Things I think I think | Syracusefan.com

Things I think I think

billsin01

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Some overreactions headed into the season:

The vast majority of Judah's value will be tied to how many jumpers fall
Right now Judah is looking for his own. I actually thought there were a couple occasions were Joe seemed hesitant to pass it to Judah, presumably b/c he figured he'd never see the ball again. This is pure conjecture, of course, but thought I noticed it and anyone who's ever played pickup with a chucker understands how this works. But, regardless, we do need Judah's athleticism and creativity, hopefully he develops as a PG but, for now, I think we're going to love him when the shots are falling and be cursing at the TV when they're not.

Here's a hot take: Symir may be the second and is definitely the third-best player on this team
I think most are on board with Symir playing a much bigger role than expected this year. But when you take into account all that he does (defense, ball-handling, passing, running the offense, bringing energy, leadership, ability to create at times, etc.) and add to it that he might even make a few jumpers this year, I'm pretty sure he's the third-best player on the team right now and I'm not sure how far he is behind Joe (who is solid but limited defensively and not really a creator) or Jesse (good skill set, excellent size, but waiting to see him put it all together). Exhibitions don't mean much, but seeing him pull the trigger on 5 threes last night was really interesting.

Benny needs to battle his a$$ off on the glass and cut and dive hard to the rim -- that's where he's going to score
Benny seems like a good kid who works hard and has some talent ... but he is an absolutely brutal offensive player at the moment. Made the three and the baseline jumper against IUP but he needs to be at the rim offensively. Crash the glass, make hard cuts, run the floor, look for alley-oops ... but creating offense off the dribble and shooting jumpers just don't feel like they're going to happen for him at this point.

JGIII will be interesting to watch, as always
Love him or dislike him, Girard will be a big piece of this season. He scored 17 in the first preseason game and then really didn't shoot much or play a ton (25 mins) last night. Yet, if they didn't wipe that late three off the board for no reason, he would have had 18 last night too. Regardless, he's firmly entrenched in the Brandon Triche/Trevor Cooney Lightning Rod category of player. Some folks will pick everything he does apart. Others will look over any weaknesses and extoll his virtues. It will divide the board sooner rather than later. That said, will be interesting seeing how he decides to go about being the de facto go-to guy on offense. Really wish at some point -- and maybe it's really difficult on the cardio/agility side b/c of the asthma complications -- but I really wish we had seen Joe come into the season in phenomenal shape. I just always figured at some point he'd go into an off-season, cut out all carbs and dive head first into conditioning and agility just to see what that extra stamina and half-step of quickness might allow him to do. But, alas, we'll never know.

Edwards is very good ... but I don't think he's great
Could be wrong here but for some reason when i watch Edwards I'm left wanting more from him. Like, he's an excellent athlete with excellent size. His hands are good, he moves well and plays hard defensively. He does a lot of really good things. But will he knock down some mid-range jumpers? Are his post moves good enough to be a primary option offensively? Will he show a little more alpha energy playing against better bigs moving forward? He's clearly not the problem with this team, but he and joe need to be outstanding for us to really have a shot at doing something this year and I'm not sure he's outstanding.

We're definitely more athletic than last year ... but I'm not sure we're really THAT athletic
I like all the frosh and, generally speaking, we simply weren't athletic enough last year to create problems for people with our defense. JB did a nice job of adjusting to a 1-3-1 and the team battled, so we were at least competitive. But ultimately, we just weren't athletic enough to sustain anything. We are more athletic this year, but I'm not sure anyone outside of Mintz is so athletic that we're really going to have an advantage in that department, even against a lot of our early-season opponents. Copeland and Taylor have good athleticism and nice skill, but they're not blowing past people or jumping over people at this stage. Benny is athletic and will play a bigger role, but I'm not sure he knows how to leverage that athleticism. Carey has a really unique combo of size and athleticism but, at a minimum, it appears its going to take him time to adjust (and it may be next year, for that matter). Brown is a really intriguing player but doesn't look athletically like he's at the level of Grant or even Brissett/Guerrier. Definitely more athletic but not sure it's enough to really give us an edge against very many teams.

Brown looks like the most comfortable freshman
It's not really the made shots that I'm looking at here, though I'm happy he's 6-for-6 instead of 0-for-6. But I think Brown is in the really nice spot of fitting in nicely at the 4. Mintz feels like a guy who hasn't really run point, but is doing so. Taylor/Bell/QG have some nice tools but guessing Taylor may be a 2, but may not shoot quite well enough for that just yet. Bell has athleticism but seems uncomfortable on the floor. I like QG but not really sure what position he is at this point. Brown, on the other hand, seems really comfortable in what he can and can't do and what his role is.

