This year starting to shape up like last yr

[Jack Hall]

Great ranking in January, players get injured (DC) or miss a few games (JS, Keita, Grant), we go on a skid , JB never panics or sounds any alarms during the skid (in fact both seasons the only time he talked the team down was when we were highly ranked and he said we were overrated) we get a 3-4 seed. Last yrs team goes to FF. The one major diff being last yrs team made BET finals. I admit it doesnt look good right now ( not even close) but i hope we dont give up on this team. It all comes down to IF shots suddenly start falling...just imagine what the score would have been if CJ and Ennis shoot 50 prcnt last night. And thats with Trevor doing next to nothing. go Cuse!

 

[Ozcuse]

Great ranking in January, players get injured (DC) or miss a few games (JS, Keita, Grant), we go on a skid , JB never panics or sounds any alarms during the skid (in fact both seasons the only time he talked the team down was when we were highly ranked and he said we were overrated) we get a 3-4 seed. Last yrs team goes to FF. The one major diff being last yrs team made BET finals. I admit it doesnt look good right now ( not even close) but i hope we dont give up on this team. It all comes down to IF shots suddenly start falling...just imagine what the score would have been if CJ and Ennis shoot 50 prcnt last night. And thats with Trevor doing next to nothing. go Cuse!

Honestly any team on the outside looking in can say, "if we just hit more shots, we wouldn't have lost that game."

We need to look at WHY we are missing shots at such an alarming rate not just hoping the shots start magically falling.

Part of the reason is the focus on having the offense run through Fair. Too much Fair isolation, too many forced shots, and if Fair is shooting away from the basket it means one less big near the rim to get rebounds and putbacks.

Cooney isn't hitting enough to be a legitimate threat so it's really on Fair, Ennis, and Grant in that order to carry the offense.

My proposed solution: more dribble drive from Ennis who can then decide if he wants to take it all the way to the hoop, pass to a baseline or trailing Grant/Fair or pass to Cooney in the corner.

The issue as I see it is that Ennis needs to take more leadership in making sure Fair doesn't try to do it all himself and shoot us out of a game in the process.

 

[Jack Hall]

Honestly any team on the outside looking in can say, "if we just hit more shots, we wouldn't have lost that game."

We need to look at WHY we are missing shots at such an alarming rate not just hoping the shots start magically falling.

Part of the reason is the focus on having the offense run through Fair. Too much Fair isolation, too many forced shots, and if Fair is shooting away from the basket it means one less big near the rim to get rebounds and putbacks.

Cooney isn't hitting enough to be a legitimate threat so it's really on Fair, Ennis, and Grant in that order to carry the offense.

My proposed solution: more dribble drive from Ennis who can then decide if he wants to take it all the way to the hoop, pass to a baseline or trailing Grant/Fair or pass to Cooney in the corner.

The issue as I see it is that Ennis needs to take more leadership in making sure Fair doesn't try to do it all himself and shoot us out of a game in the process.

Good post, i cant disagree. I feel we have devolved into a one on one driving team similar to many JB teams. We just dont have any great passing anymore since the first Duke game and there is little offensive movement unless you count Trevor running around like a chicken w his head cut off. But the two are related. If no one is moving and cutting effectively, tough to make an effective pass. Which explains why Tyler at the end with the game on the line drove four times (instead of passing) and had two missed shots and a charge and a turnover

 

[ForeverOrange]

Something does not seem the same to me, maybe it's the fact that MCW was a game changer on defense, he made defensive plays that I just don't see this year. But hey, if we get the same result as last year than these skids will have been worth it, but something tells me, we will be home a lot earlier than we hoped.

 

[Garbs]

last year we didn't lose to non tournament teams

 

[two3zone]

Something does not seem the same to me, maybe it's the fact that MCW was a game changer on defense, he made defensive plays that I just don't see this year. But hey, if we get the same result as last year than these skids will have been worth it, but something tells me, we will be home a lot earlier than we hoped.

He was a game changer on offense too.

 

[Deano]

If I recall Triche went into a shooting slump towards the end of last year, then in the BET against SH, he hit a open 3 and it was like, he's back! Ended up shooting 6 for 9 (2 for 4 from 3 pt range) and 17 points. Once he hit that shot you could feel things were going in the right direction, let's hope this happens for Cooney in the 1st game of the NCAA Tourney.

 

[kirbivore]

Great ranking in January, players get injured (DC) or miss a few games (JS, Keita, Grant), we go on a skid , JB never panics or sounds any alarms during the skid (in fact both seasons the only time he talked the team down was when we were highly ranked and he said we were overrated) we get a 3-4 seed. Last yrs team goes to FF. The one major diff being last yrs team made BET finals. I admit it doesnt look good right now ( not even close) but i hope we dont give up on this team. It all comes down to IF shots suddenly start falling...just imagine what the score would have been if CJ and Ennis shoot 50 prcnt last night. And thats with Trevor doing next to nothing. go Cuse!

Big difference was last year's team started to right the ship in the BET. Beat Pitt and G'town and had L'ville on the ropes until fatigue and the refs took over. This year's team bombed out of the conference tourney.

 

[kcsu]

no go to guys no real leadership this team has a many fine players but lacks a true leader

 

[zendez33]

Last year felt similar, but this year feels empty. Ending of the NC State game was a perfect reflection of where this team is at. My opinion this years Syracurse is depth. With no depth, the kids are playing insane minutes which has exhausted this team down the stretch. I remember at the beginning of the season watching the zone and everyone's arms were stretched out and in the air, there was energy. I havn't seen that since the Duke game. I don't know, my hopes are not high but I am looking forward to next year assuming at least Ennis stays (fingers crossed).

 

[El Jefe Syr]

Momentum-wise, this season so far reminds me of the 1999-2000 team. That year too we had a fantastic record coming out of January (21-0) maybe(?)), faded big time through February and had a lousy BET that let most fans and pundits making predictions similar to the ones being made right now.

We regrouped for the NCAAs and went to the Sweet 16, losing the MSU who won the NC that year.

Keep in mind, this year's team has very different strengths and weaknesses when compared to that team but the trajectory of the regular season through the BET was similar.

For some reason that I can't articulate I really feel like this team has a run in them. Lots of times people forget that in the NCAAs X's & O's often take a back seat to the urgency of the moment, heart, desire, luck...

 

[jdubs30]

Beating Pitt and GTown in the BET was a huge momentum changer. Even though Ville destroyed us the last 15min of the BET championship, we already righted the ship.