Thoughts on the tourney, UVA and Cuse

[billsin01]

Another college hoops season (sadly) in the books and just had a few thoughts I wanted to throw out there:

1) Not sure I get the UVA/Bennett hate
I know a lot of people here really respect the program and it drives some posters nuts, but honestly I"m not sure what a college hoops fan would hate about the program. They're not loaded with one-and-dones, Bennett seems like a class guy, they play tough defense without as much clutch and grab as Pitt used, they play an efficient offensive system ... it's really pretty impressive basketball even if it can be a bit boring at times. Maybe I'm just too old and too busy with kids and work and stuff to get as worked up over this stuff as I did for much of my life, but honestly I just thought it was cool to see them scratch, fight and claw their way to a title (and Texas Tech nearly do the same, for that matter) as opposed to duke playing kind of sloppy hoops but just overwhelm you with talent.

2) People can say college hoops blows (and the quality of the product can be ugly, no question), but that tournament from the sweet 16 on was really fun to watch
From a pure enjoyment standpoint I wish more teams played up and down like Carolina and I don't think it's a stretch to say that there are factors that really hurt the overall product of college basketball -- AAU culture that seems focused on the individual, the constant media timeouts that ruin any flow of a game, the inconsistent officiating, the prevalence of teams that are primarily defensive minded and seem to basically run roughly one offensive set ...

But the last 16 teams in that tournament played so hard for the 40 minutes (or more) of every game they played and the passion was there. You also had some teams come out of nowhere -- Auburn and TTU most notably. The tourney moves quickly and the winner take all, single-game elimination format makes for incredible drama. It's still the best playoff system of any sport in terms of being able to click on basically any game and kind of get into it. The NCAA has its warts and the quality of the play is what it it is, but March is the coolest month of the year for any sport on the planet.

3) What can the Cuse take from this tourney?
Syracuse has to get back to a point where it add some diversity to it's offensive game. Those teams last night attacked really strong opposing defenses in a few different ways. They each did the high ball screen thing at times (it's a plague in college hoops) and it worked at times (Jerome getting fouled on that drive to the basket in OT was the result of TTU botching the defense on the high ball screen), but they did a lot of other stuff too. UVA got it's guards inverted with their back to the basket, the did a little drive and kick, they got a couple buckets on quick cuts to the basket. TTU spread the floor and tried to pull Diakite away from the basket and got out in transition where they could.

We are a one-note offensive team right now. We don't run, we don't cut, we don't move the ball, we rarely get early shot clock looks ... if we shoot well we look OK (not great) and if we don't we get beat by 15 (each of those teams would have beat us by 15).

Not sure if it happens next year or not but we have zero imagination on offense -- probably due to coaching and personnel. Needs to change.

 

[cuse10]

Auburn and Texas Tech didn't come out of nowhere. TTU made the Elite 8 last season and looked impressive during their run. They played well all 2018-19. Auburn underachieved during the regular season and turned it on at the end of the year. They were supposed to be better than they were. With the talent they had, they should have won the SEC.

 

[billsin01]

Auburn and Texas Tech didn't come out of nowhere. TTU made the Elite 8 last season and looked impressive during their run. They played well all 2018-19. Auburn underachieved during the regular season and turned it on at the end of the year. They were supposed to be better than they were. With the talent they had, they should have won the SEC.

True. I guess I just meant historically. But this is a fair point.

 

[Forloveoforange]

We could have had a hard time keeping up with the foul shooting, but if we had all of our players, it seemed like we could play with anyone, at times.

 

[cuseinseattle]

The biggest thing I noticed watching the tournament was the quickness and skill set of the guards that were in the second weekend and Final 4 were much better than ours outside of Tyus. Most of the guards can get in the lane, finish around the rim or hit a floater or make a good decision when they are in there. That is what we really lacked. Tyus is solid but Frank never played well and we had to ask Buddy to do far too much. I'm really hoping this changes next year and Jalen make a big leap forward. I'm really high on Goodine and I think he could really help in this regard too. If Buddy can be that shooter that plays 15-20 minutes I think we could see some improvement there.

 

[Melancer46]

One of the big things that stood out last night to me was the rebounding. Virginia in particular looks like they have a basic philosophy that you either grab the rebound or you try to tip it someone that can grab it. Most of our players don't even try to grab it and none of them try to tip it to a teammate.

