Wildhack is on the Clock

[Newhouser]

If this year ends at something akin to 10-20...Wildhack better be ready. Four years is insane.

 

[Col. Bleep]

He's not getting four if things go south. My sources aren't what they used to be, and I respect the info you bring to the board, but I don't think he's getting four. If this year is a disaster, I'm not sure if he's getting three.

This is the portal era. Elite programs can reload to become, at the very least, tourney teams in year 1.

Now irrelevant Syracuse is not Kentucky.
But look at what new head coach Mark Pope did at Kentucky.
In short order he brought in at least 9 portal players to create a team good enough to beat Duke last night.
(And, by the way, a lot of that win had to do with stepping up DEFENSE in the second half).

 

[DilemaCuse]

Another thing to look at besides tournament berth is, can this program ever get ranked again?
I said during the JB years it has been far too long and it doesn't look like this team has the makings of it either. Was it 2014 the last poll during the regular season where SU was ranked?

 

[Hopkins16]

I'm going to take a positive approach. It was ugly but we beat both LeMoyne and Colgate. I will take ugly wins against Youngstown, Cornell, Albany and Bucknell. Losses to these tuneups are what hurt tournament hopes so I'll take them, blowout or squeakers.

The defense is atrocious and unacceptable for experienced 21 to 23 year old players, regardless of the fact that a majority of the guys being new to the team. Coaching has to be better and I will reserve judgment till January. The same issues we had defensively against LeMoyne are the same as with Colgate. There is enough tape to view and time to figure out how to fix the problems.

We have length, experience and athleticism so we really have no excuse to not figure things out. In recent years, we had the excuse of having too many guys who were undersized or not athletic. At this point it's practice, teaching and executing. Red can't be afraid to bench guys who are not learning and buying in. The way Cox was blowing by his defender and looking like a young Dwayne Wade was mind boggling. We've got to do better defensively and there is still time to get there. Defensive improvement/adjustments is what I'll be watching and grading Red's coaching ability.

 

[PoppyHart]

He’s getting 4. That’s the number of years to get “your guys” in the program. Red can recruit and will get the players he wants. But no way he’s gone after this year. Year 3 will be very important. Wins are still wins as of right now

Bollocks. In 2024, it takes closer to 4 weeks than 4 years to get "your guys" into the programs.

 

[Hopkins16]

Now irrelevant Syracuse is not Kentucky.
But look at what new head coach Mark Pope did at Kentucky.
In short order he brought in at least 9 portal players to create a team good enough to beat Duke last night.
(And, by the way, a lot of that win had to do with stepping up DEFENSE in the second half).

I watched the entire game and was very impressed with Coach Pope. It felt strange seeing a Kentucky team that wasn't fully loaded with 5 star, well known players but filled with portal players since all the best players and recruits went to Arkansas with pay Cal, and yet played Ike a team and beat a loaded Duke team.

It gives me hope for our team.

 

[Orangezoo]

Gerry is 3-0 out of the gate with some decent wins at his program level. Love Red and hope he gets it done. Am watching how things shake out for him closely though.

 

[HakAttack]

Gerry is 3-0 out of the gate with some decent wins at his program level. Love Red and hope he gets it done. Am watching how things shake out for him closely though.

Adam W's money followed Jerry to Siena.

 

[Orangezoo]

Adam W's money followed Jerry to Siena.

Gerry found a diamond in the rough with this Shoats kid too right out of NEPA and D2

 

[OttosDad]

Now irrelevant Syracuse is not Kentucky.
But look at what new head coach Mark Pope did at Kentucky.
In short order he brought in at least 9 portal players to create a team good enough to beat Duke last night.
(And, by the way, a lot of that win had to do with stepping up DEFENSE in the second half).

Anyone notice who one of Pope’s assistants was…? Jason Hart.

He has a resume I’d like to see considered for the HC job. Lots of G league experience, good recruiter

 

[Zelda Zonk]

I'd say Devo has been the best thing about this season, to this point. He does a nice job. If you told me 10-15 years ago, he'd be doing commentary (and doing good work), I'd have thought you were crazy.

I get the Devo-tion, but he’s wildly overrated here. Says stuff like ”Syracuse will want to get off to a good start, not only on offense but also the defensive end.” And, he actually said both of these: [one about Bell and one about Moore, I think, regarding three-point misses] “A rare miss” and “He’ll make that more often than not.” Come on.

Some decent insight every now and again, but it’s not anything we shouldn’t expect from a professional.

 

[Zelda Zonk]

I would point out that Red has been great at recruiting.

The infusion of talent since he took over had been great, especially from high school. Since Red took over, we have recruited Starling, Westry, Freeman and White into the program. All were top40 or better talent according to RSCI. Moore (77 RSCI), Majstorovic and Fennell also look like really good talents... If they grew up in the US instead of overseas, both the international guys would have been ranked players too. Add in the imminent Kiyan Anthony commitment, and Red has pulled in more top level talent than any of JBs last 10 seasons in both of his two seasons recruiting.

Red needs to work on his in game coaching, development of players (especially defensively), handling of NIL and closing the deal on transfers. Not getting a true starter at PG in the portal appears to be hurting big time.

He's got a lot to learn, but he took an under talented poopshow of a roster to 20 wins last season, and escaped some close calls so far this season.

Red still needs time to finish remaking the program in his image before we know what the end result is going to be.

He absolutely has boosted recruiting. The first and most obvious change seems to be in the area of EFFORT in recruiting. Which is major.

But, still, this team, in its current staff configuration and going back years through the Boeheim era—when was the last time we watched a game and observed that we outcoached the other guy or that our team played smarter?

 

[two3zone]

How Devendorf played in college has nothing to do with his spot on evaluations about the poor defense. And even with that said, he was orders of magnitude better than anyone on this team.

