SWC75
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As I did after the football season, I thought I’d quote excerpts from my pre-season basketball preview and comment on how things worked out.
“But we’ve got a new challenge as well. This will be our first year in the Atlantic Coast Conference, traditionally the gold standard for college basketball conferences. In recent years the ACC has been kind of top heavy, with Duke and North Carolina dominating a bunch of not so great teams. I doubt it was actually the best conference top to bottom in that time. But Duke and North Carolina have been so powerful, with 8 national championships in the last 32 seasons that they have made it seem like the dominant conference even when it has not quite been that. The Big East has been the dominant conference in recent years, one that gave us a ranked opponent to play in game after game. If you had any weaknesses, you could expect to pay with defeats, as we did when we lost 9 of 13 and finished 23-12 in 2005-06 or lost 9 of 14 and finished 21-14 in 2007-08. Despite some colossal confrontations with the “Big Two”, I’m not sure the ACC will prove that tough on a game for game basis- except that we are beginning and old nemesis, Pittsburgh, and an occasional nemesis, Notre Dame in with us and will be joined by another nemesis, Louisville next season. But I’m still not sure that the new ACC will have the overall strength of the conference we’ve just left. Boston College, Clemson, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest all had losing records last year while Florida State and Georgia Tech were a total of three games over .500. Miami had its best ever team last year at 29-7 but got wiped out by graduation. NC State may be a coming program- or may not. Maryland and Virginia had good records but didn’t make the Big Dance. What the conference doesn’t have is any true bottom-feeders as we had with Rutgers, DePaul and South Florida in the Big East. There will be no walk-over games. But aside from the big confrontations, I don’t think this conference will pound a struggling team into the hardwood the way the Big East did.
One important difference may be the style of play- and the style of the refereeing. This may be overstated a bit but the Big East developed a reputation for ugly basketball, with teams playing defense like they were auditioning for the WWF or MMA championship. We’d have a bunch of high-flying pre-season games with wide-open basketball where player got to show their skills and then enter the conference schedule and get bogged down in half court wrestling matches. The hope is strong that now, in the ACC, we’ll be playing ‘real’ basketball, where defense is about staying in front of your man, stealing passes and blocking shots, not pushing and grabbing. Also, we used to have great success with Jim Boeheim’s famous 2-3 zone as long as we weren’t playing conference foes who were used to finding ways to beat it. Now- at least in this first year, we’ll be facing teams that haven’t had to deal with it before. This could be to our opponents like Syracuse’s experience facing Georgia Tech’s triple option attack in football- it will take then a while to figure out how to deal with it.”
Comment: I think the ACC continued to be a mediocre conference, at least compared to its reputation and that was born out when only Virginia survived the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. We would never have gone 25-0 in the Big East conference we left. Despite the great start, this actually wasn’t one of our better teams. 2010 and 2012 were clearly better. Last year’s team was probably better, despite the 10 losses and even 2011 might have been a better team. Coach K has had many better Duke teams and Roy Williams has had many better UNC teams. Virginia was a huge surprise but the rest of the conference was more on a mid-major level. I don’t think the mediocrity will last. We, Duke and UNC will all get back into form, perhaps not immediately but it won’t take long. I think Virginia is here to stay. Here comes Louisville and Jim Calhoun may take the BC job. Buzz Williams is a good coach. The other programs will have to upgrade to compete with the powerhouses. The ACC will become the dominate league but it certainly wasn’t this year.
The hope that moving to a new conference would provide us with wide-open basketball crashed and burned very quickly. The style of play in the ACC isn’t as rough as it was in the Big East but the pace is even slower. Our games averaged a combined 132 possessions a game last year. This year it was 122. In the first year for which SU has the numbers, 1982-83, there were 163 possessions a game. As recently as 2008-2099, the number was 147. The slowing down of the game is endemic to college basketball. There’s been some games in the NCAA tournament that looked like old-fashioned basketball but most of them looked like our games: taking forever to get a shot off and nobody can shoot. Fast breaks are something from grainy old films. Something has got to be done, but I don’t know what.
“I think the real upgrade in schedule, despite the Duke and North Carolina games, is in the non-conference schedule. Oh, we’ll still play teams like Cornell and Colgate, St. Francis of Brooklyn, Binghamton and High Point. But we are trying to maintain some of our old Big East rivalries and will now be meeting teams in December we used to play in Januarys and February. We’ll be playing St. John’s on December 15th and Villanova on December 28th. Then there’s our annual early season tournament. We’re in the Maui Classic, which we’ve won twice before, along with schools like Arkansas, California, Gonzaga, Baylor, Dayton and Minnesota, as well as that perennial upseter, Chaminade. On top of everything else, there’s a December 3rd date in the Dome with Indiana, a team that may be just a little interested in beating us since we knocked them out of the NCAA tournament when they were the #1 seed in the region last year.
This is going to be the toughest schedule we have ever played, full of huge, marquee games. If we can maintain Jim Boeheim’s average of winning 25 games a year, that would be a very good season. Adding to our total of 30 win season is going to be very difficult against this schedule. “
Comment: We came very close to winning 30 games. After going 25-0, that should have been a given. But we just couldn’t put the ball in the basket down the stretch. With Virginia the only blow-out loss, it wouldn’t have taken too many of those back-rim shots to get ‘er done. It helped that Indiana, North Carolina and even Duke weren’t as good as they usually are. But it was still a good schedule and a 28-6 record over that schedule is a good record.
CENTERS
“RAKEEM CHRISTMAS grew up in St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. He moved to Philadelphia at age 13 after his mother died to live with an aunt. That’s when he took up the game of basketball. He’s athletic and strong, (6-9 and 250, up from 228 last year), but lacking in developed basketball skills. He hits an occasional jumper and sometimes makes a startling move to the basket. But he doesn’t score much and he doesn’t rebound enough, either. He did play excellent defense in the run to the Final Four last year. Rak was a McDonald’s All-America based on his size athleticism- one service even listed him as the top center prospect in the country. We have been waiting for him to live up to the hype. But he hasn’t been playing this game as long as the others and he seems to be the type of guy who has to have a fire lit under him. This is his junior year so he still has time to develop. So far Boeheim seems to want to use him as a forward, at least to start games but he’s played a lot more center than forward and seems more comfortable there. And every minute he spends at forward is a minute Jerami Grant spends on the bench.”
