There was an ocean of room all game on the baseline

[SaltLakeOrange]

People say that Lydon needs to hit the weight room to be able to play with the bigs down low...however it isnt just bigs that he bounces to ground off of. He needs to get much stronger just to be able to play vs upper half of the league athletes. theres a reason why he looks unbelievably good one day and then looks like this on others..its all strength

You're absolutely right. And he'll improve as he gets stronger.

 

[OttoMets]

As an aside, we used to make a living off back screens (even double screens) for dunks, lobs to the basket. I don't know if the issue is a lack of athletes to get the pass (Roberson has the athleticism but only shows glimpses of his capabilities) or the lack of a single passer to deliver it.Conversely I watch even lesser teams victimize us. Frustrating.

Couldn't agree more; we've typically gotten easy buckets this way. Perhaps we've got a couple missing pieces. Roberson's an inconsistent finisher, our guards aren't great passers, and we really don't have a traditional screener (Boeheim wants reliable guys to set screens, Craig Forth types, rather than little guys and freshmen).

 

[OttoMets]

We'll be better off when we have a center, PG and PF with the full complement of skills.

Yeah, and an off-guard with those skills, too. We're more deficient than usual at every starting position, OK to point that out.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I'm not seeing a lot of what you guys are. This is our best passing team since 09-10 IMO, and we have done a good job getting in the paint lately lately.
The bigger problem is we can't make layups. Everyone misses them. For an inside player Roberson should be better at converting.

Isn't Richardson technically a two? It's hard to get everything you want in a player. We had MCW and Triche in 2013. They were great at getting in the lane, but neither one of them were good shooters. We have 4 guys who are better shooters on this team than they were.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I'll take 5-10 all day long from anyone from 3. 8-10 would have been sick.

You wouldn't know that Cooney and Malachi have virtually the same stats reading this board. One's not a good player and the other is going to be a first round pick.:crazy:

 

[Brooky03]

Perhaps it is a personnel issue but I tend to think JB's offenses often get flustered when teams force us to execute sets. That's probably harsh for a guy who's won as many games as JB but teams that get up under our length and force us to run sets all day generally give us massive fits. Calhoun's UConn teams (which were admittedly really talented), Pitinio's Louisville teams, Pitt under Dixon/Howland, Buzz had groups that did this. It seems like we do OK with a guy like Flynn or Waiters who can break it down and make things happen, but if we have to rely on sets we have serious problems.

We don't have an experienced PG. It's been the problem all year and really showed in this game. JB has a winning record against Buzz, a near .500 record against Pitino, and a .500 or better record against Calhoun (we won't talk about Dick-son). Those are all really good coaches, and two are hall of famers, so it's not surprising that they would run defenses that can give us trouble. JB's record against them speaks to the fact that the offense works at least adequately a good percentage of the time.

 

[MikeSU02]

We need players playing their natural positions and we need a PG that is, ya know, a PG.

It's fine because we have who we have. This team is fun and has been playing well. Losing on the road to Ville isn't the worst thing in the world.

When FH is sitting, we have no PG on the floor. G does his best impersonation of one, but our offense is already mediocre as it is, but without a floor general, we just won't score consistently. We have to hope that multiple guys get hot.

Also, we need to make more FTs.

But, again, with our roster, I think we have done very well and Ville is a good team. Losing happens.

 

[OttoMets]

...

Isn't Richardson technically a two? It's hard to get everything you want in a player. We had MCW and Triche in 2013. They were great at getting in the lane, but neither one of them were good shooters. We have 4 guys who are better shooters on this team than they were.

Sure is, and he's got everything we want from that position. But he's very rarely played there this season. That'll change next year, along with some of our other lineup quirks.

 

[SoBeCuse]

Sure is, and he's got everything we want from that position. But he's very rarely played there this season. That'll change next year, along with some of our other lineup quirks.

Right. I admire and respect Cooney a ton but without the 3s going down he at times is a big liability because he doesn't drive much and when he does he can't finish or pass. Mal is much better at that. I haven't liked Cooney's defense at all lately as well. To me it also seems he might be slightly gimpy out there? I guess we were bound to get crushed by a better team. I expect them to rebound better and compete harder next game. JB has done a great job but can't cover up all the leaks all the time against the better teams.

 

[OttoMets]

Right. I admire and respect Cooney a ton but without the 3s going down he at times is a big liability because he doesn't drive much and when he does he can't finish or pass. Mal is much better at that. I haven't liked Cooney's defense at all lately as well. To me it also seems he might be slightly gimpy out there? I guess we were bound to get crushed by a better team. I expect them to rebound better and compete harder next game. JB has done a great job but can't cover up all the leaks all the time against the better teams.

He looked totally fatigued in the second half. People don't always recognize how much harder he has to work to compete. I bet he takes more steps than anyone on the court.

 

[orangefan13]

We are fine without a point guard.

This team is averaging 11.8 turnovers per game (which isn't great but its good), has 2 first options, one 2nd option that is a little streaky, and 3 guys who are good enough to be true fourth options.
On top of that we have 4 really good three point shooters, 2 perimeter drivers(3 if Howard) perhaps the best offensive rebounder in the acc, and really does a outstanding job moving the ball for shooting opportunities.

