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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 2832548, member: 289"] - Because they are better than we are. They are 10-0 and ranked #14. We are 7-3 and unranked. They beat Arizona in the NCAA tournament last year by 21 points and beat then #13 West Virginia in Morgantown this year. They’ve also beaten an otherwise undefeated San Francisco team in Belfast. They played us close here last year, losing 74-81. They aren’t going to be intimidated in any way by Syracuse. As a matter of fact, they are looking forward to this game. They expect to beat us and display our scalp for the world to see. Coach Nate Oats bemoaned our loss to old domino for two reasons. One was that he assumes we’ll be angry and will come back and play well. The other? “If you beat them it's not as much of a quality win either because they just lost to Old Dominion”. He’s already worrying about the property value of the win he expects to get. - They are a solid team that doesn’t rattle when you kick the doors. They have a big inside scorer in 6-8 250 Nick Perkins (13.8ppg – last year it was 16.2 - 8.2rpg). He’s going to knock around out beanpole centers like bowling pins. They have a top guard in CJ Massenburg (17.1, 7.1, 2.9apg 43% from three). He had 43 points and 14 rebounds against West Virginia. They have two other double figure scorers in Jeremy Harris, (12.6), and Javon Graves, (10.7). - They are an excellent defensive team. They hold the opposition to 27.5% three point shooting and turn them over on 21.6% of their possessions. Davonta Jordan was the MAC defensive player of the year last year. Jimmy Satalin said after the ODU game “If you thought this team was physical, wait until you see Buffalo”. (Team numbers primarily from Nunes, by the way.) - The Bulls play the way we’d like to see Syracuse play. They are 10th in the country in tempo, (14.6 seconds to get off their first shot of a possession) while holding the opposition to 18.4 (337th). They are 34th in efficiency with 112 points per 100 possessions. SU isn’t far behind at 109 (42nd) but because of the higher tempo the Bull play under, they are averaging 85 points a game while we average 71. - Nate Oats is perhaps the kind of guy we’d like to see replace Boeheim. His team plays an exciting, effective style of play and he has roots in the Detroit area, where we’ve done some good recruiting over the years. Unfortunately the timing isn’t right. JB will be here for a while longer. Then we’ll promote from within. If that doesn’t work then we’ll look for a guy like Oats. But he’ll be elsewhere by then, probably competing for national championships. [/QUOTE]

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