Our half-court sets aren't helping anything
Watching IUP and Southern NH run all over the place setting screens and cutting and then watching us go 1-on-1 all night is depressing.

We might actually play m2m
Thought the m2m was much better last night than against IUP. Not sure how that looks against a real opponent but I get the vibe our zone is struggling. Maybe if the lineup ends up being a heavy dose of Symir, we can find our footing in the zone but I do wonder if we might actually see some m2m for stretches, maybe even fairly prolonged stretches, at least early in the season.

No idea on rotation or best lineup
Really have zero clue what our best lineup is. I'd say Symir at the 1, Joe at the 2, Edwards at the 5 are locked. For now you've got to go Benny at the 4, but Brown will be interesting to watch there. The 3? I guess QG, though he's a bit undersized. Bell hasn't done much for me and Taylor has looked pretty composed. But I guess I'd go with QG. Then the rest of the rotation is I guess Brown (4), Hima (5) and Mintz 1/2 with maybe some minutes for Bell/Taylor if one shows they can contribute against better teams? Really not sure.

Feels like it could be a really, really long season. Hope I'm wrong, but JB has his work cut out for him to even figure out who he's going to run with.
 
JB said it perfectly about Brown last night. He plays a simple game and doesn’t take shots he can’t make.

From what I saw last night, we’re going to need that kind of contribution on this squad.

Passing is overrated if the guys you pass it to can’t score. We’re gonna need Judah to put the biscuit in the basket every night. I’m more concerned about him getting his mid range game going.

I’d like to see Judah and Sy at some point. There will be nights when we need that backcourt combo.
 
Yeah, Jesse is not where I was hoping he would be. That said, he's the least that I'm concerned about. We can't have a player (i.e. Bell) taking a spot and not producing. He just doesn't seem like a player who can create when the jumper isn't falling.

Benny looks more aggressive at times, but still doesn't look like the player I thought we would have. I really like this young guy, seems to carry himself well. Hopefully he can get it going.

Judah is obviously a really good player, but still has a ways to go.

Joe looks like old Joe. I can see him shooting us out of games if he thinks the outcome is on him. Hopefully I'm wrong. Just haven't been very impressed in two exhibition games.

I really like Cope but fear that he might eventually get buried on the bench. I'm really happy to see Boeheim playing him and not yanking quickly. He looks good at times but also looks like he could make some silly mistakes that could get him pulled.

Symir probably will get a lot of minutes because Boeheim doesn't have too many guys he can really trust. Also, if the young man can continue hitting 3's, he will definitely see more minutes.

Props to Jimmy after the last presser. I thought that was the most positive he has been in a while, even after what didn't look like a great game on our end. He didn't overreact or berate people (at least the first 9 minutes that I watched).
 
Some overreactions headed into the season:

The vast majority of Judah's value will be tied to how many jumpers fall
Right now Judah is looking for his own. I actually thought there were a couple occasions were Joe seemed hesitant to pass it to Judah, presumably b/c he figured he'd never see the ball again. This is pure conjecture, of course, but thought I noticed it and anyone who's ever played pickup with a chucker understands how this works. But, regardless, we do need Judah's athleticism and creativity, hopefully he develops as a PG but, for now, I think we're going to love him when the shots are falling and be cursing at the TV when they're not.

Here's a hot take: Symir may be the second and is definitely the third-best player on this team
I think most are on board with Symir playing a much bigger role than expected this year. But when you take into account all that he does (defense, ball-handling, passing, running the offense, bringing energy, leadership, ability to create at times, etc.) and add to it that he might even make a few jumpers this year, I'm pretty sure he's the third-best player on the team right now and I'm not sure how far he is behind Joe (who is solid but limited defensively and not really a creator) or Jesse (good skill set, excellent size, but waiting to see him put it all together). Exhibitions don't mean much, but seeing him pull the trigger on 5 threes last night was really interesting.

Benny needs to battle his a$$ off on the glass and cut and dive hard to the rim -- that's where he's going to score
Benny seems like a good kid who works hard and has some talent ... but he is an absolutely brutal offensive player at the moment. Made the three and the baseline jumper against IUP but he needs to be at the rim offensively. Crash the glass, make hard cuts, run the floor, look for alley-oops ... but creating offense off the dribble and shooting jumpers just don't feel like they're going to happen for him at this point.