He'd average 25 on this team and easily be the best defensive guard. Was definitely a weird take.

 

[dollarbill44]

Lampkin, Bell, JJ, and Carlos are all veterans who might be the worst defenders we’ve had at their positions since I started watching Cuse in late 80s. Something is very wrong either with their coaching or talent evaluation

You must have blacked out for long stretches. We've had some horrible defensive players over the years. Did you ever see Donte Greene play defense??? No one did.
Taurean Thompson was a really poor defender at SU.
Chukwu was awful early on in his time here.
There were many guys who came here and were terrible on defense. JB would gently show them the bench. Some of them eventually came around and were eventually passable defenders. Others were ushered out of the program.

I'm willing to give some of the younger guys time to adjust and improve.

 

[007]

How Devendorf played in college has nothing to do with his spot on evaluations about the poor defense. And even with that said, he was orders of magnitude better than anyone on this team.

Devo's observations, especially on the poor defensive play, was spot on all night.

 

[SanDiegoCuse]

Anyone notice who one of Pope’s assistants was…? Jason Hart.

He has a resume I’d like to see considered for the HC job. Lots of G league experience, good recruiter

I was hoping for him to be the next HC. Great recruiter and like you mentioned the vast G league experience.

 

[Dinkyspond]

Gerry is 3-0 out of the gate with some decent wins at his program level. Love Red and hope he gets it done. Am watching how things shake out for him closely though.

Siena, a MAC school, should beat an IVY (Brown), NEC (Bryant) and Patriot League (American) team. It is good though, I think Siena won only 7 or 8 last season.

 

[Orangezoo]

Siena, a MAC school, should beat an IVY (Brown), NEC (Bryant) and Patriot League (American) team. It is good though, I think Siena won only 7 or 8 last season.

Last year MAC was barely better than NEC or Patriot league as a conference and worse than Ivy by a good margin

 

[Doc5120]

Siena, a MAC school, should beat an IVY (Brown), NEC (Bryant) and Patriot League (American) team. It is good though, I think Siena won only 7 or 8 last season.

They were 4-28 last year. He might get to 4 wins in 4 games.

 

[tptcuse]

Can you imagine if we were 0-2 with two home losses to Lemoyne and Colgate? Lol this board would be insane

Very easy to imagine as we’re seven points away from that being the case.

 

[Eric15]

Here's my honest take: I've never liked the Autry hire. I loved him as a player, and I think he's an extremely high-character person. If Boeheim retired in say 2014 when the program was very strong, I think it would have made sense to maintain continuity and hire from within. But that's not the situation. We were an irrelevant team for almost a decade. I would have preferred a clean break and total infusion of new ideas from a coach with previous experience.

In Red's defense, last year was a step forward from JB's final two years. I will continue to support him 100%. The first two games have been a nightmare. Bill Parcells once said "you are what your record says you are." He's a doofus. We are a very, very worrisome 2-0. The good thing is that we don't have any resume damage yet. I mean with a call or two, or bounce of the basketball a different way we could be 0-2 and like dead last in KenPom.

On the surface it looks like we have the potential ingredients of a roster that could sneak into the tourney, but we really need some major, major coaching effort to turn this into a viable basketball team.

 

[sweetpea]

Anyone notice who one of Pope’s assistants was…? Jason Hart.

He has a resume I’d like to see considered for the HC job. Lots of G league experience, good recruiter

I would think he could teach defense. Probably a bit of an under appreciated player while he was here. Of course, every few years we knew another pure point guard was coming unlike our drought since really Tyler Ennis.

 

[BillSU]

It might as well have been a loss. It doesn’t matter either way, this program is going nowhere and is completely irrelevant. There’s nothing suggesting we’ll find our way out of this mess either.

I don't believe I have seen a more negative post here. Either you need a laxative or a case of beer.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Here's my honest take: I've never liked the Autry hire. I loved him as a player, and I think he's an extremely high-character person. If Boeheim retired in say 2014 when the program was very strong, I think it would have made sense to maintain continuity and hire from within. But that's not the situation. We were an irrelevant team for almost a decade. I would have preferred a clean break and total infusion of new ideas from a coach with previous experience.

In Red's defense, last year was a step forward from JB's final two years. I will continue to support him 100%. The first two games have been a nightmare. Bill Parcells once said "you are what your record says you are." He's a doofus. We are a very, very worrisome 2-0. The good thing is that we don't have any resume damage yet. I mean with a call or two, or bounce of the basketball a different way we could be 0-2 and like dead last in KenPom.

On the surface it looks like we have the potential ingredients of a roster that could sneak into the tourney, but we really need some major, major coaching effort to turn this into a viable basketball team.

Both LeMoyne AND Colgate had the ball with the clock under 10s with a chance to win. Lol.

 

[BillSU]

Here's my honest take: I've never liked the Autry hire. I loved him as a player, and I think he's an extremely high-character person. If Boeheim retired in say 2014 when the program was very strong, I think it would have made sense to maintain continuity and hire from within. But that's not the situation. We were an irrelevant team for almost a decade. I would have preferred a clean break and total infusion of new ideas from a coach with previous experience.

In Red's defense, last year was a step forward from JB's final two years. I will continue to support him 100%. The first two games have been a nightmare. Bill Parcells once said "you are what your record says you are." He's a doofus. We are a very, very worrisome 2-0. The good thing is that we don't have any resume damage yet. I mean with a call or two, or bounce of the basketball a different way we could be 0-2 and like dead last in KenPom.

On the surface it looks like we have the potential ingredients of a roster that could sneak into the tourney, but we really need some major, major coaching effort to turn this into a viable basketball team.

Agreed. But if we don't blow away Youngstown state somethings just not right in the BB equation.