, we would be a really good all of a sudden imo. If it's to late for an elgible grab transfer (ready for next year), then we really need a freshmen swingman with some shooting and dribble who is ready out of the gate.

If we got that 2/3 swingman with a battle-esque (who can play a bit of D), Hughes agreed to come back, and edwards makes the physical and lateral sliding jump in the offseason, then we would be absolutely loaded for once in the last 7 years. Nobody would have to play more than 30 mpg. Would be a great treat for all JB has given us.