Comment: The forward experiment didn’t last long and ended when DaJuan Coleman went down. Christmas looked as if he was emerging as a major player on the team in the NC State when he had 12 points, 14 rebounds and 7 blocks, as well as the steal that won the game for us. He had some productive games after that but consistency was elusive. Some games his teammates didn’t look to get him the ball at all. He showed progress with a jump-hook in mid-season but that evaporated. He’s got one more year to really get it together.
“BAYE MOUSSA KEITA is another big man who came to this country to learn the game. He was born in Senegal. He’s also quick and athletic but very skinny (6-10 220). Like Christmas he hasn’t developed much of a shot or many ways to get to the basket on offense. His scoring is mostly on follow-shots. He seems to have relatively small hands and a lot of passes to him wind up as turn-overs. But he’s can rebound some and blocks shots. Like Christmas, he played lock-down defense at the center spot during the post season run. Because of his comparatively slight stature, he has a tendency to wear down as the season goes along or if he plays too many minutes. Last year, with three centers, JB could avoid that fate and he’ll get the chance to do it again this year.”
Comment: Baye is a great guy, so respected they named a team award in his name. But he didn’t even reach his limited upside this year. His hands were still weak and any semblance of an offensive game disappeared completely. His defense suffered, as well. I think both he and Christmas were impacted by the fact that this year’s back-court allowed more penetration of the zone than last year’s, meaning the centers had to come forward to defend, leaving the back line open. Baye was also limited by a knee injury. But he never lost his habit of leaping to block the shots of shorter players and he was more foul-prone than ever. He never went beyond being a 10 minute a game guy and when we had to play him more than that, it was bad news.
“DaJUAN COLEMAN has been playing basketball for years but sometimes it’s hard to tell. He’s always easy to spot: He’s 6-9 280 with some impressive tattoos. He’s got some useful basketball skills. He can score facing the basket with jump shots. He’s an excellent passer, particularly on outlet passes. He can handle the ball well enough to participate in the break or to dribble away from the basket to set up his pass- a very valuable tool for a big man. He’s our best rebounder and the one guy we have who can score inside. Like Rakeem, he was a McDonald’s All-American. But he’s had problems adjusting to this level of play where the defenders are closer to his size than in high school. He tends to hold the ball too low, where defenders can grab hold of it. A big man on offense is only as tall as where he holds the ball. DaJuan also tends to dribble the ball when he doesn’t necessarily need to. His timing on his moves to the basket is sometimes off, causing him to plow into defenders rather than letting them go by or finding a seam between them. He has yet to develop the back to the basket moves that a predecessor with a similar build, Arinze Onuaku, developed. AO used to turn his back to the defender near the top of the key and back him down with the dribble, then turn and score over him. Defensively, AO was never a shot blocker but he learned to move his feet to stay in front of people and to use his bulk to block the route ot the basket. DaJuan needs to learn how to do those things. Without those skills, he commits too many fouls and turnovers to be able to stay in the game for long periods. But it took AO most of his four years to develop his game and it may take DC2, as he’s being called, (DC1 being Derrick Coleman), as long. He did show promise in the game against Ottawa, hitting 10 of 13 shots to score 26 points. Against Ryerson he had only 2 field goals but got to the line 10 times and made 7 to go with 10 rebounds in 23 minutes. When the college game starts making sense to him, watch out! “
Co9mment: Wash, rinse, repeat. DC’s second year was basically identical to his first. He showed little progress and then got injured and was out for the season again. He played in too many games to redshirt so he’s got two more years to develop his game and make his case for the next level. If he does, he could be a major difference maker. If not, he’ll again be part of another 15 foul triumvirate with Obokoh replacing Keita as our Sengalese center.
FORWARDS
“Many of our best teams have been very strong at the forward position: Derrick Coleman and Billy Owens. John Wallace and Todd Burgan, Carmelo Anthony and Hakim Warrick. Forwards are the players who do everything: they handle the ball, pass it, shoot it, rebound, block shots, make steals, play defense. I still remember when we went down to Georgetown in 1990 and Coleman and Owens took on Mourning and Motumbo and we blew them out of their own place 95-76. Their dominance at the center position was no match for our domination of both forward positions. We could have that again this year with C.J. Fair and Jerami Grant. There may not be a better pair of forwards in the country.
C. J. FAIR was an unknown quantity when he came here. He’d injured a knee in his junior year in high school and recruiters backed off. But Syracuse stayed with him and he came here. He was kind of an afterthought in a class that included Fab Melo and Dion Waiters. But people who had seen him play said “You’re going to like this guy” and we did. His instincts for playing the game were great. He seemed to know where the ball was or will be on play after play. He found ways to slip through the defense and score. He became our best pound for pound rebounder and a good defender. Everything he did seemed smooth and effortless because he did it so efficiently. Yet he was capable of very athletic plays, including rim-rattling dunks. He’s not a muscle man but at 6-8 215 he has a wiry strength and gets a lot of loose balls. He had a nice medium range jump shot. The one real weakness was the lack of three point range. But he’s worked hard on that and improved from a 25% three point shooter as a sophomore to 47% last year, (30 for 64). This year he’ll be relied on more to provide an outside game as James Southerland is no longer there and he probably won’t shoot 47%. But he still is as complete a player as you’lll see and is the pre-season pick for ACC player of the year. He makes the game look so easy that that seems a stretch to some but people who look at the box scores know better. One thing he isn’t is a player who is at his best when he’s dominating the ball. Early last year he seemed to be struggling a bit in his new role as one of the team’s stars. His whole emphasis seemed to be setting up his own shot and he was a bit of a “black hole”. He’s best when he moves without the ball and lets the game come to him. “
Comment: That last comment turned out to be key. CJ got his numbers but he struggled mightily at times simply because being the #1 scoring option is not his best role. We kept setting up isolation plays for him and he either turned the ball over, got tangled up in double teams or flipped up low percentage shots. He found enough openings to stile lad the team in scoring but he missed a lot more shots to do so. Even his outside shot suffered as his three point percentage dropped form 47% to 28%. His rebounding dropped as well. He was a good player but no the ACC player of the year and he and grant never became “the best pair of forwards in the country”. Our greatest teams have had stud forwards who could carry the team with their skills and CJ wasn’t quite up to that role.
