">
St. Francis Thoughts
GET TO KNOW THE OPPOSITION
Early scouting reports say St. Francis is a sissy . . . I’m pretty sure that of was a mistype. (Yes, I am lame enough to make this joke, its probably better off that you learn this right off the bat because there are more to come).
THE GAME
St. Francis was by far the least talented team we have played all year. For the most part they were short, skinny, and unathletic – and they were not nearly skilled enough to make up for this lack of athletic ability. St. Francis was also by far the best coached team we have played all year. Brian Nash was the name of their very young looking coach. I don’t know if he can recruit, but he knows his stuff. The movement in Cleveland St.’s 2-3 zone was choreographed perfection and their knowledge on how to attack the 2-3 zone was better than ours. I will be very interested to see what becomes of Brian Nash in the future.
I have four quick thoughts about this game.
One, our press stinks. Let us not mention it again except to say that if our press was the 2-3 zone’s evil twin I’d keep it chained up in the attack and feed it a bucket of fish heads once a week.
Two, Johnson has a nice jump shot from the free throw line. Would it be so crazy to run a screen for him there? He’d make the shot 75% of the time and nobody would expect it.
Three, we killed on the boards in the first half with our starters 21-11, but we flubbed in the second half with our back ups. What does that say about Riley? We need him to rebound more than anything.
Four, as good as the St. Francis’s zone was, and make no mistake about it, they played it better than we did. We were so much bigger and stronger that we could throw the ball over the top and score down low any time we wanted to. This pretty much meant the outcome of the game was never in doubt, and Boeheim knew it, which is why he put Mookie and Riley in the game before it was technically out of reach.
Any more game analysis would simply turn into gushing about how dominant Syracuse was, and I don’t like to do that because its upsetting to other teams fans, and is essentially airing our clean laundry in public – like when a married woman flirts with her own husband. So instead I am going to write about the things we need to improve if we want to win a championship (you’re welcome Georgetown fans!).
SU CHRISTMAS WISH LIST
Dear Santa, (yes, I’m starting this section this way, I already warned you about my propensity for lameness).
After convincing wins against North Carolina, Cal, Cornell, and Florida ordinary wins no longer satisfy my ‘Cuse fix. I’ll only be happy if we win a national title, so here is what I’m asking for:
- Improved passing for the whole team. It might sound selfish, asking for improved passing when we already lead the nation in assists – but assists don’t necessarily come from outstanding passing. We score the vast majority of our points on jump shots and dumping the ball down low to Arinze and Rick, those things generate assists. Not to mention, we don’t have a Flynn or Devndorf type who likes to drive to the basket and score, so our assist total will be always be high. That does not mean the passing is great. Right now I’d say Rautins, Jardine and Jackson are passing at the level we want them to. The rest of the guys need to improve. Luckily for us, it can be hard to pass in Boeheim’s unstructured motion offense, and Syracuse teams typically improve exponentially passing the ball as the year goes on.
Wes is going to earn a lot of teams best defenders this year. And his lack of handle is going to limit his contributions in some games, unless he becomes a superior passer. Right now, he’s not but we have seen flashes.
Triche is our starting point guard and has the ability to be the best passer on the floor once he reaches a comfort level. I expect to see him generate a lot more offense with his eyes and his passing ability once we reach Big East play.
Joseph is a third player who has shown flashes of brilliance passing the ball. He seems to be an amazing interior passer. My solution. Put him in the interior more often, give him the ball and let him create offense.
- A little more comfort for Andy Rautins inside the three point line, whether that’s taking pull up jump shots or just dribbling and passing. You see, its getting to the point where I want the ball in Andy’s hands, a lot, and if he is going to play an even bigger part in the offense than he already does, he is going to have to venture inside the three point line more often. I think he’s up for it, and if he can do it with some success he will make us very hard to guard. Thankfully, Rautins was able to show both a pull up jumper for 2 and the ability to dribble inside the 3 point line and pass against St. Francis. Good work Santa.
- Rick Jackson to shoot over 60% from the free throw line. I’ve conceded the fact that Onuaku will be on the bench in crunch time, but if Jackson can get his percentage up over 60 other coaches will think twice before intentionally fouling him. He’s at 58% right now, pretty close. One hot streak from the line should do it.
- Onuaku to establish position 100% of the time on both sides of the court. This basically takes stamina and good health. The stamina will come, I’m relying on Santa for the good health. If Onuaku can stay healthy he wont run into a center who can guard him all year long.
- Finally, I want the one thing this team is missing right now, and that is Triche consistently able to drive the lane and score. Again, he has shown flashes, and more than anything his progress will be what keeps us as one of the elites as the year wears on and the younger teams improve.
