Thoughts | Syracusefan.com

Thoughts

CuseMan4

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1) we’ll be fine. It was obvious we missed Buddy and Sidibe. We are missing 2 starters and we still went 9-10 deep, when was the last time JB did that

2) we were over matched on the boards today. Rutgers was a lot bigger than us, something Sidibe does well and will help once he’s back.

3) our 3’s were off today, percentage was low, something Buddy will help when he gets back

4) Girard’s minutes will be cut a bunch once Buddy comes back. Kadary and Boeheimshould be the starting backcourt, it’s quite obvious at this point.

Now some other things. We will get better as the season progresses. Our defense is still learning but it’s getting better. JG3 most likely won’t be playing as much so we’ll have size in Buddy and Kadary at the top so people can’t just shoot over us which happened multiple times with JG3. Griffin is still learning the zone, he got lost MULTIPLE times and got turned multiple times, he was chasing a lot tonight.

Our offense is out of sync too much, we have players hunting their own shot too much. Griffin and JG3 come to mind. We need a better flow, to be honest this offense needs to go through Richmond and Dolezaj. Good things happen when they have the ball, they are our best playmakers and decision makers.

Lastly, we don’t have a real “dog”, or “star” on this team yet. We have a lot of Role Players that do one thing extremely well or a bunch of things well but not great. We need that one guy that is that “go to” guy like an Elijah last year. To be straight up honest with you I think that guy needs to be Kadary or Griffin. Dolezaj has the potential but I don’t know if he will ever assert himself to be that guy. I think by the end of the season Kadary will be our best player hands down. Give him the rock and let others play off him.

All of things are correctable and I think JB will figure it out. This is one of our better and deeper teams we’ve had in a while. I like where it’s going just need to work on a few things.
 
1) we’ll be fine. It was obvious we missed Buddy and Sidibe. We are missing 2 starters and we still went 9-10 deep, when was the last time JB did that

2) we were over matched on the boards today. Rutgers was a lot bigger than us, something Sidibe does well and will help once he’s back.

3) our 3’s were off today, percentage was low, something Buddy will help when he gets back

4) Girard’s minutes will be cut a bunch once Buddy comes back. Kadary and Boeheimshould be the starting backcourt, it’s quite obvious at this point.

Now some other things. We will get better as the season progresses. Our defense is still learning but it’s getting better. JG3 most likely won’t be playing as much so we’ll have size in Buddy and Kadary at the top so people can’t just shoot over us which happened multiple times with JG3. Griffin is still learning the zone, he got lost MULTIPLE times and got turned multiple times, he was chasing a lot tonight.

Our offense is out of sync too much, we have players hunting their own shot too much. Griffin and JG3 come to mind. We need a better flow, to be honest this offense needs to go through Richmond and Dolezaj. Good things happen when they have the ball, they are our best playmakers and decision makers.

Lastly, we don’t have a real “dog”, or “star” on this team yet. We have a lot of Role Players that do one thing extremely well or a bunch of things well but not great. We need that one guy that is that “go to” guy like an Elijah last year. To be straight up honest with you I think that guy needs to be Kadary or Griffin. Dolezaj has the potential but I don’t know if he will ever assert himself to be that guy. I think by the end of the season Kadary will be our best player hands down. Give him the rock and let others play off him.

All of things are correctable and I think JB will figure it out. This is one of our better and deeper teams we’ve had in a while. I like where it’s going just need to work on a few things.
It’s only a deep team if JB actually substitutes. We definitely did not go 9-10 deep in this game. We can go that deep once Buddy and Sidibe come back, but only if JB changes his substitution philosophy.
 
Bad defense for about 3/4 of the game. A big part of that is the rotation is not there yet.
Bad offense for 15 minutes of the game. Fell apart the last 4 minutes.

Not that much margin of error when you playing a consistent team of that caliber.

Only 2 new guys in the rotation both who are decent defenders, my first guess is that the defensive rotations have only had a week and a half of practice.

Hats off to Rutgers they nearly played a full 40, and were well poised.

Woody's second 3 was in and out. I love griff but 2-9 shooting wouldn't have minded seeing woody and Guerrier take a few more of those deep ones, On the other hand No offensive floor leader with griff missing like crazy, and no Buddy. Hats off to Kadary for trying as a fresh.
losing 26 to 42 on the boards yuck.
 
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shooting percentages are most impacted by selection and fatigue. Joe and Griff are tossing up crap and the whole team is not in basketball shape.
 
