The Upside - Colgate

[SWC75]

- At halftime an old friend when I was part of the workforce came over to discuss the game. He couldn’t believe that we didn’t hire the Colgate coach, Matt Langel instead of settling for JB’s assistant who will just give us more of the same. I had no counter-argument. We both disliked our continuing emphasis on spacing for a team with no shooters and preferred the ball movement we were seeing from Colgate. We also couldn’t understand why we didn’t press all the time to fully utilize our depth and athleticism and stay out of the halfcourt game where we would have to shoot the ball. My friend returned to his seat but somehow Red Autry got the message and we pressed most of the second half and it energized the team and turned the game around. Now, if we could just not wait until we are down 20 to do that.

- It also helped that Chris Bell found the range for his three pointers and couldn’t be stopped for several minutes. He hit 12 of our 14 points from 15:17 to 11:03 that got us from 20 points down to 10. Later he hit the 3 that tied the game at 70. He led us with 25 points. It was his outstanding stretch of play since he put on a Syracuse uniform and gave us a view of the player he can become.

- Then Judah Mintz took over. He plays full blast all the time and sometimes the results very very and sometimes they aren’t. But he keeps swinging and eventually there’s a breakthrough. A lay-up, a jumper, , two free throws, a steal and lay-up and another free throw scored 7 of 10 points ads the deficit went down to 4 points. He also made three free throws to ice the game in the final 11 seconds. He wound up with 23 points 8 assists and 3 steals.

- JJ Starling contributed 13 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. He’s a lot quitter than Judah but combines with him to make a very productive backcourt. Actually, I would rather JJ be the point man and have Judah on the wing. It might help eliminate some of Judah’s worst plays while giving him better opportunities to make his best plays.

- Maliq Brown had his problems in the first half but when we started pressing, his game fired up. He had 6 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals and a block in 20 minutes. His steal and one-man fast break that put us up by four with 34 second left was the play of the game. The he pulled down a rebound and hit two free throws to give us a trey-proof 6 point lead.

- Justin Taylor hit two treys of his own and pulled down 6 rebounds. Not bad for a small forward.

- His former IMG teammate, Quadir Copeland, had 4 points, 3 rebounds and 2 steals in 10 minutes.

- We finally beat Colgate. And the team can fly to Honolulu undefeated, (just like the football team flew to Chapel Hill undefeated).

3-0 with 29+ to go…

LET’S GO ORANGE!


Net Points

This year I’m going to make things a bit easier on myself and just list the net points in each game after the Upside. Once a month I’ll do a deeper dive into the numbers rather than doing a “Net Points, etc.” post after every game. ‘Net’ points is the positives (points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks) minus the negatives, (missed field goals and free throws, turnovers and fouls committed).

Judah Mintz 21NP in 33 minutes
JJ Starling 14NP in 39 minutes
Maliq Brown 10NP in 20 minutes.
Chris Bell 10NP in 33 minutes
Justin Taylor 8NP in 28 minutes
Naheem McLeod 7NP in 19 minutes
Quadir Copeland 5NP in 10 minutes
Kyle Cuffe -1NP in 88 minutes
Benny Williams -2NP in 10 minutes
Recruited players who did not play: Pete Carey, Mounir Hima, William Patterson, Chance Westry

 

[SWC75]

 

[pokercuse08]

we pressed most of the second half and it energized the team and turned the game around. Now, if we could just not wait until we are down 20 to do that.

This was something that always frustrated me under Boeheim that I'm hoping will change under Red. I'd love to see us press more often to keep opponents off balance, take advantage of our athleticism, and just kind of probe and test to see what works and what doesn't in a particular matchup.

Under Boeheim it was basically impossible with a 7 man rotation, but if we go 9 or 10 deep under Red, it should be doable. I'd love to see him throw the press on for a few minutes any time we give up a couple easy buckets in a row in the half court, or any time we look stagnant on offense in the half court.

I always liked the way Pitino's Louisville teams played in your face defense with a lot of full court pressure, and hated having to play them. I'd love to put that fear into opponents more often.

Maybe tonight could end up being the impetus for that!

 

[SoBristol]

The recent Boeheim teams did not have the players to press - not a matter of depth only. Buddy and Joe had the good qualities, but pressing wasn’t one of them. Now - Brown, Copeland, JJ, Mintz are perfect for a pressing style and Bell and Cuffe may be as well.

Add in that our half court defense and offense are both horrible (at least last night) and this team almost has to press.