Big difference between Melo and Christmas was that Melo was just fat as a freshman. Christmas is relatively unskilled and skinny. He could make a leap, but I would hope for it by his junior year, not next year, if I were you.
Was that really a 31-1 team?
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Big difference between Melo and Christmas was that Melo was just fat as a freshman. Christmas is relatively unskilled and skinny. He could make a leap, but I would hope for it by his junior year, not next year, if I were you.
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Syracuse is going to be very good next year no matter what. Even if the absolute worst case scenario happens and they lose Waiters and Melo, they still would have a starting lineup of Triche, Carter-Williams, Southerland, Fair, and one of Christmas/Keita/Coleman/Noel at center. That's not too shabby.
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The 2-3 zone isn't really gimmicky but it has huge gaping holes as opposed to the responsibilities of a man to man. There are going to be teams, obviously not uconn, who prepare 8 different methods to breaking the zone, and have big men who could execute it.
They also don't have a star who can will them in games controlling both sides of the court (IE Carmelo; I was impressed when Joseph started to initiate contact instead of settling in the second half against lamb though, but he aint no star).If sunderland and waiters aren't coming in the game knocking down in rhythm nba threes, where is your offense? Cuse could run people off the floor with their depth understood, but one bad matchup its over.
They also don't have a star who can will them in games controlling both sides of the court (IE Carmelo; I was impressed when Joseph started to initiate contact instead of settling in the second half against lamb though, but he aint no star).If sunderland and waiters aren't coming in the game knocking down in rhythm nba threes, where is your offense? Cuse could run people off the floor with their depth understood, but one bad matchup its over.
Well they did beat Florida and NC State but yeah i do get the sense they haven't been really tested (other than their one loss at Notre Dame). Wouldn't be surprised to see them bounced in the Sweet 16. Maybe even sooner depending on who they're up against.
What does this even mean? Syracuse has had plently of close games, and Notre Dame isn't close to being an elite team.
So how have they not been test? Because they haven't lost more games>?
Did I think he could average 8 and 6 in 25 minutes? Yes.
Do I think he is a force? That is a good question. The simple answer is no.
The longer answer is that he is great defensively but a poor rebounder and not good offensively. Someone like Emeka or Thabeet were forces. Emeka as a soph/junior and Thabeet as a junior. Fab is not at that level. Okafor averaged 16 and 11 with 4.7 blocks per game as a sophomore, then 18, 11.5 and 4.1 as a junior. Thabeet averaged 14, 11 and 4 as a junior. Even with the minute difference, Fab doesn't come close. Even defensively Fab has issues with foul trouble.
Probably that SU has only 1 game against a current top 10 team this year (AP).
UK played KU, UNC (2)
KU played UK, Duke, OSU, Missouri twice (5)
UNC played UK, Duke twice, MSU (4)
Missouri played KU twice (2)
Duke played UNC twice, OSU, KU, MSU, Michigan (6)
OSU played MSU twice, Michigan twice, Duke, KU (6)
MSU played OSU twice, Michigan twice, UNC, Duke (6)
Michigan played OSU twice, MSU twice, Duke (5)
That is 18 losses for the other 8 teams in the top 10 or about half (40) of the losses for those 8 teams.
Marquette and Syracuse played each other once in the Carrier Dome.
If you want to look at top 15, Syracuse has 1 more game against G-town again at the Carrier Dome. But if you add that then you have include Baylor/Wisconsin/Indiana games for a few of the above teams and SU is still short compared the rest of the top 10 as Marquette picks up two games against G-town.
Top 20 doesn't help SU, but adds some to other teams (Duke and UNC mainly).
Top 25 adds in the @ND game and Florida (Dome).
The toughest road games SU had that it won were @ Cincy/UL/UConn by a combined 10 points. That Cuse won all 3 is impressive, but they did lose their only road game to a team currently ranked in AP top 25.
I guess I'm just not that that convinced by the quality and depth of the Big East this year. It seems very top heavy. There are too many teams like Rutgers and St. John's and Nova and Providence for the conference powers to beat up on. The Big East has five teams with sub-500 records, versus two in the Big Ten. Granted the Big East is a lot bigger, but I think that is exactly the problem. But who knows, I might be completely wrong. Wouldn't be the first time.
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I guess you have a harsher definition of 'force' than me, which is fine. Of course he's not Okafor - who was at worst 1 of the 2 best players on the best team in the country. But he does a lot on defense, alters a ton of shots which doesn't show up on the stat sheet. Offensively he's obviously not a game changer but not a total liability here (ie he can finish a play).
Even if he is as 'blah' as you make him out to be I'm not sure why you then don't think that other guys can fill his shoes; seems a bit contradictory no?
If we had lost to UL or Uconn and beaten ND, guess which team(s) would be ranked? Probably not ND. So you see it's a bit of a circular argument.
Can't argue that we haven't played the other top 7-8 teams where as the others have. Exactly how significant that is I'm not sure. The home team basically wins all those games with a couple exceptions. I mean what does the refs giving the home team both games in the Mizzou-Kansas series really tell you about either team? IMO not much. If you'd feel better about SU in the tournament if they had beaten UNC in the Dome by 1pt or lost a hard fought game @Kansas, well to each his own; I think that's kind of silly.
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We must have different definitions of the word "force".
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Hey 31-1.....don't care how, just WIN....they know how, they have confidence , theyhave depth and they have experience. Pretty much as dangerous as anyone I'd say! You can look at the BE and say they're down but look at all the conferences the other #1's come out of....same story.
It was the only current top 25 team Cuse played on the road? I'm just guessing at what he was talking about.
For your first point. I'm not saying Fab is a blah player. His defense is very, very good. He just is a fairly poor rebounder and not good enough offensively for me to call him a force on the court. You are switching from Xmas filling his shoes to "other guys". I think between Keita/Xmas they might surpass Fabs production, I don't think either will individually without a huge jump (not a jump "half as much as Melo did").
For your second. I don't think UConn would have been ranked unless they won at least 2 of the 3 games against SU.
UL perhaps, they were in almost as bad a freefall as UConn for awhile. Again I was just guessing at what the other guy said. IMO Cuse is a darn good team, but they just haven't been as tested as some other teams out there. They play 2-3 games against top ten teams and they probably have at least 1 more loss if not more.
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25-8.
Making me feel more like we shoulda beat em :/
Making me feel more like we shoulda beat em :/
If you jinxed it...Tampbill will get you
I wouldn't give it to them. Weak out of conference sched, off year for the Big East, struggled to beat an unranked opponent in the BET quarters, now this?
Dann
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who is going to pass cuse?
uk/unc/cuse/kan
i think even a loss for any of these 4 and still they are good
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It's kinda deflating to see how easy the 3 point shot comes to some of these teams. If Cincinnati doesn't hit all those 3's in the first half they don't have such a big lead. If Syracuse doesn't hit all these 3's in the 2nd half they are unable to even be as close as they are now.
was thinking the same thing. Maybe they need to move the line back some more
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