Five Takeaways: Auburn 89 Syracuse 68


ThePearl

Well-known member
The Syracuse zone was designed for long quick guys to cover a lot of ground, getting to shooters and also trapping and creating turnovers and runouts. We have four slow guys out there who don't get to shooters and don't create any turnovers. Buddy and Joe seem worse than last year, and our forwards are out trying to cover three point shooters not even far from the top of the key, then lacking the quickness to get back and defend the rim. Our recent NCAA success is based on teams new to playing against our zone being confused by it. Not this year, there's wide open shots all over the court and they're having no problem finding them because we rarely trap because our slow guys can't get back in position. It's not a question of "learning the rotations," this team isn't constructed to play a Syracuse zone well.

We need to force-feed minutes to Benny. He needs to get comfortable with the speed and rhythm of the college game. He's the only quick shot-blocking forward we have and he has the potential to be a major player for us later in the year. He made at least half a dozen nice plays on the defensive end last night. And he's a much better player offensively than he's shown so far, with a better shot. He made two very nice passes in the lane. After this run of tough games over the next couple weeks, I would put him in the starting lineup where he's playing alongside Buddy, Cole, Joe, and Jesse, so we don't need much offense from him and he can develop naturally. Bringing Benny, Symir, and Frank in together leaves us with too little offense. Even if Jimmy still gets more minutes than Benny and finishes games, right now the rotations would seem to work better with Benny's on-court time being with the offensive players.

I would also think about starting Torrence, as extreme as that might sound. The three-point defense has been atrocious. We are supposed to be a team with great three-point shooting, yet our opponent made more threes than us in every game in Atlantis. This starting lineup also lacks ball handling and playmaking to create easy shots for others. Symir did many good things last night, along with a number of bad things. He is another player who might play better with more minutes to get comfortable and playing alongside more offensive players, and he can get into the lane and find shooters better than Joe can. Girard could still play more minutes, but the team would be more balanced with a starting lineup of Buddy, Torrence, Swider, Benny, and Jesse--it has potentially three good defenders and three strong scorers with Jesse's development. Girard has never been a point guard, he's a shooter. Bringing him in to pair with Buddy in the backcourt has never made much sense, they are too similar, with similar weaknesses. I like Joe as an instant offense guy off the bench, and Jimmy as the do-a-little-of-everything guy off the bench.

Right now, this team is not constructed to stymie anyone in March. Without Benny blossoming, we are completely reliant on our shooters making shots, and our offense is having a hard time getting them open looks against any team that plays us tight. The guy we thought was the best three point shooter in the country, Buddy, shot 5-21 from three in Atlantis, with the best game being last night's 2-6. I don't remember him getting one shot coming off a screen. I have no idea why we seem to have shelved our motion offense with lots of screens, but right now we're too often reduced to two great three-point shooters going one-on-one. This team still has the potential to be good, largely because of Jesse's development, but something needs to change or the ceiling is pretty low.
 


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