this year should be a total bummer but they're still making it fun

[Millhouse]

we are so lucky that this is as bad as it gets.

BJ Johnson is shooting .346 from 3 in conference play. Considering that his confidence was shaky, that's pretty great. I'm not a great judge of mechanics but his shot looks great to me, curious what other people think his potential is

He and G combine to shoot 45% (that's mostly gbinije but .346 is good)

 

[CusefanATL]

we are so lucky that this is as bad as it gets.

BJ Johnson is shooting .346 from 3 in conference play. Considering that his confidence was shaky, that's pretty great. I'm not a great judge of mechanics but his shot looks great to me, curious what other people think his potential is

He and G combine to shoot 45% (that's mostly gbinije but .346 is good)

our shooting all of a sudden will look really good next year with cooney, G, and BJ and Malachi. add in a 15 footer from CM and we may have some offense next year.

 

[Millhouse]

our shooting all of a sudden will look really good next year with cooney, G, and BJ and Malachi. add in a 15 footer from CM and we may have some offense next year.

get cooney healthy and down to 30-34 mpg and 5-6 threes per game and he'll shoot .340 in conference next year

i keep thinking about the wes johnson year where there were so many guys who could hit open threes. rautins, scoop, triche all had their best years

 

[RF2044]

get cooney healthy and down to 30-34 mpg and 5-6 threes per game and he'll shoot .340 in conference next year

i keep thinking about the wes johnson year where there were so many guys who could hit open threes. rautins, scoop, triche all had their best years

The more I think about next year, the more excited I get about the offensive potential. G, Cooney and BJ return as shooters. Joseph and Roberson coming back more experienced and taking their game up a notch. McCullough returns.

Now, we don't know about Coleman or Bryant, how well McCullough bounces back, etc. -- but there are a lot of possibilities there for those two power spots. Throw in Richardson and Dieng, and all of the sudden we'll go from having worst depth ever this year to bountiful depth at all positions, with lots of multi-position versatility to boot.

 

[orangefan13]

Was it just me or did BJ's arc appear to be alittle higher against boston college where he also buried 3-4 threes?? Either way hes really getting confidence.

He reminds me more of a sophmore who became a 6th man late, then a sophmore who finally knocked down 1 out of 3 or 4 a game late in the season. I love to see that happen.

on a sidenote I also love Ron, but hes got to stop fouling on late threes, there is no worse foul in college ball. I love his defensive intensity and ball movement and attack mentality though. So nice to see three sophmores an a freshmen who all started the season shaky, stepping up late in the season.

 

[OrangePA]

I agree.

This has been a fun team to watch. They play hard. And, they share the ball.

Coach Boeheim has done a very nice job with this team.

 

[OrangeTown]

Yeah I could be totally seeing things here, but I've noticed a few of BJ's recent shots that seem different than earlier in the year.

It started with a 3 pointer he took from the baseline in front of the SU bench (I believe it was against Pitt on Saturday) as the shot clock was about to expire. It looked different to me because I thought he was rushing it to get it off in time. But it also looked like he released it as he was elevating as opposed to a bit later as his jump reached it's peak and stopped elevating. I also noticed this last night - he seems to be releasing earlier than he was - it seems like a quicker, smoother shot.

But as I said, maybe it's just me. Anyone want to confirm my craziness or lack thereof?

Regardless, it's great to see the kid contributing and having confidence. Using the pump fake and scoring in different manners. Kudos, young man.

 

[NKR1978]

I'm more satisfied at the end of this regular season than I was last year. This team has gotten better over the course of the year. Players have developed, which is something I've been critical about with this staff over the last couple years, and they fight for 40 minutes every single game.

And now that we're clearly a bubble team, we might stop hearing that we took a penalty this year because the team is terrible.

I'd love this team to get to 20 wins because I would never have imagined that possible a month ago.

 

[Millhouse]

I'm more satisfied at the end of this regular season than I was last year. This team has gotten better over the course of the year. Players have developed, which is something I've been critical about with this staff over the last couple years, and they fight for 40 minutes every single game.

And now that we're clearly a bubble team, we might stop hearing that we took a penalty this year because the team is terrible.

I'd love this team to get to 20 wins because I would never have imagined that possible a month ago.

i'm taking a lot of pleasure in them playing well enough to have made the tournament without the punishment. geniuses like gosu96 thought the idea of that was laughable

 

[longislandcuse]

I love watching ESPN talk about us like "that team noone wants to face down the stretch". Mentioned how we beat Louisville and ND in consecutive weeks during SC and talked about us playing our hearts out and winning games in a sanctioned season during the Arkansas broadcast last night.

 

[NineOneSeven]

get cooney healthy and down to 30-34 mpg and 5-6 threes per game and he'll shoot .340 in conference next year

i keep thinking about the wes johnson year where there were so many guys who could hit open threes. rautins, scoop, triche all had their best years

We had 7 starters and everyone scored over 8 ppg WITH incredible efficiency. That's pretty ridiculous.

 

[Jake]

The Wes Johnson team was probably the most complete team we've ever had. As good as those teams in the 80s were, they took off a lot of plays on the defensive end.

 

[UnderHisOwnPower]

we are so lucky that this is as bad as it gets.

