MBB: Syracuse Dominated by Colgate For Second Year in a Row


MassaCusetts

Well-known member
This should be an eye opener about a LOT of things, not least of which the quality of the freshmen class relative to being able to contribute NOW.
 

ThePearl

Well-known member
--Colgate is not that good. Buffalo beat them and the following game Buffalo lost to James Madison by 35.

--As bad as our defense was, I thought our offense was worse. We never seemed to have any purpose on any possession. We scored 68 on Colgate. Last year we scored 85. Thought our defense went from an F in the first half to a D- in the second half.

--Get the feeling it's not the often-heard "we can't play man" but it's that we can't coach man. Plenty of other teams can play good man defense. Probably won't be long before we're almost exclusively zone. That was lousy too.

--Joe was terrible on both ends.

--Jesse was lousy on offense. They smothered him and he isn't much of a passer out of a double team. They left our guys open on the perimeter and weren't going to let Jesse beat them inside.

--We have to have three point shooting from our small forward. I think it's time to end the Copeland at the three experiment. He doesn't belong there. He's not an outside shooter or an inside player. And he's passing from spots on the floor he's never done before. He's finding how difficult it is to make interior passes in college. Judah is finding that out also.

--This is the team JB wanted to go with instead of getting a portal forward like the veterans from Buffalo or St. Bonnie. So go with them, whether they're "ready" or not. Rather see Chris go 0-5 from three than 0-1. Taylor only played two minutes until garbage time. Same with Maliq. I missed what he must've done wrong.

--Nobody showed any urgency in closing out on shooters. Judah was lousy on both ends in the first half.

--Even Symir was lousy, especially in the first half. He's not playing the same style game he did towards the end of last season. When he and Benny are taking more threes than Bell and Taylor, we're in trouble.

--Assists were 22-9. Terrible ball movement and terrible player movement. Our offense often devolved into Judah or Benny going one on one.

--We got outrebounded by Colgate. Jesse is an average rebounder, at best.

--Chris has zero rebounds in 24 minutes of play in the first two games.

--Benny with eight rebounds seems fine but I don't remember him getting any tough rebounds. At least he's in a good position to get the easy ones, unlike last season. The next step is outfighting guys for the tough ones. Benny sees himself as a 3. If he's to play in the NBA some day (a long shot), it will be as a versatile 4/5. Benny hustled. He played the entire second half, much of it at the front of the press, and still hustled for a putback in the closing minute or two.

--Benny's my favorite player and he obviously had a good game, but I'm always surprised when his jumper goes in. It's not pretty (neither is Symir's jumper). But I am also surprised just how comfortable Benny is with the ball in his hands. Completely different from last season.

--Lot of positives about Judah as a scorer, but he's not doing much as a point guard. Symir was on the court half the time and he was more the point. Would like to see Judah go to the basket a bit more and shoot more free throws. He missed a couple mid-range shots he should make.

--Hima looked good in his few minutes in the first half. But a couple times in the second half he let guys get behind him on the press when he pushed up close to half court.

--Right now we're not even pretty good in any aspect of the game, with the lone exception of shot blocking from our centers.

--It could get late awfully early. After what should be an easy game with Northeastern, we could lose each of the next five games if we don't make major improvements.
 

djorange1989

Well-known member
agree with the possibility of losing 5 straight(or most of them) after Northeastern who we will definitely beat. Richmond followed by either SJU or Temple are both dangerous games for this team. Bryant almost beat us 2 years ago and they are still a good team, forget about Illinois that is a loss and then ND. eeks.
 

ThePearl

Well-known member
For those like me who wondered why Justin and Maliq didn't play more--JB said on his show last night that Taylor's been sick for a few days and Maliq had a minor hip problem.

JB also said Quadir practices as hard as any player we've had recently. To me, as much as the staff likes him, we just can't have him at the three. That's a shooter's position. Colgate won't be the last team to pack the paint against us if we don't have another shooter out there. Symir, Benny and Quadir can take threes and make some, but teams will gladly play off them and watch them shoot from there.

According to a pre-season interview with The Almanac, the plan was always to have Bell and Taylor split the minutes at the three. Whether they're ready or not and whether they're hitting shots or not, they need to be out there until they're comfortable and not being so tight when they shoot. I've always preferred Justin as the starter, I hope we give him more minutes soon.
 

GregCuse

Member
For those like me who wondered why Justin and Maliq didn't play more--JB said on his show last night that Taylor's been sick for a few days and Maliq had a minor hip problem.

JB also said Quadir practices as hard as any player we've had recently. To me, as much as the staff likes him, we just can't have him at the three. That's a shooter's position. Colgate won't be the last team to pack the paint against us if we don't have another shooter out there. Symir, Benny and Quadir can take threes and make some, but teams will gladly play off them and watch them shoot from there.

According to a pre-season interview with The Almanac, the plan was always to have Bell and Taylor split the minutes at the three. Whether they're ready or not and whether they're hitting shots or not, they need to be out there until they're comfortable and not being so tight when they shoot. I've always preferred Justin as the starter, I hope we give him more minutes soon.
Thanks Pearl , your the man.
 

