This team simply cannot win going..

[Zepharus]

3 on 5 . To make it even worse, after it is 3v5 they just pass once and then try to go 1 on 1 with such difficult shots. This is painful as hell to watch. I will keep saying it, winning season is the ceiling for this team

PS - over the last handful of games, Battle is killing this team as well.

 

[orangecuse]

3 on 5 . To make it even worse, after it is 3v5 they just pass once and then try to go 1 on 1 with such difficult shots. This is painful as hell to watch. I will keep saying it, winning season is the ceiling for this team

PS - over the last handful of games, Battle is killing this team as well.

It's absolutely brutal to watch our offense.

Almost every single shot we took today was practically a prayer type shot, where if you were a UVA defender and it went in, all's you could do was tip your hat. Meanwhile, UVA got open look after open look after passing effectively and running their offense.

Crazy to think that our D didn't do a better job in extending out on Guy & Jerome as they were the two that crushed any chance we may of had in pulling off the upset. UVA didn't score a 2 point field goal in the second half until there was 6 minutes left in the game. I'm not sure how we couldn't stay on their shooters, it's not as if they have some tremendous floor general, oh, never mind, they actually apparently have heard that passing the ball effectively works in hoops vs. iso, iso, one on one. Ugh!!!!

 

[Alsacs]

This season isn’t the problem.
We all knew it was tough sledding. Usually I get down when we lose I really am not upset or down at all tonight.
It was a pointless game. We were the tomato can and I was okay with it.
Next year we have more talent but that doesn’t mean squat if it’s going to be the exact same offense and defense.

 

[orangecuse]

This season isn’t the problem.
We all knew it was tough sledding. Usually I get down when we lose I really am not upset or down at all tonight.
It was a pointless game. We were the tomato can and I was okay with it.
Next year we have more talent but that doesn’t mean squat if it’s going to be the exact same offense and defense.

Pointless? Wow, Syracuse basketball has lost so much of its stature in the college hoops world if you truly believe this was a "pointless" game. UVA was not ranked in the preseason, they aren't that good in my opinion. This was a winnable game if we had any semblance of an offense.

 

[Alsacs]

Pointless? Wow, Syracuse basketball has lost so much of its panache in the college hoops world if you truly believe this was a "pointless" game.

We weren’t winning. Thus it was just a game not to get anyone hurt or suspended.
We don’t play well on the road and Virginia is an awful matchup.

 

[HSPORANGE]

This season isn’t the problem.
We all knew it was tough sledding. Usually I get down when we lose I really am not upset or down at all tonight.
It was a pointless game. We were the tomato can and I was okay with it.
Next year we have more talent but that doesn’t mean squat if it’s going to be the exact same offense and defense.

Ahhh the team has obvious warts and played the #3 team in the country tough. I love the hustle on defense and the boards. They have time to figure it out and I can see them getting 9 or 10 wins.

 

[Alsacs]

Ahhh the team has obvious warts and played the #3 team in the country tough. I love the hustle on defense and the boards. They have time to figure it out and I can see them getting 9 or 10 wins.

We will some games but time to figure what out?
This team just needs to play and get experience. It’s not a big deal if we don’t make the tournament this year.
This team has a complete pass.

 

[orangecuse]

Ahhh the team has obvious warts and played the #3 team in the country tough. I love the hustle on defense and the boards. They have time to figure it out and I can see them getting 9 or 10 wins.

Call me half empty. We are staring 1-4 in the face, and likely the case by this time Saturday. 9-10 wins in the conference is a highly optimistic, but very doubtful. It's going to take a monumental effort too to win our 1st ACC game...5 years into the conference.

 

[cuseguy]

We weren’t winning. Thus it was just a game not to get anyone hurt or suspended.
We don’t play well on the road and Virginia is an awful matchup.

This game gave me hope that we can beat Virginia at home.

 

[HSPORANGE]

We will some games but time to figure what out?
This team just needs to play and get experience. It’s not a big deal if we don’t make the tournament this year.
This team has a complete pass.

Figure out how to win these close games. They got some talent and are getting experience. The effort is there.

 

[NorSyr66]

Wow!!! Way too much negativity in this thread. We all knew it would be a tough season even before TT and Geno parted ways. Now we have an 8 man team with season impacting injury to our only backup center forcing him to play on 1 1/2 legs, a freshman PG that is barely ready to play at this level (many will challenge this) and a 180 pound SF that is asked to do everything but drive the team bus. I am not making excuses. This is reality. Lets support the hell out of this team and stop criticizing the coach for not making the right moves. He is playing chess with a pawn and a King.

 

[Funk Doc]

Wow!!! Way too much negativity in this thread. We all knew it would be a tough season even before TT and Geno parted ways. Now we have an 8 man team with season impacting injury to our only backup center forcing him to play on 1 1/2 legs, a freshman PG that is barely ready to play at this level (many will challenge this) and a 180 pound SF that is asked to do everything but drive the team bus. I am not making excuses. This is reality. Lets support the hell out of this team and stop criticizing the coach for not making the right moves. He is playing chess with a pawn and a King.

Yes the personnel issues are making a huge impact, and I agree that people need to relax, as overall this team still might be overachieving, but you cannot tell me that this group of talented (yes, they are talented) players cannot run some kind of offense other than what they are doing. In my eyes, no matter how much it hurts to say it, this is a direct reflection of what the coach is doing. I mean even a basic third grade motion offense would be a step up from what they are doing out there. You don’t need future NBA all stars out there to move the ball and work at getting open looks. Every single shot they took tonight was a contested shot!

