General20
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I got to this a little late, but I wanted to write something about the game.
Syracuse came out running beautiful offensive sets. They did everything right except get the ball in the basket. It seemed like nine out of the first ten shots rolled around the rim and somehow bounced out.
To his credit, the Wagner coach noticed his defense being torched despite the score, and changed up what he was doing early before the shots started dropping. They started playing an aggressive zone where the guards come way out past the three point line and apply pressure with heavy man principles (kind of like the zone St. John's runs). Its a hard D to figure out because it looks like a zone but plays more like man to man and simulates a press because the defenders are set up to run at their men, so they have the momentum instead of the offense.
If you've never seen it before it can be confusing and last year against St. John's it was Scoop and Dion's job to break that zone down so nobody on our team really knew what to do at first.
Carter-Williams and Triche both tried taking it to the basket, like they did so successfully against San Diego St. This did not work at all as the Wagner big men (who were both pretty big at 6'11 and 6'8 and pretty athletic) aggressively attacked them and forced turnovers.
The only way to beat that kind of zone is for the guards to let their defender run at them, blow buy him, draw the big man, then dish it off to someone in the vacated area. SU never really got the hang of it until Boeheim was able to school them at half time. Once he did they came out and scored easily.
To his credit again, the Wagner coach noticed this before the damage was done and not after. Again he changed defense early in the half (he's only 28 or something like that and has the look of a bright young coach, somebody to keep your eye on).
At this point Wagner applied heavy man pressure on SU which is something I suspect a lot of teams will do this year. Syracuse absolutely torched it, scoring just about every time down court. This is a good sign. They guy guarding Carter-Williams was the defensive player of the year in his conference and SU choose to clear out, and let Carter-Williams beat the guy one on one and make something happen, which he did consistently, absolutely dominating Wagner singlehandedly.
Here are some player break downs with less commentary on how they played in this game and more of a commentary on what they do that will work/not work against major competition.
Carter-Williams - In this game he had more turnovers than you want, but forget about that. A couple came early before he knew what to do against Wagner's funky zone, and he got his pocket picked twice by Wagner's defensive player of the year guard. Normally you'd be worried about your point guard getting his pocket picked twice, but those were literally the only two times he didn't singlehandedly break down Wagner's defense and find somebody for an open lay up. He abused his defender and made it look easy, if he lost focus a few times I wont blame him. The only downside for him in this game was his outside shot which wasn't falling. I hope to see improvement in this area going forward. Other than that, the early returns on Carter-Williams are fantastic.
Triche - Quite simply, he's the best player on our team right now. His three's didnt fall, but everything else, including pull up jumpers, did. Like Carter-Williams he made a couple turnovers attacking Wagner's D the wrong way early, but was flawless there after.
Fair - He is clearly trying to drive the lane more. Against San Diego St. he was able to do this remarkably well against their best and most athletic player who was smaller than him. This Wagner team had quick hands though. Fair was not able to drive to the basket with any success against the 6'4 guard who was defending him. That is something to keep an eye on. How he plays against quicker defenders now that he is out on the perimeter offensively. He would have been far better in this game playing the way he did last year, patrolling the baseline looking for garbage points and mid range shots, but that's not his role anymore. He is going to have to find a comfort zone somewhere against teams that play three guards (one of which will be on him). The answer, perhaps, is for Syracuse not to play Christmas and Fair at the two forward spots against three guard teams. Get Southerland in there to stretch the court and force a guard to go up against him (good luck getting a hand in his face), or follow Fair down low where Fair's height will be a benefit rather than a detriment.
Christmas - I continue to like how he plays. He is adequate on the wing of the zone, and right now is our best option at center. Coleman and Keita can intimidate teams like Wagner, but in the Big East Christmas is the only guy on SU's roster that will really intimidate opponents.
