Wells Fargo - - thoughts a day & lots of beer later (long) | Syracusefan.com

Wells Fargo - - thoughts a day & lots of beer later (long)

jordoo

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We were 216 row 2 basically baseline very close to the railing on the 2nd level. Pretty good seats offering a nice overhead view of the action in a section with more Orange than Nova fans.

I've skimmed the board a little bit and haven't looked at the box score or post game news yet.

The officiating was about as uneven as I can remember in a game. It wasn't so much what they called on us, although there were some head scratchers, it was what they missed on them that wound up in advantage situations for them where they scored and got our front line into foul trouble. The way college bball is called has broken the game IMO and not just this game but pretty much every game although any objective not Nova/SU fan would be able to tell you how truly horrible this game was compared to most. They do not enforce the actual rules, constantly call secondary contact which would never happen if they called the initial foul and are completely inconsistent as to what is a foul through out the game and what is a foul for each team. The way they called traveling or didn't was extremely hard to justify. Nova probably got 12-18 points off of clear travels in the paint or on the base line were guys either stopped and switched pivot feet or jump stopped and then stepped through or pivoted after words. Meanwhile both teams were called for travels where the player was stepping quickly with the front foot but put the ball down before moving the back foot. This is not a travel and is called pretty much every game in college. Lets not even get into guys falling to the ground with the ball or diving on it and sliding with it or a player getting called for a travel because the defender is rolling around at their feet rather than it being a foul on the defender. The other place where it was really unfair was the free for all scrum on rebounding. I 'm not sure Nova got called for one loose ball foul the entire game. Late in the O.T. Roberson got a baseline defensive rebound and was shoved out of bounds by one Nova player while the other one knocked him down, They got a layup but this was not an exception in the game it happened the whole time. They fouled Chris out because he got a rebound, was undercut and after crowd surfing he fell on a Nova player. This was followed by a review of some sort, I guess to see if it was flagrant. Almost all the rebounding and loose ball action went this way the whole game plus they really let Nova harass (foul) constantly on the perimeter, in their press and on any sort of inbounds where they defended.

Still that being said SU could have and should have salted this one away. We had a perfectly played offensive possession where we passed the ball around smartly and wound up getting MikeG 2 free throws going to the basket. This gave us a 5 point lead. Our guys then ignored JB's urgings to get up and make them pick up the ball on their side of the court, then we let them get off a quick 3 pointer the one thing we couldn't let them do. From my seat you could see it coming the whole entire way. This was followed by a really bad wasted timeout by MikeG when he had both Rak and Trevor open on the inbounds. A timeout we really could have used later. These where a couple of things that SU actually had control over that would have won us the game. Still the final inbounds of regulation was about as egregious as it gets for incompetent officiating. Coney was shoved then tackled then sat on. Rak was open and fumbled the pass but was also being mugged while trying to receive it. What happened after words was beyond description. While Rak was manhandled trying to recover the ball Chris was tackled off the ball trying to help. Even then we made a great close out and trap on Archie baseline only to have him be allowed to once again perform his spinning double pivot foot step through which allowed them to tie the game.

College bball is broken to the point that I may not watch anything other than SU games. I hope they fix it but its really really broken right now in an extremely defeating way.

The good news is that this team is starting to come together and be what JB expected early on.

Roberson is now playing well enough that JB can sit Chris when he starts poorly. Which is what we saw. Biggest take away with Tyler is that he looks like he belongs out there and he now knows that. He is well on his way IMO. He drives baseline every time however which will become predictable.

Mike is looking more like what we expected and really played an attacking style. If he can play like this regularly it takes tremendous pressure off of Trevor and Kaleb. Mike has his limitations but he also has a dynamic game as a slasher.

Kaleb had his best game as a college player IMO. Not sure about his assist to turnover number but had to be at least 2 to 1. He made a bunch of easy assists where he simply made the right read to the open man. Other than missing his 3's (all of which where good shots IMO) he shot very well. There was a stretch in the 2nd half where we were going from 3 to 5 points during which Kaleb showed us a glimpse of the future. He either made his own shot or had an assist off his dribble about 5 possessions in a row. This ended when he had a floater lip out on another very nice drive. He took care of the ball pretty well against Nova and sans the one really bad turnover that was an easy 2 the other way he was much better with the ball. He still dribbles himself into trouble, picks up the ball far away from the basket in terrible spots and gets hesitant at times running the offense but its coming together now. He's taken a lot of heat here but this game he showed why he was recruited and why by seasons end you will be glad he is our PG. He is far more talented than any guard Nova has on the roster.

Trevor is starting to shoot as expected and other than his final heave didn't take a 3 he had no chance of making the entire game. He is trying very hard to expand his game. He's done well getting into the lane and to the hoop but thus far struggled to finish. As Kaleb and Mike take more ownership of the offense it will be easier for him to drive and I expect he will get better at finishing.

We played well without Chris really being allowed to play. Remember the post by General20 saying Kaleb would get much better and Chris would begin to struggle? He was correct and we can only hope that Chris starts to adjust to the physicality. It wasn't all his fault in this one and when he played he played pretty hard IMO but he wasn't really given a chance to play from where I sat.

Overall I think this team is about to take off and the schedule sets up for a good run of success. The 6 man rotation doesn't bother me a ton as long as Mike gets to play 10min at the guard spot so Trevor and Kaleb can get some rest. I'd also hope when we get leads that BJ gets some run as he isn't all that far off from contributing and as yesterdays game showed we may need him at some point.

