Very encouraged

[Day2]

I was listening to someone on the radio yesterday on Brent axe and he made a good point-why are we happy with being mediocre? He was talking about the football team? Why do we strive for 6 wins? It’s kind of pathetic and depressing as a fan base to want that or make that our goal every year for football. Now for basketball we used to be the team that would beat Kansas in the early part of the year now and lately these Syracuse teams I’d say not so much. My
Point is Why are we happy or encouraged that our basketball team hung in there with Kansas? That’s not what I expect from a Syracuse basketball team and I’m not going to settle for losing by five or ten points and saying well it’s ok that we lost.

Trust the process.

 

[Zelda Zonk]

The zone held them to 20 points under their scoring average and half their points came from one guy. They won but it wasn't because of the zone per se. It was our lazy offense which settled for chucking 3's for much of the game. Our drives to the hoop gashed their defense but we gave up on that when we got it to 7, I assume due to a combo of fatigue and youthful immaturity. They will learn from this and get better.

Their scoring average: small sample size + the opponent's style of play has something to do with that. Additionally, whether they score 95 points or 80, if they do it efficiently, and/or win by a comfortable margin, that's kinda what matters. They've played some crappy teams. When they played Kentucky, they 'only' scored 65.
Half their points came from one guy. I don't know how that can be seen as a credit to the zone. If we shut out four guys, but one scored 84, that still isn't really a credit to the zone.
Our lazy offense. No one is crediting their M2M for that. But, Vitale was very eager to tell us that our zone 'wears the other team down, psychologically.'

Yep. We were fatigued at a point. Which we shouldn't have been, 'since we play a zone...'

Youthful immaturity. Yeppers. Some physical immaturity, as well. Y0ung, weak legs. Chukwu missing that first dunk, because he didn't have the power to gather and set and explode. Same with Sidibe, who looked coltish. So, that was an ankle tonight? Not the knee tendonitis? If our Strength and Conditioning guys are good, maybe we just need more of 'em. [Not 100% serious on that.]

All in all, there was a lot to be encouraged about. If we can be healthy.

Oh, yeah — Devonte Graham. He decommitted from Appalachian State!

 

[STEVEHOLT]

My only issue with Battle is that he needs to make his teammates better. He needs to read the defense better and try to get his teammates opportunities. Howard is also inconsistent with this too. He goes stretches where he doesn’t get in the “set-up” mode. The last three minutes was just watching Howard and Battle jack up shots. I don’t care if the game was over, you need to play the right way “all the time.”

what's the point? when howard drops dimes to these guys they either fumble it out of bounds or charge into someone.

 

[tipphill]

we need moyer to step up. to me he is an important player. in hope jb and the team leaders get him to focus, and mature. he is desperatly needed. 17 minutes with 1 reb and no points. what is are his issues???

 

[two3zone]

Moral victories moving also a basketball thing as well as a football thing now? We lost by 16 and we're Syracuse basketball. I get this isn't St Johns but nobody had an outstanding game and a bunch of guys either didn't show up or were just bad.

 

[br801]

Moral victories moving also a basketball thing as well as a football thing now? We lost by 16 and we're Syracuse basketball. I get this isn't St Johns but nobody had an outstanding game and a bunch of guys either didn't show up or were just bad.

This team is very young and inexperienced and did show glimpses of what is possible last night against a very good team.

If we had polled this board two minutes into the second half, few people would have predicted that they would get back into that game, but many would have said losing by 40 was a distinct possibility.

So yeah, sometimes there are positives to be found in a 16-point loss.

 

[TexanMark]

Our thin centers made udoka azubuike who is 7'0 280 a non factor. Is he not big and physical enough? Yea they gave up some back door lobs which always happens when you play a zone like we do but our interior defense has been pretty good...i keep hearing everyone say wait until we play big physical teams from the power 5...what would u consider Kansas? It's not like our thin centers are getting pushed around and teams are playing bully ball against us...no one has played bully ball against us yet. Graham killed us. Period.

I was thinking of the lobs but I was also thinking about their whole skill sets to include offense. They were pretty much a non factor. Overall 2 for 6 shooting between both of them and several missed opportunities for easy baskets due to fumbled catches. I am encouraged Chukwu is finally starting to nail some free throws. No reason he can't get to 60%. Just thankful we have two centers this year and they have 6 more games to improve before conference play. UConn will be a good test for them.

