The Dome was deflated yesterday as 33,000 left humbled after Villanova’s beating of Syracuse. The Orange could do nothing wrong in it’s 18-0 start, but with back-to-back losses now seems to be able to do nothing right. Before climbing to the top of the MONY Tower, we should remember two things:
- The Big East is nasty.
- The Orange may not be as good as its ranking.
A college basketball insider told The Fizz last night: “I’m not surprised at all Syracuse lost. Ya know why? They’re not as good as people thought. SU is a very good team. But top 5? No way.”
The red-hot start to the season, combined with a tougher than normal non-conference slate left us all giddy. But this team is still without a go-to scorer like Wes Johnson was last year. In fact, no Orange player ranks in the nation’s top 50 of points per game. Sharpshooter Andy Rautins’ departure also left an outside void, no one on SU ranks in the top 50 in three-point percentage.
The ‘Cuse’s success lies in its defense – the 5th best team in the country in opponent’s FG percentage and the NCAA’s 14th scoring defense coming into yesterday. When ‘Nova was able to hit from the outside and create plenty of offense, the Orange was sunk. Oh yeah, and the Wildcats are good. Jay Wright continues to have success against SU and ‘Nova is unquestionably a threat to go deep in the tourney.
There’s no reason to overreact to a pair of losses (one on the road, one against a top 10 team) in late January. The Big East is a grizzly bear and even elite teams can lose at home (witness Kansas). We shouldn’t fret that Syracuse isn’t any good, just maybe not as good as the ranking led us to believe.
Posted: D.A.
9 responses to “College Basketball Insider to Fizz: “Syracuse Top 5? No Way””
You just gotta wonder when the zone was ineffective against the hot shooting Wildcats, why we didn’t go man-to-man. One could argue that if our guys got to their man soon enough and got hands in faces, many of those 3-pointers wouldn’t have gone down. However, ‘Nova was making NBA 3-pointers and even an extended and “swarming” 2-3 zone might have been equally ineffective.
We got back in it with the press and perhaps going to a harassing man-to-man would’ve yielded a different outcome.
Then again, maybe not.
Talent-wise, we’re a top 5 team. If you’re talking about execution, we are not. And we all know execution beats talent hands down.
Hi Kentucky.
Last time Su went to a man to man D they got beat by a D2 team. However i would have liked to see JB go to the press alittle sooner to disrupt them from just coming down and setting up their O b/c they couldnt miss. Also Maalik Wayns came into the game shooting 20% from behide the arc and ending up shooting out his ass in the 1st half. The 2nd half was a different story nova went 3-11 from 3 and wayns didnt hit one of them.
Things just didnt go our way ethier. A 5sec call got overturned b/c the refs ruled jay wright got the TO intime killing the comeback. Along with two put backs by nova when they just swated at the ball and it ended up going in. A missed no call on RJ when he was going up for a dunk to cut the lead to two late in the game was just the iceing on the cake.
D.A. how can you say Su doesnt have a go to guy? Have you seen kjo play lately? His avg. in big east play is 20+ a game and he took over that game in the 2nd half. If you wanna point to a reason why Su isnt a top 5 team right now its are PG play. I dont know how many times i see jardine and triche just come down and jack-up garbage but it happens a shit ton. We got one of the best bigs in the country and those two guys barely get the ball into him and when they do attempt to get the ball into RJ the entry passes are ethier way to late or awful.
It was bound to happen, we lose and people think we should drop the defense that is ranked fifth best in the country. Great idea, good thing we have coach B and not aneheim orange. Get down early and/or lose a game and change the entire defensive scheme. Great idea. Not!.
and we have two go to guys, (rick and Kris) we just choose not to go to them for some reeason. Rick should be fed inside all game and we should work it outside from there, like lousville did a few years back with padget. Kris could have taken his man all game yet scoop and the hot shot waiters decided they would rather chuck up threes early and often in the shot clock.
Tony, I accept your challenge for debate. I’ll move it above the 8th grade-level, though. Pardon me for that. I did not imply nor infer that ‘we lost so we should change our whole defensive scheme.’ You took creative license to embellish at best. Regardless of your motive, you are wrong.