JGIII will be interesting to watch, as always
Love him or dislike him, Girard will be a big piece of this season. He scored 17 in the first preseason game and then really didn't shoot much or play a ton (25 mins) last night. Yet, if they didn't wipe that late three off the board for no reason, he would have had 18 last night too. Regardless, he's firmly entrenched in the Brandon Triche/Trevor Cooney Lightning Rod category of player. Some folks will pick everything he does apart. Others will look over any weaknesses and extoll his virtues. It will divide the board sooner rather than later. That said, will be interesting seeing how he decides to go about being the de facto go-to guy on offense. Really wish at some point -- and maybe it's really difficult on the cardio/agility side b/c of the asthma complications -- but I really wish we had seen Joe come into the season in phenomenal shape. I just always figured at some point he'd go into an off-season, cut out all carbs and dive head first into conditioning and agility just to see what that extra stamina and half-step of quickness might allow him to do. But, alas, we'll never know.

Edwards is very good ... but I don't think he's great
Could be wrong here but for some reason when i watch Edwards I'm left wanting more from him. Like, he's an excellent athlete with excellent size. His hands are good, he moves well and plays hard defensively. He does a lot of really good things. But will he knock down some mid-range jumpers? Are his post moves good enough to be a primary option offensively? Will he show a little more alpha energy playing against better bigs moving forward? He's clearly not the problem with this team, but he and joe need to be outstanding for us to really have a shot at doing something this year and I'm not sure he's outstanding.

We're definitely more athletic than last year ... but I'm not sure we're really THAT athletic
I like all the frosh and, generally speaking, we simply weren't athletic enough last year to create problems for people with our defense. JB did a nice job of adjusting to a 1-3-1 and the team battled, so we were at least competitive. But ultimately, we just weren't athletic enough to sustain anything. We are more athletic this year, but I'm not sure anyone outside of Mintz is so athletic that we're really going to have an advantage in that department, even against a lot of our early-season opponents. Copeland and Taylor have good athleticism and nice skill, but they're not blowing past people or jumping over people at this stage. Benny is athletic and will play a bigger role, but I'm not sure he knows how to leverage that athleticism. Carey has a really unique combo of size and athleticism but, at a minimum, it appears its going to take him time to adjust (and it may be next year, for that matter). Brown is a really intriguing player but doesn't look athletically like he's at the level of Grant or even Brissett/Guerrier. Definitely more athletic but not sure it's enough to really give us an edge against very many teams.

Brown looks like the most comfortable freshman
It's not really the made shots that I'm looking at here, though I'm happy he's 6-for-6 instead of 0-for-6. But I think Brown is in the really nice spot of fitting in nicely at the 4. Mintz feels like a guy who hasn't really run point, but is doing so. Taylor/Bell/QG have some nice tools but guessing Taylor may be a 2, but may not shoot quite well enough for that just yet. Bell has athleticism but seems uncomfortable on the floor. I like QG but not really sure what position he is at this point. Brown, on the other hand, seems really comfortable in what he can and can't do and what his role is.

Our half-court sets aren't helping anything
Watching IUP and Southern NH run all over the place setting screens and cutting and then watching us go 1-on-1 all night is depressing.

We might actually play m2m
Thought the m2m was much better last night than against IUP. Not sure how that looks against a real opponent but I get the vibe our zone is struggling. Maybe if the lineup ends up being a heavy dose of Symir, we can find our footing in the zone but I do wonder if we might actually see some m2m for stretches, maybe even fairly prolonged stretches, at least early in the season.

No idea on rotation or best lineup
Really have zero clue what our best lineup is. I'd say Symir at the 1, Joe at the 2, Edwards at the 5 are locked. For now you've got to go Benny at the 4, but Brown will be interesting to watch there. The 3? I guess QG, though he's a bit undersized. Bell hasn't done much for me and Taylor has looked pretty composed. But I guess I'd go with QG. Then the rest of the rotation is I guess Brown (4), Hima (5) and Mintz 1/2 with maybe some minutes for Bell/Taylor if one shows they can contribute against better teams? Really not sure.

Feels like it could be a really, really long season. Hope I'm wrong, but JB has his work cut out for him to even figure out who he's going to run with.
Who is QG? Quincy Guerrier? I wish.

I think Copeland will be biggest surprise player of the year. He can do it all, a Swiss army knife!
 
JB said it perfectly about Brown last night. He plays a simple game and doesn’t take shots he can’t make.

From what I saw last night, we’re going to need that kind of contribution on this squad.

Passing is overrated if the guys you pass it to can’t score. We’re gonna need Judah to put the biscuit in the basket every night. I’m more concerned about him getting his mid range game going.

