Who are we?

[OrangeinDC]

This is not about any specific player, not about the coach, about this game and not to rehash every argument the game, but seriously… who are we?

What’s our identity? Where are we going? What are we building? What are we looking to become? What’s attractive about us to a recruit?

Are we an offensive team, defensive team, physical team, athletic team, 3 point shooting team, driving team, smart team, deep team?

What is it that we can expect, every game to bring? At minimum?

What the hell are we?

I’m not mad, not upset just kinda…. Can’t explain it really.

 

[Alsacs]

Our identity is defensively we are going to play zone 100% of the time except when we press when we are down double digits to speed you up and try to force turnovers.

On offense we are going to shoot a lot of 3’s and then hope our bigs will rebound the misses and get junkyard points. We don’t get the ball inside for the forwards easily.
We space the floor so the other forward can get the ball and drive to pass.

We don’t change what we do.
We tell you what we are going to do and say beat us.
Good coaching will get the ball into the vulnerable spots of the zone and will tell their kids just shoot and grab offensive rebounds.

We are a soft passive team that the opponent can out physical and out work us.

 

[Roger N]

This is not about any specific player, not about the coach, about this game and not to rehash every argument the game, but seriously… who are we?

What’s our identity? Where are we going? What are we building? What are we looking to become? What’s attractive about us to a recruit?

Are we an offensive team, defensive team, physical team, athletic team, 3 point shooting team, driving team, smart team, deep team?

What is it that we can expect, every game to bring? At minimum?

What the hell are we?

I’m not mad, not upset just kinda…. Can’t explain it really.

You can’t spell suck without SU

 

[Cusesky8214]

A bunch of turds?

 

[djcon57]

We play zone because that’s what Syracuse does.

no rhyme or reason anymore

 

[RF2044]

This is not about any specific player, not about the coach, about this game and not to rehash every argument the game, but seriously… who are we?

What’s our identity? Where are we going? What are we building? What are we looking to become? What’s attractive about us to a recruit?

Are we an offensive team, defensive team, physical team, athletic team, 3 point shooting team, driving team, smart team, deep team?

What is it that we can expect, every game to bring? At minimum?

What the hell are we?

I’m not mad, not upset just kinda…. Can’t explain it really.

We are a one-dimensional three-point shooting team that is easy to defend. We are a 100% zone team, in an era when every team has multiple shooters and guys can now hit shots from 30+ feet with some modicum of consistency. We're the team that never adjusts, that doesn't substitute, and can't execute because the coach is stubborn.

We're a former blue chip program that has become mired in mediocrity.

 

[Ringostar57]

No chemistry with this bunch. Friend who has been a 60 year fan said none of them are on the same page...I replied none of them are reading the same book.

 

[Cuse_NYC]

We are our coach. Washed up and going through the motions.

 

[Ajflood12]

We are our coach. Washed up and going through the motions.

Idk if washed up is right. He is doing the same thing he was doing 10-15 years ago. He didn’t make adjustments 10 yrs ago either. Only difference is we got solid to elite talent and now we get average to solid talent.

 

[CanadianSU]

NIT (the tournament that nobody cares about) team.

 

[Janner]

The zone, if your going to run it exclusively, ideally needs long athletic players at every position so you can tip balls, shrink passing lanes, trap on the baseline and get to shooters when you need to rotate (ex. Hak's block against Kansas), prevent low post entry passes, and be able to rebound at a serviceable clip.

There's a reason the defense improves when Kadary enters the game, he's long relitively athletic and quick, and has a very good feel for passing lanes. JG3 just to small hight and reach wise and not athletic enough to be consistently effective at the top of the zone. Buddy is not quick and athletic enough. IF your hell bent on playing those two at the same time then you better be darn sure they are doing damage on the offensive end, and that your VERY long and athletic at the bottom of the zone. Unfortunately, Allan Griffin, while athletic, just isn't big enough to make up for those deficiencies at the top of the zone.

And then we have the Center position. Ideally you need a shot blocking center who can alter shorts and/or make attacking players have to think about getting their shot off once the get into the lane. We don't have anything even close to that (my fingers are crossed for Anselem). And that is a big big problem.

Now you can be successful when you don't have all the peices all the time because some players will have more defensive intelligence/acumen etc,, but for the most part, everytime you are missing one of those pieces you loses a decent amount of defensive efficiency. This team is missing wayy to many, given the rotation, for it to be consistently good in the ACC. There are obviously a lot of additional nuances to playing zone defense, and these observations are nothing more than my humble opinion, but unless there is a significant change in player rotation and growth at the center position, I think there is a pretty low ceiling for this team

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

Kadary/Woody/Bras/Edwards/Sid

Beat the starters if they played.

