Well well well lotta people suddenly on the Bell bus | Syracusefan.com

Well well well lotta people suddenly on the Bell bus

OttoinGrotto said:
Listen folks, I've been driving the Chris Bell bandwagon for a while now and I have to say, you're all welcome aboard.
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Haha -- thinking they're still plenty of seats available here. But it's been nice to see Bell improve and contribute like the rest of the young guys (Benny included here). Hasn't been consistently pretty for any of them but they've all been able to find a few ways to contribute.

I think with Bell, what's interesting is that it wasn't like we found him 8 open shots where he was stepping into a three from the wing. He made a pretty deep three from the wing at one point and hit a couple others that were decently contested. Also had a pretty baseline pullup at one point. Making shots like those is a skill many (any?) other guys on this roster have. So, have to give him credit. Thought his defensive rotations were better as well. Wasn't able to make many plays but he had a nice rotation on a few passes into the paint -- one was a foul on a block attempt against Lubin, another couple were steal attempts where he was a half-second late. But ultimately thought he was at least more engaged defensively.

The thing he's going to have to figure out before he starts loading up the bandwagon is what else he can bring to the table. His lack of rebounding is still a thing and he's got 7 assists, 4 steals, and 3 blocks total in 18 games and 350 minutes. His shooting and Brown's play were the only two things that allowed us to hang in that game close enough to where we had a chance to come back and pull it out in the final 12 mins, so have to give the kid credit. But he (and Benny too, really) need to find more ways to make an impact as our schedule gets tougher these next 13 games.
 
He’s a freshman, probably never had to do the things he needs to do now. The shooting is smooth though, better than DNic, Shumpert, Sutherland, Mookie and some others. All kids who stunk as freshman. If his game grows and he commits to the other parts of the game he could go down as a great one.

His D is fine imo, long, quick and he’s not asleep off ball, he just needs to get some boards.
 
PhatOrange said:
He’s a freshman, probably never had to do the things he needs to do now. The shooting is smooth though, better than DNic, Shumpert, Sutherland, Mookie and some others. All kids who stunk as freshman. If his game grows and he commits to the other parts of the game he could go down as a great one.

His D is fine imo, long, quick and he’s not asleep off ball, he just needs to get some boards.
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I'm not sure I'm thinking he'll be a great one but I do like that he can make contested shots. Think his defense looked better yesterday. I do think at times he's had rough moments on that end. His rotations to the middle look much better the past couple games though.
 
When Bell is hitting shots, his upside overrrides his other liabilities, especially in a game where Joe is struggling. I have no issue with his minutes last night, he earned them. On the other hand, it's abundantly clear now that Brown is our best forward overall, but unfortunately that doesn't alway translate to minutes on our team.
 
He made shots.

But he got absolutely cooked on D in the 1H. Missed key rebounds and generally played awful outside of his shooting.

I know we judge guys on points more than anything else and credit to his shooting yesterday - he made MONSTER shots - but he gave up as much as he gave us in the 1H

My three fave things I saw from him were:

1H he took four dribbles to get a better shot on the baseline and got the bucket (it was a poor man’s version of a KD specialty).

His D coverage in the 2H with the lineup with JT at the 2.

He had two BEAUTIFUL entry passes to Jesse. One for a bucket and one Jesse got fouled. No BS, this was actually my favorite thing he showed last night.

But let’s not go crazy. Everyone is stoked bc he hit buckets and still not caring about anything else. This is why we’ve been in trouble lately. Bell just needs to keep rounding out and Maliq Brown needs to start :)
 
billsin01 said:
Haha -- thinking they're still plenty of seats available here. But it's been nice to see Bell improve and contribute like the rest of the young guys (Benny included here). Hasn't been consistently pretty for any of them but they've all been able to find a few ways to contribute.

I think with Bell, what's interesting is that it wasn't like we found him 8 open shots where he was stepping into a three from the wing. He made a pretty deep three from the wing at one point and hit a couple others that were decently contested. Also had a pretty baseline pullup at one point. Making shots like those is a skill many (any?) other guys on this roster have. So, have to give him credit. Thought his defensive rotations were better as well. Wasn't able to make many plays but he had a nice rotation on a few passes into the paint -- one was a foul on a block attempt against Lubin, another couple were steal attempts where he was a half-second late. But ultimately thought he was at least more engaged defensively.

The thing he's going to have to figure out before he starts loading up the bandwagon is what else he can bring to the table. His lack of rebounding is still a thing and he's got 7 assists, 4 steals, and 3 blocks total in 18 games and 350 minutes. His shooting and Brown's play were the only two things that allowed us to hang in that game close enough to where we had a chance to come back and pull it out in the final 12 mins, so have to give the kid credit. But he (and Benny too, really) need to find more ways to make an impact as our schedule gets tougher these next 13 games.
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:looks at the back of the bus, notes a lot of seats still available:

Yeah, a lot of seats are still available.
 