Coleman & Keita - In my opinion these two are directly competing for playing time. Obviously Keita had a great game, and Coleman had a terrible game, but I dont think that is a good indication of who will play more going forward. All of Keita's playing time and baskets came in the second half when Wagner was pressing SU. All of Keita's points were wide open lay-ups that Carter-Williams created for him. I'm pretty sure that in the same situation Coleman would have had the same results. Most of Coleman's playing time, though, came early in the first half when Syracuse was struggling to understand how to attack Wagner's zone. While Coleman is undeniably struggling, Syracuse is running plays for him, and not doing the same for Keita. That, to me, is telling. Coleman right now has one big problem. He is setting up too far away from the basket. By my count he caught the ball inside 5 feet three times. Once he scored his only basket of the game, and two other times he took hook shots that were beautiful and rolled around the rim only to fall out. I liked all three of those possessions. Every other time he caught the ball more than 5 feet from the basket, and every other time something bad happened. Help defense is killing him right now. In the future I hope Coleman will use his strength to fight for better position down low. If he does, I still think he wins the playing time battle with Keita. Its still too early to tell what will happen. and the contest is wide open.
Southerland - Did you notice how many different ways he scored in this game? Lets count them. 1) Jump Shot from three (2) mid range jump shot (3) drive past his defender and hit a floater (4) post up his defender (5) jump shot coming off a screen (6) dunk in traffic (7) free throws. My point here is, Southerland is the best pure scorer we have. I'm very excited about him going forward.
Cooney & Grant - In my mind the only way Cooney doesn't play is if Grant vastly outperforms him causing Southerland to move to guard. So, I see this as another battle for playing time. Unlike with Coleman and Keita, you could clearly see today that Cooney is the favored choice. Southerland did not play a minute of guard. Grant looked good, but he looks like what he is, a freshman - both physically and in his understanding of the zone. The big story of the day was Cooney's 6 steals. I'm not sure what to make of that. I will say that Cooney is tied with Triche for the shortest Orangeman at 6'4, but Triche's physical build makes him a much more impressive defensive presence. I still think teams will single out Conney as the guy they want to attack when he is in the game. Maybe, if his hands are as quick as they look that will turn out to be a benefit for Syracuse? This game could also turn out to be a complete aberration. We shall see.
One last note on SU. While the end product of their defense was good, I think its a long way away from where it needs to be. Wagner got way too many lay ups against the Syracuse zone. They did not try to go inside much because SU's height advantage intimidated them, but when they did, it usually worked. Better teams are not going to be intimidated by the likes of Coleman and Keita. They are going to go inside more and test Syracuse's bigs more. Right now I dont think they are up to the challenge. That will be something to keep a close eye on going forward.
Syracuse came out running beautiful offensive sets. They did everything right except get the ball in the basket. It seemed like nine out of the first ten shots rolled around the rim and somehow bounced out.
To his credit, the Wagner coach noticed his defense being torched despite the score, and changed up what he was doing early before the shots started dropping. They started playing an aggressive zone where the guards come way out past the three point line and apply pressure with heavy man principles (kind of like the zone St. John's runs). Its a hard D to figure out because it looks like a zone but plays more like man to man and simulates a press because the defenders are set up to run at their men, so they have the momentum instead of the offense.
If you've never seen it before it can be confusing and last year against St. John's it was Scoop and Dion's job to break that zone down so nobody on our team really knew what to do at first.
Carter-Williams and Triche both tried taking it to the basket, like they did so successfully against San Diego St. This did not work at all as the Wagner big men (who were both pretty big at 6'11 and 6'8 and pretty athletic) aggressively attacked them and forced turnovers.
The only way to beat that kind of zone is for the guards to let their defender run at them, blow buy him, draw the big man, then dish it off to someone in the vacated area. SU never really got the hang of it until Boeheim was able to school them at half time. Once he did they came out and scored easily.
To his credit again, the Wagner coach noticed this before the damage was done and not after. Again he changed defense early in the half (he's only 28 or something like that and has the look of a bright young coach, somebody to keep your eye on).
At this point Wagner applied heavy man pressure on SU which is something I suspect a lot of teams will do this year. Syracuse absolutely torched it, scoring just about every time down court. This is a good sign. They guy guarding Carter-Williams was the defensive player of the year in his conference and SU choose to clear out, and let Carter-Williams beat the guy one on one and make something happen, which he did consistently, absolutely dominating Wagner singlehandedly.
Here are some player break downs with less commentary on how they played in this game and more of a commentary on what they do that will work/not work against major competition.