 

[tipphill]

i am not disappointed. as i said moyer is needed, and pascal needs score in he paint. i hopes for dolezakj(sp) to become more of a factor on offense.

 

[TexanMark]

i am not disappointed. as i said moyer is needed, and pascal needs score in he paint. i hopes for dolezakj(sp) to become more of a factor on offense.

I hope Marek isn't thinking of turning Euro pro yet. He could really benefit being here for Four years. Let SU S+C put 20-25 lbs of muscle on you. Get better at English and after Euro Ball you will have options.

 

[Cowtown]

Interesting thread. If we win a few more games, especially against teams with a higher profile (UConn, Gtown) I might even get to see some on TV out here.

 

[Dave85]

Rematch in March, San Antonio.

We will have a completely different team after 20 more games. There are no such thing as good losses but now the team knows the level they need to be at. I thought a lot of the players were trying too hard, were tense, and just making mistakes. Our shooting was awful. And Tyus has to be 100% for us to even have a chance to beat a team of Kansas' caliber. FH foul trouble really hurt. But regardless, it was a great learning experience for this team to play Kansas. At least we don't have to deal with the undefeated monkey on our back like few years ago.

I'm still very stoked on this team. I think we really have something very good here. They may not be a NC team right now. But I think they are going to make the NCAA tournament. Everything after that is gravy in my opinion. I really thought this year's team would have the worst record in JB's coaching career. My expectations were so low it's hard to negative right now.

 

[realorange]

Also encouraged by tonight. Get Tyus to 100%, clean up the missed bunnies by the big guys and avoid Devonte Graham and we'll be fine.

Graham was awesome. Legit 1st team AA.

And to think he almost went to Appalachian State!

 

[MG44]

Also encouraged by tonight. Get Tyus to 100%, clean up the missed bunnies by the big guys and avoid Devoent Graham and we'll be fine.

Graham was awesome. Legit 1st team AA.

Michael Graham...Devonte Graham...There's a special place in hell for them both

 

[Newhouser]

Kansas depth is not much better than ours and their bigs arent good. They better hit from deep when they play the Elites or their done.

 

[Col. Bleep]

Taking nothing away from Kansas...excellent team and potential title contender.

Offensively the Orange blew at least couple of dunks and Chukwu's subsequent rim hanging cost them another point.
Those 5 points alone might have made this a different game. (Probably not, but might have).

We all see the biggest problem...dismal shooting.
Unless they improve...there's a song with a title that will be the theme for the Orange outside game this season.

 

[BuffOrange]

I was listening to someone on the radio yesterday on Brent axe and he made a good point-why are we happy with being mediocre? He was talking about the football team? Why do we strive for 6 wins? It’s kind of pathetic and depressing as a fan base to want that or make that our goal every year for football. Now for basketball we used to be the team that would beat Kansas in the early part of the year now and lately these Syracuse teams I’d say not so much. My
Point is Why are we happy or encouraged that our basketball team hung in there with Kansas? That’s not what I expect from a Syracuse basketball team and I’m not going to settle for losing by five or ten points and saying well it’s ok that we lost.

As others point out this was supposed to be a throwaway year for hoops.
I do agree in general and the "we didn't quit" praise especially doesn't quite fly with me. How many times have we been up 21 vs Downstate U and had the lead cut in half because that's basketball and human nature. Good grief.

 

[upperdeck]

we missed a couple easy dunks, they banked 2 shots in, thats 8 pt swing on top of missing all the fts

 

[Orangefan1]

As others point out this was supposed to be a throwaway year for hoops.
I do agree in general and the "we didn't quit" praise especially doesn't quite fly with me. How many times have we been up 21 vs Downstate U and had the lead cut in half because that's basketball and human nature. Good grief.

There should never be a throwaway year for Syracuse

 

[rrlbees]

There should never be a throwaway year for Syracuse

But this is to an extent and everyone knew it before the season started.

 

[Orangefan1]

19-20 wins in the ACC is considered our throughaway a lot of teams would die for that. That’s an off year for us though. 24 wins for the regular season should be the baramoter

 

[reedny]

We got nothing from our guards in the 1st half. Graham was Perrantes-level on fire; and we were still in it.

Kansas is the best team we will play this year with maybe the exception of Duke.

If Graham scores 20 this is a a game decided in the last minute.

But All-American guards do that. Hat's off to Kansas and I hope they run the table.