I’d like to see Judah and Sy at some point. There will be nights when we need that backcourt combo.


I've stated the opinion numerous times in recent weeks that I think that while the roster has talent, the pieces might not fit well together.

Case in point -- your observation about Sy and Judah at the 2. Athletic combo -- could be an ACC caliber backcourt. BUT we have Joe, who is a senior, the team's best shooter, and the top proven scorer. He's not going to sit much, despite being undersized. He needs to play off the ball. So what's "optimal" for the team isn't optimized for the personnel.

Just feels like the sum will be less than the collective total of the individual parts.

SI rated us as the 68th ranked team in college basketball, and projects us to finish 8th in the ACC. I fear that both predictions might be optimistic, based upon what I've seen.

 
Who is QG? Quincy Guerrier? I wish.

I think Copeland will be biggest surprise player of the year. He can do it all, a Swiss army knife!
He'd be a great player on a team where we have much higher overall talent around him.
 
I've stated the opinion numerous times in recent weeks that I think that while the roster has talent, the pieces might not fit well together.

Case in point -- your observation about Sy and Judah at the 2. Athletic combo -- could be an ACC caliber backcourt. BUT we have Joe, who is a senior, the team's best shooter, and the top proven scorer. He's not going to sit much, despite being undersized. He needs to play off the ball. So what's "optimal" for the team isn't optimized for the personnel.

Just feels like the sum will be less than the collective total of the individual parts.

SI rated us as the 68th ranked team in college basketball, and projects us to finish 8th in the ACC. I fear that both predictions might be optimistic, based upon what I've seen.

Unless his asthma acts up.

SMH
 
Who is QG? Quincy Guerrier? I wish.

I think Copeland will be biggest surprise player of the year. He can do it all, a Swiss army knife!
Oops. QC. Although I’d welcome QG back with open arms
 
Jesse should be trying to go for 25-20-5 every game, demanding the ball, getting the ball, and going to work, and hitting the boards like a maniac. He should be trying to put this team on his back, not settling for a few scraps off of rolls, while scrubby ass gunners look to do cool dribbles and then chuck every time down. He’s the senior, the big man, the best player on the team. Regulate!
 
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Jesse should be trying to go for 25-20-5 every game, demanding the ball, getting the ball, and going to work, and hitting the boards like a maniac. He should be trying to put this team on his back, not settling for a few scraps off of rolls, while scrubby ass gunners look to do cool dribbles and then chuck every time down. He’s the senior, the big man, the best player on the team. Regulate!
The death of post offense also meant the death of pissed off big men getting in their guards' faces and cussing them out for ignoring them when they sealed their man, and that's a damn shame.
 
The death of post offense also meant the death of pissed off big men getting in their guards' faces and cussing them out for ignoring them when they sealed their man, and that's a damn shame.
BRING IT BACK, JESSE - I DIDNT CALL YOU THE FRANCHISE BACK IN ‘19-20 WHEN YOU WERE DOING WORK IN GARBAGE TIME JUST FOR YOU TO BE CONTENT GETTING A COUPLE PICK AND ROLL LOOKS A GAME IN YOUR SENIOR YEAR!!

Judah feeds you early and often or you choke slam him through the court side tables like circa ‘98 Kane.
 
BRING IT BACK, JESSE - I DIDNT CALL YOU THE FRANCHISE BACK IN ‘19-20 WHEN YOU WERE DOING WORK IN GARBAGE TIME JUST FOR YOU TO BE CONTENT GETTING A COUPLE PICK AND ROLL LOOKS A GAME IN YOUR SENIOR YEAR!!

Judah feeds you early and often or you choke slam him through the court side tables like circa ‘98 Kane.
I'm for it.
 
Hope I am wrong. I just don’t see it this year. Lot of season left but we are extremely young with many deficiencies. The fact we had to basically play 5 guys the whole second half in our first exhibition game to win against a D2 team is not the way to build the team going forward. We are going to have a short bench once again after all we heard was how excited Jim was on all the freshman coming in. But every year, Jim complains about freshman not knowing the intricacies of the college game. So which is it? I think we are going to have to really dig in to get every win this year, things won’t come easy.
 
Some overreactions headed into the season:

The vast majority of Judah's value will be tied to how many jumpers fall
Right now Judah is looking for his own. I actually thought there were a couple occasions were Joe seemed hesitant to pass it to Judah, presumably b/c he figured he'd never see the ball again. This is pure conjecture, of course, but thought I noticed it and anyone who's ever played pickup with a chucker understands how this works. But, regardless, we do need Judah's athleticism and creativity, hopefully he develops as a PG but, for now, I think we're going to love him when the shots are falling and be cursing at the TV when they're not.

