2013-2014 Syracuse Basketball: Same Zone, New Conference

LeoCarrillo

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36% from the floor and 3-15 on 3s. That was painful. I thought the looks were okay, just nothing falling.
 

Doooweeeey!

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Next up are the Turkeys of Blacksburg...first road ACC game.  We'll see if James Johnson read Jim Larranaga's notes. 
 
Looks to me that the Hokies turn the ball over.  Second worst team in the league at 14.3 per game.  They don't create any steals either, worst in the league at under 3 per game.
On the other hand, they have the best conference 3-point shooting percentage at 42.5%, which is better than Duke, Notre Dame, Maryland and 'Cuse in that order.
No advantage over Syracuse at the line, with both schools shooting just under 70%.
 
This game should come down to the effectiveness of the Orange zone in pushing the Hokie shooters further out on the floor, and using their length and traps to create turnovers.
Take away a strength and capitalize on a weakness all on one end of the court.
 

Rossox

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New polls are out and there are only 2 ACC schools ranked and only 1 in the Top 15 (Duke dropped to #16).  WTF?
 
And yet UNC still scares me. Let's hope the Hokies aren't a trap game.
 

ivanvamp

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Jul 18, 2005
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Always nice to beat North Carolina.  Not the best offensive performance by SU, but my goodness, the defense….  SU is going to be a royal pain for any opponent in the tourney this year.  
 

LeftyTG

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ivanvamp said:
Always nice to beat North Carolina.  Not the best offensive performance by SU, but my goodness, the defense….  SU is going to be a royal pain for any opponent in the tourney this year.  
The D has really rounded into form.  I was mostly impressed by the rebounding.  When they rebound like that they will be very very tough.  Christmas really seems to be coming around at last.
 
I realize Carolina has been inconsistent and a bit down this year, but that game wasn't close.  Syracuse gave them 5 points in the last 40 seconds of the game with an uncontested dunk and uncontested 3.  It was really more of a 15 point win.  That they did that playing a C+ game on offense is encouraging.  Now lets hope Cooney is just in a slump and not reverting back to last year.  Syracuse is suspect on offense when he isn't hitting from the outside.
 

LeftyTG

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This was another glass half full or glass half empty kind of game.  Any road win is nice, of course.  But BC really has very little talent on their team and Syracuse was losing in the second half.  The glass half empty says that this tendency to let inferior teams hang around, and the way the team is prone is stretches of disjointed offense, will end up biting them in the ass, probably soon.  The glass half full says that despite CJ Fair playing like crap and Ennis forcing some shots and actually looking like a freshman for long stretches of the game, Syracuse won a conference game on the road by 10.
 
Nice to see Cooney going to the rim and not just jacking up 10 threes a game.  
 
And, of course, it is always a pleasure watching Jerami Grant.  I'm going to miss him when he's gone:
 
http://gif.mocksession.com/2014/01/jerami-grant/
 

Rossox

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Was at the game tonight. Pretty good showing by the BC fans.

Grant is awesome, but the offense stalled again tonight. Jackson was on fire for the Eagles. The formula against the Orange seems to be to slow it down it and wait for the open 3. That worked for BC tonight for 30 min, but they were just not athletic enough to keep up with this Syracuse squad.

10 pt Conf road victories are nothing to sneeze at. We're getting spoiled.
 

ivanvamp

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Agree with Rossox.  You win by 10 on the road in-conference?  Sign me up every time for that.  I'm a half-full kind of guy.  SU has so many ways to beat you it's scary.  Want to run?  We have the athletes.  Want to grind it out?  Fine, we'll keep you under 50.  I'm loving this team.  Just have to keep Ennis and Cooney healthy.
 

LeoCarrillo

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Seemed like BC also got a lot of BS buckets too, just to stay close. Like, airball putbacks level of BS.
 

Doooweeeey!

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Serious test in the Dome against a very good passing team in Pitt team this weekend.  Panthers sport the best Assist/Turnover ratio in the conference.
There will be no surprises for Jamie Dixon's crew who always seem to play Syracuse well.  This will be Ennis's toughest game at the point to date.
 

LeftyTG

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Doooweeeey! said:
Serious test in the Dome against a very good passing team in Pitt team this weekend.  Panthers sport the best Assist/Turnover ratio in the conference.
There will be no surprises for Jamie Dixon's crew who always seem to play Syracuse well.  This will be Ennis's toughest game at the point to date.
At this point I'm convinced Pitt could put 5 overweight white guys in their 40's out there and give Syracuse a game. 
 

Rossox

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Ugh, it's taken 15 minutes to play the last 1:30 min of this ugly Baylor-Oklahoma game.
 

ivanvamp

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That was an absolute war today.  SU got murdered on the glass but Ennis was spectacular down the stretch.  Great win.  Old school Big East game for the two best teams in the ACC.
 

LeoCarrillo

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I want no part of Jamie Dixon's zone busting come tourney time. Maybe Arizona or Sparty are more dangerous, but I'd almost take my chances with them over seeing Pitt again in March. I hope we miss em in the ACC tourney for that matter.