“But C.J. , as good as he is, might not be the best forward on this team. JERAMI GRANT came here with an outstanding pedigree. He’s the son of Harvey Grant, a 6-8 195 pound forward for Oklahoma during the Billy Tubbs years who played 11 years in the NBA for Washington, Portland and Philadelphia, averaging 18 points and 7 rebounds a game in his best years. Jerami’s uncle is Horace Grant, a 6-10 215 pound forward for Clemson who went on to play with Michael Jordan’s Bulls during their glory era, as well as Orlando, Seattle and the Lakers for 17 years, averaging as much as 15 points and 11 rebounds in a season. Jerami is listed at 6-8 210 but with the wingspan of a 7 footer, he seems much bigger and may still be growing. His first season, he showed flashes as a reserve behind Southerland and Fair and when Southerland got suspended for 6 games, Grant was playing starter’s minutes and he looked like a coming star, going up over people to score, hitting jumpers, grabbing rebounds and blocking shots. Then Southerland came back and Grant seemed to go into a shell. He wasn’t much of a factor down the stretch and people wondered which direction he was going in. But in the four exhibitions, he’s looked like a guy already ready for the NBA. All the moves were there and all the shots, too. He gets to the line and makes free throws. He seemed like a man among boys. Other than Carleton, the level of completion was not strong but Grant played so well, it didn’t seem to matter. In six games he averaged 21 points and 11 rebounds per 40 minutes of play, shot 51% from the field and had games where he made 10 of 14 and 7 of 9 free throws. We still need to see him do it against quality opposition but I have a strong feeling that Jerami is going to “blow up” this year and be in the NBA next year. But he needs to play, not get stuck behind a Rakeem Christmas as a forward experiment.”
Comment: Grant wasn’t that stud forward either but he could become one. He became a double-double machine by the end of the year, showed an interesting spin move and even hit a few medium range jump shots. He used his long arms to make SportsCenter top 10 dunks several times. He’s an exciting player but he needs to get stronger, keep developing his moves to the basket and become more consistent with his jump shot. He’s being mentioned for a possible jump to the NBA but he needs to hone his body and his skills here for at least another year. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.
“TYLER ROBERSON will be the leading reserve forward. He’s a good-looking freshman prospect who was unable to play in the Canadian tour while the NCAA reviewed his academic situation. He’s been cleared now and played in the two exhibitions in the Dome. He’s 6-8 212 and plays tough. He’s a good rebounder and could help us on “D”. I like his form with the jump shot. He didn’t make very many of them, 3 for 13) but I think he’ll be able to score as well. “
Comment: Tyler’s failure to develop into a consistent contributor was disappointing but I still think he has the potential to be one in the future. JB was hard on him, a sign that he believes in his potential,(no point in being hard on a guy who could never be any better than he is). He said that he hadn’t been able to learn the offense or the defense and “can’t help us”. Roberson also seemed tentative with his shooting. As a result he didn’t make very many of them. He clearly ahs along way to go. If Grant jumps to the pros, Tyler needs to become a major contributor immediately. Will he be up to it? Stay tuned.
“B. J. JOHNSON facially looks like C. J. Fair and may someday replace him in the line-up. He’s a 6-7 185 pound jumping jack who also has a good outside shot. He may see some time at the “2” as well as playing some forward. His best chance at playing time is if the guys at the 2 don’t provide the outside shooting we need. I think any team needs at least a couple guys on the floor who are three point threats to stretch the defense in more than one direction.”
Comment: BJ, the youngest player on the team, just wasn’t ready to play at this level and we never got that second shooter we needed. I still think he’s got a lot of talent and could become a major player in the future.
GUARDS
“TYLER ENNIS is our latest in a long line of talented point guards. He’s from Canada, which is becoming a significant source of basketball talent. Ennis is a good friend of Andrew Wiggins, the Kansas recruit who was on the cover of Sports Illustrated but could not convince him to wear Orange. Tyler is different from Michael Carter-Williams. MCW was 6-6 and had a 7 foot wingspan. He had an average outside shot but was very good at driving to the basket and was a creative passer and strong defender. But on last year’s team, with the lack of inside AND outside scoring, he felt they had to do things by himself and he wasn’t a dynamic enough scorer to carry the team by himself. He had a lot of good plays but some bad plays mixed in with them because he was trying to do a bit too much. Ennis is 6-2 and thus much less imposing as a defensive guard. He’s also a mediocre outside shooter at best. But he’s a great distributor of the ball and gets everyone involved. He’s quick enough to take advantage of scoring opportunities but never seems to be forcing anything. He, too, will need to have some teammates who can score so he doesn’t have to do too much but he’s so smooth in everything he does I think his teammates will find scoring easier than it was last year. We have a history of great freshman point guards- Pearl Washington, Adrian Autry, (who is on the coaching staff), Jason Hart, Gerry McNamara, (also on the staff) and Jonny Flynn. Ennis will be another.”
