We need to go 12-6 in ACC Play

[Blanko97]

Again why does it matter? Quadir isn’t some all American we were stupid to let go. We have plenty of talent - it’s the coach in question. It was made clear how Quadir left and that there were mutual reasons due to issues. Lots of teams see former players do well in the portal. It’s all part of the game. It’s the coaching that is the key for us right now. There is no reason to be airing a grievance over Quadir. He found a home with Wade and it’s working for him. That has nothing to do with us now.

I’m not talking about quadir specifically, I’m talking in general, these kids are professionals now and if Syracuse wants to be successful it’s time to treat them as such, just like the elite schools have been doing for decades. I promise no one thinks lesser of UNC or Duke academics because their athletes get a free pass on grades. Taking the high road has gotten us nothing but terrible seasons. Maybe quadir is the guy but someone else might be and if school is the only issue we should figure our way around it.

 

[sufan59]

New prediction today after a nice holiday drink.

18-2 ACC record this year.

The popcorn is grabbed Allen Griffin

 

[Orangezoo]

New prediction today after a nice holiday drink.

18-2 ACC record this year.

Keep the drinks flowing and those two losses will look a lot more like wins soon

 

[NineOneSeven]

Did they move back to 18 conf games?

 

[AngryOtto]

I think you're right...9-4 now...add 12-6 = 21-10.
But in the ACC, we are not playing Northeastern every night.
We shot less than 50% from the FT line again last night.
Donnie can be a helluva player...if healthy.
Kyle III will be battling quality"bigs" every night and get into foul trouble often.
Honestly, I think this team will go 9-9 in the ACC...at best.

I’m really hoping Donnie is a big difference maker but I just don’t see it. Yes he has loads of potential and is extremely athletic but he has hardly played. Was injured for a majority of the season last year and has been injured for most of this season. I just have a hard time believing that when he returns all the other issues with this team will be fixed to allow an above average acc performance. Hope I’m wrong.

 

[cuseattle]

Did they move back to 18 conf games?

Yup. That's going to make it harder to go 18-2, but I have faith in these guys to get it done.

 

[phsyra]

we need to beat clemson and then go from there

 

[Oakland]

Again why does it matter? Quadir isn’t some all American we were stupid to let go. We have plenty of talent - it’s the coach in question. It was made clear how Quadir left and that there were mutual reasons due to issues. Lots of teams see former players do well in the portal. It’s all part of the game. It’s the coaching that is the key for us right now. There is no reason to be airing a grievance over Quadir. He found a home with Wade and it’s working for him. That has nothing to do with us now.

Q probably would have helped us a lot last season.

 

[MSOrange]

Did they move back to 18 conf games?

Yes they did that prior to this season with the thought that 2 more non-conference games, if scheduled appropriately and played well, would help the conference schools in the NET rankings.

 

[baggerbob]

That’s because we were dumb about it. You can’t have someone cheat for the players, you just need to inform everyone that these players are very busy and perhaps their grade curves might need to reflect that.

That's absolutely stupid, North Carolina had students getting credit for no classes for 20 years, under the former ACC commissioner who was their AD when the classes started and they got off Scott free.

 

[Blanko97]

That's absolutely stupid, North Carolina had students getting credit for no classes for 20 years, under the former ACC commissioner who was their AD when the classes started and they got off Scott free.

If you want to win, you have to play

 

[cliftonparksufan]

If you want to win, you have to play

Deny, deny, deny.

 

[elimunelson]

Everything I’ve seen says 8-10 or 9-9. We won’t out coach our way through the ACC

 

[rocklloyd]

Based on the flaws of this team, mainly historically awful free throw shooting and inability to make reliable 3 pointers, I’m going with 5-13 and a mid season head coaching change. I hope I’m wrong but I don’t see it.

 

[elimunelson]

Based on the flaws of this team, mainly historically awful free throw shooting and inability to make reliable 3 pointers, I’m going with 5-13 and a mid season head coaching change. I hope I’m wrong but I don’t see it.

That’s the downside I’m really hoping against. If we start 1-6 or something in the ACC red will be fired in season

 

[Hoo's That]

New prediction today after a nice holiday drink.

