Cuse: A Talented, Ragged…
November 30, 2007 9:25 pm by Mister D…shallow-benched bunch that doesn’t care much for defense.
One of the beauties of the 2-3 zone is that you don’t have to work as hard as you do in a man-to-man. Rather than chase shooters all over the court, you stay in a particular area, cover who’s there, switch off when necessary, react in certain ways to certain types of ball movement around the perimeter, and converge around the hoop when a shot goes up. Of course it’s more complicated than that, but it’s indisputably an energy saver.
Perhaps they should expend a bit more energy on the defensive end.
Two nights ago, against a mediocre UMass squad, Syracuse gave up the most points at home since 1980. Most of the bloggers on this site were infants at the time.
I don’t mean to take anything away from UMass. They played a gutsy game and made shots when they needed to. But there’s the rub: if Syracuse is going to keep a lead in the second half, they’re going to have to play more intense, smarter defense.
To me, Andy Rautins’ season-ending knee injury was a tipping point with this team. They were at least 7 deep with Rautins.
Now? They play with 5…maybe 6 if Josh Wright is having a good week, mentally.
These young players are spending too much time on the court to expect them to play great defense for 40 minutes. Period. Good teams will exploit their lack of depth…actually, so will mediocre teams.
The silver lining in all of this is that the young core (Green, Harris, and Flynn) are getting invaluable experience by being on the court so much. They’ll be amazing next year and the year after.
For now, we have a shallow team with growing pains. Promise and upside abound.
But this is not their year. This blogger will be pleasantly surprised if they make the field of 64…
Categories: Commentary, Mister D, Syracuse
3 Responses to “Cuse: A Talented, Ragged…”
You really think Cuse’s frosh are going to stick around for a few years? I know there’s a big pool this year but I think they’re pretty much one and done.
I think they’ll stick around for at least two seasons. The thing is, they’re really good, but they’re not “Carmelo good.”
Take Scottie Reynolds. He was probably one of the 5 best players in the conference last year, and he stayed. Same with UConn’s Dyson. They needed more time in the college game.
Green and Flynn are similar. They’re too inconsistent now, which hurts their draft value, and thus gives them more incentive to stay in school and get better. You’d much rather be a lottery pick than a late first-rounder, so they’ll stay (I hope). I don’t think they’d be smart to jump to the pros after this season, but we’ll see how they progress.
A couple observations. Grren is a monster. He plays both inside and out well. He will be a star. Flynn might need more time. Devendorf will cost the Cuse at least one and maybe more games with his attitiude. He’s got no head and his opponents (and the referees) know that. Someone ought to tell him that technicals and flagrant fould in the last minute of a one point game are counterproductive.
Care to comment?