Time to start facing some hard truths

[reedny]

What will the offense look like from a schematic standpoint? Especially if the shooting struggles continue? We are 18 points down with Rak gone. No double-teams to get kicks out to Cooney or Silent G like last season. Zero transition last season. I don't see some dribble-drive offense working unless last year's backcourt's handles get better or the incoming guys have better than advertised handles. Just curious.

I'm wondering what's going to stop teams from clogging the middle and playing us to shoot? Unless DC2 shocks us with low-block offense above 10 ppg (or we get unexpected contributions from Obokoh or Diagne), there's no one to double. TR might get some put backs, but other than that no one's playing over the rim for us. So teams will probably play us the way they did 2 years ago .. jam the inside and force us to become jumpshooters.

The good news is .. we now have more than one outside weapon. I don't see KJ as a 3 point threat any time soon. But TC is a threat, MR will probably be a threat, and G is certainly a threat. I like that lineup against a zone defense ... although I don't see us rebounding well enough to score a lot of second chance points.

 

[SoBeCuse]

I'm wondering what's going to stop teams from clogging the middle and playing us to shoot? Unless DC2 shocks us with low-block offense above 10 ppg (or we get unexpected contributions from Obokoh or Diagne), there's no one to double. TR might get some put backs, but other than that no one's playing over the rim for us. So teams will probably play us the way they did 2 years ago .. jam the inside and force us to become jumpshooters.

The good news is .. we now have more than one outside weapon. I don't see KJ as a 3 point threat any time soon. But TC is a threat, MR will probably be a threat, and G is certainly a threat. I like that lineup against a zone defense ... although I don't see us rebounding well enough to score a lot of second chance points.

Agree with this. Frankly, and this is a too early of a prediction, but I see us going around .500 in ACC and if we get to .500 then that would be a big accomplishment, imo.

 

[RF2044]

Agree with this. Frankly, and this is a too early of a prediction, but I see us going around .500 in ACC and if we get to .500 then that would be a big accomplishment, imo.

I could see next year's team being much better than a .500 conference team, but a couple of things have to fall into place--none of which is guaranteed to fall into place. I do believe that the foundation is better than most are allowing themselves to see.

Prepared for disappointment, but hoping for the best.

 

[rrlbees]

I'm wondering what's going to stop teams from clogging the middle and playing us to shoot? Unless DC2 shocks us with low-block offense above 10 ppg (or we get unexpected contributions from Obokoh or Diagne), there's no one to double. TR might get some put backs, but other than that no one's playing over the rim for us. So teams will probably play us the way they did 2 years ago .. jam the inside and force us to become jumpshooters. The good news is .. we now have more than one outside weapon. I don't see KJ as a 3 point threat any time soon. But TC is a threat, MR will probably be a threat, and G is certainly a threat. I like that lineup against a zone defense ... although I don't see us rebounding well enough to score a lot of second chance points.

Teams will play us like they did last year. If Cooney is on the floor, they'll play M2M. If he isn't, teams will play some zone.

 

[tbonezone]

not really sure why any team would be afraid of trevor launching deep. numbers after 3 full years don't support it.

 

[rrlbees]

not really sure why any team would be afraid of trevor launching deep. numbers after 3 full years don't support it.

You'd have to ask the opposing coaches who made him a priority defensively and won't play zone when he's on the court.

 

[tbonezone]

kid certainly tore it up down the stretch.not.

 

[rrlbees]

kid certainly tore it up down the stretch.not.

Nope he didn't. Opposing defenses and our own issue with having no other real outside threats were major contributors.

 

[moqui]

You'd have to ask the opposing coaches who made him a priority defensively and won't play zone when he's on the court.

the truth is sort of in between. yes, coaches made him a priority because he was the only guy with ability to go en fuego and win the game on the offensive end . . . but he was easily contained; you don't have to put your best defender - or even second best - to take him off his game.

Trevor would excel as a complimentary player on a well rounded team, but through no fault of his own he has been playing on teams where he has to be a featured scorer.

 

[AlaskaSU]

A little perspective as to this statement. In my opinion, the state of a program is not determined by one player, one recruit or one season. Arguably, the Syracuse Basketball program (which I have followed closely since around 1978-1979) is going through one of its greatest periods in its history over the past seven years. The only other period which stacks up statistically in my opinion is the mid-eighties to early nineties.

Over the past 7 seasons and after back-to-back NIT appearances the SU basketball program has accomplished the following:

- a record of 195-55 (.780 winning percentage)

- 6 NCAA tourney appearances (1 FF, 1 E8, and 2 S16) 2 conference championships

- 2 Conference Championships

- 10 NBA draft picks (7 first-round picks and 5 lottery picks)

Outside of last season being an obvious disappointment for multiple reasons I just don't understand how someone can look at what we have been through in the modern era of college hoops and decide that the program is falling off of the cliff at this time unless that someone has a very short historical perspective of this program.