Here's a hot take: Symir may be the second and is definitely the third-best player on this team
I think most are on board with Symir playing a much bigger role than expected this year. But when you take into account all that he does (defense, ball-handling, passing, running the offense, bringing energy, leadership, ability to create at times, etc.) and add to it that he might even make a few jumpers this year, I'm pretty sure he's the third-best player on the team right now and I'm not sure how far he is behind Joe (who is solid but limited defensively and not really a creator) or Jesse (good skill set, excellent size, but waiting to see him put it all together). Exhibitions don't mean much, but seeing him pull the trigger on 5 threes last night was really interesting.

Benny needs to battle his a$$ off on the glass and cut and dive hard to the rim -- that's where he's going to score
Benny seems like a good kid who works hard and has some talent ... but he is an absolutely brutal offensive player at the moment. Made the three and the baseline jumper against IUP but he needs to be at the rim offensively. Crash the glass, make hard cuts, run the floor, look for alley-oops ... but creating offense off the dribble and shooting jumpers just don't feel like they're going to happen for him at this point.

JGIII will be interesting to watch, as always
Love him or dislike him, Girard will be a big piece of this season. He scored 17 in the first preseason game and then really didn't shoot much or play a ton (25 mins) last night. Yet, if they didn't wipe that late three off the board for no reason, he would have had 18 last night too. Regardless, he's firmly entrenched in the Brandon Triche/Trevor Cooney Lightning Rod category of player. Some folks will pick everything he does apart. Others will look over any weaknesses and extoll his virtues. It will divide the board sooner rather than later. That said, will be interesting seeing how he decides to go about being the de facto go-to guy on offense. Really wish at some point -- and maybe it's really difficult on the cardio/agility side b/c of the asthma complications -- but I really wish we had seen Joe come into the season in phenomenal shape. I just always figured at some point he'd go into an off-season, cut out all carbs and dive head first into conditioning and agility just to see what that extra stamina and half-step of quickness might allow him to do. But, alas, we'll never know.

Edwards is very good ... but I don't think he's great
Could be wrong here but for some reason when i watch Edwards I'm left wanting more from him. Like, he's an excellent athlete with excellent size. His hands are good, he moves well and plays hard defensively. He does a lot of really good things. But will he knock down some mid-range jumpers? Are his post moves good enough to be a primary option offensively? Will he show a little more alpha energy playing against better bigs moving forward? He's clearly not the problem with this team, but he and joe need to be outstanding for us to really have a shot at doing something this year and I'm not sure he's outstanding.

We're definitely more athletic than last year ... but I'm not sure we're really THAT athletic
I like all the frosh and, generally speaking, we simply weren't athletic enough last year to create problems for people with our defense. JB did a nice job of adjusting to a 1-3-1 and the team battled, so we were at least competitive. But ultimately, we just weren't athletic enough to sustain anything. We are more athletic this year, but I'm not sure anyone outside of Mintz is so athletic that we're really going to have an advantage in that department, even against a lot of our early-season opponents. Copeland and Taylor have good athleticism and nice skill, but they're not blowing past people or jumping over people at this stage. Benny is athletic and will play a bigger role, but I'm not sure he knows how to leverage that athleticism. Carey has a really unique combo of size and athleticism but, at a minimum, it appears its going to take him time to adjust (and it may be next year, for that matter). Brown is a really intriguing player but doesn't look athletically like he's at the level of Grant or even Brissett/Guerrier. Definitely more athletic but not sure it's enough to really give us an edge against very many teams.

Brown looks like the most comfortable freshman
It's not really the made shots that I'm looking at here, though I'm happy he's 6-for-6 instead of 0-for-6. But I think Brown is in the really nice spot of fitting in nicely at the 4. Mintz feels like a guy who hasn't really run point, but is doing so. Taylor/Bell/QG have some nice tools but guessing Taylor may be a 2, but may not shoot quite well enough for that just yet. Bell has athleticism but seems uncomfortable on the floor. I like QG but not really sure what position he is at this point. Brown, on the other hand, seems really comfortable in what he can and can't do and what his role is.

Our half-court sets aren't helping anything
Watching IUP and Southern NH run all over the place setting screens and cutting and then watching us go 1-on-1 all night is depressing.