Comment: Yes he was. He was the definition of steady all season, with minimal turnovers, giving us an edge in that department that would normally make up for rebounding deficiencies, (which we didn’t have this year). He also proved he could rise to the occasion and take over the scoring load when necessary. And he hit a 40 foot shot to win us the Pittsburgh game. It was a fabulous freshman year. It also spoiled us. People look at Ennis and assume that all freshmen are ready to come in an contribute- or even be a star. Roberson, Patterson and Johnson disprove that but people will still ignore it. Ennis, like Grant, is very good but could get better. He could get stronger and become more consistent with his outside shot, maybe even adding a pull-up jumper. He needs another year here but we all know that if the NBA lottery calls, it’s hard to keep ‘em down on the farm. If he leaves we will have the expectation that Kaleb Joseph will just come in here and take over where Ennis left off. That may be expecting too much.
“TREVOR COONEY was supposed to be a phenomenal outside shooter. He’s also an under-rated athlete and defender. He can dunk with both hands, (he’s 6-4) and plays the passing lanes very well. But he’s out there to shoot and last year he got off to a bad start and never really broke out of his slump. He missed 99 of his 146 three point attempts. That’s 32% and it seemed worse. Your “shooting guard” needs to do better than that and his playing time this year will depend on his ability to improve that. In the six exhibitions he’s been 13 for 34 (38%), which is more like it but I think he can do better than that. He’s not a creative ball-handler. In the national semi-finals against Michigan last year, both our starting guards, MCW and Triche, had fouled out and Cooney wound up running the team. The results were not pretty. A final drive to the basket when the game could still be tied was pretty much of a disaster. Trevor is involved in trying to answer two of the big questions on this team: Who will be the “2” guard and who will back up Ennis at the point? He’s much more likely to be the answer to the first question than the second.”
Comment: Cooney was much better, at least to begin the season. He started out looking like the second coming of Jerry west, or at least Chris Mullin. By the end of the season he was basically last season’s Trevor Cooney. He showed an occasion move around a guy or to the basket. He has the capability to be a scorer, not just a shooter. And he’s a good defensive player and decent ball-handler. He’d probably be better off developing his all-around game. But as our only three point shooter, he had to try to run guys crazy to get an open shot and the results were that his shots were often rushed, off-balance and not squared to the basket. What he needs more than anything else is a second shooter the defense needs to guard. We didn’t have one this year and it remains to be seen if they will have one next year, either.
“MICHAEL GBINIJE is a transfer from Duke who practiced with the team last year but could not play under the transfer rule. He’s thus been coached by the two winningest coaches in college basketball history, so he should know how to play the game. He looked great in his high school highlight tapes- there are several on You-Tube. He can hit three point shots, can pull up for jumpers, (a lost art), pass the ball, rebound it and play defense. His tape had several steals and a block where he slipped around his man, scooped up the ball and dribbled the length of the court to score. Nobody is quite sure why he didn’t work out at Duke but the hope here was that he could become our 2 guard and also back up Ennis at the point. He’s essentially a forward (6-7 200) but a jack of all trades who can give you whatever you need. I call him an “Alice’s Restaurant Player”, (“You can get anything you want…”). But in the exhibitions, something seemed to be missing. “Silent G” seemed to play without emotion, sort of going through the motions. His shot was AWOL: 7 for 23 overall, (30%) and 1 for 10 from the arc. He had a 12-14 assist to turnover ratio. I don’t know what the problem is, (I have yet to see him smile), but this guy could contribute a lot more than we’ve seen. Maybe that’s why he’s not at Duke anymore. “
Comment: “Silent G” remained mute for much of the season. His best game was his last one when he played aggressively and scored 8 points in 22 minutes. He played pretty good defense, handled the ball Ok but wasn’t much of a factor in most games. He didn’t rebound much for a 6-7 guy and he didn’t score much, either. When Grant moved into the starting line-up after Coleman’s injury, our bench effectively consisted of Gbinije and Keita and we had several games with 0 bench points. He’s another guy that could do so much more and may have to next year.
“RON PATTERSON is an intriguing freshman guard who originally committed to Indiana but changed his mind and came here. He’ll get a chance to show the Hoosiers what they are missing on December 3rd. Ron is a long-armed tenacious defender with a football player’s build, (6-3, 200). He also loves to shoot the ball from all angles and is either way off or right on. He’s had a 1 for 12 game and a 4 for 7 game with 3 treys. That makes him an exciting player but it also makes him another dubious candidate to be the back-up point guard. If Cooney isn’t hitting and Gbinije isn’t trying, Patterson could see some time at the 2 guard spot. “
Comment: I’m not in sympathy with those who blame Jim Boeheim for not playing more guys or playing the bench longer. He sees these guys in practice. We don’t. I don’t believe shoving a guy out there makes him a better player. It’s up to them to learn the skills and the strategies and prove they can execute them and “My Three Sons” obviously didn’t do that. But given Cooney’s struggles down the stretch, I have to admit that Patterson could hardly have been worse in some of those games. As JB said, “he could make three in a row and not hit the rim on the next three”. I’ll take 3 for 6. I hope he’s given a serious chance to compete for Cooney’s job next year, if only to push Trevor. Patterson may be too much of a loose cannon to be a consistent contributor but it doesn’t mean he couldn’t help us in certain games.
“I love having a good point guard to go with two terrific forwards. I’d like to see more progress from the centers and I don’t know what the solution is at the 2 or for Ennis’ back-up. If Coleman doesn’t get it going, we will again be without a reliable inside scorer and if nobody takes charge at the 2, we will again be without a reliable outside game. I do think we’ll again be a strong defensive team and that will keep us in games. Hopefully the zone will be a mystery to our new conference brethren. “
Coment: We had a very good point guard with two good forwards. The centers didn’t make much progress. Cooney took charge at the two but failed down the stretch. Our defense was good, (and very good in the Dayton game, or else we wouldn’t have had a chance to win it at the end going against a team that made 7 three pointers when we were 1 for 19 outside the paint). But this was not a vintage Syracuse defense, something that got obscured with all the offensive struggles down the stretch. We allowed too much penetration of the zone and didn’t do a good job guarding three point shooters, which burned us in several games. It was our best rebounding team in years and we didn’t turn the ball over. Gaining and maintaining possession of the ball was our greatest strength and the primary reason that a team that was mediocre in several key ways was able to have a 28-6 season.