Just my two cents.

The dice have no memory.

 

[SaltLakeOrange]

I do not think the "ship is sinking". However, it would be naive to say that everything is okay with the current state of the basketball program.

Crippled by scholarship reductions, a head coach who could conceivable call it quits any day now, and a myriad of transfers and departures, the program really is not on solid foundation at the moment.

That's a lot of hyperbole. Look, let's walk back from the ledge...

 

[SaltLakeOrange]

I agree in principle, Hulk, but kids on every other team will improve, as well. So where is our gain vs. Competition?.. "Cooney will be Cooney" scares me the most. Erratic offense and porous defense. Slow laterally. Reaches in from behind once his man has blown by him. We will improve once he leaves. Poor choice by the staff IMHO..we could have done better.

Really???? I've bookmarked thus post. We'll revisit it in January...for now, continue being a hater...

 

[HOFCeluck]

He's going to be a fifth year senior, he is who he is. That's not to say he can't become more efficient by virtue of players around himgetting better (o hi Kaleb).

 

[QManCuse]

Bryant is our 2016 version of Donyell Marshall. We recovered.

 

[Flacusian]

Bryant is our 2016 version of Donyell Marshall. We recovered.

Who is this Bryant cat that I've heard so much mention of?

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

We lost a kid that JB absolutely coveted and whose family he formed a relationship with over 3 years ago. SU, apparently, is not an attractive place to the elite recruits right now.

To this recruit AFTER he saw the Michigan campus.

 

[Delmar]

The bad news is that for one year we won't be as good as we might have been with Bryant.

The good news is that with difference makers all being ones-and-done, the deck gets reshuffled every year. Every team is one year away from greatness.

This too shall pass.

 

[orangenirvana]

 

[OrangeViking]

Rumors of our demise are greatly exaggerated. Let's let them lace 'em up and see what happens.

GO ORANGE ! SUball

 

[Jake]

I'm not worried. We will be fine.

 

[retro44]

To this recruit AFTER he saw the Michigan campus.

I worked on that campus around in'97 and it isn't all that special. Fischer had me and a buddy escorted out of Crisler Arena after I told him we had Manley field house as a practice facility that is nicer than this arena and our players don't drive as nice cars as your team does. He had some summer camp going on. His team was divided into two teams and then the high school kids made up the other rosters. The thing about the cars was the truth and his players were only playing against each other with an assistant of his reffing the scrimmage.. When we were getting escorted out my buddy asked me what was said to him I said "only the truth". I told him after the security guards brought us to the ride. It happened on a day off of work.

 

[LennX6]

This straw man is such a joke. K gets who he wants and wins National Championships. Right now we have dudes transferring to barely D-1 schools, have missed out on our last two big recruits and rarely make it to the Final 4.

We've always been chronic underachievers given our talent. We can't afford to not at least have that talent.

I watch the NBA games and watch some of the offense and wonder if we really have been getting as high a talent as we think. One particular thought after seeing a game where both sides were hitting fifty from 3 , contested and uncontested, and was trying to equate how Tyler Ennis is a first round choice in this realm? I was watching the NCAA's this year and game after game I was thinking to myself "Wow, we never get a guy that can do that".

 

[SoBeCuse]

I watch the NBA games and watch some of the offense and wonder if we really have been getting as high a talent as we think. One particular thought after seeing a game where both sides were hitting fifty from 3 , contested and uncontested, and was trying to equate how Tyler Ennis is a first round choice in this realm? I was watching the NCAA's this year and game after game I was thinking to myself "Wow, we never get a guy that can do that".

Have to agree I must say.

 

[SoBeCuse]

I worked on that campus around in'97 and it isn't all that special. Fischer had me and a buddy escorted out of Crisler Arena after I told him we had Manley field house as a practice facility that is nicer than this arena and our players don't drive as nice cars as your team does. He had some summer camp going on. His team was divided into two teams and then the high school kids made up the other rosters. The thing about the cars was the truth and his players were only playing against each other with an assistant of his reffing the scrimmage.. When we were getting escorted out my buddy asked me what was said to him I said "only the truth". I told him after the security guards brought us to the ride. It happened on a day off of work.

The renovation of and additions to Crisler done last year are nice. Sharp arena and facility now.

 

[Briancuse]

Things are not as bad as people make it out to be, ya we lost a couple of good recruits, but we are still Syracuse. Last year literally everything that could have gone wrong did, and we still won 18 games, finished in the top half of the acc, and beat some pretty good teams.