We might actually play m2m
Thought the m2m was much better last night than against IUP. Not sure how that looks against a real opponent but I get the vibe our zone is struggling. Maybe if the lineup ends up being a heavy dose of Symir, we can find our footing in the zone but I do wonder if we might actually see some m2m for stretches, maybe even fairly prolonged stretches, at least early in the season.

No idea on rotation or best lineup
Really have zero clue what our best lineup is. I'd say Symir at the 1, Joe at the 2, Edwards at the 5 are locked. For now you've got to go Benny at the 4, but Brown will be interesting to watch there. The 3? I guess QG, though he's a bit undersized. Bell hasn't done much for me and Taylor has looked pretty composed. But I guess I'd go with QG. Then the rest of the rotation is I guess Brown (4), Hima (5) and Mintz 1/2 with maybe some minutes for Bell/Taylor if one shows they can contribute against better teams? Really not sure.

Feels like it could be a really, really long season. Hope I'm wrong, but JB has his work cut out for him to even figure out who he's going to run with.
True.
 
Hope I am wrong. I just don’t see it this year. Lot of season left but we are extremely young with many deficiencies. The fact we had to basically play 5 guys the whole second half in our first exhibition game to win against a D2 team is not the way to build the team going forward. We are going to have a short bench once again after all we heard was how excited Jim was on all the freshman coming in. But every year, Jim complains about freshman not knowing the intricacies of the college game. So which is it? I think we are going to have to really dig in to get every win this year, things won’t come easy.
Maybe he ought to spend the first half of every practice teaching those intricacies instead of just watching* from the catwalk.

*That’s true, right? I felt like I was being trolled when I read that. Does it not seem like the beginning of that practice began near when we started to cement ourselves to the middle of the conference?
 
Maybe he ought to spend the first half of every practice teaching those intricacies instead of just watching* from the catwalk.

*That’s true, right? I felt like I was being trolled when I read that. Does it not seem like the beginning of that practice began near when we started to cement ourselves to the middle of the conference?

I was at a practice YEARS ago. Probably 25 years ago. He literally just watched. The assistants ran the entire practice. From individual, to position specific, to team scrimmage. Only time he interjected was if something REALLY bad happened and caught his eye. But he was not hands on at all.
 
I was at a practice YEARS ago. Probably 25 years ago. He literally just watched. The assistants ran the entire practice. From individual, to position specific, to team scrimmage. Only time he interjected was if something REALLY bad happened and caught his eye. But he was not hands on at all.
A lot of Head coaches work that way. The difference is that JB worked his @ss off to bring good players in.
 
I was at a practice YEARS ago. Probably 25 years ago. He literally just watched. The assistants ran the entire practice. From individual, to position specific, to team scrimmage. Only time he interjected was if something REALLY bad happened and caught his eye. But he was not hands on at all.
There was a Sports Illustrated article somewhere in the heart of our 2010-12 run detailing just that. Program was HUMMING back then. Damn shame we didn’t get a title out of it, and that sanctions botched it and then Hop’s botched takeover/departure situation happened.

Its pretty unbelievable that nothing significant has happened since then other than us gradually getting worse and worse to the point where we’re hoping for a winning season. How did we get here??!!!
 
I was at a practice YEARS ago. Probably 25 years ago. He literally just watched. The assistants ran the entire practice. From individual, to position specific, to team scrimmage. Only time he interjected was if something REALLY bad happened and caught his eye. But he was not hands on at all.
Ooof. I thought it was a much more recent thing, like post-Melo Center.
Oh, well. That’s kinda disturbing. Not only are you squandering time for teaching the players, but you’re not elevating the staff either. Leaving them to their own devices, which ostensibly have only come from their own experience as players in those same practice conditions.
 
A lot of Head coaches work that way. The difference is that JB worked his @ss off to bring good players in.
Yes, I don’t deny that. But as you said. We used to bring in great players. That hasn’t been the case recently. Jim won’t go out and recruit. Tough to bring a kid to Syracuse when the Head Coach won’t come out and watch you. Meanwhile 20 other head coaches are at your games showing and making an effort to “show the love”. Look at all the coaches walking away because they know they can’t do or don’t want to do what they used to do to build a team.

I can’t imagine what it is like to deal with teenagers in this new world of college recruiting. But if you don’t adjust, the game will pass you by. And some of the older coaches realized that and moved on instead of adjusting. Jim is not doing either. He is being stubborn and will not adjust to get the players he used to get.
 