 

[Sherman20]

JB is all about consistency, and I respect that in most instances. But there are times when you have to change. A few years ago, Wisconsin turned their season around after Bo Ryan retired and they had a bunch of losses in a row. In a matter of days, Greg Gard installed their old swing offense, which most of the guys had never played, and everything changed for that team. I could never see JB doing something like that. He doesn’t like to deviate from what we’ve always done, and that usually makes sense.
But aren’t there times when, say, a team is very offensively challenged and doesn’t have enough 3-pt shooters and you may have to do things differently than you’ve been doing them in the past?

Yes the personnel issues are making a huge impact, and I agree that people need to relax, as overall this team still might be overachieving, but you cannot tell me that this group of talented (yes, they are talented) players cannot run some kind of offense other than what they are doing. In my eyes, no matter how much it hurts to say it, this is a direct reflection of what the coach is doing. I mean even a basic third grade motion offense would be a step up from what they are doing out there. You don’t need future NBA all stars out there to move the ball and work at getting open looks. Every single shot they took tonight was a contested shot!

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Every single shot they took tonight was a contested shot!

It's still hard to believe that overall we out shot Virginia last night (38.3% vs 37.7%). I think it's safe to say that JAB is more a defensive coach than an offensive coach but there are simple nuances that could create open looks. It's just not in the playbook. But, like you said, it's about personnel also.

 

[Hoo's That]

It's absolutely brutal to watch our offense.

Almost every single shot we took today was practically a prayer type shot, where if you were a UVA defender and it went in, all's you could do was tip your hat. Meanwhile, UVA got open look after open look after passing effectively and running their offense.

Crazy to think that our D didn't do a better job in extending out on Guy & Jerome as they were the two that crushed any chance we may of had in pulling off the upset. UVA didn't score a 2 point field goal in the second half until there was 6 minutes left in the game. I'm not sure how we couldn't stay on their shooters, it's not as if they have some tremendous floor general, oh, never mind, they actually apparently have heard that passing the ball effectively works in hoops vs. iso, iso, one on one. Ugh!!!!

Our board thinks they were open a lot because we put Hunter at the ACC logo spot. He's a bigger scoring threat than when Wilkins is operating there and taller for outlet passes than when Hall is operating there. Whoever was at the center of the zone and the guards seemed to collapse on him more than they did for anyone else who was there and that left Guy and Jerome open up top. Plus, Jerome was shooting quite close to the center court logo and most coaches wouldn't want someone closely defended way out there.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Call me half empty. We are staring 1-4 in the face, and likely the case by this time Saturday. 9-10 wins in the conference is a highly optimistic, but very doubtful. It's going to take a monumental effort too to win our 1st ACC game...5 years into the conference.

Exactly. Letting winnable games get away against Notre Dame and Wake Forest are just like the football team letting winnable games get away against Middle Tennessee and NC State. You need those in the bank if you exepct to achieve the post-season.

 

[orangecuse]

Our board thinks they were open a lot because we put Hunter at the ACC logo spot. He's a bigger scoring threat than when Wilkins is operating there and taller for outlet passes than when Hall is operating there. Whoever was at the center of the zone and the guards seemed to collapse on him more than they did for anyone else who was there and that left Guy and Jerome open up top. Plus, Jerome was shooting quite close to the center court logo and most coaches wouldn't want someone closely defended way out there.

Hunter wasn't going to beat us at the ACC logo spot, even with his good first half. I'd trade 2's all day long as I doubt he goes for 20 + there. Guy hurt us in the first half with his 3's and Jerome in the second half, even though as JB alluded to in his presser, those were very deep threes by Jerome. I just think our defenders didn't do a good job of focusing and zeroing in on those two and not letting them beat us. Neither Jerome nor Guy have a real jump type shot where they elevate, it's more of set type shot. My point...if they were guarded or contested, I think their percentages of making those goes down dramatically. They don't get their shots off quickly or again, elevate over the defender.

It kind of reminded me of our Kansas game and not focusing on Grahm (he can elevate on his jumper too) from 3 as he torched us for 35 and a huge factor in the reason we lost that game. Viewpoints are always different though depending on the side and angle of one's view.

 

[Newhouser]

This 3 on 5 thing is interesting - not that it isn't true but I'm not sure we would win many 3 on 3 league games with our "best" 3 against every other teams best 3. makes the 3 on 5 scenario even more direr.

 

[NorSyr66]

Yes the personnel issues are making a huge impact, and I agree that people need to relax, as overall this team still might be overachieving, but you cannot tell me that this group of talented (yes, they are talented) players cannot run some kind of offense other than what they are doing. In my eyes, no matter how much it hurts to say it, this is a direct reflection of what the coach is doing. I mean even a basic third grade motion offense would be a step up from what they are doing out there. You don’t need future NBA all stars out there to move the ball and work at getting open looks. Every single shot they took tonight was a contested shot!

Good post. I was just a bit frustrated last night with all the piling on after a tough loss in a close game nobody even thought we would be in. We were playing the top or one of the top defenses in NCAA this year with our anemic offense by everyone's agreement. To continue to ridicule the the coach for our shortcomings does not make the situation any better. I am not a basketball coach so I am not savvy in a variety of offensive plays or options that could be employed but I share your frustration for our seemingly lack of ball movement.