“But we’ve got a new challenge as well. This will be our first year in the Atlantic Coast Conference, traditionally the gold standard for college basketball conferences. In recent years the ACC has been kind of top heavy, with Duke and North Carolina dominating a bunch of not so great teams. I doubt it was actually the best conference top to bottom in that time. But Duke and North Carolina have been so powerful, with 8 national championships in the last 32 seasons that they have made it seem like the dominant conference even when it has not quite been that. The Big East has been the dominant conference in recent years, one that gave us a ranked opponent to play in game after game. If you had any weaknesses, you could expect to pay with defeats, as we did when we lost 9 of 13 and finished 23-12 in 2005-06 or lost 9 of 14 and finished 21-14 in 2007-08. Despite some colossal confrontations with the “Big Two”, I’m not sure the ACC will prove that tough on a game for game basis- except that we are beginning and old nemesis, Pittsburgh, and an occasional nemesis, Notre Dame in with us and will be joined by another nemesis, Louisville next season. But I’m still not sure that the new ACC will have the overall strength of the conference we’ve just left. Boston College, Clemson, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest all had losing records last year while Florida State and Georgia Tech were a total of three games over .500. Miami had its best ever team last year at 29-7 but got wiped out by graduation. NC State may be a coming program- or may not. Maryland and Virginia had good records but didn’t make the Big Dance. What the conference doesn’t have is any true bottom-feeders as we had with Rutgers, DePaul and South Florida in the Big East. There will be no walk-over games. But aside from the big confrontations, I don’t think this conference will pound a struggling team into the hardwood the way the Big East did.
One important difference may be the style of play- and the style of the refereeing. This may be overstated a bit but the Big East developed a reputation for ugly basketball, with teams playing defense like they were auditioning for the WWF or MMA championship. We’d have a bunch of high-flying pre-season games with wide-open basketball where player got to show their skills and then enter the conference schedule and get bogged down in half court wrestling matches. The hope is strong that now, in the ACC, we’ll be playing ‘real’ basketball, where defense is about staying in front of your man, stealing passes and blocking shots, not pushing and grabbing. Also, we used to have great success with Jim Boeheim’s famous 2-3 zone as long as we weren’t playing conference foes who were used to finding ways to beat it. Now- at least in this first year, we’ll be facing teams that haven’t had to deal with it before. This could be to our opponents like Syracuse’s experience facing Georgia Tech’s triple option attack in football- it will take then a while to figure out how to deal with it.”
Comment: I think the ACC continued to be a mediocre conference, at least compared to its reputation and that was born out when only Virginia survived the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. We would never have gone 25-0 in the Big East conference we left. Despite the great start, this actually wasn’t one of our better teams. 2010 and 2012 were clearly better. Last year’s team was probably better, despite the 10 losses and even 2011 might have been a better team. Coach K has had many better Duke teams and Roy Williams has had many better UNC teams. Virginia was a huge surprise but the rest of the conference was more on a mid-major level. I don’t think the mediocrity will last. We, Duke and UNC will all get back into form, perhaps not immediately but it won’t take long. I think Virginia is here to stay. Here comes Louisville and Jim Calhoun may take the BC job. Buzz Williams is a good coach. The other programs will have to upgrade to compete with the powerhouses. The ACC will become the dominate league but it certainly wasn’t this year.
The hope that moving to a new conference would provide us with wide-open basketball crashed and burned very quickly. The style of play in the ACC isn’t as rough as it was in the Big East but the pace is even slower. Our games averaged a combined 132 possessions a game last year. This year it was 122. In the first year for which SU has the numbers, 1982-83, there were 163 possessions a game. As recently as 2008-2099, the number was 147. The slowing down of the game is endemic to college basketball. There’s been some games in the NCAA tournament that looked like old-fashioned basketball but most of them looked like our games: taking forever to get a shot off and nobody can shoot. Fast breaks are something from grainy old films. Something has got to be done, but I don’t know what.
“I think the real upgrade in schedule, despite the Duke and North Carolina games, is in the non-conference schedule. Oh, we’ll still play teams like Cornell and Colgate, St. Francis of Brooklyn, Binghamton and High Point. But we are trying to maintain some of our old Big East rivalries and will now be meeting teams in December we used to play in Januarys and February. We’ll be playing St. John’s on December 15th and Villanova on December 28th. Then there’s our annual early season tournament. We’re in the Maui Classic, which we’ve won twice before, along with schools like Arkansas, California, Gonzaga, Baylor, Dayton and Minnesota, as well as that perennial upseter, Chaminade. On top of everything else, there’s a December 3rd date in the Dome with Indiana, a team that may be just a little interested in beating us since we knocked them out of the NCAA tournament when they were the #1 seed in the region last year.
This is going to be the toughest schedule we have ever played, full of huge, marquee games. If we can maintain Jim Boeheim’s average of winning 25 games a year, that would be a very good season. Adding to our total of 30 win season is going to be very difficult against this schedule. “
Comment: We came very close to winning 30 games. After going 25-0, that should have been a given. But we just couldn’t put the ball in the basket down the stretch. With Virginia the only blow-out loss, it wouldn’t have taken too many of those back-rim shots to get ‘er done. It helped that Indiana, North Carolina and even Duke weren’t as good as they usually are. But it was still a good schedule and a 28-6 record over that schedule is a good record.
CENTERS
“RAKEEM CHRISTMAS grew up in St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. He moved to Philadelphia at age 13 after his mother died to live with an aunt. That’s when he took up the game of basketball. He’s athletic and strong, (6-9 and 250, up from 228 last year), but lacking in developed basketball skills. He hits an occasional jumper and sometimes makes a startling move to the basket. But he doesn’t score much and he doesn’t rebound enough, either. He did play excellent defense in the run to the Final Four last year. Rak was a McDonald’s All-America based on his size athleticism- one service even listed him as the top center prospect in the country. We have been waiting for him to live up to the hype. But he hasn’t been playing this game as long as the others and he seems to be the type of guy who has to have a fire lit under him. This is his junior year so he still has time to develop. So far Boeheim seems to want to use him as a forward, at least to start games but he’s played a lot more center than forward and seems more comfortable there. And every minute he spends at forward is a minute Jerami Grant spends on the bench.”