BJ Johnson is shooting .346 from 3 in conference play. Considering that his confidence was shaky, that's pretty great. I'm not a great judge of mechanics but his shot looks great to me, curious what other people think his potential is

He and G combine to shoot 45% (that's mostly gbinije but .346 is good)

here are his stats compared to CJ and DNic as sophs. I think his potential can be found in these numbers:

 

[Millhouse]

We had 7 starters and everyone scored over 8 ppg WITH incredible efficiency. That's pretty ridiculous.

well you ought be pretty efficient in a 7 on 5 power play

 

[JCDATHIRD]

i'm taking a lot of pleasure in them playing well enough to have made the tournament without the punishment. geniuses like gosu96 thought the idea of that was laughable

too early to tell Mill... if we lose our last three, we wouldnt even be on the bubble. thats certainly possible.

 

[Millhouse]

here are his stats compared to CJ and DNic as sophs. I think his potential can be found in these numbers:

View attachment 37375

hard to shoot with one eye on the bench. did nichols really improve that much as a shooter between then and his senior year? i feel the same way about johnson (wait what?) that lots of people did about nichols who wanted to see more of him earlier in his career

 

[Jake]

They were treated very similarly. JBs decision to play edelin over Nichols that year still pisses me off. Never should have lost to Vermont.

Kinda similar teams:
Hak vs Rak
Gmac vs Cooney
Nichols vs Johnson
McCroskey vs Patterson
Roberts vs Roberson

 

[SUFan44]

The Wes Johnson team was probably the most complete team we've ever had. As good as those teams in the 80s were, they took off a lot of plays on the defensive end.

Arinze doesn't get hurt and I still maintain we win the national championship, or at the very least make the Final Four. Butler made the finals and lost by 3 to Duke, and we led by 4 with 3 1/2 minutes left with the ball before Scoop and Rautins forgot their 1st Team All-American was on the team. Man I miss that team...

 

[UnderHisOwnPower]

hard to shoot with one eye on the bench.

That is a different discussion than BJs potential. with history providing 100% accuracy, we know that both CJ and DNic were the featured scorers as Srs. Will BJ be the featured scorer in 2 years? It is very likely he is the main combination slasher, outside threat that those 2 players were as Srs, which gives him the chance to average 16-18 points. I think his shot is good enough to shoot high 30% or more from 3, closer to DNic than CJ in being a superior shooter, so he is on track to finish his career as a 1,000 point scorer here and win a ton of games on some very successful teams. Not bad for a guy who has had his very scholarship questioned by some who only see the last game as an indicator of a players ability. I don't see him as the poster child for some talent that was buried on the bench, rather as a great example of a player who has played his way onto the court from the bench.

 

[upperdeck]

considering all this team has gone thru to have had shots at beating mich/Vill./ND/UNC on the road would have been quite an accomplishment for any team. win one more road game and be over .500 on the road in the ACC

Imagine if they won out and finished 3rd in the ACC..

 

[MikeSU02]

Arinze doesn't get hurt and I still maintain we win the national championship, or at the very least make the Final Four. Butler made the finals and lost by 3 to Duke, and we led by 4 with 3 1/2 minutes left with the ball before Scoop and Rautins forgot their 1st Team All-American was on the team. Man I miss that team...

Not only was that team awesome, our path to the title game was fantastic.

It would have been (after Butler) a KSU team coming off a three overtime game on short rest and then an MSU team who had its PG injured and out.

Then we would have played, by far, the worst Duke title team of the four. Kyle Singler won MOP.

That is the one that got away.

 

[Col. Bleep]

This has turned into one of my favorite teams ever.
(Despite the fact I can't get many of the games on TV without paying extra).

It looked like it would be little more than the answer to a trivia question: when was the last time a Syracuse team didn't make it to any post season tournament?
But it's become a memorable, enjoyable season.

Almost every game has been exciting.
Only two real clinkers...against Cal and Clemson.
This team has fought through devastating injuries and sanctions.
We've seen two veterans take their games WAY up in Rak and Gbinije.
We've seen the development of underclassmen in Roberson, Patterson, Joseph (notwithstanding his continued arms down closeouts) and now BJ.
And we've seen Cooney hustle for 40 minutes and get hot at crucial times.

Despite all the limitations, they never stop working.
They fight to the final buzzer.
And they're capable of beating any team in the country.

 

[jekelish]

"The Pride of the Orange" is taking on a whole new meaning right now.

 

[jekelish]

The Wes Johnson team was probably the most complete team we've ever had. As good as those teams in the 80s were, they took off a lot of plays on the defensive end.

Yep. I'm a little too young to remember the 88 or 89 teams, for example...but the Wes Johnson team was the best team I've seen at SU. Including the Carmelo team.

 

[Ghost]

They were treated very similarly. JBs decision to play edelin over Nichols that year still pisses me off. Never should have lost to Vermont.

Kinda similar teams:
Hak vs Rak
Gmac vs Cooney
Nichols vs Johnson
McCroskey vs Patterson
Roberts vs Roberson

I still cringe at that VT game.

I was in the Nichols needed more minutes camp...and now BJ! Coincidence? I think not!