Carter-Williams - In this game he had more turnovers than you want, but forget about that. A couple came early before he knew what to do against Wagner's funky zone, and he got his pocket picked twice by Wagner's defensive player of the year guard. Normally you'd be worried about your point guard getting his pocket picked twice, but those were literally the only two times he didn't singlehandedly break down Wagner's defense and find somebody for an open lay up. He abused his defender and made it look easy, if he lost focus a few times I wont blame him. The only downside for him in this game was his outside shot which wasn't falling. I hope to see improvement in this area going forward. Other than that, the early returns on Carter-Williams are fantastic.
Triche - Quite simply, he's the best player on our team right now. His three's didnt fall, but everything else, including pull up jumpers, did. Like Carter-Williams he made a couple turnovers attacking Wagner's D the wrong way early, but was flawless there after.
Fair - He is clearly trying to drive the lane more. Against San Diego St. he was able to do this remarkably well against their best and most athletic player who was smaller than him. This Wagner team had quick hands though. Fair was not able to drive to the basket with any success against the 6'4 guard who was defending him. That is something to keep an eye on. How he plays against quicker defenders now that he is out on the perimeter offensively. He would have been far better in this game playing the way he did last year, patrolling the baseline looking for garbage points and mid range shots, but that's not his role anymore. He is going to have to find a comfort zone somewhere against teams that play three guards (one of which will be on him). The answer, perhaps, is for Syracuse not to play Christmas and Fair at the two forward spots against three guard teams. Get Southerland in there to stretch the court and force a guard to go up against him (good luck getting a hand in his face), or follow Fair down low where Fair's height will be a benefit rather than a detriment.
Christmas - I continue to like how he plays. He is adequate on the wing of the zone, and right now is our best option at center. Coleman and Keita can intimidate teams like Wagner, but in the Big East Christmas is the only guy on SU's roster that will really intimidate opponents.
Coleman & Keita - In my opinion these two are directly competing for playing time. Obviously Keita had a great game, and Coleman had a terrible game, but I dont think that is a good indication of who will play more going forward. All of Keita's playing time and baskets came in the second half when Wagner was pressing SU. All of Keita's points were wide open lay-ups that Carter-Williams created for him. I'm pretty sure that in the same situation Coleman would have had the same results. Most of Coleman's playing time, though, came early in the first half when Syracuse was struggling to understand how to attack Wagner's zone. While Coleman is undeniably struggling, Syracuse is running plays for him, and not doing the same for Keita. That, to me, is telling. Coleman right now has one big problem. He is setting up too far away from the basket. By my count he caught the ball inside 5 feet three times. Once he scored his only basket of the game, and two other times he took hook shots that were beautiful and rolled around the rim only to fall out. I liked all three of those possessions. Every other time he caught the ball more than 5 feet from the basket, and every other time something bad happened. Help defense is killing him right now. In the future I hope Coleman will use his strength to fight for better position down low. If he does, I still think he wins the playing time battle with Keita. Its still too early to tell what will happen. and the contest is wide open.
Southerland - Did you notice how many different ways he scored in this game? Lets count them. 1) Jump Shot from three (2) mid range jump shot (3) drive past his defender and hit a floater (4) post up his defender (5) jump shot coming off a screen (6) dunk in traffic (7) free throws. My point here is, Southerland is the best pure scorer we have. I'm very excited about him going forward.
Cooney & Grant - In my mind the only way Cooney doesn't play is if Grant vastly outperforms him causing Southerland to move to guard. So, I see this as another battle for playing time. Unlike with Coleman and Keita, you could clearly see today that Cooney is the favored choice. Southerland did not play a minute of guard. Grant looked good, but he looks like what he is, a freshman - both physically and in his understanding of the zone. The big story of the day was Cooney's 6 steals. I'm not sure what to make of that. I will say that Cooney is tied with Triche for the shortest Orangeman at 6'4, but Triche's physical build makes him a much more impressive defensive presence. I still think teams will single out Conney as the guy they want to attack when he is in the game. Maybe, if his hands are as quick as they look that will turn out to be a benefit for Syracuse? This game could also turn out to be a complete aberration. We shall see.
One last note on SU. While the end product of their defense was good, I think its a long way away from where it needs to be. Wagner got way too many lay ups against the Syracuse zone. They did not try to go inside much because SU's height advantage intimidated them, but when they did, it usually worked. Better teams are not going to be intimidated by the likes of Coleman and Keita. They are going to go inside more and test Syracuse's bigs more. Right now I dont think they are up to the challenge. That will be something to keep a close eye on going forward.
