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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 4218348, member: 289"] PART 3 [I] CENTERS I was all excited about our depth at the center position last year – four of them! They wound up hardly playing so much of what I put here is taken from last year’s preview.[/I] A lot of that was because of the state of health and youth of the 4 centers. Bourama Sidibie’s 2020-21 season essentially lasted 4 minutes. Frank Anselem came down, (we assume) with Covid and hardly played. John Bol Ajak also hardly played but simply looked over-matched. The exception was Jesse Edwards, who came on strong as that year progressed and appeared to make a huge difference in what been a weak defensive team in our late-season run to the Sweet 16. But the biggest reason we didn’t play the four centers is that a spot had to be found for Marek Dolezaj, a multi-talented forward through which the offense ran most efficiently. He could also rebound and block an occasional shot and get the opposing team’s center away from the basket with his mobility. On top of that our two most statistically productive players, Quincy Guerrier and Alan Griffin were forwards and they had to be on the court. So we went with a three-forward line-up. It wasn’t the first time Jim Boeheim has gone to a ‘stretch four’ instead of a true center in recent years. It started with Chris McCullough, then Tyler Lydon, then Marek, who was really a stretch three. I think JB likes the versatility that gives him. He even pined for Marek, (who could have come back), in one interview this year. But it tends to the development of our true centers and weaken the interior of our defense. This year he had to invest time in the true centers and it paid off. [I]John Bol Ajak 6-10 215 eligibility year: sophomore John Bol, (Ajak is the last name), was the least highly recruited of the four centers. “Ajak not only came here from the Sudan by way of Kenya but missed a lot of time with an achilles injury and a hip injury…2-4-7 rated him 3 stars, the 480th best player in the country and the 76th best center…” He played in 10 games last year, a total of 51 minutes. He scored 2 points, grabbed 4 rebounds and committed 7 fouls. Then he hit the transfer portal only to decide to return. I suspect he may not have had any takers[/I] He might not have any takers this year, either. He played 62 minutes, scored 5 points and 14 rebounds but committed 8 fouls. He had tour de farce game against Miami in the Dome when he played 1 minute and, in that time, missed a shot, turned the ball over, committed two fouls and failed to get the key the key rebound of the game and season, even though it came right to him. [I]Frank Anselem 6-10 210 sophomore Frank played 26 minutes in four early games, the last on 12/12 vs. Boston College. Then he disappeared. There were rumors that he got hit hard by Covid but no one was really sure, (the University does not announce such things). It’s also been suggested that Frank made a mistake by re-classifying as a high school senior when he wasn’t yet ready to move on to college, (I don’t understand the process but it’s a thing, somehow.) But he has one thing that can’t be taught: a 7-5 wingspan. The distance between a normal human being’s fingers when the arms are stretched out[/I] is [I]usually very close to his height so Frank has the wingspan of a 7-5 center! He’s also the most athletic of the four centers, so his upside could be enormous. But so far, it’s just an upside, rather than a reality. Assistant Coach Allen Griffin: “We haven’t seen this type of athleticism at this position in a long time in terms of the way he can move and the way he can jump. … He’s gotta work on the motor part, of just playing hard on every possession.”[/I] With Bourama still hurting and John Bol being John Bol, Frank settled into a spot backing up Jesse Edwards. The difference between them was substantial. Edwards developed into an offensive star, scoring 17.3 points per 40 minutes to Frank’s 7.4. Jesse was also a superior ball hawk with 4.0 blocks to 1.5 and 1.6 steals to 0.7. Frank had that big wingspan but played small, often flat-footed. His touted athleticism and ‘length’ never seemed to show itself. Jim Boeheim said that it was the first time in his 46 years he’d had to “tell a player to jump”. (How high can a dead man jump, Jimmy?) When Jesse went down, the position became Frank’s and he responded with some of big games in the one area he matched Jesse in, rebounding (10.9 for Frank vs. 9.3 for Jesse per 40 minutes) against conference champion Virginia Tech (15), Georgia Tech (10), and Florida State (15). But in the other games, he wert back to being