Cusealum05

Well-known member
I chatted with a kid i work with (recent grad) who played Ivy League ball and then grad transferred to the A10 for his last year of eligibility, just wanted to get an outsiders perspective on the program especially one who was a recent player. See notes below, just thought it was interesting feedback to share nothing more than that.

-All the older coaches retired even Wright at Nova, why is Boeheim still going especially since he already won a championship.

-Everyone knows Cuse but brand is stale, he couldn’t think of a recent nba star from Cuse.

-Kids want to play for a coach they are excited about, he isn’t aware of any recruits Cuse is involved for this cycle, but he only knows the top recruits. He did know and say Judah Mintz is the real deal, said that was a good pick up for us.

-The good thing he ended with was it only takes 1-2 players to completely turn a roster around so if we can get two impact starters in the portal the whole game changes.

Again, take it with a grain of salt, I was just interested in a non-Cuse fan opinion, especially one who was a D1 player.
 

ThePearl

Well-known member
I chatted with a kid i work with (recent grad) who played Ivy League ball and then grad transferred to the A10 for his last year of eligibility, just wanted to get an outsiders perspective on the program especially one who was a recent player. See notes below, just thought it was interesting feedback to share nothing more than that.

-All the older coaches retired even Wright at Nova, why is Boeheim still going especially since he already won a championship.

-Everyone knows Cuse but brand is stale, he couldn’t think of a recent nba star from Cuse.

-Kids want to play for a coach they are excited about, he isn’t aware of any recruits Cuse is involved for this cycle, but he only knows the top recruits. He did know and say Judah Mintz is the real deal, said that was a good pick up for us.

-The good thing he ended with was it only takes 1-2 players to completely turn a roster around so if we can get two impact starters in the portal the whole game changes.

Again, take it with a grain of salt, I was just interested in a non-Cuse fan opinion, especially one who was a D1 player.
Can't argue with any of that. Our brand is stale. I don't think it was fully appreciated how big a hit our basketball brand would take when we moved to the ACC. We had firmly established an identity in the rugged Big East as an exciting team of guys who weren't as muscular as some teams but were more athletic. Our only identity now is as a bubble team whose zone can sometimes cause trouble in the tourney. I have no idea who the right coaching hire would be to bring back that brand. All things being equal, I would prefer a Syracuse guy than a complete outsider, but all things aren't equal.

One person I am very curious about is former SU guard Jason Hart. I very much like the idea of someone with NBA ties. Jason played in the league almost a decade. Now he coaches Scoot Henderson, expected to be the #2 pick in the next draft. I think Jason put three G League Ignite guys in the first round of the last draft. When I was watching the Wembanyama vs Scoot game, an announcer said he saw Jason in AAU gyms all summer. He got Buzelis out of Brewster, who I thought was expected to go to Carolina. He should be able to recruit in the northeast. None of our current staff or Hopkins have played or coached in the NBA, and we have a shockingly few number of current players there. It's tough to sell Syracuse as the place for top talent to go to develop as NBA players. But Jason is paid specifically to develop NBA players. He first coached in high school in LA and won coach of the year. He ended up at USC and his time there coincided with the rise of USC into a better program than ours right now. Like Autry, he eventually became Associate Head Coach. He's an impressive speaker who very much wants to be a college head coach. I hope he's getting looked at.
 

MassaCusetts

Well-known member
Can't argue with any of that. Our brand is stale. I don't think it was fully appreciated how big a hit our basketball brand would take when we moved to the ACC. We had firmly established an identity in the rugged Big East as an exciting team of guys who weren't as muscular as some teams but were more athletic. Our only identity now is as a bubble team whose zone can sometimes cause trouble in the tourney. I have no idea who the right coaching hire would be to bring back that brand. All things being equal, I would prefer a Syracuse guy than a complete outsider, but all things aren't equal.

One person I am very curious about is former SU guard Jason Hart. I very much like the idea of someone with NBA ties. Jason played in the league almost a decade. Now he coaches Scoot Henderson, expected to be the #2 pick in the next draft. I think Jason put three G League Ignite guys in the first round of the last draft. When I was watching the Wembanyama vs Scoot game, an announcer said he saw Jason in AAU gyms all summer. He got Buzelis out of Brewster, who I thought was expected to go to Carolina. He should be able to recruit in the northeast. None of our current staff or Hopkins have played or coached in the NBA, and we have a shockingly few number of current players there. It's tough to sell Syracuse as the place for top talent to go to develop as NBA players. But Jason is paid specifically to develop NBA players. He first coached in high school in LA and won coach of the year. He ended up at USC and his time there coincided with the rise of USC into a better program than ours right now. Like Autry, he eventually became Associate Head Coach. He's an impressive speaker who very much wants to be a college head coach. I hope he's getting looked at.
I think Hart is a person you’d have to look at. I’m not sure he’s the exact answer, but definitely would be worth a look.

I don’t think the move to the ACC has anything to do with our program’s current status, stale or otherwise. To me, it’s coincidental to an aging coach that refuses to change, and has taken the program hostage. We had a good run initially in the ACC, and then recruiting just died off. It corresponded with Hop leaving and having a bench that just hasn’t shown an ability to deliver….and yet nothing has changed.
 


Top