Some overreactions headed into the season:

The vast majority of Judah's value will be tied to how many jumpers fall
Right now Judah is looking for his own. I actually thought there were a couple occasions were Joe seemed hesitant to pass it to Judah, presumably b/c he figured he'd never see the ball again. This is pure conjecture, of course, but thought I noticed it and anyone who's ever played pickup with a chucker understands how this works. But, regardless, we do need Judah's athleticism and creativity, hopefully he develops as a PG but, for now, I think we're going to love him when the shots are falling and be cursing at the TV when they're not.

Here's a hot take: Symir may be the second and is definitely the third-best player on this team
I think most are on board with Symir playing a much bigger role than expected this year. But when you take into account all that he does (defense, ball-handling, passing, running the offense, bringing energy, leadership, ability to create at times, etc.) and add to it that he might even make a few jumpers this year, I'm pretty sure he's the third-best player on the team right now and I'm not sure how far he is behind Joe (who is solid but limited defensively and not really a creator) or Jesse (good skill set, excellent size, but waiting to see him put it all together). Exhibitions don't mean much, but seeing him pull the trigger on 5 threes last night was really interesting.

Benny needs to battle his a$$ off on the glass and cut and dive hard to the rim -- that's where he's going to score
Benny seems like a good kid who works hard and has some talent ... but he is an absolutely brutal offensive player at the moment. Made the three and the baseline jumper against IUP but he needs to be at the rim offensively. Crash the glass, make hard cuts, run the floor, look for alley-oops ... but creating offense off the dribble and shooting jumpers just don't feel like they're going to happen for him at this point.

JGIII will be interesting to watch, as always
Love him or dislike him, Girard will be a big piece of this season. He scored 17 in the first preseason game and then really didn't shoot much or play a ton (25 mins) last night. Yet, if they didn't wipe that late three off the board for no reason, he would have had 18 last night too. Regardless, he's firmly entrenched in the Brandon Triche/Trevor Cooney Lightning Rod category of player. Some folks will pick everything he does apart. Others will look over any weaknesses and extoll his virtues. It will divide the board sooner rather than later. That said, will be interesting seeing how he decides to go about being the de facto go-to guy on offense. Really wish at some point -- and maybe it's really difficult on the cardio/agility side b/c of the asthma complications -- but I really wish we had seen Joe come into the season in phenomenal shape. I just always figured at some point he'd go into an off-season, cut out all carbs and dive head first into conditioning and agility just to see what that extra stamina and half-step of quickness might allow him to do. But, alas, we'll never know.

Edwards is very good ... but I don't think he's great
Could be wrong here but for some reason when i watch Edwards I'm left wanting more from him. Like, he's an excellent athlete with excellent size. His hands are good, he moves well and plays hard defensively. He does a lot of really good things. But will he knock down some mid-range jumpers? Are his post moves good enough to be a primary option offensively? Will he show a little more alpha energy playing against better bigs moving forward? He's clearly not the problem with this team, but he and joe need to be outstanding for us to really have a shot at doing something this year and I'm not sure he's outstanding.

We're definitely more athletic than last year ... but I'm not sure we're really THAT athletic
I like all the frosh and, generally speaking, we simply weren't athletic enough last year to create problems for people with our defense. JB did a nice job of adjusting to a 1-3-1 and the team battled, so we were at least competitive. But ultimately, we just weren't athletic enough to sustain anything. We are more athletic this year, but I'm not sure anyone outside of Mintz is so athletic that we're really going to have an advantage in that department, even against a lot of our early-season opponents. Copeland and Taylor have good athleticism and nice skill, but they're not blowing past people or jumping over people at this stage. Benny is athletic and will play a bigger role, but I'm not sure he knows how to leverage that athleticism. Carey has a really unique combo of size and athleticism but, at a minimum, it appears its going to take him time to adjust (and it may be next year, for that matter). Brown is a really intriguing player but doesn't look athletically like he's at the level of Grant or even Brissett/Guerrier. Definitely more athletic but not sure it's enough to really give us an edge against very many teams.

Brown looks like the most comfortable freshman
It's not really the made shots that I'm looking at here, though I'm happy he's 6-for-6 instead of 0-for-6. But I think Brown is in the really nice spot of fitting in nicely at the 4. Mintz feels like a guy who hasn't really run point, but is doing so. Taylor/Bell/QG have some nice tools but guessing Taylor may be a 2, but may not shoot quite well enough for that just yet. Bell has athleticism but seems uncomfortable on the floor. I like QG but not really sure what position he is at this point. Brown, on the other hand, seems really comfortable in what he can and can't do and what his role is.

Our half-court sets aren't helping anything
Watching IUP and Southern NH run all over the place setting screens and cutting and then watching us go 1-on-1 all night is depressing.