flat-footed Frank. Still, (assuming he doesn’t fly the coup looking for a starting spot), he’ll be an experienced back-up with real ability and quite a tandem with Jesse next year. The hope is, he’ll blossom in his junior year as Jesse did and being show some of that reach and athletic ability. Maybe even the beginnings of an offensive game could develop. Then, as a senior he’ll be read to take over for Jesse and be the star. No need for a ‘stretch four’ – or a stretch three. [I]Jesse Edwards 6-11 215 junior He played limited minutes last year, (2020), but looked promising. He moved well and had an awareness of what was going on around him. He never got credited with an assist but had the best pass of the season, a wrap-around no looker that bounced off Quincy Guerrier’s hands because he couldn’t believe it.” Jim Boeheim: “He’s got a very good skillset. He can shoot it, pass it very well for a big guy. He’s just not strong enough yet to play. He’s got to get[/I] [I]stronger and that’s going to take time. “In Jesse’s case it’s just physical strength. Nothing else.” Jesse played in 10 of the first 23 games for a total of 48 minutes. But starting with the Georgia Tech game of 2/27, he played in each of the last 8 games for a total of 112 minutes. When Jesse was in there we had a 7 footer, (Jesse looked clearly taller than our other centers – more than that one inch), and our zone was a much more formidable defense. He actually wasn’t that much of a shot blocker but he’d learned to position his body in front of whoever got into the paint with the ball and raise his arms to[/I] [I]provide a nearly insurmountable object to shoot or pass over or get around. It made a huge difference. JB continued to insist that Jesse ‘wasn’t ready’ but was playing him more and more and he was a key to our post-season run. If he continues to develop and can win the starting position this year, he could make a huge difference.[/I] Jesse showed up this year with a streak of white in his hair, causing me to dub him “the Streak” and his play lived up to it. He was still thinner than the big men he came up against but he was also quicker. He did get the knock of blocking shots and blocked many of them, also making steals. he rebounded well and was a big reason that this was our best team on the boards in years. He was dynamite on the pick and roll play and started scoring points in bunches. He was our first center that played big on both ends of the court since Rakeem Christmas, (or Bourama on those rare occasions when he was healthy). He scored 21 on Arizona State, 17 on both Auburn and Indiana 22 on Miami, and 19 each against NC State and Louisville. He also had double-doubles against Florida State and Clemson. Then Boston College decided to focus on him, rather than on our jump shooters and effectively took him out of the game, shutting him out on 0 for 3 shooting and 2 rebounds before he fouled out after just 13 minutes of play. They also took him out of the season as he fell heavily on one hand on one play. It was bothering after the game so they took an x-ray and found he had broken his wrist, ending his season. The defensive attention Jesse got allowed our shooters to hit 46% of their three point shots as we won our fourth straight game to go to 13-11 with hopes still alive of making the Big Dance and the likelihood of extending the winning season streak high. Without Jesse we came up short on both goals, despite a valiant effort against some strong teams at the end of the schedule. Jesse still has some developing to do. He still needs to get physically stronger. And I felt that, while he was making some big plays with blocks and steals, his sneaker-to-sneaker defense wasn’t as good as the previous year. I didn’t see the plays where he used his height and length to choke off drives, probably because, being surrounded by jump shooters, he had to cover too much territory. In 2020 he had the muscular Quincy Guerrier, the explosive Alan Griffin and the savvy Robert Braswell around him. We didn’t hear may adjectives like those this season with Swider, Girard and the Boeheims around him. Next year he may still have Swider and Girard but he’ll also have Maliq Brown, Peter Carey, Chris Bunch, Symir Torrance, Quadir Copeland and Justin Taylor around him and that could make a big difference. [I]Bourama Sidibe 6-10 218 super-senior (granted extra year due to Covid) “When Bourama came here four years ago, he was much shorter than Paschal Chukwu, our 7-2 string bean center but seemed like the more talented player…Many predicted he would become the starting center before the conference season began. His high school tape showed about everything you’d want to see