Comment: The forward experiment didn’t last long and ended when DaJuan Coleman went down. Christmas looked as if he was emerging as a major player on the team in the NC State when he had 12 points, 14 rebounds and 7 blocks, as well as the steal that won the game for us. He had some productive games after that but consistency was elusive. Some games his teammates didn’t look to get him the ball at all. He showed progress with a jump-hook in mid-season but that evaporated. He’s got one more year to really get it together.
“BAYE MOUSSA KEITA is another big man who came to this country to learn the game. He was born in Senegal. He’s also quick and athletic but very skinny (6-10 220). Like Christmas he hasn’t developed much of a shot or many ways to get to the basket on offense. His scoring is mostly on follow-shots. He seems to have relatively small hands and a lot of passes to him wind up as turn-overs. But he’s can rebound some and blocks shots. Like Christmas, he played lock-down defense at the center spot during the post season run. Because of his comparatively slight stature, he has a tendency to wear down as the season goes along or if he plays too many minutes. Last year, with three centers, JB could avoid that fate and he’ll get the chance to do it again this year.”
Comment: Baye is a great guy, so respected they named a team award in his name. But he didn’t even reach his limited upside this year. His hands were still weak and any semblance of an offensive game disappeared completely. His defense suffered, as well. I think both he and Christmas were impacted by the fact that this year’s back-court allowed more penetration of the zone than last year’s, meaning the centers had to come forward to defend, leaving the back line open. Baye was also limited by a knee injury. But he never lost his habit of leaping to block the shots of shorter players and he was more foul-prone than ever. He never went beyond being a 10 minute a game guy and when we had to play him more than that, it was bad news.
“DaJUAN COLEMAN has been playing basketball for years but sometimes it’s hard to tell. He’s always easy to spot: He’s 6-9 280 with some impressive tattoos. He’s got some useful basketball skills. He can score facing the basket with jump shots. He’s an excellent passer, particularly on outlet passes. He can handle the ball well enough to participate in the break or to dribble away from the basket to set up his pass- a very valuable tool for a big man. He’s our best rebounder and the one guy we have who can score inside. Like Rakeem, he was a McDonald’s All-American. But he’s had problems adjusting to this level of play where the defenders are closer to his size than in high school. He tends to hold the ball too low, where defenders can grab hold of it. A big man on offense is only as tall as where he holds the ball. DaJuan also tends to dribble the ball when he doesn’t necessarily need to. His timing on his moves to the basket is sometimes off, causing him to plow into defenders rather than letting them go by or finding a seam between them. He has yet to develop the back to the basket moves that a predecessor with a similar build, Arinze Onuaku, developed. AO used to turn his back to the defender near the top of the key and back him down with the dribble, then turn and score over him. Defensively, AO was never a shot blocker but he learned to move his feet to stay in front of people and to use his bulk to block the route ot the basket. DaJuan needs to learn how to do those things. Without those skills, he commits too many fouls and turnovers to be able to stay in the game for long periods. But it took AO most of his four years to develop his game and it may take DC2, as he’s being called, (DC1 being Derrick Coleman), as long. He did show promise in the game against Ottawa, hitting 10 of 13 shots to score 26 points. Against Ryerson he had only 2 field goals but got to the line 10 times and made 7 to go with 10 rebounds in 23 minutes. When the college game starts making sense to him, watch out! “
Co9mment: Wash, rinse, repeat. DC’s second year was basically identical to his first. He showed little progress and then got injured and was out for the season again. He played in too many games to redshirt so he’s got two more years to develop his game and make his case for the next level. If he does, he could be a major difference maker. If not, he’ll again be part of another 15 foul triumvirate with Obokoh replacing Keita as our Sengalese center.
FORWARDS
“Many of our best teams have been very strong at the forward position: Derrick Coleman and Billy Owens. John Wallace and Todd Burgan, Carmelo Anthony and Hakim Warrick. Forwards are the players who do everything: they handle the ball, pass it, shoot it, rebound, block shots, make steals, play defense. I still remember when we went down to Georgetown in 1990 and Coleman and Owens took on Mourning and Motumbo and we blew them out of their own place 95-76. Their dominance at the center position was no match for our domination of both forward positions. We could have that again this year with C.J. Fair and Jerami Grant. There may not be a better pair of forwards in the country.
C. J. FAIR was an unknown quantity when he came here. He’d injured a knee in his junior year in high school and recruiters backed off. But Syracuse stayed with him and he came here. He was kind of an afterthought in a class that included Fab Melo and Dion Waiters. But people who had seen him play said “You’re going to like this guy” and we did. His instincts for playing the game were great. He seemed to know where the ball was or will be on play after play. He found ways to slip through the defense and score. He became our best pound for pound rebounder and a good defender. Everything he did seemed smooth and effortless because he did it so efficiently. Yet he was capable of very athletic plays, including rim-rattling dunks. He’s not a muscle man but at 6-8 215 he has a wiry strength and gets a lot of loose balls. He had a nice medium range jump shot. The one real weakness was the lack of three point range. But he’s worked hard on that and improved from a 25% three point shooter as a sophomore to 47% last year, (30 for 64). This year he’ll be relied on more to provide an outside game as James Southerland is no longer there and he probably won’t shoot 47%. But he still is as complete a player as you’lll see and is the pre-season pick for ACC player of the year. He makes the game look so easy that that seems a stretch to some but people who look at the box scores know better. One thing he isn’t is a player who is at his best when he’s dominating the ball. Early last year he seemed to be struggling a bit in his new role as one of the team’s stars. His whole emphasis seemed to be setting up his own shot and he was a bit of a “black hole”. He’s best when he moves without the ball and lets the game come to him. “
Comment: That last comment turned out to be key. CJ got his numbers but he struggled mightily at times simply because being the #1 scoring option is not his best role. We kept setting up isolation plays for him and he either turned the ball over, got tangled up in double teams or flipped up low percentage shots. He found enough openings to stile lad the team in scoring but he missed a lot more shots to do so. Even his outside shot suffered as his three point percentage dropped form 47% to 28%. His rebounding dropped as well. He was a good player but no the ACC player of the year and he and grant never became “the best pair of forwards in the country”. Our greatest teams have had stud forwards who could carry the team with their skills and CJ wasn’t quite up to that role.
