what this team lacks the most

[SaintTristan]

This team is missing Dion. Period. At best, Triche is a role player at this level - and he isnt even that if he continues to shoot 69% from the FT and 31% from the three. Truthfully, I dont really know what to make of Trev, but its clear he is not ready and JB doesnt seem committed to giving him the PT to get ready.

Dion could take over games and his defense was great. The kid has a great basketball computer in his brain and oozed charisma. he is sorely missed.

Southerland and CJ cant seem to decide if they are good or not. MCW needs to convince them they are. the season likely hinges on him successfully doing so.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Classic Tristan post

 

[rrlbees]

What this team lacks is Fab Melo. Not even close.

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[Halfmooncuse]

What this team lacks is Fab Melo. Not even close.

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Yup head case aside he may turn out to be the biggest disappointment in SU BB history.

 

[orangefan13]

In the end Fab Melo and Dion have nothing to do with this team though.

We had a awfull gameplan against temple. I doubt JB thought Temple would look that good on offense. James should be shooting atleast 5 threes a game not two like last game. If you have to slow down the offense run 10 seconds off the clock and run a double screen called play so it isn't a rushed shot then so be it.

And we need a midpost guy to isolate in the mid not high post. That all starts with perimeter driving threats, outside shooting and clearing out the midpost. We could lose 7-8 big east games if run our offense like the temple game.

Dec 22nd is alittle to late to be running offense without things like these. I can understand that back in nov not late december though. Its uncharectoristic to see JB go that route. I don't think he has hit the first serious turning point yet with this team, let alone the second one come early big east. Thats good news. The potential to be good is there but we are behind our usual curve.

 

[rrlbees]

In the end Fab Melo and Dion have nothing to do with this team though.

We had a awfull gameplan against temple. I doubt JB thought Temple would look that good on offense. James should be shooting atleast 5 threes a game not two like last game. If you have to slow down the offense run 10 seconds off the clock and run a double screen called play so it isn't a rushed shot then so be it.

And we need a midpost guy to isolate in the mid not high post. That all starts with perimeter driving threats, outside shooting and clearing out the midpost. We could lose 7-8 big east games if run our offense like the temple game.

Dec 22nd is alittle to late to be running offense without things like these. I can understand that back in nov not late december though. Its uncharectoristic to see JB go that route. I don't think he has hit the first serious turning point yet with this team, let alone the second one come early big east. Thats good news. The potential to be good is there but we are behind our usual curve.

We scored 79 points.

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[orangefan13]

We scored 79 points.

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imo.
79 points or not. Temple wasn't slowing down the game. And we pressed for much of the game. If it wasn't for the press we could have loss this game by double digits. We shot 7-8% better from the field them temple, and that was with MCW shooting 3-15 on the night and Southerland only taking 2 threes and poor ft shooting.

I said it preseason. CJ Fair and Triche are two of the best high midpost creators in the country. Most likely The best high post creating tandem in the country.

They are seniors and JB wants to run the offense around them, but you can't run so much offense out of the midpost. We won't contend for a championship with that this year. Its not happening. We might only lose 2-3 big east games instead of 7-8, but no way we contend in march. We won't get the luck factor, the refs won't give us the benefits against mulitdimentional offensive teams on given nights, and momentum won't go our way. It won't happen. We have 3 AA on our team. You play for a championship. Its the only way to play the game.

If our highpost game is our bread and butter then so be it but its better to look like the team we had 2 years ago.
2 years ago we were not very good but pushing to be multidimentional on offense. This year we are at a point of playing pound pound pound high post football, with MCW driving and a occasional three when wide wide open.

This team is never going to lack high post offense not one game this year. That we know. Thets step out now and not lack the midpost isolation post up guys, perimeter driving and true three point threat and see how good we can REALLY be. I do give JB alot of credit in telling MCW to drive agianst temple and I Would rather Southerland average 1.5 for 6 from behind the arc then take only average 2 shots from behind there this year.

The temple game was alot like the NJ tournament 2 years ago when we played michigan and last year when we played stanford. Syracuse won those games, but it came from a late press and poor shooting nights. After that those teams turned a curve. Only difference was those games were earlier in the season then this team, and that is because of CJ Triche, and now Southerlands high post creating and they are the seniors.

 

[IthacaMatt]

We scored 79 points.

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It's not that simple. It's a matter of if you can score when you need to. Total numbers is more dependent on tempo than on individual offensive talent.