We might actually play m2m
Thought the m2m was much better last night than against IUP. Not sure how that looks against a real opponent but I get the vibe our zone is struggling. Maybe if the lineup ends up being a heavy dose of Symir, we can find our footing in the zone but I do wonder if we might actually see some m2m for stretches, maybe even fairly prolonged stretches, at least early in the season.

No idea on rotation or best lineup
Really have zero clue what our best lineup is. I'd say Symir at the 1, Joe at the 2, Edwards at the 5 are locked. For now you've got to go Benny at the 4, but Brown will be interesting to watch there. The 3? I guess QG, though he's a bit undersized. Bell hasn't done much for me and Taylor has looked pretty composed. But I guess I'd go with QG. Then the rest of the rotation is I guess Brown (4), Hima (5) and Mintz 1/2 with maybe some minutes for Bell/Taylor if one shows they can contribute against better teams? Really not sure.

Feels like it could be a really, really long season. Hope I'm wrong, but JB has his work cut out for him to even figure out who he's going to run with.

Judah and Joe need to figure out their chemistry. I get that Sy probably will need to / probably will play more, but Joe and Judah are currently the starting back court. coaches and J+J have to find a way to make this work.

I'm repetitive at this point - Benny needs to be Scottie Barnes and not Kevin Durant. I am in agreement with you. For whatever reason, he's not realizing his path to the NBA isn't through jump shooting.

Re athleticism, we'll see. Last year wasn't great, this year probably isn't that much better like you said. But, regardless, overall talent still leaves a lot to be desired.

Fingers crossed for Brown if he can pop. Even if he just finds his role consistently, huge win.

I know our O was efficient last year in rankings, but I still don't think it was good. Not sure it's any better this year.

Won't believe M2M til I see it in a game that matters (not counting press).

Re rotation, I do think JB will make changes as needed for guys not named Judah, Joe and Jesse, the 4-7.5 guys that are playing. Just may need a few games.

The biggest thing is that we're likely a bubble team. The floor could be worse, again, but upside is probably a bubble team. Through that lens, the talent and questions seem about right heading into a season.

Keeping my eye on JT to see where he will end up, as with Copeland.

Just my 0.02.
 
I don't intend to go negative here, I really don't. However, I'm just wondering, what year do you recall where our team (at least based on what we currently see) was this disjointed? I think we have a lot of talent, but not a team. That said, I don't fault the guys or Jimmy for that as there are so many new pieces. Our pieces just don't seem to naturally fit as well as many other years in the past.
 
Yeah, Jesse is not where I was hoping he would be. That said, he's the least that I'm concerned about. We can't have a player (i.e. Bell) taking a spot and not producing. He just doesn't seem like a player who can create when the jumper isn't falling.

Benny looks more aggressive at times, but still doesn't look like the player I thought we would have. I really like this young guy, seems to carry himself well. Hopefully he can get it going.

Judah is obviously a really good player, but still has a ways to go.

Joe looks like old Joe. I can see him shooting us out of games if he thinks the outcome is on him. Hopefully I'm wrong. Just haven't been very impressed in two exhibition games.

I really like Cope but fear that he might eventually get buried on the bench. I'm really happy to see Boeheim playing him and not yanking quickly. He looks good at times but also looks like he could make some silly mistakes that could get him pulled.

Symir probably will get a lot of minutes because Boeheim doesn't have too many guys he can really trust. Also, if the young man can continue hitting 3's, he will definitely see more minutes.

Props to Jimmy after the last presser. I thought that was the most positive he has been in a while, even after what didn't look like a great game on our end. He didn't overreact or berate people (at least the first 9 minutes that I watched).
I totally agree with you on JB's presser last evening. For once he hammered on the glass is half full. Huge step in the right direction, especially with so many new players. Let's hope he continues to be positive. Last thing this team needs at this point is JB's negative criticism of players in public. I am sure players need to be taken aside and their errors pointed out but do it in private. The more I think about last year, I really think JB stopped coaching a team to have his two sons play their last year in college basketball together on a team he coached. Let's hope is was an abnormal year and now we will start returning to Syracuse basketball we expect.
 
Yes, I don’t deny that. But as you said. We used to bring in great players. That hasn’t been the case recently. Jim won’t go out and recruit. Tough to bring a kid to Syracuse when the Head Coach won’t come out and watch you.
ok… so he doesn’t want to do the hard work in recruiting… and he lets the assistants do all the work at practices…. meaning he just shows up for the games.

To quote the late Lou Gehrig, JB should consider himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

But as a program… as an athletic department…
WTH are we doing here?
 

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