“But C.J. , as good as he is, might not be the best forward on this team. JERAMI GRANT came here with an outstanding pedigree. He’s the son of Harvey Grant, a 6-8 195 pound forward for Oklahoma during the Billy Tubbs years who played 11 years in the NBA for Washington, Portland and Philadelphia, averaging 18 points and 7 rebounds a game in his best years. Jerami’s uncle is Horace Grant, a 6-10 215 pound forward for Clemson who went on to play with Michael Jordan’s Bulls during their glory era, as well as Orlando, Seattle and the Lakers for 17 years, averaging as much as 15 points and 11 rebounds in a season. Jerami is listed at 6-8 210 but with the wingspan of a 7 footer, he seems much bigger and may still be growing. His first season, he showed flashes as a reserve behind Southerland and Fair and when Southerland got suspended for 6 games, Grant was playing starter’s minutes and he looked like a coming star, going up over people to score, hitting jumpers, grabbing rebounds and blocking shots. Then Southerland came back and Grant seemed to go into a shell. He wasn’t much of a factor down the stretch and people wondered which direction he was going in. But in the four exhibitions, he’s looked like a guy already ready for the NBA. All the moves were there and all the shots, too. He gets to the line and makes free throws. He seemed like a man among boys. Other than Carleton, the level of completion was not strong but Grant played so well, it didn’t seem to matter. In six games he averaged 21 points and 11 rebounds per 40 minutes of play, shot 51% from the field and had games where he made 10 of 14 and 7 of 9 free throws. We still need to see him do it against quality opposition but I have a strong feeling that Jerami is going to “blow up” this year and be in the NBA next year. But he needs to play, not get stuck behind a Rakeem Christmas as a forward experiment.”
Comment: Grant wasn’t that stud forward either but he could become one. He became a double-double machine by the end of the year, showed an interesting spin move and even hit a few medium range jump shots. He used his long arms to make SportsCenter top 10 dunks several times. He’s an exciting player but he needs to get stronger, keep developing his moves to the basket and become more consistent with his jump shot. He’s being mentioned for a possible jump to the NBA but he needs to hone his body and his skills here for at least another year. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.
“TYLER ROBERSON will be the leading reserve forward. He’s a good-looking freshman prospect who was unable to play in the Canadian tour while the NCAA reviewed his academic situation. He’s been cleared now and played in the two exhibitions in the Dome. He’s 6-8 212 and plays tough. He’s a good rebounder and could help us on “D”. I like his form with the jump shot. He didn’t make very many of them, 3 for 13) but I think he’ll be able to score as well. “
Comment: Tyler’s failure to develop into a consistent contributor was disappointing but I still think he has the potential to be one in the future. JB was hard on him, a sign that he believes in his potential,(no point in being hard on a guy who could never be any better than he is). He said that he hadn’t been able to learn the offense or the defense and “can’t help us”. Roberson also seemed tentative with his shooting. As a result he didn’t make very many of them. He clearly ahs along way to go. If Grant jumps to the pros, Tyler needs to become a major contributor immediately. Will he be up to it? Stay tuned.
“B. J. JOHNSON facially looks like C. J. Fair and may someday replace him in the line-up. He’s a 6-7 185 pound jumping jack who also has a good outside shot. He may see some time at the “2” as well as playing some forward. His best chance at playing time is if the guys at the 2 don’t provide the outside shooting we need. I think any team needs at least a couple guys on the floor who are three point threats to stretch the defense in more than one direction.”
Comment: BJ, the youngest player on the team, just wasn’t ready to play at this level and we never got that second shooter we needed. I still think he’s got a lot of talent and could become a major player in the future.
GUARDS
“TYLER ENNIS is our latest in a long line of talented point guards. He’s from Canada, which is becoming a significant source of basketball talent. Ennis is a good friend of Andrew Wiggins, the Kansas recruit who was on the cover of Sports Illustrated but could not convince him to wear Orange. Tyler is different from Michael Carter-Williams. MCW was 6-6 and had a 7 foot wingspan. He had an average outside shot but was very good at driving to the basket and was a creative passer and strong defender. But on last year’s team, with the lack of inside AND outside scoring, he felt they had to do things by himself and he wasn’t a dynamic enough scorer to carry the team by himself. He had a lot of good plays but some bad plays mixed in with them because he was trying to do a bit too much. Ennis is 6-2 and thus much less imposing as a defensive guard. He’s also a mediocre outside shooter at best. But he’s a great distributor of the ball and gets everyone involved. He’s quick enough to take advantage of scoring opportunities but never seems to be forcing anything. He, too, will need to have some teammates who can score so he doesn’t have to do too much but he’s so smooth in everything he does I think his teammates will find scoring easier than it was last year. We have a history of great freshman point guards- Pearl Washington, Adrian Autry, (who is on the coaching staff), Jason Hart, Gerry McNamara, (also on the staff) and Jonny Flynn. Ennis will be another.”
Comment: Yes he was. He was the definition of steady all season, with minimal turnovers, giving us an edge in that department that would normally make up for rebounding deficiencies, (which we didn’t have this year). He also proved he could rise to the occasion and take over the scoring load when necessary. And he hit a 40 foot shot to win us the Pittsburgh game. It was a fabulous freshman year. It also spoiled us. People look at Ennis and assume that all freshmen are ready to come in an contribute- or even be a star. Roberson, Patterson and Johnson disprove that but people will still ignore it. Ennis, like Grant, is very good but could get better. He could get stronger and become more consistent with his outside shot, maybe even adding a pull-up jumper. He needs another year here but we all know that if the NBA lottery calls, it’s hard to keep ‘em down on the farm. If he leaves we will have the expectation that Kaleb Joseph will just come in here and take over where Ennis left off. That may be expecting too much.