Alot of past Syracuse teams would be on their knees begging for that.

look at our ppg.
17.2
13.6
13.5
9.6
9.4
Dajuan is just starting to go with 5.
5 guys with double digits is really solid. Its actually not to far from 09-10 ppg if you look at it, Dajuan just needs a extra bucket a game and our 7th guy off the bench is Howard instead of a scorer like the other Joseph was that year.
I would probably take this offense over our final four offense with mcw. This is a half court offense I actually enjoy watching, very much so!

Offense and pg was not the problem yesterday at all. No, not one bit. It really hasn't been since the first week of acc play, and maybe the vt game.

 

[Dave85]

We are fine without a point guard.

This team is averaging 11.8 turnovers per game (which isn't great but its good), has 2 first options, one 2nd option that is a little streaky, and 3 guys who are good enough to be true fourth options.
On top of that we have 4 really good three point shooters, 2 perimeter drivers(3 if Howard) perhaps the best offensive rebounder in the acc, and really does a outstanding job moving the ball for shooting opportunities.

Alot of past Syracuse teams would be on their knees begging for that.

look at our ppg.
17.2
13.6
13.5
9.6
9.4
Dajuan is just starting to go with 5.
5 guys with double digits is really solid. Its actually not to far from 09-10 ppg if you look at it, Dajuan just needs a extra bucket a game and our 7th guy off the bench is Howard instead of a scorer like the other Joseph was that year.
I would probably take this offense over our final four offense with mcw. This is a half court offense I actually enjoy watching, very much so!

Offense and pg was not the problem yesterday at all. No, not one bit. It really hasn't been since the first week of acc play, and maybe the vt game.

Louisville sure did a number on us. Our defense was shredded like Swiss cheese. And the offense went limp. I just hope there were some valuable lessons learned from the Louisville game and this team will some how improve from it.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

You wouldn't know that Cooney and Malachi have virtually the same stats reading this board. One's not a good player and the other is going to be a first round pick.:crazy:

maybe because stats tell a partial story of what went on.

 

[SoBeCuse]

[QUOTE="orangefan13, post: 1660867, member: 906"

Offense and pg was not the problem yesterday at all. No, not one bit. It really hasn't been since the first week of acc play, and maybe the vt game.[/QUOTE]

I think it was certainly part of the problem last night. There were lots of them. The numbers don't quite tell the whole story but G did NOT play well at all. He is the PG. When he and Howard are picking up their dribbles too soon, unable to get around or split the hedge, unable to reverse the ball, etc., then it is a problem.

You're right that we have been getting by with it. It just obviously becomes magnified against like a LOU/UVA/Miami type team who can actually play defense. It's all matchups with this particular team. We took bad shots then LOU got out in transition and went LA Clippers on us. That is a direct result of the offense in turmoil. Personally I thought the perimeter D was more of a problem but our guard play was absolutely a factor in the loss.

 

[MikeSU02]

We are fine without a point guard.

This team is averaging 11.8 turnovers per game (which isn't great but its good), has 2 first options, one 2nd option that is a little streaky, and 3 guys who are good enough to be true fourth options.
On top of that we have 4 really good three point shooters, 2 perimeter drivers(3 if Howard) perhaps the best offensive rebounder in the acc, and really does a outstanding job moving the ball for shooting opportunities.

Alot of past Syracuse teams would be on their knees begging for that.

look at our ppg.
17.2
13.6
13.5
9.6
9.4
Dajuan is just starting to go with 5.
5 guys with double digits is really solid. Its actually not to far from 09-10 ppg if you look at it, Dajuan just needs a extra bucket a game and our 7th guy off the bench is Howard instead of a scorer like the other Joseph was that year.
I would probably take this offense over our final four offense with mcw. This is a half court offense I actually enjoy watching, very much so!

Offense and pg was not the problem yesterday at all. No, not one bit. It really hasn't been since the first week of acc play, and maybe the vt game.

Wrong.

Our offense has not been efficient all year. We are 104th in PPP at 1.049 for the year. Last game we were even worst at 0.900. To put that number in perspective, if we had an 0.900 PPP for the whole year, we would be ranked 333rd.

 

[sugrad68]

You wouldn't know that Cooney and Malachi have virtually the same stats reading this board. One's not a good player and the other is going to be a first round pick.:crazy:

Cooney is a 5th year Senior. Richardson is a true Freshman. Cooney is playing his true position. Richardson is playing SF which is not his true position, and is being asked to guard bigger players and rebound. I'm not knocking Cooney at all. He hustles and busts his butt and is constantly asked to run around on offense. But Richardson has shown a much greater ability to go to the basket and score and has been shooting the 3 better than Cooney over the 2nd half of the season IMO. I can't rate Richardson's defense but Cooney is out of position on opposing team's 3-pointers countless times in a game.

 

[Madbiker]

We've never run a sophisticated offense.

Roll the ball out and let them play. When we have great individual talent it works. When we don't...not so good.