MikeSU02 said:
He made shots.

But he got absolutely cooked on D in the 1H. Missed key rebounds and generally played awful outside of his shooting.

I know we judge guys on points more than anything else and credit to his shooting yesterday - he made MONSTER shots - but he gave up as much as he gave us in the 1H

My three fave things I saw from him were:

1H he took four dribbles to get a better shot on the baseline and got the bucket (it was a poor man’s version of a KD specialty).

His D coverage in the 2H with the lineup with JT at the 2.

He had two BEAUTIFUL entry passes to Jesse. One for a bucket and one Jesse got fouled. No BS, this was actually my favorite thing he showed last night.

But let’s not go crazy. Everyone is stoked bc he hit buckets and still not caring about anything else. This is why we’ve been in trouble lately. Bell just needs to keep rounding out and Maliq Brown needs to start :)
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It feels like Bell can't be praised without a monster caveat about all of his shortcomings, so I acknowledge he has a lot to improve and the advanced metrics consistently bear that out.

But he's shown multiple times this season he has that baseline drive and pop, and he's been feeding Jesse well all season.

Those weren't new skills. They're just more visible because he had such an efficient game shooting the ball.
 
OttoinGrotto said:
It feels like Bell can't be praised without a monster caveat about all of his shortcomings, so I acknowledge he has a lot to improve and the advanced metrics consistently bear that out.
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metrics matched the eye test yesterday as well. Second highest bpm on team

Maliq tops, Joe yikes

www.sports-reference.com

Notre Dame vs. Syracuse Box Score (Men), January 14, 2023 | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Notre Dame vs. Syracuse Box Score (Men), January 14, 2023
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Bell was in the wrong spot on defense a few times in the first half yesterday. Seemed to be better in the second half. I liked how he contested shots at the rim in the second half when they were pressing. Fouled someone hard too. Which I like.
One thing I love about Bell is I have never seen him pout. He always appears to accept coaching and is really making an effort to get better.
 
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OttoinGrotto said:
Listen folks, I've been driving the Chris Bell bandwagon for a while now and I have to say, you're all welcome aboard.
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He is really good. My impression is that he is the second best freshman playing for SU in the last 30 years.
 
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blust2i3d4 said:
He is really one. My impression is that he is the best freshman playing for SU in the last 30 years.
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Umm you’re kidding right.
F5F65B80-33F6-45F6-A485-4E1DA69179AD.jpeg
 
Defended him when compared to Taylor for a while now but it’s not like the critics are wrong either. He is still a liability on defense and the boards. But he really can shoot it and I think the trade off is there enough where it’s worth at least splitting time with Taylor at the 3. Also of course to keep him in and keep feeding him when he is hot. Defense will have to keep serious attention on him and that helps in many ways.
 
billsin01 said:
I'm not sure I'm thinking he'll be a great one but I do like that he can make contested shots. Think his defense looked better yesterday. I do think at times he's had rough moments on that end. His rotations to the middle look much better the past couple games though.
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‘Great one’ relative to the shooting small forwards we’ve had here. Using the above as examples, DNic and Sutherland had transformed by the time they were seniors and are generally considered pretty good players. Both shot 3s at a 40% clip as seniors. DNic went from 2.2 rebounds to 5.4. Sutherland 1.2 to 5.2, Shumpert 2.4 to 6.1. Bell is a more pure scorer than these guys. If, and it’s a big if, he can get his boards into the 5s he’s going to be recognized as a heck of player around here.
 
Fly Rodder said:
I'm all for Bell getting minutes, but he needs to pull his weight at both ends of the floor and he needs to move on offense. Too often he's just camped out on the wing.
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Hard to criticize him being ‘camped out on the wing’ if we don’t know what he’s being instructed to do. He’s 4th, sometimes 5th, in the offensive pecking order.
 
hoopsupstate said:
On the last basket by ND, Bell was absolutely crushed on the rebound. The ND practically tackled Bell with no foul. You could see Bell talking to the official after the play. It was a very blatant no call.
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I saw that and it also looked like when he was on the floor trying to get up the ND kid shoved him back down again.
 
Bell was good yesterday, no doubt about it. I haven’t seen anyone else point this out, but we were down 12 when JB put him back in the game yesterday (after the under-12:00 timeout), and the team was +17 the rest of the way. That was great to see, because I think Bell has taken an unfair percentage of blame from a lot of folks on this board when the team doesn’t play well.
 
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