I was very disappointed last night, particularly with Judah. He simply has not played like a point guard at all. We've always liked scoring point guards, but right now Judah plays like the only difference between a point and a two is the point is the guy who brings the ball up the court. I am frankly bewildered. He's a smart player who's been on campus since July. Boeheim said a couple weeks ago he understands the position. But he rarely looks to get others good shots. He might've looked more to make plays for others at the two at Oak Hill than he's done at SU so far. Right now he's our fourth best point guard. Copeland had more assists than Judah in 2/3 the minutes and from the three.
Boeheim does not like to lose and if we start taking losses then either Joe and Judah are going to be switched or Symir will start, with Judah as sixth man. The situation is made worse because Judah's not hitting his shots, the same shots he made at a high percentage last season in the NIBC against better defenders than he faced last night. 5 turnovers, 4 points on 2-10, and 3 assists is unsustainable.
Bell is another guy who isn't shooting it like he's capable and that's the only reason he's in there. I think it won't be too long before Taylor is the starter. He won't hurt us in any area. He needs to look for his shot a little more. Neither Benny nor Chris have a strong feel for the game. Taylor and Maliq do. Benny's floor game is much better than last year, but he needs to start taking most of his shots near the basket instead of mostly midrange with a three thrown in occasionally. Maliq could probably take those same jumpers Benny does and hit them as well as Benny, but he plays to his strengths and lets the outside shooters do the outside shooting.
Jesse did not look sharp. I thought Maliq and Hima made a nice defensive duo off the bench for a stretch. Carey did a couple nice things and a couple poor things. I was surprised to see in the boxscore Symir took five threes, making two. He only took two two pointers. He needs to play more to his strengths. Neither defense of ours looks especially good. Would not be surprised if we eventually become almost exclusively zone.
A huge problem is rebounding. We only outrebounded a small D2 team by 2, giving up 20 offensive rebounds. And that was playing mostly man so the zone can't be blamed. We would get slaughtered by an ACC team by 20+ rebounds. And we would've lost to an average ACC team last night by 20-30 points. I don't know anything about Lehigh but they're probably a big step up as an opponent. We have to get much better in a hurry or we'll be losing games that count to quad three teams and our NCAA chances will be over before the ACC season begins.