You’re probably right about the difference Graham’s hot shooting made. He’s good, no doubt, and that’s why he scored 35 in the previous game and leads the top-shooting team in the country. So, having just gotten lit up by Huerter and being given a similar (if not more dire) scouting report on KU, I think we knew what Graham could do. Until Frank went out with fouls, I actually thought we were doing pretty well on him (and close-outs generally). When HW came in (8-9 minutes), Graham hit 3 tres. That was a back breaker. I’m not criticizing HW, because he’s a developmental player and hasn’t even gotten 10 college games under his belt yet. He stood up pretty well against a consensus top-5 team (he looked steadier than Thorpe). I think Washington’s going to benefit from the experience and can help us off the bench. He’s savvy and he can shoot it. Overall, there’s a lot to like about this young core of guys ... and by next year when the elite talent arrives, we’ll be a force to be reckoned with.

 

[shandeezy7]

I'd be more impressed with this win if we had done a better job of tracking the hot hand on defense. Second game in a row where one guy was killing us and we repeatedly lost track of him. Too many times Graham parked himself at the top of the key and neither Frank nor Battle got up in his grill. Yeah he hit a few with a hand in his face, sort of. It's one thing to close late with a hand up versus actually being in a guy's grill and altering his shot. It was mostly the former and not much of the latter.

Also, on offense, there was way too much dribbling at the top of the key, way too little movement off the ball and way too little settling for long jumpers. We got their big guy in foul trouble and continued to settle for jumpers. Oshae shouldn't be going 2-8 from 3, especially when he hasn't shot it well all season. When their big guy went out, he should have been attacking the rim and working in the paint.

All that being said, I was happy with the effort and no quit. It will definitely serve us well in games down the line. Hoping to see some improvements against UConn. Otherwise, even though UConn isn't at the same level as Kansas, I think we will be looking at a second straight loss.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

Rematch in March, San Antonio.

We will have a completely different team after 20 more games. There are no such thing as good losses but now the team knows the level they need to be at. I thought a lot of the players were trying too hard, were tense, and just making mistakes. Our shooting was awful. And Tyus has to be 100% for us to even have a chance to beat a team of Kansas' caliber. FH foul trouble really hurt. But regardless, it was a great learning experience for this team to play Kansas. At least we don't have to deal with the undefeated monkey on our back like few years ago.

I'm still very stoked on this team. I think we really have something very good here. They may not be a NC team right now. But I think they are going to make the NCAA tournament. Everything after that is gravy in my opinion. I really thought this year's team would have the worst record in JB's coaching career. My expectations were so low it's hard to negative right now.

I get what you are saying and agree the trajectory is promising , however , we can’t shoot... and most often shooting is something you can or cannot do

 

[Dave85]

I get what you are saying and agree the trajectory is promising , however , we can’t shoot... and most often shooting is something you can or cannot do

I don't agree with your opinion. Better shooting comes with experience. 20 games from now this will be a much better team on both ends. Our defense will be the difference not the offence.

 

[SoBeCuse]

Fair and agreed. You read some posts and marvel at the takes claiming that the offense was fine and we got “good looks.” Way too much dribbling aimlessly up top and way too much settling for deep 2s and deep 3s. Obviously the heart and fight was there. Offense needs to step it up. Hopefully we have enough playmakers to do so against the better teams. Yeah, it was a weird game. Vick is very good player too. Felt like Graham was going 1 vs 5 of us and we still really weren’t in the game ever. Not good.

I'd be more impressed with this win if we had done a better job of tracking the hot hand on defense. Second game in a row where one guy was killing us and we repeatedly lost track of him. Too many times Graham parked himself at the top of the key and neither Frank nor Battle got up in his grill. Yeah he hit a few with a hand in his face, sort of. It's one thing to close late with a hand up versus actually being in a guy's grill and altering his shot. It was mostly the former and not much of the latter.

Also, on offense, there was way too much dribbling at the top of the key, way too little movement off the ball and way too little settling for long jumpers. We got their big guy in foul trouble and continued to settle for jumpers. Oshae shouldn't be going 2-8 from 3, especially when he hasn't shot it well all season. When their big guy went out, he should have been attacking the rim and working in the paint.

All that being said, I was happy with the effort and no quit. It will definitely serve us well in games down the line. Hoping to see some improvements against UConn. Otherwise, even though UConn isn't at the same level as Kansas, I think we will be looking at a second straight loss.