Why Syracuse Will win

[SWC75]

- Because we are Syracuse and we beat Kansas.

- We can use our zone and some solid ball handling to slow the game down to the pace we want to play it and frustrate the Jayhawks. JB is actually pretty good at extending the zone to guard the three point shot. The thing is to do it without opening up holes in your defense, especially at the top of the key.

- We are the tallest team in the country, positon to positon. We also have players who love to rebound and scrap for loose balls. Possession is 9/10 of the law and it’s pretty close to that in basketball. If we win the rebounding and loose ball battles, they can’t run on us.

- We are due to hit some three pointers of our own. I don’t expect a White/Gillon type of game, just 6-8 treys instead of 3-4.

- We have depth problems but they are not a deep team and our drives to the basket tend to draw fouls. They don’t’ have a lot of size outside of Azubuike, who had a reputation for being foul-prone going into this season.

- This is not in Allen Field House. It’s in Miami. There are a lot of SU fans down there.

- We are not Texas Southern Oakland or Toledo.

- Even if we lose, we ‘win’ if we still have a young, improving confident team coming out of this one and take care of business in the coming weeks.

 

[moqui]

• ku's gaudy numbers have been run up against mid- and low-major teams that don't have the athleticism to keep up with them
• yes, we've played 3 of the same teams, but as the boxing analysts say "styles make fights"
• the only time they've faced a team with equivalent athletes (kentucky), they couldn't dictate pace, winning a 65-61 game
• ku is shooting over 45% from three as a team, but managed only 29% vs uk
• ku has three of the best perimeter players in the nation in graham, vick and newman, but all three were bothered by kentucky's athletes, shooting a combined 11/41 from the field
• su's players are every bit as athletic as are kentucky's, and in most cases bigger as well. in the case of the guards, much bigger
• su's offensive rebounding could be decisive. kentucky stayed in the game without much in the way of 2nd chance points, su should top them
• comparison: kentucky's two leading forwards have combined for a total of 6 putback baskets in 7 games. brissett & dolezaj have combined for 17 in 6 games

in short, syracuse compares very favorably with kentucky, who gave kansas their toughest game of the year. of course our styles are different, so who knows. but give jb this kind of raw material and a week to prepare for an opponent?

 

[20Plus]

LFGO

 

[SUskibum]

give jb this kind of raw material and a week to prepare for an opponent?

Made me think of another one.

JB > Bill Self

 

[kidorange]

Are we really the tallest team in the country? Haven't heard that before

 

[Cusefan0307]

Are we really the tallest team in the country? Haven't heard that before

Yes.