The Upside- Arizona State | Syracusefan.com

The Upside- Arizona State

SWC75

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- We needed that. It wasn’t perfect but I was just looking for watchable and a win and we got it.

- The Boeheims are clearly our bell-cows and they compliment each other: a scorer and a glue guy. But they need help and tonight they got it with five guys in double figures.

- We won the boards for the second straight game, this time 42-32. Yougottawanna.

- The last seven minutes of the first half we did something we haven’t done much this season. We played something called – I think this is what they call it- D-E-F-E-N-S-E. it was enough to turn a 30-28 game into a 48-30 game at halftime. Then we went back to doing what we’ve bene doing. But it was enough.

- Cole Swider appeared on the radar because the basket appeared on his radar. He came into this game shooting 3 for 22 from three. He was 4 for 5 in this game, scoring 19 points. And he hit the boards for 11 rebounds.

- But the big revelation was Jesse Edwards, who maneuvered through the paint to hit 9 of 11 shots and score 21 points, topping his career high by 10. He had 8 rebounds and a couple of blocks, (which are hard to get when the other team is launching 39 threes). OK, I know he’s not Chet Holmgren, but there were times when I saw Jesse moving by people to score or get rebounds that he reminded me of what I saw from Holmgren against UCLA Tuesday night. Jesse doesn’t have quite the ball handling and passing skills but he’s pretty good for the typical center. And he might be able to hit jump shots if JB allows him to try, (I prefer my centers in the paint, myself). He’s only going to get better. They key for him- and for Syracuse – is for Jesse to stay out of foul trouble. By the way, I’m calling him “The Streak” because of what he does with his hair.

- Buddy was only 1 for 5 from three but he was 6 for 12 from two and 8 for 11, (what’s up with the three misses, Buddy?) from the line. He also had 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals. Can you say All-American? He is to our basketball team what Sean Tucker is to our football team. Those days when some people thought he was in the line-up only because his father was the coach seem a long time ago.

- Jimmy Boeheim has scored our first basket in every game so far – even the exhibition games. He had a solid 11-point 8 rebound night.

- Joe Girard continues to have trouble with defensive pressure. But I’ll take 16 points and 5 assists from our point guard.

- VCU only lost to defending national champion Baylor by 8 points. I have no idea how they lost to Wagner and Chattanooga but they’ve been a pretty good team in the Bahamas. If they keep playing this way, maybe our loss to them won’t look so bad.

- Close your eyes and imagine Syracuse beating Auburn in basketball tomorrow night and Pittsburgh in football Saturday night. Hmmm…that would blow away a lot of the clouds.

3-2 with 27+ to go.

LET’S GO ORANGE!
 
What a great write up, SWC! I enjoyed your snarky comment about defense.

I know there is a lot of psychology playing basketball. Guys drop a shot in and get confident. They miss, and they lose confidence. I get that. What I don’t get is how we can look so BAD. Why did we give up playing defense in the second half? What changed? I do understand that ASU began making their shots that they were missing before. But was that due to our poor defense?

Chicken? Egg?
 
What a great write up, SWC! I enjoyed your snarky comment about defense.

I know there is a lot of psychology playing basketball. Guys drop a shot in and get confident. They miss, and they lose confidence. I get that. What I don’t get is how we can look so BAD. Why did we give up playing defense in the second half? What changed? I do understand that ASU began making their shots that they were missing before. But was that due to our poor defense?

Chicken? Egg?

JB is big on keeping contact with the shooters. He talks about it a lot. So I don't think he told them to just circle the wagons and hope they miss. But that's what his players were doing. The strength of JB's zone is that he can expand it out to the three point line. He can also set up traps to force turnovers, (but it would be hard to do both at the same time). Both VCU and Arizona State had reputations as poor shooting teams, so i can see why you might start out in 'Wagon Train' mode but you don't stay that way when they begin hitting those shots.
 
Edwards woke up, and Cole "Slider" figured out aiming isn't cheating.
 

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