We need to develop our freaking talent

[Alsacs]

I am okay with our recruiting as it has been elite, and believe we are bringing in good college talent.

However, I don't see much player development of the course of a season. Players should get better with more playing time and not see them get worse.

C.J. Fair spent 4 years and was pretty damn consistent 4 years whenever he got playing time. Baye Moussa Keita great kid, but he didn't develop much over 4 years.

Cooney has been in the system 3 years and didn't improve from November to March. The kid had a good season overall, but hasn't improved much.

Gbinije the kid looks like a player, but he hasn't shown much development over the season. I like this kid and he played well sometimes, but wasn't given a lot of playing time.

Jerami Grant improved I will concede from last year. I give the coaching staff credit for developing his game a little, but he needs to shoot more and improve his shot which I am sure he will do either this summer at SU or in the NBA summer league.

Rak was better than last year, but got less FGA this season than last season and he shot a better percentage this season. I agree he can get better at posting up, but the guards never game him the ball enough for all the effort he would give.

Thank goodness Tyler Ennis was special for a Freshman as he was pretty damn consistent the whole season. The kid can improve, but he was consistent from day one to till March. He struggled some games, but he was the glue that held the team together as we didn't have another PG on the roster.

Roberson, Johnson, Patterson, Chino we have no clue how much they have improved.

I miss the improvement we saw yearly from Scoop Jardine, Rick Jackson, Andy Rautins, Arinze Onuaku etc.
This team really got by on defense and we didn't see much improvement of the course of a season from any of offensive players. That is really disappointing.

 

[shandeezy7]

The majority of player development occurs in the offseason, imo, not during the season. Obviously that is a blanket statement that isn't true for everyone. I'm more concerned about the fact that some of our guys seemed to regress as the season went along.

 

[FLorange04]

We're not developing guys for college game or for the pro game... simply frustrating

 

[bcuse19]

I think we are ok. I think a lot of the "regression" we saw this year wasn't as much a player skill regression but our offense being one dimensional and figured out.

Towards the beginning of the Ennis was an enigma to other teams. No tape on him, not billed as a fantastic player like he was. We surprised team with him at the point, and the majority of our offense came off of his driving and play making ability. As teams got wind of this it became more and more obvious that the way to beat Syracuse was to key on Ennis and force CJ, Grant and Cooney to make the plays.

The problem was those guys are finishers, not play makers. Cooney is a catch and shoot guy, Grant is a lot better when catching the ball and already moving than catching it in the post or face up in the midrange. CJ has improved his play making, but really is a guy who catches and finishes, not great when he has to attack the rim off a jab step or crossover.

You can see in the later games of the season how much standing around we did at the top of the court just passing back and forth, because teams made a point of not letting Ennis get into the lane. It stifled us, and with no other immediate threat to toss the ball to and make something happen we wasted a lot of clock without meaningful ball movement.

This year we didn't have someone like Devendorf, Waiters or AO who we could toss the ball too and he forced the defense to react to him, that was our achilles heel in my opinion.

I think our talent developed well, we just missed a piece. It's almost a mentality more than a skill, we'll get another guy like that soon, I see Patterson as a gunner, and the Cooney's and Grant's of the world will be better for it.