Without Fab, this SU team is...

[HakAttack]

...better? At the very least, they're playing a lot better than I thought they would.

Rak has really stepped up and his crashed the boards for us. He needs to finish his dunks, but I really can't complain about his efforts in Pittsburgh. He came to play. Waiters can score 20 in his sleep, but we already knew that.

J-South has been spectacular. With Melo out, X-Mas moving to the big man spot and Fair starting, J-South becomes the de facto forward off the bench. I have more confidence that Fair can turn it around, so I'm not too worried about him. J-South is the right guy who's gotten hot. He's someone who feeds off confidence, and he's sky high right now. Plus, look at how he's crashed the boards. He had 14 rebounds in two games in Pittsburgh. He takes some pressure of Joseph when he's at the back of the zone.

Fair needs to get going, and Joseph needs to get into more of a rhythm at the start of the game. Scoop needs to continue to play at a high level and limit his turnovers. Triche has to get it together, he's in danger of losing it completely. Glad to see he's still staying aggressive, but he just doesn't have it out there.

Dare I say it, this team's playing better without Melo? Saturday's second half may have been the best half of basketball this team's played all year. I love that in Melo's absence, Rak and James have had to step up. If Melo was here, these guys wouldn't have the opportunity to seize the moment and use that confidence to produce good results on the court.

 

[cusetown1]

4 more.

 

[dollarbill44]

They played better for 1 straight game, so far. I think we may be better off without him going forward mostly for continuity and the players' mental states.

While I think we were better with Fab, I'm not sure that him coming back again would make us better at this point.

 

[RF2044]

Let's not get carried away. We were a tremendous defensive team WITH Fab. And Fab was an experienced player, unlike Rakim.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Rak continues to get the job done, and I think we just might be able to weather the loss of Fab by coaxing just enough productivity out of Rak / Baye. But I don't think we're a "better" team without Fab--not by a long shot.

 

[cusetown1]

Fab being out we aren't as good defensively. But, it opened up Southerland's offensive arsenal. Christmas has played well also. We are better offensively without Flab.

 

[baggerbob]

This team lost its swagger when Melo got declared ineligible, when he came back they said all the right things but never played with the same confidence. They escaped in the first round game and against Kansas St in the 1st half they played bad the last 6 minutes with Kris and Dion on the bench with fouls but led by 1. They came out in the 2nd half and you could see they believed they were the better team. They don't need Melo to come back and ruin the chemistry again.

 

[longislandcuse]

I'll wait to see how we do this weekend but Southerland is a special talent and im glad that he has emerged. I truly believe we are a better team with a confident Southerland over having Fab back. Now getting Fab back now would be ideal, but given the two options 1) No Fab but Southerland or 2) Fab back but no Southerland. Ill take Southerland. I think the lineup of Scoop/Dion/KJo/Southerland/Rak is turning into a force.

 

[Sgt Cuse]

...better? At the very least, they're playing a lot better than I thought they would.

Rak has really stepped up and his crashed the boards for us. He needs to finish his dunks, but I really can't complain about his efforts in Pittsburgh. He came to play. Waiters can score 20 in his sleep, but we already knew that.

J-South has been spectacular. With Melo out, X-Mas moving to the big man spot and Fair starting, J-South becomes the de facto forward off the bench. I have more confidence that Fair can turn it around, so I'm not too worried about him. J-South is the right guy who's gotten hot. He's someone who feeds off confidence, and he's sky high right now. Plus, look at how he's crashed the boards. He had 14 rebounds in two games in Pittsburgh. He takes some pressure of Joseph when he's at the back of the zone.

Fair needs to get going, and Joseph needs to get into more of a rhythm at the start of the game. Scoop needs to continue to play at a high level and limit his turnovers. Triche has to get it together, he's in danger of losing it completely. Glad to see he's still staying aggressive, but he just doesn't have it out there.

Dare I say it, this team's playing better without Melo? Saturday's second half may have been the best half of basketball this team's played all year. I love that in Melo's absence, Rak and James have had to step up. If Melo was here, these guys wouldn't have the opportunity to seize the moment and use that confidence to produce good results on the court.

I think you are getting carried away. The team may have notched up their offensive game a little because Dirty has improved. But that has little to do with Fab being out. Rak took very few minutes at the PF and was a token starter so that did little if anything to the forward rotation. The improved play of Dirty is a benefit of our depth and covered for the fall off in play out of CJ.

Defensively SU has been hurt bad. Fab was/is an athletic, solid big. Fab is the BE defensive Player of the Year. Other bigs were neutralized when Fab was in the game. Rak doesn't have near the same girth or affect.
Rak does seem to be the better rebounder, so that helps make up for some of the loss.

Matchups are key. Once the big got in foul trouble for KState things went our way. I don't think Wisky has the dominant big that could give Rak trouble, so we caught a break in that department, imo.

However, if we get to the Elite Eight, we are going to have bigs trouble. Either Sully or Gates. Stopping the big inside presence is what we lost. Doesn't mean JB can't coach around it - he did once already. Just means we will be facing a disadvantage. Would much rather have Fab in there to negate the opposing scoring bigs.

 

[NKR1978]

I feel 100x better with Rakeem than I did with Riley two years ago, but wont go so far as to say we're better without Fab. Rak isn't as good as Fab (yet) but he also has proven that he is good and certainly not the liability Riley was in the tournament. We're still technically 9 deep and most teams left would kill for that.

Our defense is good enough to keep us in a game with just about anyone in the country. When we're attacking on offense by getting to the hoop and when we're hitting outside shots, we're incredibly difficult to beat. Wisconsin is a tough match up for us, but we're not exactly going to be an easy out for them.