“TREVOR COONEY was supposed to be a phenomenal outside shooter. He’s also an under-rated athlete and defender. He can dunk with both hands, (he’s 6-4) and plays the passing lanes very well. But he’s out there to shoot and last year he got off to a bad start and never really broke out of his slump. He missed 99 of his 146 three point attempts. That’s 32% and it seemed worse. Your “shooting guard” needs to do better than that and his playing time this year will depend on his ability to improve that. In the six exhibitions he’s been 13 for 34 (38%), which is more like it but I think he can do better than that. He’s not a creative ball-handler. In the national semi-finals against Michigan last year, both our starting guards, MCW and Triche, had fouled out and Cooney wound up running the team. The results were not pretty. A final drive to the basket when the game could still be tied was pretty much of a disaster. Trevor is involved in trying to answer two of the big questions on this team: Who will be the “2” guard and who will back up Ennis at the point? He’s much more likely to be the answer to the first question than the second.”
Comment: Cooney was much better, at least to begin the season. He started out looking like the second coming of Jerry west, or at least Chris Mullin. By the end of the season he was basically last season’s Trevor Cooney. He showed an occasion move around a guy or to the basket. He has the capability to be a scorer, not just a shooter. And he’s a good defensive player and decent ball-handler. He’d probably be better off developing his all-around game. But as our only three point shooter, he had to try to run guys crazy to get an open shot and the results were that his shots were often rushed, off-balance and not squared to the basket. What he needs more than anything else is a second shooter the defense needs to guard. We didn’t have one this year and it remains to be seen if they will have one next year, either.
“MICHAEL GBINIJE is a transfer from Duke who practiced with the team last year but could not play under the transfer rule. He’s thus been coached by the two winningest coaches in college basketball history, so he should know how to play the game. He looked great in his high school highlight tapes- there are several on You-Tube. He can hit three point shots, can pull up for jumpers, (a lost art), pass the ball, rebound it and play defense. His tape had several steals and a block where he slipped around his man, scooped up the ball and dribbled the length of the court to score. Nobody is quite sure why he didn’t work out at Duke but the hope here was that he could become our 2 guard and also back up Ennis at the point. He’s essentially a forward (6-7 200) but a jack of all trades who can give you whatever you need. I call him an “Alice’s Restaurant Player”, (“You can get anything you want…”). But in the exhibitions, something seemed to be missing. “Silent G” seemed to play without emotion, sort of going through the motions. His shot was AWOL: 7 for 23 overall, (30%) and 1 for 10 from the arc. He had a 12-14 assist to turnover ratio. I don’t know what the problem is, (I have yet to see him smile), but this guy could contribute a lot more than we’ve seen. Maybe that’s why he’s not at Duke anymore. “
Comment: “Silent G” remained mute for much of the season. His best game was his last one when he played aggressively and scored 8 points in 22 minutes. He played pretty good defense, handled the ball Ok but wasn’t much of a factor in most games. He didn’t rebound much for a 6-7 guy and he didn’t score much, either. When Grant moved into the starting line-up after Coleman’s injury, our bench effectively consisted of Gbinije and Keita and we had several games with 0 bench points. He’s another guy that could do so much more and may have to next year.
“RON PATTERSON is an intriguing freshman guard who originally committed to Indiana but changed his mind and came here. He’ll get a chance to show the Hoosiers what they are missing on December 3rd. Ron is a long-armed tenacious defender with a football player’s build, (6-3, 200). He also loves to shoot the ball from all angles and is either way off or right on. He’s had a 1 for 12 game and a 4 for 7 game with 3 treys. That makes him an exciting player but it also makes him another dubious candidate to be the back-up point guard. If Cooney isn’t hitting and Gbinije isn’t trying, Patterson could see some time at the 2 guard spot. “
Comment: I’m not in sympathy with those who blame Jim Boeheim for not playing more guys or playing the bench longer. He sees these guys in practice. We don’t. I don’t believe shoving a guy out there makes him a better player. It’s up to them to learn the skills and the strategies and prove they can execute them and “My Three Sons” obviously didn’t do that. But given Cooney’s struggles down the stretch, I have to admit that Patterson could hardly have been worse in some of those games. As JB said, “he could make three in a row and not hit the rim on the next three”. I’ll take 3 for 6. I hope he’s given a serious chance to compete for Cooney’s job next year, if only to push Trevor. Patterson may be too much of a loose cannon to be a consistent contributor but it doesn’t mean he couldn’t help us in certain games.
“I love having a good point guard to go with two terrific forwards. I’d like to see more progress from the centers and I don’t know what the solution is at the 2 or for Ennis’ back-up. If Coleman doesn’t get it going, we will again be without a reliable inside scorer and if nobody takes charge at the 2, we will again be without a reliable outside game. I do think we’ll again be a strong defensive team and that will keep us in games. Hopefully the zone will be a mystery to our new conference brethren. “
Coment: We had a very good point guard with two good forwards. The centers didn’t make much progress. Cooney took charge at the two but failed down the stretch. Our defense was good, (and very good in the Dayton game, or else we wouldn’t have had a chance to win it at the end going against a team that made 7 three pointers when we were 1 for 19 outside the paint). But this was not a vintage Syracuse defense, something that got obscured with all the offensive struggles down the stretch. We allowed too much penetration of the zone and didn’t do a good job guarding three point shooters, which burned us in several games. It was our best rebounding team in years and we didn’t turn the ball over. Gaining and maintaining possession of the ball was our greatest strength and the primary reason that a team that was mediocre in several key ways was able to have a 28-6 season.
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