Largely agree.

Would really like to feel confident that Sidibe is a big answer to the Zone when he gets back. And hope Girard stops taking Kaleb Joseph pills. Blown away by how awful he's been in the first 160 minutes of the season.
 
Remember the days when we would dominate Penn State and Rutgers in hoops? Now both have beaten us badly two years in a row in the ACC/B1G Challenge. Not a good sign to our subpar program especially in the East.
 
Remember the days when we would dominate Penn State and Rutgers in hoops? Now both have beaten us badly two years in a row in the ACC/B1G Challenge. Not a good sign to our subpar program especially in the East.

Rutgers did not beat us badly. We had a lead with 3 minutes to go and 2 starters out. This is just a lazy hot take.
 
Marek is what he is, he’ll never be more than a glue guy and facilitator at times.

This team’s offense needs to work through Kadary and Marek, from high to low. Q and G need to work the baseline if they’re not open in the corners. JBA and Bourama need to keep an eye out for the ball down low. Some beautiful looks from JBA immediately looking for the open pass when he caught the ball in position last night.

Our athleticism down low should work to free up the perimeter, not the other way around.
 
1) we’ll be fine. It was obvious we missed Buddy and Sidibe. We are missing 2 starters and we still went 9-10 deep, when was the last time JB did that
Did we watch different games? Only 7 guys got mins with Braswell getting 3 if you want to count him as an 8th.
 
Nice write up by OP and agree with allot of what was said. We should probably be prepared for some additional up and down games. It may take some time for Sid to find his game like last year. I think boards will be a week point for us until then. Girard should see its minutes shaved some and I think we will see Newton minutes up as well. The cardio of the team right now is also not good and it showed last night in the zone. Slow rotations...hands not in shooters faces on every shot. We took some bad shots and missed a number of easy shots (Marek). Need to tighten that up some. I agree Girard and Griff took some crazy long shots. Those are just bad. No reason. Lastly Cuse needs to move the ball better. This dribble down and shoot or dribble down, pass once and shoot is not a good approach, especially when they don’t have game legs yet.
 
Marek is what he is, he’ll never be more than a glue guy and facilitator at times.

This team’s offense needs to work through Kadary and Marek, from high to low. Q and G need to work the baseline if they’re not open in the corners. JBA and Bourama need to keep an eye out for the ball down low. Some beautiful looks from JBA immediately looking for the open pass when he caught the ball in position last night.

Our athleticism down low should work to free up the perimeter, not the other way around.
I agree about Marek - was holing out hope he would take another level but now I'm with you. He is what he is. If I could change one thing about him it would be to stop pretzel twisting at the rim. Attack it and eliminate the missed bunnies. That said I think he is close to our MVP.
 
I agree about Marek - was holing out hope he would take another level but now I'm with you. He is what he is. If I could change one thing about him it would be to stop pretzel twisting at the rim. Attack it and eliminate the missed bunnies. That said I think he is close to our MVP.
He’s limited in what he can do scoring wise, but I agree. I almost think it’s better he go up strong and get blocked. Q, Kadary and AG hang around for rebounds and loose balls well on the O end and if it results in a foul then even better.

He’s a good third or fourth option, but limited in the creativity he has to create shots. He’s a skinny magician in the paint though when he has position
 
He’s limited in what he can do scoring wise, but I agree. I almost think it’s better he go up strong and get blocked. Q, Kadary and AG hang around for rebounds and loose balls well on the O end and if it results in a foul then even better.

He’s a good third or fourth option, but limited in the creativity he has to create shots. He’s a skinny magician in the paint though when he has position

Marek Dolezaj Is An Anorexic Magician.
:p
 
Rutgers did not beat us badly. We had a lead with 3 minutes to go and 2 starters out. This is just a lazy hot take.
Okay so PSU did and Rutgers by 10. Still the same and coupled with recent losses to UConn, STJ’s and GT...things are not the same anymore regarding Cuse hoops.
 
Okay so PSU did and Rutgers by 10. Still the same and coupled with recent losses to UConn, STJ’s and GT...things are not the same anymore regarding Cuse hoops.

You clearly don’t know basketball if that’s the take you are coming up with after this game this season. You are clearly using it as a reason to cry about results the previous 5 years. This team is clearly better than anything we’ve thrown out there at least going back to 2016 and we were missing two key contributors. And in case you didn’t pay attention I am pretty sure Rutgers would be favored over every team in the ACC right now.
 

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