One other thing, when Rak is in we often go long stretches where we concentrate far too much on getting him the ball. Too predictable and easy to defend we need to learn to play off of the attention he gets.

All in all I'm letting the officiating from yesterday go and concentrating on the positive aspects of what I saw. VA was 9-4 last season OOC just saying.
 
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College hoops is absolutely broken. This is the first year in a long time i just don't even care to watch outside SU just as you noted yourself. In respect to Rak I agree as well. At times i have seen us move the ball better without him on the floor. That said we have to play to our strengths even if they are somewhat predictable at times. I don't think there is a remedy for this year beyond keep playing, keep improving and see how things turn out.
 
College hoops is absolutely broken. This is the first year in a long time i just don't even care to watch outside SU just as you noted yourself. In respect to Rak I agree as well. At times i have seen us move the ball better without him on the floor. That said we have to play to our strengths even if they are somewhat predictable at times. I don't think their is a remedy for this year beyond keep playing, keep improving and see how things turn out.


Its hard to watch any team getting screwed by the incompetent refs at this point because its more the norm than the exception.

As far as Rak agreed we need to go through him but there are times were its all we look to do and the defense knows this. We will continue to improve IMO.
 
Yep and regardless of the results this is by far the most we have challenged ourselves in the non conf. Outside of the first couple pastries and then holy cross we have faced legitimate squads. Michigan is reeling but the talent is there and the game was the first big trip to a hostile environment for this group.
 
A couple of scoreboard moments from section 224...

During the TOs, they scoreboard showed shots exclusively of Nova fans (not surprising). At one point they showed 2 cute little black boys holding up white Nova t-shirts in front of them (the shirts had been handed out in the student section). As soon as they saw the camera was on them, they dropped the t-shirts to reveal they were actually wearing Syracuse t-shirts, and got the best impish grin. Kudos to those 2 young fans. I wish I could have shook their hands and bought them a Fresca.

The other shot showed someone holding a green Grinch mask with JBs face on it. The camera quickly cut away, but it got a crowd reaction. You gotta admire humor when you see it.
 
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A couple of scoreboard moments from section 224...

During the TOs, they scoreboard showed shots exclusively of Nova fans (not surprising). At one point they showed 2 cute little black boys holding up white Nova t-shirts in front of them (the shirts had been handed out in the student section). As soon as they saw the camera was on them, they dropped the t-shirts to reveal they were actually wearing Syracuse t-shirts, and got the best impish grin. Kudos to those 2 young fans. I wish I could have shook their hands.

The other shot showed someone holding a green Grinch mask with JBs face on it. The camera quickly cut away, but it got a crowd reaction. You gotta admire humor when you see it.

I felt bad for the batton act. They struggled.
 
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Nova just traveling all over the court in the first half (only recall one obscene missed one in the second half - I can let go 1 per half), without a single call. Meanwhile, we're getting called for a travel while a Nova player is rolling over McCullough's leg and he pivots out of it. Sure, it's a travel, but what about the Nova player rolling over his leg that caused it?

I was shocked they didn't call Cooney for a travel when they repeatedly rolled up on him - they finally called it when the defender bulldozed the official after Cooney was bulldozed. Fairly sure if they hadn't hit the official no foul would have been called.

It was hard to comprehend.

It was such a shameful display by the officials.
 
Yep and regardless of the results this is by far the most we have challenged ourselves in the non conf. Outside of the first couple pastries and then holy cross we have faced legitimate squads. Michigan is reeling but the talent is there and the game was the first big trip to a hostile environment for this group.

Scheduling the former Big East foes will help juice the non-con SOS later in the year if SU is in bubble position. Nova is top 10 and St. John's is top 50 RPI.
 
College bball is broken to the point that I may not watch anything other than SU games. I hope they fix it but its really really broken right now in an extremely defeating way.

I have felt this way for a couple years now. It's almost impossible to watch a college basketball game if SU isn't playing (and even then, with our offensive problems these past couple years, it's still pretty tough to watch).

Officiating has ruined the sport. The number of uncalled fouls on Villanova, just pushing, hacking and shoving people around was beyond ridiculous. Just awful, awful "entertainment".

Soccer is the future. Yes, officiating can be just as biased as in hoops. Yes, some players "dive", but it's a lot less frequent than how often Duke basketball does it. 45 minutes running time per half. No timeouts. No commercials stopping play every 4 minutes.

The Nova game was one of only 2 or 3 games out of the first 10 that have been somewhat watchable.

Would it be possible to turn back time to the 1990s or so, to try to get college hoops back on track?
 
I have felt this way for a couple years now. It's almost impossible to watch a college basketball game if SU isn't playing (and even then, with our offensive problems these past couple years, it's still pretty tough to watch).

Officiating has ruined the sport. The number of uncalled fouls on Villanova, just pushing, hacking and shoving people around was beyond ridiculous. Just awful, awful "entertainment".

Soccer is the future. Yes, officiating can be just as biased as in hoops. Yes, some players "dive", but it's a lot less frequent than how often Duke basketball does it. 45 minutes running time per half. No timeouts. No commercials stopping play every 4 minutes.

The Nova game was one of only 2 or 3 games out of the first 10 that have been somewhat watchable.

Would it be possible to turn back time to the 1990s or so, to try to get college hoops back on track?

It can only happen if they call the foul in initial contact. This is where it went wrong, once you allow initial contact as "tough" play you have to allow other contact in return and its just gotten way out of hand.
 
For any of you that see high school games do the HS officials allow the garbage the college ones do?
 

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