18-2 ACC record this year.

 

[jdubs30]

When Donnie is back this team is better talent wise than 75% of the ACC.

There is a universe where Nait George finds himself, Donnie comes back with double doubles, and Nate Kingz hits 3s.

This team can absolutely win games on talent alone If things click. But in situations where coaching matters … aka close games or games where our talent is equal to or worse than our opponents… we are at a disadvantage

 

[Goin' Deep]

I think this Clemson game is fairly important going forward.
Clemson stats 10-3
FT% ,739
3 pt% .336
Reb. vs comp. 39-32
T/O 120

CUSE stats
FT% .590
3pt%..308
Rebs. 37-36
T/O 139

Better play at level 5...

 

[JonB]

This is difficult to predict at this point because of the loss of Freeman early. They were killing teams with him, albeit against inferior competition.

Thet lost him for Vegas, but the only game that was not winnable was Iowa State, but then everybody realized that Iowa State was killing everyone they played.

Syracuse is shooting better from the free-throw line if they have him because he takes a large percentage of shots that are close to the basket, and will result in foul calls free throws. The two games that stick out to me that would be won if he played were Hofstra and probably Houston.

If you win those games what is your NET ranking? Top 40, easy.

If they handle Clemson with not a ton of difficulty I’ll be confident they can play with and beat many ACC teams. If they can play with teams, they could beat enough teams to make the tournament. There is hope this year.

 

[tbonezone]

Tennessee already has 3 losses and a super tough schedule ahead. they could easily end up a 7-8 loss team.

 

[RedtheGOB]

Clemson is probably the biggest bellwether game so far in the Autry tenure. Donnie comes back but also Clemson is basically the low end of where we want to be at the end of the season with a 40ish net and pushing near the top 4-5 of the conference.

Clemson is also one of those teams that does not really blow teams out or get blown out. They are 4-3 against P5 competition and have not won or loss any of those games by more than 7 points. No top 25 wins and also a Q3 loss but also much more consistent than us. Obvi we are at the dome too.

This tells us that if we get beat by double digit points at the dome then it’s time to seriously start the coaching search. On the other hand with Donnie back if we beat them by double digits it’s very telling that this team is perfectly capable of beating everyone in the league except maybe Duke and to a lesser extent Louisville and UNC on the road. A close game either way may be more purgatory.

Finally score doesn’t always tell the story but I think the spread of this game may really tell us everything.

 

[jncuse]

IMO, this team's ceiling is a season like 2018-19 when we're a 8/9 seed in the tourney, and this team's floor is a season like 2023-24 where we finish around .500 in conference and are never in real contention as a bubble team. Clemson feels like a crossroads game to nudge us in one of these directions or the other.

The only thing I would say though is that 8/9 seed in 2018/2019, to a degree misrepresents how close we were to that bubble line heading into March that year... we were comfortable by the end of as of Selection Sunday and there was nothing worry about (that was nice). But 10 days or so before that, it was still a bit of a toss up. Some years 8/9 is a clear tourney spot and tier above the bubble line, and in that year it was a very small tier above the line.

I'd like to be in a spot one year that things are wrapped up before March 1. It's not this year I would think.

 

[jncuse]

Finally score doesn’t always tell the story but I think the spread of this game may really tell us everything.

There is usually not much of a mystery to opening lines. You can pretty much pull them off KP a few days in advance, and they will be within a point of the actual thing. Vegas opening line setting seems to follow a very similar model.

Based on KP ADJEM, Clemson is a 2.0 point favourite on the road at Syracuse. And those almost always come close to the real thing.

Now I do expect there to be an adjustment for Freeman in the opening line... so it might be Clemson -1, instead of Clemson -2, or perhaps a pick em.

My prediction is Clemson -1.

 

[Blanko97]

Tennessee already has 3 losses and a super tough schedule ahead. they could easily end up a 7-8 loss team.

That’s still probably a top 25 team so that works for me

 

[Cusefan0307]

That’s still probably a top 25 team so that works for me

That’s just the boner zoner boning zoning if you get what I mean. Not even worth a response. They’re a quad one win and that’s all that matters.