 

[NineOneSeven]

This team will improve all season. Let's keep this thread pinned until march. We've been spoiled recently. Most teams go through some growing pains. The good ones maximize potential.

 

[kcsu]

Classic Tristan post

Tristan speak the truth on this one. DW was so key last year. He made everyone on the team better when he was on the floor. There isnt a single player on this years team that can hold a candle to him. MCW would have his lunch eaten by DW at this point it wouldnt even be close. Good point Tristan.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Tristan speak the truth on this one. DW was so key last year. He made everyone on the team better when he was on the floor. There isnt a single player on this years team that can hold a candle to him. MCW would have his lunch eaten by DW at this point it wouldnt even be close. Good point Tristan.

Mike's got the potential to have a great year. He can't play selfish ball, though, and if he's going to drive the lane, he has to hit that floater. He also has to hit his foul shots, or else this team won't be dancing very deep into the tournament. He's going to have the ball in his hands all the time down the stretch; there's no place to hide him. He is a better shooter than he's shown so far. Maybe in a few weeks time, he'll start hitting with more consistency.

 

[kcsu]

Mike's got the potential to have a great year. He can't play selfish ball, though, and if he's going to drive the lane, he has to hit that floater. He also has to hit his foul shots, or else this team won't be dancing very deep into the tournament. He's going to have the ball in his hands all the time down the stretch; there's no place to hide him. He is a better shooter than he's shown so far. Maybe in a few weeks time, he'll start hitting with more consistency.

Agreed the kid has so much talent but at this point he really isnt close to the player that DW was. Granted they are much different players. DW is a pure scorer who is also one hell of a defender which is why he was a Loto pick. MCW is a pure PG who wants to dish first and score second. Unfortunately he doesnt have a strong inside player to play off nor does he have a great 2 that can stick the J. Simply put this team lacks scoring punch and it is going to hurt us against elite teams

 

[rrlbees]

It's not that simple. It's a matter of if you can score when you need to. Total numbers is more dependent on tempo than on individual offensive talent.

It's that simple because he wasn't talking a single possession, he's talking offense in general so total numbers do matter. We lack an inside presence, especially on defense, more than an ability to score points.

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[kingtidge]

Southerland's the closest we've got. That's why he was my key player, pre-season. He can play better still.

I don't disagree that Temple out-toughed us. We also blew a ton of FTs, and MCW tried too many drives in the lane. At least Fair was hitting his. We have lots of size inside, but we need more nasty.

If Coleman can't get better inside, it's going to take away from our depth. Boeheim won't play him if he doesn't defend much better. Grant will get his minutes and we'll only play the 2 guys at center when the rotation tightens down. Coleman only has another half dozen games before the impoortant games start coming up. He needs to get his act together defensively.

Not that you want to lose, but if you are going to lose, this was a good teaching game for this team.

Temple punched us in the mouth and our team had been coasting on it's laurels for the last few... The Detroit game showed some warts (and a combination of off-nite/laziness) and I was not all that surprised to see us drop this one.

It's also the kind of loss JB will use for teaching and motivation... better now than later.

Plus, we needed a strong defensive team to test us... and bring us down to earth a bit... BE will require the team to play better - period... and Temple played a hard-nose defensive, BE-style of game...

If there is such thing as a good loss, this one would qualify... serve as motivation for the guys...

Also, someone needs to find out who the look-alike is that is playing for CJ Fair.

He clearly is not the CJ we know and love.

We need to trade-in Faux-CJ for real-deal CJ... asap.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Scoring was not the problem on Saturday. If we made half our free throws we would of had 85 points. Interior defense is the issue.

 

[SaintTristan]

Scoring was not the problem on Saturday. If we made half our free throws we would of had 85 points. Interior defense is the issue.

Right. If the other team out scores you scoring is always a problem.

 

[MikeSU02]

It doesn't matter what we are missing, the only chance I see of us being truly elite is if MCW rounds into a confident superstar.

BT, CJ, Southerland have been around for a while now, we know what we are getting with them.

I think Rak has potential, but it won't be unlocked until he gets to the NBA / D League.

I think we need DC2 to be better at finishing at the rim by tourney time.

But all of that is moot if MCW doesn't bring it night in and night out. He makes his FTs, we win. It doesn't matter how many points we gave up, we were on pace to outscore them and we defended well enough to win. We gave up 78 to KU in the title game and we won.

Searching for star performances on a consistent basis from non-stars is like hoping to win the lottery, over and over again.

MCW is our star. DC2 has potential. We have a lot of other good, but inconsistent players, which is fine, but superstars win titles. The college game is inching closer to the pro game in that respect. If you don't have a superstar that plays at a high level game in and game out when it matters, we are toast.