Virginia also just passes the ball so much better than we do. As Buddy's playing time increased, we used a lot more off-ball movement, but it didn't really matter because the passes either never came or were far too late when they did. I'd still like to see more cuts and off-ball action, but an overall improvement in our team's passing ability would have gone a long way this year.

 

[kirbivore]

3) What can the Cuse take from this tourney?
Syracuse has to get back to a point where it add some diversity to it's offensive game. Those teams last night attacked really strong opposing defenses in a few different ways. They each did the high ball screen thing at times (it's a plague in college hoops) and it worked at times (Jerome getting fouled on that drive to the basket in OT was the result of TTU botching the defense on the high ball screen), but they did a lot of other stuff too. UVA got it's guards inverted with their back to the basket, the did a little drive and kick, they got a couple buckets on quick cuts to the basket. TTU spread the floor and tried to pull Diakite away from the basket and got out in transition where they could.

We are a one-note offensive team right now. We don't run, we don't cut, we don't move the ball, we rarely get early shot clock looks ... if we shoot well we look OK (not great) and if we don't we get beat by 15 (each of those teams would have beat us by 15).

Not sure if it happens next year or not but we have zero imagination on offense -- probably due to coaching and personnel. Needs to change.

unfortunately nothing will change and SU will suffer a fall like the last years of Bob Knight at Indiana

 

[Brooky03]

1) I don't hate Virginia. They do everything the right way and Bennett is a classy s.o.b. But they are not fun to watch. I can't put my finger on it, but they're just super boring. The players are cogs in a machine. It works, obviously, but is still not fun to look at. It's like the Patriots. Watching Edelman catch 14 crossing patterns for 50 yards during a 38 minute drive for a TD - punched in by generic RB1 - is not enjoyable to look at... But it works.

That's what I think bugs people the most. I'm not a basketball purist. Playing fundamental basketball and making the right, boring, play each time down the court doesn't blow my skirt up. They're like a color-by-numbers team. The same players with a different coach wouldn't be nearly as successful. It's a testament to Bennett's coaching ability, but people generally like feeling like the players are doing most of the lifting, and I'm not convinced that's the case with UVA.

Also, borderline cocky white guards who don't miss can be easy to root against. I liked Mooney on TT a lot. Do not enjoy watching Guy or Jerome. And this would be true even if Cuse and UVA were in different conferences. I haven't been able to unpack what I dislike about their style/demeanor, but their faces bother me. Probably irrational.

2) This tournament had a lot of incredible games. The overall quality of play was meh. It felt like the top wasn't as good as it should be; everybody just kind of met in the middle. Wild finishes though.

3) Personnel. When we've had the right players, the coaches have done the things you listed. We have not had a full compliment of good players in a minute. Now that we finally have a recruiting class out of the shadow of the scholarship and scouting/contact restrictions, we should see puzzle pieces that fit better, and more diverse play as a result.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

1- They took our spot in the ACC heirarchy which I thought we had locked down during the Ennis year when we were new to the league. That was their first really good year under Bennett and they haven't let up since. I can't like them maybe if they were in the SEC I would.

2. Agreed there were more Auburn and Techs out there than people think and realistically about 15-20 teams capable of going on a run to the finals.

3. We were one of them if we didn't suspend Frankie. That was stupid and I doubt it was warranted whatever he did. Cursed year with regards to luck though and the Bazley punking ended up being huge with the guys he was going to push for minutes regressing big time in the offseason along with Frank getting hurt late in the summer. 10-8 in the ACC isn't bad all things considered and we must have led at HT in 15 of those games.

Goodine or Girard need to be ready to play PG from day 1 and Marek needs to give us 30 good minutes per night at center. Thats what the season hinges on.

We'll be fine 2-4 Buddy/Eli/Oshae/Guerrier. I don't think we can expect anything from Jalen/HW/Sid/Akok next year.

 

[billsin01]

Goodine or Girard need to be ready to play PG from day 1 and Marek needs to give us 30 good minutes per night at center. Thats what the season hinges on.

We'll be fine 2-4 Buddy/Eli/Oshae/Guerrier. I don't think we can expect anything from Jalen/HW/Sid/Akok next year.