Loved the Christmas jump hook. If we could get 8 per the rest of the way out of that guy.
 

ivanvamp

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I don't understand why so few big men use the jump hook. It's unstoppable, and frankly, it's not really that difficult a shot. If I was a college coach, or even a high school coach, I'd teach every one of my bigs how to shoot it.
 

luckysox

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Decent, if not spectacular, showing at Wake tonight. 10 pt. wins on the road are always good. Cooney needs to right the 3 pointer ship, and I'd feel better if the offense was just a bit more consistent. But 20-0...not too shabby.
 

LeoCarrillo

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Was it just me, or did it seem like the cameras were shooting the game from the upper deck? Felt like watching the game from the worst seats in the house.
 

Rossox

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Another 10 pt Conf road victory. Ugly, but I'll take it.

Definitely agree that we need Cooney to find his stroke. Only so many times this offense can be bailed out by Ennis.

Now it's on to one of the most over-hyped regular season games in recent memory.
 

ivanvamp

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You cannot be 20-0, 7-0 in the ACC, having beaten Minnesota, Indiana, Cal, Baylor, Villanova, UNC, Pitt, and Wake (at Wake) without being a pretty damned good basketball team.  No complaints whatsoever about the start to this season.
 
Things I've liked so far:
 
(1) SU's defense.  I thought losing MCW and Triche would mean a big step back for the D, but really, the defense has been excellent.  
 
(2) Offensive rebounding.  This team *really* gets after the offensive glass.  It helps to have a plethora of 6'8"-6'10" players all with freakish athleticism.  But still.  Offensive rebounding is an obvious way to mitigate bad shooting.
 
(3) Ennis.  What more can be said about the kid?  I REALLY hope he stays another season, but he's already likely a lottery pick so who knows.  But man, he's been as good as advertised - better, even.  Just super clutch.
 
(4) Fair.  Steady, solid, senior leadership.  Go-to guy.  Even his bad games are still pretty good.  
 
(5) Grittiness.  They've had to grind out a bunch of wins, and they seem to have the intestinal fortitude to gut them out.  That bodes well come tournament time.
 
 
Things I've not liked so far:
 
(1) Cooney's shooting.  Started off the year on fire, but man has he cooled.  They'll need him at some point in the year to ramp it back up.
 
(2) Defensive rebounding.  I know it's part of what makes the zone so good - extending, trapping, etc., - and that means no specific block-out assignments, but it is still so painful for me to watch them get killed on the defensive glass routinely.  
 
(3) Guard depth.  Not sold on Gbinije, but even if I was, that only gives them three guards.  So they cannot afford a single injury in the back court.  They've already suffered a major injury to the front court in Coleman, but they have the depth there to withstand it.  Not the case with the back court.  
 

LeoCarrillo

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Good stuff Ivan. How far this team goes will be on the 2-3 and opponents' lack of familiarity with it. I think we're 18-2 right now and ranked like No. 9 if we're still in the Big East. Jamie Dixon and Pitt picked it apart. We'll see how long it takes Coach K to deduce how to attack it.

And the unfamiliarity is a huge asset come tourney time.

I don't think the O is great. If a team solves the 2-3 and shoots the lights out from 3, scoring 70, we're toast.

Ennis and Fair are excellent on offense. And offensive rebounds.

However, Cooney seems best in transition, but our lack of depth seems to have slowed our tempo -- I guess that's some fatigue but more so less full-court pressure and turnovers. He seems utterly incapable lately of getting open looks in the halfcourt.

I like Grant's driving game but with the amount of contact he draws, he's leaving 4-5 points out there unclaimed with FT% around 65%.

Christmas has shown flashes of a baby hook, but he missed everything going to his left.

Cooney getting more looks in transition and Grant improving his FTs buys us like 8 more points a game, which would be huge. Otherwise it's all on the D to make a deep run.
 

Doooweeeey!

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So what are we in for on Saturday?
Will Syracuse be able to slow the top-scoring ACC offense?  Duke's D apparently has been improving too.
 
This should be a great contest.
Dome.  Will.  Be.  Rockin'. 
 

ivanvamp

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Dome is going to be nuts.  36,000+ I hear.  Unreal.  I am torn on this game.  Of course I think SU has a great shot at winning, but Duke is Duke and they're going to put up a heck of a fight.  Should go down to the wire.  Hopefully we rebound well in this game.
 

Rossox

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I pray that the students don't embarrass themselves and charge the court should the Orange win tomorrow. I say should because Duke is playing great ball right now.
 

ivanvamp

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I agree Rossox.  I mean, they're #17 and we're #2.  We are favored in this game.  It would be an utter embarrassment.  But prepare yourself - it just might happen.
 

bsj

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ivanvamp said:
I agree Rossox.  I mean, they're #17 and we're #2.  We are favored in this game.  It would be an utter embarrassment.  But prepare yourself - it just might happen.
 
Syracuse students have a sense of entitlement to storm the court at least once a season. 
 
Which is a disgrace. 
 
Hopeful that there is enough security, sobriety, and common sense to avoid that should we win.
 

tims4wins

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As a Duke fan I obviously hate it when teams storm the court against us (not just because we lost) so it's nice to see you guys with a good sense of perspective. Should be a good game, but I'm not too optimistic.
 

DukeSox

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Well that was obvious once Parker and Jefferson had 4 each