Next, I have a question for you: Do you think that sticking to a defensive set that obviously wasn’t working was a good idea???
If so, you got what you wanted – a loss.
Another point: We got our top 5 defensive ranking BEFORE playing Pitt and “Nova – much, much better teams than we have faced all season. Check out the polls.
My point: the 2-3 zone has served JB and us Cuse fans well over the years. It still does and it should remain our calling card. However, you have to be flexible. I offer as proof the fact that JB tried the press – albeit too late. We were too far down and Nova didn’t fold.
However, I will lavish slight praise on you where it is deserved. Your comments about two go-to guys is spot on. I completely agree with you. We should have been going to RJ and KJ all day. Our guards jacked up some stupid shots, made bad decisions, bad passes, – yeah, they sucked. And we’ve got three of them, for cryin’ out loud. You would think that one guard, just one, could step up his game when the others struggled.
For Carlton, check your calendar – it’s 2011. We lost to a D2 team when? Yeah, it’s 2011 and we’ve got a different team.
In closing, I am a JB fan. I love the guy. My main point is clear – adapt better defensively to game circumstances. If the 2-3 works – stick with it!!! If it doesn’t work, try man-to-man. If that’s not working, switch back. Try a full-court press, etc. You guys make it seem like that’s asking for the impossible. Mix it up. We’re a defensive team – employ whatever defense works to win.
Argue with that.
Yeah, I just read the original post. It makes sense and Anaheim Orange asks good questions. He didn;t come off at all like he knew better than the Perfessor. I think the other posters miss Anaheim Orange’s point. Too many dome dogs and beers may have blocked their comprehension skills…!
aneheim,
I wouldn’t have gone away from the zone so hastily as you I guess. Yeah they made some threes in the first half but 3-4 were from a guy that even if you are playing man-to-man you let him chuck those up. I think he shoots something like 25% from three. Similar to when other teams let scoop jack up threes. The second half we stuck with the zone and they shot something like 3-11 from behind arc. The problem in my opinion is guarding inside the lane and our toughness inside. We have shown of late that we can’t do it and just aren’t that tough. I think if we go to man, they blow by guys like southernland, jackson, and melo, even easier than in the zone. I am willing to bet those guys can’t guard their postions at all in man.
As far as pressing I am not sure how early it should be done. Do you really want to press down 8-10 with 8 minutes left? There is still plenty of time left if you can get some stops. I think we started pressing around the five-six minute mark, but I may be wrong.
We need to work on interior defense in the zone, and get more ball movement before a shot. And why not get triche and joseph more outside looks by pounding it inside and then jackson kicking it out, ala louiville a few years back with padget. It actually worked in the pitt game, but we did it like twice.
Tony, I have to agree with you. Even if we did go man, opposing players could beat our interior folks – easily. In fact, teams have already done so even while we’re in the zone. It might indeed be worse going to zone…
But try something, anything different before getting down by 20 points. Maybe coming out at halftime into a press. drop back in the zone, if they continue to burn you, try a 1-3-1 and face guard the hot shooter. make someone else beat you.
I’m not a HOF coach, just a frustrated alum and fan voicing his opinion and hoping they return soon to their defensive mantra of “shut it down”.
Go ‘Cuse!
For starters, I think maybe we should try to run an offensive play. Who knows it may lead to a basket. All we seem to do is run around, while other teams, run picks, double screens, isolation plays etc. Never understood why we don’t run plays (or rarely) unless we are coming out of a time out. This is an area where I question boeheim most. Anyone see the ND game against Pitt, they ran isolation plays to hansborough and it worked everytime. I see no reason why Kris Jo can not do the same. and I think we saw the reason why we don;t play any man last night. But i agree we should have switched up the D last night earlier than he did, even though they increased their lead in man. By the time we went man are guys were checked out of the game. With all this being said, I can;t blame boeheim, b/c our players didn;t look like they wanted to be out there. The had no energy from the start. In pre-game warmups scoop look like a zombie, maybe he got high before coming out. The zone is no longer swarming and we are no longer passing the ball on offense but rather chucking up threes. It is a bit funny that when we got down 20 late in the game last night we seemed to stop chucking threes. That is excatly when you should chuck them up.