from a center: quick movements, aggressive athleticism, running the court, blocking shots making steals, rebounding and scoring both from the low post and on drives, even a medium range jump shot. The game looked easy for him: [MEDIA=youtube]kbhPDJydyak[/MEDIA] “ “But when he got here, it became hard. He developed tendonitis in his knees, which sometimes bothered him so much that he couldn’t play and other times limited his effectiveness. Only occasionally did he show flashes of the talent in that tope. He not only lost much of his mobility but also his jumping ability and 6-10, (if he is that), is not exceptional height for a modern college center. But he showed ‘flashes’ as Greg Robinson would say. The biggest flash was a 18 point, 16 rebound, 3 block effort in 24 minutes at Pittsburgh. That was easily the best he’s played here…But he had trouble not only with his knees but with foul trouble and thus had only rare opportunities to put those kinds of numbers up.” “Last year, (2020), after off-season surgery he was moving much more freely and as the season progressed the game seemed to slow down for him. He got better at avoiding fouls, which is often a matter of knowing where to be and what’s going on around him. In his last six games he played 25-35 minutes per game and had 6/10/1 against Georgia Tech, 13/10/4 against Pittsburgh, a really impressive 17/15/6 in the Dome loss to North Carolina, 9/12/1 against Boston College, 2/10/2 against Miami, and 12/13/2 in the season-ending rout of the Tar Heels…I’ll take a continuation of the numbers he was putting up in those last six games.” What we got was Bourama re-injuring his knee just before the first TV time out, 4 minutes into the first game. That was on 11/27. He was supposed to be out for 4 weeks. We played Pittsburgh on 1/16, seven weeks later and he was still unable to play. Pitt’s star, Justin Champagnie was injured December 20th and was supposed to be out 6-8 weeks. He played in the 1/16 game and scored 24 points and pulled down 16 rebounds. SU fans were tearing their hair out. I can only imagine how Bourama felt watching that game. He came back to play 11 minutes against Clemson on 2/6. That was his senior season: 15 minutes, 3 points, 1 rebound, 1 block, 1 turnover, 4 fouls. He didn’t attempt a field goal and was 3 for 6 from the free throw line. His Net Points: -3. Fortunately, the extra year provided by Covid will allow him another chance to have a senior year, although he was so discouraged, he took a long time to decide to use it, rather than just moving on. There have been rumors that Bourama’s knees are basically shot and that he’s not going to play at all or not going to be able to do anything this year, either. That would be tragic but I doubt that he would have come back at all if things were that bad. Boeheim has said that his problem was that the knee became infected but that that has now cleared up. I hope so.[/I] They didn’t clear up and Bourama spent the season hurting. In the season’s first 25 games he played a total of 12 minutes during which he had 3 points and 4 rebounds. But down the stretch of his ‘super-senior’ season Bourama was needed. Frank Anselem had never played 40 minutes games and was too foul-prone do so if he wanted to. John Bol Ajak was…John Bol Ajak. We needed Bourama to split time with Frank and he played 141 minutes in the final 8 games on his ever-aching knees. He had 2 points and 4 rebounds against Boston College. Then, against Georgia Tech in the last game against a bad team we would play all year, we were protecting a narrow lead when Bourama got the ball about 20 feet from the basket with a single defender on him. He looked for someone to pass to but no one was open. He then looked over his shoulder to see that this one guy was the only thing between him and the basket. He made a quick turn and dribbled all the way to the hole. He couldn’t jump enough to dunk it but laid it in to extend the lead and help us get what seemed at the time to be a vital victory. After that he just gave it everything he had, scoring 11 points with 4 rebounds and a block and a steal against Duke’s big men, 8 points, 3 rebounds, another block and 2 steals against North Carolina’s big men, 4 points, 6 rebounds and a steal against Miami, and 5 rebounds and 3 blocks in the final, valiant effort against Duke in the ACC tournament. It allowed him to ride off into the Orange sunset with honor. I suggested on his radio show to Jim Boeheim that if you could grant DaJuan Coleman and Bourama Sidibe healthy knees, the history of SU’s last 8 seasons would have been totally different. Jim replied: “100% true.” [/QUOTE]

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