What is our ceiling?

[OrangeDW]

Our ceiling is winning it all .. not because I see this team as any great shakes .. but rather because history has shown us time and time again .. get the right matchups in the tournament and you can keep advancing .. some of these teams are clueless vs the zone

Yeah. And in the tourney, the pressure can mount on teams. We’ve seen that many times where teams just flat out look rattled and even when they know what to do, we take away anything easy and the tougher shots they flat out miss. Easy to tighten up in those situations once you miss a couple and those mostly well contested threes are the only looks you can get.

 

[RF2044]

I know that many are down on the team, given the lackluster performance in NYC and the unfulfilling last game performance against Cornell still fresh.

But personally, I think that this team has the capability to be substantially better than it has shown. Frank barely has any lateral mobility right now, and he lacks elevation when he shoots. As he continues to recover, we're going to see improved play / shooting from him.

Sidibe is similarly still working his way back, and didn't get to spend the offseason working on improving his game. He'll be a different player come February than he is now.

Hughes and Carey providing us additional scoring / shooting, and Marek's improved confidence are going to give us more weapons in the arsenal than what we had last year.

Again, I fully acknowledge that the results aren't what we'd hoped thus far. Recovery from injuries has taken an early toll, but this team still has its best basketball in front of it as players work back to their full capabilities.

 

[BillSU]

Don’t even start with F4 and make insults. Just don’t see it. We were probably the worst offense in the P5 last year. Cornell is not a good defensive team. Just look at some of their scores and numbers.

- Offensively we’re playing 3 on 5 with Frank and Chukwu in there together. I get it Frank is 80/90% or whatever but you can’t stand behind the 3pt line all game. Huge 3 he made at the end of the game though.

- Tyus hero ball saved us. Against Cornell?

- Offense should not be this much of a struggle right now with how positionless the game has become on offense. The PGs excuse will not cut it in my book.

- Are we done pushing the pace? Like fundamentally done? Easy baskets I would think is a top priority since they are tough to come by for this bunch, regardless. Attack!

- Centers seem to be regressing game by game.

- We’re long but certainly not that quick or skilled across the board. How can we improve the offense? Is it going to be simply hero ball and hope for the best? I suppose we’ll know more after Buffalo but, man, was this ugly.

I agree we need to improve offensively. I thought someone's opinion seen through different eyes would matter here:

"I don't think you can simulate that," Northeastern coach Bill Coen said of preparing for Syracuse's size and quickness. "They're very, very quick in the zone and they cover up what appears to be an open shot with their quickness and length. Any good shots that we had that looked clean were a little bit rushed and we never really got rhythm 3s. That's what they do and they're really good at it. Shots that normally go down for us didn't but you have to credit them because they rush you into those."

The Orange (6-2), winners of four straight, dominated inside, outrebounding the Huskies (4-5) 43-29, including 15-7 on the offensive glass. Syracuse scored 32 in the paint and collected 19 second-chance points.


"I really thought the difference in the game was Syracuse's ability to rebound the ball on the offensive end," Coen said. "I thought we couldn't really get stops because we couldn't get rebounds. Those rebounds turned into quick 3s and kick-out 3s and quick points and the game quickly got away from us."


Syracuse held the Huskies to 17-of-50 shooting and just 6-of-28 from 3. Northeastern made 9 of 28 field goals in the second half and hit just 2-of-16 3s.

Not quite the same opinion form the opposing coach. GOSU

 

[dollarbill44]

Teflon.

 

[SoBeCuse]

I agree we need to improve offensively. I thought someone's opinion seen through different eyes would matter here:

"I don't think you can simulate that," Northeastern coach Bill Coen said of preparing for Syracuse's size and quickness. "They're very, very quick in the zone and they cover up what appears to be an open shot with their quickness and length. Any good shots that we had that looked clean were a little bit rushed and we never really got rhythm 3s. That's what they do and they're really good at it. Shots that normally go down for us didn't but you have to credit them because they rush you into those."

The Orange (6-2), winners of four straight, dominated inside, outrebounding the Huskies (4-5) 43-29, including 15-7 on the offensive glass. Syracuse scored 32 in the paint and collected 19 second-chance points.


"I really thought the difference in the game was Syracuse's ability to rebound the ball on the offensive end," Coen said. "I thought we couldn't really get stops because we couldn't get rebounds. Those rebounds turned into quick 3s and kick-out 3s and quick points and the game quickly got away from us."


Syracuse held the Huskies to 17-of-50 shooting and just 6-of-28 from 3. Northeastern made 9 of 28 field goals in the second half and hit just 2-of-16 3s.

Not quite the same opinion form the opposing coach. GOSU

I was pleasantly surpised how they handled that zone. Sometimes it’s a crapshoot VS a zone. Good omen I think. Most of the game the D was very good.

MUCH more concerned with facing a M2M team with good or better athletes. Ohio St didn’t really get into us and make us ‘feel’ them. There is the propensity to overdribble and fall into streetball ISO once the orginal plan is taken away and/or discombobulation occurs. Georgetown and Buffalo especially will be good tests. There will be no zone played. Buffalo doesn’t have great defensive numbers this year but they will test our ballhandlers again this season. They will try to push our bigs around. Last year in a narrow escape Buffalo turned our guards over aroun 11 times I think. That can’t happen this time around. I’ll get a better idea of our ballhandling after those two games.