It will be interesting to watch. Not sure I totally agree on some of these. Elijah Hughes is an interesting one to me. He does some really nice things and has some good instincts as a hoops player. But aside from the occasional block or strip, he's only OK defensively and he doesn't rebound much. Offensively he's a nice player but he's shooting basically 70% of his shots from three and they are all mostly of the spot up variety. Feel like he needs to diversify his game a bit and hopefully help out a bit more on the boards.

Buddy too -- love him and he played really well. Not trying to knock him but I think he needs to find a half step somewhere with conditioning and S&C stuff. Needs to be able to at least hinder other teams attacking him off the dribble and needs to either anticipate the slide better in the zone or get a little quicker. Felt good teams attacked him consistently. Offensively, again, he's a little bit one-dimensional. Shooter but not much else. Would love to see him become a more dangerous passer and improve moving without the ball.

As for Carey and HW, what's interesting is that they have something that no one else on the team (at least currently) has: Carey can beat a man off the dribble and HW is an actual PG. Now the question is can either play well enough at this level to be a big asset for us? I agree that I'm not entirely sure, but I don't feel comfortable writing either off as much as I do with Sid (just feel like we aren't going to see the guy we saw early frosh year) or JBA who feels like a little bit of a project (solid prospect but seems like it would be hard for him to beat out the guys in front of him or force his way into the rotation).

 

[billsin01]

Also, borderline cocky white guards who don't miss can be easy to root against. I liked Mooney on TT a lot. Do not enjoy watching Guy or Jerome. And this would be true even if Cuse and UVA were in different conferences. I haven't been able to unpack what I dislike about their style/demeanor, but their faces bother me. Probably irrational.

This cracked me up. Agree on personnel. Not like I don't feel JB can coach offense -- not sure it's his strength, but we've obviously seen him do it. I'm just curious on personnel, though b/c I'm not sure anyone other than Carey is capable of beating guys off the dribble and I'm not entirely certain we'll have much low post offense either. Wait and see I guess.

 

[orangehomer]

well it seems like there are some folks on this board throwing a party for UVA like them winning a title is cute or something with zero recognition that this is a direct competitor that is better funded, has a younger/better coach and is in our freaking conference. when they now have just as many titles as we do.

 

[HakAttack]

well it seems like there are some folks on this board throwing a party for UVA like them winning a title is cute or something with zero recognition that this is a direct competitor that is better funded, has a younger/better coach and is in our freaking conference. when they now have just as many titles as we do.

It boggles my mind that so many folks here just don’t seem to grasp that Virginia is s direct competitor. Why would we want them to do better?

 

[Fly Rodder]

It boggles my mind that so many folks here just don’t seem to grasp that Virginia is s direct competitor. Why would we want them to do better?

I want SU to do better, but so far it's been real hit or miss. UVA took advantage of an SU program in stasis or decline and they're cementing their position as a top-3 team in this league. What kind of an impact does any one posting on an internet message board do to make UVA less good? Does bad mouthing them make SU a better team?

If only SU had better fans, then they'd be a top-3 ACC team year in and year out. That's a helluva hot take.

 

[Brooky03]

This cracked me up. Agree on personnel. Not like I don't feel JB can coach offense -- not sure it's his strength, but we've obviously seen him do it. I'm just curious on personnel, though b/c I'm not sure anyone other than Carey is capable of beating guys off the dribble and I'm not entirely certain we'll have much low post offense either. Wait and see I guess.

Goodine and Guerrier should be able to beat guys off the bounce. Should. Buddy, Girard, and Eli will be mostly spot up shooters spacing the floor for those guys.

If Oshae stays, he did start to show an improved back-to-basket game towards the end of the season. He'd be our best bet at some post scoring if he gets to work this summer.

There's hope for Ajok and Edwards down low but, realistically, both are probably a year or two away from contributing significantly on O.

 

[cspades99]

I don't dislike Virginia. What I don't like is that questionable (and massively wrong) calls were made in huge spots closing out MULTIPLE games during their run. Games they would have likely lost had those calls been made. I didn't even think twice about the "Guy tripped on his own teammate down 3 but got free throws out of the deal" call the other night because there was no point in complaining about yet ANOTHER break.

All of that said, when it comes to national champions not named Syracuse, there are storylines I can feel good about and applaud a team/player for. But I will never celebrate another team winning it all. Ever.