With that said, I would rather lose early and get our stuff together late, rather than win a bunch of regular season accolades that really don't mean squat.

 

[ForeverOrange]

We have seen our half court offense struggle before, but I think the difference is we are not as effective at getting out on the break and making good things happen, it seems like when we have the break sloppy things are happening more often than not; bad lobs, bad passes. Still early, plenty of time to improve these things, but we are not great, nor do I feel we will be great this year, but I hope I am wrong.

 

[Libero2]

We have seen our half court offense struggle before, but I think the difference is we are not as effective at getting out on the break and making good things happen, it seems like when we have the break sloppy things are happening more often than not; bad lobs, bad passes. Still early, plenty of time to improve these things, but we are not great, nor do I feel we will be great this year, but I hope I am wrong.

I guess that depends entirely on your definition of "great." If great is a team that wins 25-30 games and pushes the sweet 16/elite 8, then yes, we are going to be a great team. Too much talent on this roster to not play well the majority of games. We are more talented than 98% of the teams in the country. So we will win our fair share of games, no doubt in my mind.

Now if your definition of great is simply to cut down the nets, then no I do not think we will be a "great" team. We have flaws, and they will probably prevent us from winning 6 straight come tourney time.

But to me, this team is going to be great, they are going to win a ton of games, and have another spectacular home season. They will be in the thick of things for a top 2 seed in March, and frankly once you are in the dance, anything can happen. If you get a break here or there, you never know where you'll end up. This team has a ton of talent, and is coached by one of the greatest of all time. I am very confident this team is going to have a season we can all look back on and be very proud of.

 

[orangefan13]

Way to early to say we can't cut down the nets.
This team hasn't even had a change in strategy yet let alone we have 2 freshmen,2 sophmores who barely played last year and a third who didn't.

1. Rak, Dajuan and Fair haven't combined for 4-5 shots per game from the midpost yet.
5-6 of us on this board have noticed that. We have got to clear the highpost so they can get some isolation. If Rak/Keita/Dajuan are going to let bigs score against them then they have to punch back. Either that or shut them down. There is no other way.
2. Southerland hasn't been a consistant 5-6 shots from three kind of guy. Give that time. He has got to find it during tight defense. The guy is 6'8 give him a double guard screen uptop if you got to. No reason he should have had 2 against temple except bad help from his teamates and his own timidness. The guy hits them from all over the court not all outside shooters can.
3. MCW had his first ever game at syracuse where he had to be a score first pg. He hits 3-4 more of those we beat temple even with his 8 missed freethrows. This is the biggest one yet.
4. Grant and Dajuan haven't been in for a solid 10 minute stretch when a game is close. One of them is going to earn it as the 8th man by march. It might be more around 6-7 minutes straight but its going to happen.
5. Our big guys got to play better defense under and we got to stop being so darn skinny on rebounds. One of the reasons the zone is so hard to rebound out of is because you have to back people up to box out and at the same time you have to go forward to the ball to rebound it in gap rebounding.
6. FT shooting 50% doesn't cut it.

Its Way to ealy to tell with this team.

 

[Room 914]

Neither.

Toughness on the board and defense.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Also, someone needs to find out who the look-alike is that is playing for CJ Fair.

He clearly is not the CJ we know and love.

We need to trade-in Faux-CJ for real-deal CJ... asap.

Yeah. It's like we ordered the Thickburger but were given a McDouble.

Which shouldn't even be possible if you think about it.

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[SWC75]

This team doesnt have a pure scorer. We do not have anyone on this team that can take the rock and score. All great teams have that one guy that can make it happen regardless of who they are playing or more importantly who is guarding them. Melo, GMAC, last year we had DW and in the clutch Scoop. Both of those guys had the ability to score when we needed them. BT has never been that type of player. Sure he has made some clutch shots but he just doesnt have that type of game. MCW maybe but he isnt there yet. None of the bigs have it. CJ has potential. The only player on see on this team that has the scorer mind set is actually Grant. Not having a go to guy is going to hurt us down the stretch.

You mean we need an "offensive dude"?

 

[realorange]

---------Also, someone needs to find out who the look-alike is that is playing for CJ Fair.

He clearly is not the CJ we know and love.

We need to trade-in Faux-CJ for real-deal CJ... asap.

Apparently JB doesn't begin to agree with you if you read the comments from his radio show posted by SWC. He feels CJ is playing at a high level.