 

[EnviroSciGuy]

"Who are we?"

If you watched the Washington/Oregon game, that's what the cruise control has us headed for at full speed. Two years of NIT with Buddy, then the bottom completely falls out as what talent we do succeed in bringing aboard gets sick of sitting on the bench and bails. Hopefully something changes before then.

 

[phil77]

We are a little league team where all the parents get mad at the coach for playing his kid all the time

 

[oTTo113445]

A team with 4 SF's and a healing center.
Girard is a true 2

 

[Bayside44]

 

[SaltLakeOrange]

Idk if washed up is right. He is doing the same thing he was doing 10-15 years ago. He didn’t make adjustments 10 yrs ago either. Only difference is we got solid to elite talent and now we get average to solid talent.

And that‘s because the kids who are elite don’t want to play zone or sit behind lesser players just because they are upper classmen.

 

[ORRange]

We are the team that has a stubborn coach who at one point was the zone guru, even to the point of being an assistant coach in the Olympics. He was teaching the worlds greatest players how to play a gimmick defense. It even got him a national championship along the way. But as anything else time runs its course on things. When I was growing up Kodak and Polaroid were Huge film makers. If you would've said to me then that they fall by the wayside, everyone would have thought you had lost your marbles. But they never changed and neither has JB in a long time. Boy, it seems like yesterday I was watching the Louie and Bouie Show. What a difference in his philosophy.

 

[Ajflood12]

And that‘s because the kids who are elite don’t want to play zone or sit behind lesser players just because they are upper classmen.

Maybe I am missing a situation but I don’t really remember besides this Buddy/JG/Kadery thing having JB play lesser talent recently. He used to have the ceremonial starter and pull him after 1 minute. Wasn’t that like the roberson special. He always had his doghouse players.

We have had some big misses in recruiting. Whether it was DC2 knees and Kalab or Carey inability to function as a player. The sanctions were survivable if we had hit on some good players but we didn’t. We swung and missed hard. That is what made the sanctions so bad. Not really an excuse anymore though. I think just we were a trendy team for a bit and then cooled.

Also, all our solid players know they aren’t getting into the lottery and jump ship before they reach their full potential. Whether it be McCullough, Brissett, Tyus, Mal, Lydon or Hughes they see they aren’t getting much more then a late first or early second pick and leave ASAP. What is the point in staying. How many times lately have we said like man if XXX had stayed for one more year we would be so much better.

 

[DoctorBombay]

We are: Passive. Reactive. Predictable.
Couple that w/ being unathletic and undermanned at significant positions, along with a dogmatic HC who has to be dragged kicking and screaming to even ATTEMPT a change, and you get...today's SU.

 

[CuseChat23]

We are probably the most predictable team in the NCAA. The zone is no longer effective like it was 10 years ago but what assists that statement is we are not getting the level of recruits we did 10 years ago. I'm tired of hearing about "they were stronger than us" or "It's harder to rebound out of the zone". Well don't play the zone 100% of the game and recruit some centers and power forwards who weigh more than 220 lbs. It feels like ages ago we were buying up WE ARE #1 t-shirts like they were going out of style. When Buddy and Joe are playing 30-40 minutes each just shows you where our recruiting has gone. They would get spot minutes off the bench on those good teams. JB even argues with fans on his radio shows about who should get what playing time. And he says his guards are unfairly criticized? I never thought he would be so terrible at managing the father/coach situation. It reminds me of 4th grade basketball when the coach played his son way more than he deserved. My fear is we are in for two more years of this medirocrcy until Buddy uses up all his eligibility. I'd say two more years of being on the bubble but I'm not sure this team is even on the bubble? Time to retire!

 

[bigmike]

A solid Ivy League level team, although a member of the ACC.

 

[hoopsupstate]

Our guards take a lot of abuse, but if our front line was better our guards would look a lot better. Our front line is probably the second worse frontline in the ACC with only BC below us. Give us two of Carolina’s bigs and how much better would our guards look?

 

[Fly Rodder]

Mid level team with a gimmick and enough three point shooters to occasionally give good teams trouble. Not quite a spunky mid-major, but kinda sorta.

 

[SWC75]

This is not about any specific player, not about the coach, about this game and not to rehash every argument the game, but seriously… who are we?

What’s our identity? Where are we going? What are we building? What are we looking to become? What’s attractive about us to a recruit?

Are we an offensive team, defensive team, physical team, athletic team, 3 point shooting team, driving team, smart team, deep team?

What is it that we can expect, every game to bring? At minimum?

What the hell are we?

I’m not mad, not upset just kinda…. Can’t explain it really.