 

[Ozcuse]

We have 5 fouls less to share at the big man spot. That's my biggest worry at this time and where I think we will be in trouble if/when it happens.

 

[kingtidge]

This team lost its swagger when Melo got declared ineligible, when he came back they said all the right things but never played with the same confidence. They escaped in the first round game and against Kansas St in the 1st half they played bad the last 6 minutes with Kris and Dion on the bench with fouls but led by 1. They came out in the 2nd half and you could see they believed they were the better team. They don't need Melo to come back and ruin the chemistry again.

What we need is for Rak to continue to do what he's doing.

Nothing spectacular - be disciplined and competent in the system...

Sullinger & OSU will present issues... As would any marquee BIG (D-Green, etc.) Heck - we even had problems with Yancy Gates with Fab.

Remember, we won the NC with Craig Forth at center... we don't need spectacular center play and rebounding... just basic competence on D...

 

[HakAttack]

They played better for 1 straight game, so far. I think we may be better off without him going forward mostly for continuity and the players' mental states.

While I think we were better with Fab, I'm not sure that him coming back again would make us better at this point.

This.

 

[HakAttack]

Fab being out we aren't as good defensively. But, it opened up Southerland's offensive arsenal. Christmas has played well also. We are better offensively without Flab.

This too.

 

[RF2044]

Fab being out we aren't as good defensively. But, it opened up Southerland's offensive arsenal. Christmas has played well also. We are better offensively without Flab.

I don't agree with this--at all. Defense triggered offense for us all year long, and Fab was a big part of that. Indirectly and directly, FAb was a big part of why we got all of those easy transition scoring opportunities, and were able to avoid having to rely upon our half court execution to get points in many games.

 

[jordoo]

We are better with Fab on both ends IMO. Rak has played great while James and Dion seem to be getting it going. Still this team ia a long way from playing its best ball right now. Scoop was awfull in the first half, Kris still isn't hitting jumpers, Triche seems aggressive but off and CJ has dissappeared. Fab is still better than our other centers and we are better on both ends with him.

 

[cusetown1]

I don't agree with this--at all. Defense triggered offense for us all year long, and Fab was a big part of that. Indirectly and directly, FAb was a big part of why we got all of those easy transition scoring opportunities, and were able to avoid having to rely upon our half court execution to get points in many games.

pre 1st ineligible I agree with. After no way. Him being out rejuvenated this team. This is a blessing in disguise. James Southerland is our ace in the hole. He's our Rashard Anderson, but bigger and better. Said this back in Oct, and was laughed at.

 

[CorduroyG]

I kn3w this question was coming. IF rak can play like he did saturday, i dont know if we're better or worse without fab, but we can go a long way regardless, and thats all that matters. But thats a big if. This is sweet 16 now, big time game, big time atmosphere, wouldnt surprise me at all to see rak disappear again. Fab was steady, you could count on him at least defensively, rak is still a question mark.

 

[Fairlylegal]

Fab is not coming back. I wouldn't want him back even if he could anyways. Fab's issues this season have really messed with the team chemistry and led to arguably our worst two games of the season, Notre Dame and UNCA.

 

[KingOtis]

We played like absolute crap against UNCA. Christmas and Keita were especially bad.

K-State played us close for a half, even though Samuels was out and McGruder got hurt. At the start of the second half, it looked like they made the adjustments that would put us away...and then Henriquez picked up his third foul.

We looked as great as we did because they were without their two best rebounders and post players for a good portion of the second half, leaving a freshman to pick up the slack. Their star player was hobbled.

So let's not get carried away. I like our chances against Wisconsin because it's basically going to come down to whether or not they hit their threes. But OSU is another story. Christmas hasn't had two good games in a row all year. Now he needs to have three.

 

[cusetown1]

We played like absolute crap against UNCA. Christmas and Keita were especially bad.

K-State played us close for a half, even though Samuels was out and McGruder got hurt. At the start of the second half, it looked like they made the adjustments that would put us away...and then Henriquez picked up his third foul.

We looked as great as we did because they were without their two best rebounders and post players for a good portion of the second half, leaving a freshman to pick up the slack. Their star player was hobbled.

So let's not get carried away. I like our chances against Wisconsin because it's basically going to come down to whether or not they hit their threes. But OSU is another story. Christmas hasn't had two good games in a row all year. Now he needs to have three.

OSU is going to lose to Cincy

 

[MyMeloMyMan]

The problem now becomes...any foul trouble for Rak and we are COOKED. Imagine having to play Baye extended minutes? If that happens, we can say "Baye Baye" to the dance.

 

[jekelish]

How quickly we forget how abysmal we looked against UNCA if we think we are suddenly better without Fab. We are not better without the defensive player of the year in the Big East, who is also our only post player with anything resembling an ability to score using something other than a dunk and is a very solid passer.

 

[BuffOrange]

Overreaction to one half for sure. As mentioned K-St had about .5 of maybe their 2 best players? That's a lot to take away for any team, much less an 8seed.

 

[KingOtis]

Remember, we won the NC with Craig Forth at center...

...and McNeil. Forth's positioning, especially on offense, continues to be under-appreciated. He set as good a screen as any center we've had. McNeil was downright nasty on defense.

Of course, we also had Carmelo Anthony and six threes from G-Mac.

 

[cusetown1]

How quickly we forget how abysmal we looked against UNCA if we think we are suddenly better without Fab. We are not better without the defensive player of the year in the Big East, who is also our only post player with anything resembling an ability to score using something other than a dunk and is a very solid passer.

You will laugh, I know we played like turd. Ashville was a good team.