The Rind Sums Up The Non-Con Slate
TFG: The Orange has made it through the school’s toughest non-conference schedule in recent memory sparkling very brightly. There were only three games away from home, but each of them were against ranked teams, and each of them were victorious. SU could even be undefeated if not for the freak 65-foot buzzer-beater from Cleveland State, but it was just not meant to be. In the non-con portion were two very daunting stretches, one of eight games in 18 days and one of five games in ten days. In the latter stretch, the Orange won the last two of those games without Eric Devendorf. I don’t know about you, but I’m not too surprised that the Orange is in this situation. Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely pleased, but with all the experience and talent coming back after last season, I thought 12-1 was very much attainable (though not probable or likely).
That’s not to say that this team has some highly visible blemishes. The Orange displayed a terrible habit of coming out sluggish to start games and playing to the level of the opponent. We’ve seen this over the past few seasons but not to the extent that it’s been this year. It’s easy to picture slow starts against the tougher teams like Florida, Kansas and Memphis, but not so much Cornell, Richmond and Virginia. Related to the slow starts, the Orange are second in the Big East in turnovers per game at 15.7. They’re also giving up nearly 15 offensive rebounds per game, and Big East teams will make you pay or that more often than not. Compounding the frustrations on the glass is the fact that this is a very good rebounding team, in fact, they rank in the top 10% in the country in that category, so it’s not like the team is too small.
LVO: If you would have told me the team could have been unbeaten going into conference play save for a 60 foot heave, I would have taken it. And so I take it now. But you are spot on TFG when it comes to concerns as BE play approaches.
The slow starts seem the most alarming. If this trend continues, we could see ourselves blown out of the gym and it could occur to a lesser foe. Just because we see upcoming foes Seton Hall and South Florida drop games to James Madison and Oral Roberts respectively doesn’t mean we can take these teams lightly. We should start the BE campaign 4-0 easily, but does anyone think that these first 4 will be easy? The penchant for playing to the competition, ala Coppin St is a startling pattern that needs to be eradicated and fast. Cuse fans of the past few years have endured losses to USF, last year when they were the breather road game, and Depaul, in 2005-06 when they dealt us a 42 point anniliation; so we are well aware of the dangers of playing at or below the level of competion.
The rebounding is a concern, but it seems to be most glaring against teams that chuck it and chuck it and chuck it some more. The card carrying members of the bricklayers union of the NCAA create the type of long rebounds that make traditional box-outs susceptible to offensive second chances. Also, our penchant for leakouts create these opportunities as well. Some of those facets will have to be cleaned up or abandoned as conference play commences.
So, TFG, what is your most pleasantly surprising revelation of the non-conference portion of our schedule?
TFG: I think I speak for most fans when I say Rick Jackson’s development has been a great revelation. I had a good feeling he would supplant Ongenaet in the starting lineup by the start of Big East play, but he put up starter-type numbers before he even started. To me, his launching point was a double-double in just 13 minutes off the bench against Colgate and he just took off from there. Aside from the Coppin State game, he’s hardly turned the ball over, he’s already got a nice set of post moves, he blocks shots, he rebounds, he’s not foul-prone and when he’s in, offense is not sacrificed for defense the way it was when Ongenaet had more playing time. I don’t think there’s anything more you can expect from a sophomore center. We thought going into the season that the guard depth chart (including the currently suspended Devendorf) ran much deeper than the frontcourt, and that may still be the case, but Jackson has stepped up majorly to narrow that gap.
I’m also surprised to see that Jonny Flynn has shouldered a lot more of the scoring load than I thought he was going to. I had the mindset going into this season that with more options at his disposal, Flynn would distribute the ball more, which would keep his scoring average in the 12-15 ppg range. On the contrary, he’s scored at least 16 in 8 of the team’s 13 games. It seems like every night, he’s trying to turn the court into his own personal 94-foot patch of asphalt. Sometimes it’s worked (Kansas, Cornell, Memphis), and sometimes it hasn’t (Canisius, Long Beach State). I guess he’s earned the right, but with conference play coming up, he’ll have a harder time finishing those slashing drives than he did in November and December. How about you?
LVO: It’s as if you were inside my mind, TFG. I expected Flynn to move into the elite amongst point guards, but it was in the purest intent, as a distributor. I think his assist total would be higher if we converted better from 3, but Flynn has scored the ball more than I expected. And given that we have a post player shooting in the 80% range, I just assumed that dropping dimes would be as easy as the elementary entry pass.
Surprises on the negative side are the turnovers. I wouldn’t expect to have just one loss given the amount of turnovers the team produces per game. Devo and Flynn combine for nearly 7 TOs per contest, a potentially deadly stat come conference time.
Also, I am surprised that we have become a mostly man to man team. Except for against teams like Memphis that love to shoot almost as much as a the Wednesday night CYO league, we’ve seen JB employ the man over his staple 2-3 zone. And really with the lack of size on the wings it makes more sense. Usually we fans think that our HOF coach stubbornly sticks to his tactics, but we’ve seen much more flexibility on the defensive side this season and the results speak to that. It will be interesting to see what defenses we use against ND, Pitt, and UConn.
We want to close by extending a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our readers and fans of the Orange, especially those serving our country overseas. If the close of 2008 is any indication, 2009 is shaping up to be a special one! Peace, Hope, Joy and Love to all this holiday season!
