When you are in a close game with the 8th team in the Patriot

[realorange]

As they pointed out on the YES broadcast, offensive rebounds and turnovers made this game for the Cuse. I think it amounted to something like 40 extra possessions.

 

[Madbiker]

Any one game is pretty meaningless. When a team can't defend the arc in 3 straight games, doesn't shoot well, and struggles to pull away from 3 pretty bad teams...well it's a trend that could indicate trouble ahead when the level of competition gets higher.

 

[NKR1978]

Any one game is pretty meaningless. When a team can't defend the arc in 3 straight games, doesn't shoot well, and struggles to pull away from 3 pretty bad teams...well it's a trend that could indicate trouble ahead when the level of competition gets higher.

Or it could simply be a consequence of losing a four year starter in Triche and a lottery pick in MCW at the top of the zone. Replacing them with a freshman, a transfer who hasn't played much competitive basketball in a while and a (to date) average guard in Cooney might need a little time to get up to speed.

We've also been spoiled with four of the best defensive teams in our history over the last four years. I'm excited to watch this team with all these new players improve over the year.

 

[Orange2389]

UNC won by 12 the other night against some scrub team... they better cancel their season too.

 

[anomander]

You've got a young team a you may be looking at a long year

i just watched the football team get beat 59-3, i don't want to hear it.

 

[orange2win]

You've got a young team a you may be looking at a long year

Do you recall that sour feeling the year Colgate last beat us? I think it was back in 1962.

 

[jekelish]

Michigan State and North Carolina both struggled like crazy against cupcakes the other night. Guess they'd better just chalk up the season as a failure, too.

 

[zhanjuzi]

This team is going to be very tough to watch at times this year. At the same time I could easily see a repeat of last year with it all coming together in March when its needed the most.

 

[TheCusian]

Bet you can go back into the history of this board and find similar posts for every season. I'm not worried at all.

 

[br801]

Any one game is pretty meaningless. When a team can't defend the arc in 3 straight games, doesn't shoot well, and struggles to pull away from 3 pretty bad teams...well it's a trend that could indicate trouble ahead when the level of competition gets higher.

Do you think JB's distribution of minutes might have been a contributing factor in these mighty "struggles" to victory?

 

[Madbiker]

Do you think JB's distribution of minutes might have been a contributing factor in these mighty "struggles" to victory?

I'm judging this year against early games in past years where the distribution of minutes to 2nd teamers is pretty consistent. The past several years SU was beating the cupcakes by 30 points. Half of that margin this year. Indicates there are shortcomings vs some pretty good squads of recent years. I'm not saying the problems can't be fixed... but there are clearly some problem areas.

 

[NKR1978]

I'm judging this year against early games in past years where the distribution of minutes to 2nd teamers is pretty consistent. The past several years SU was beating the cupcakes by 30 points. Half of that margin this year. Indicates there are shortcomings vs some pretty good squads of recent years. I'm not saying the problems can't be fixed... but there are clearly some problem areas.

Last year we had a 20 point win against Princeton, beat Detroit by 4, Alcorn State by 21 (in an awful game). Even the 2012 team only beat Marshall by 6 and Bucknell and Tulane by 19 each. 2011 had all it could handle from Detroit and squeaked past William & Mary 63-60 and beat Iona by 6. The 2010 team rolled everyone except Bonaventure and LeMoyne.

There have been good and bad in each of the three games but this isn't historically too different compared to the last four seasons.

 

[pearl31]

Yeah, to portray the in-game inconsistencies and questionable energy level of the cupcake games this year as being worse than previous years is just not accurately remembering some of those games from previous years. I vividly remember multiple "worrisome" games from each of the previous 3 early seasons.
Point being, these games—and the final scores of them—simply are not (necessarily) predictive of the team's ultimate ceiling for the season.
IMHO, nothing to worry about (yet).

 

[br801]

Last year we had a 20 point win against Princeton, beat Detroit by 4, Alcorn State by 21 (in an awful game). Even the 2012 team only beat Marshall by 6 and Bucknell and Tulane by 19 each. 2011 had all it could handle from Detroit and squeaked past William & Mary 63-60 and beat Iona by 6. The 2010 team rolled everyone except Bonaventure and LeMoyne.

There have been good and bad in each of the three games but this isn't historically too different compared to the last four seasons.

How dare you bring facts and a little perspective to the discussion.