2021/22 NCAA Basketball

[Rex]

There is a guy on LSU named Fudge!

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[Shirley]

Syracuse is 5-5, the worst ten-game start under Boeheim. I expect them to card his first losing record this season.

I've watched short parts of a couple different 'Cuse games this year and I don't get why they're so bad. The Boeheim brothers are both quite good and Girard looks like he's capable of goodness at times as well. Why so bad?

[DSafetyGuy]

Syracuse is 5-5, the worst ten-game start under Boeheim. I expect them to card his first losing record this season.

I've watched short parts of a couple different 'Cuse games this year and I don't get why they're so bad. The Boeheim brothers are both quite good and Girard looks like he's capable of goodness at times as well. Why so bad?

Stunningly unathletic at guard and forward spots. I also think their offense is capable of much more diversity, but they play a very simplistic style that leads to a lot of one-on-one play, which has problems due to first sentence.

[DSafetyGuy]

Syracuse is now one of 15 schools who have postponed games and other activities due to COVID.

Their press release about the postponements included a link to buy tickets to tomorrow's women's basketball game, which is a completely classy move.

[A_B]

UCLA and Ohio State hit by Covid, so now UK is playing Carolina in vegas tomorrow. I ain't mad.

[Nonlinear FC]

Is this just players not getting their booster?? All these schools and pro teams getting slammed doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

[Rex]

Idea for future basketball tournaments: invite mystery teams, and don’t let the teams know who they are playing until they run out onto the court. You can even get the coaches guessing like they are Ken Jeong and Jenny McCarthy

[A_B]

UK-Louisville postponed. Maybe we should shut down again?

[HaulCitgo]

Syracuse is 5-5, the worst ten-game start under Boeheim. I expect them to card his first losing record this season.

I've watched short parts of a couple different 'Cuse games this year and I don't get why they're so bad. The Boeheim brothers are both quite good and Girard looks like he's capable of goodness at times as well. Why so bad?

Stunningly unathletic at guard and forward spots. I also think their offense is capable of much more diversity, but they play a very simplistic style that leads to a lot of one-on-one play, which has problems due to first sentence.

This can't help. Lots of teams get blown at Cameron but first time I've paid much attention and guy is going to find a way to get fired from something unfireable.

[DSafetyGuy]

Boeheim's not getting fired, but he is going to spend the rest of the season laying in the bed he has made.

They looked completely unprepared for a very aggressive Duke defense at the beginning of the game. It's one thing for moderately athletic players to generally stand around on offense, it's another thing entirely for them to not even try to get open. I feel like K had Duke ease up on defense after the first media timeout because he knew they could always ramp it back up, if necessary.

I very much enjoyed bow Buddy Boeheim started off 0-10 for the game and was disappointed when he got into the scorebook after 30 minutes. He can practically do no wrong (from what I've seen, he's responsible for every NIL deal on the team by himself, save for the one that is him and his brother) while the fanbase treats Girard as the whipping boy while he is an undersized combo guard/shooting guard forced into playing the point. Meanwhile, I am about 80% sure Girard would outperform Buddy as a scorer if they played with a true point guard and there's there years of evidence already that Girard is a better passer/defender/rebounder.

[Rex]

Syracuse is now 223rd in adjusted defense on kenpom.com. They’ve had a couple of lean years, but nothing even close to that in the 20 years that Kenpom tracks. And that is not because of unlucky opponent shooting (opponent 3FG% is a hair above the national average, but not enough to really matter). The difference is absolutely the overall athleticism.

[Shirley]

Syracuse is now 223rd in adjusted defense on kenpom.com. They’ve had a couple of lean years, but nothing even close to that in the 20 years that Kenpom tracks. And that is not because of unlucky opponent shooting (opponent 3FG% is a hair above the national average, but not enough to really matter). The difference is absolutely the overall athleticism.

Virginia is #97 in defense. We're in the upside down.

[DSafetyGuy]

Syracuse is now 223rd in adjusted defense on kenpom.com. They’ve had a couple of lean years, but nothing even close to that in the 20 years that Kenpom tracks. And that is not because of unlucky opponent shooting (opponent 3FG% is a hair above the national average, but not enough to really matter). The difference is absolutely the overall athleticism.

Their poor athleticism among their starters outside of center is a glaring issue. Any team they've played who has shown a modicum of patience and willingness to pass the ball will get anything they want - threes from the weak side wing or corner or lay-ups and dunks. Ball movement will eventually beat the rotations and get a wide open shot, as evidenced by their opponents getting assists on 70.4% of all baskets, the highest rate in the country (they also lead the country in opponent three-point rate at 50.8%, so the slightly above average opponent three-point percentage is magnified by the sheer number of threes attempted).

[Giff]

Syracuse is 5-5, the worst ten-game start under Boeheim. I expect them to card his first losing record this season.

I've watched short parts of a couple different 'Cuse games this year and I don't get why they're so bad. The Boeheim brothers are both quite good and Girard looks like he's capable of goodness at times as well. Why so bad?

Stunningly unathletic at guard and forward spots. I also think their offense is capable of much more diversity, but they play a very simplistic style that leads to a lot of one-on-one play, which has problems due to first sentence.

This can't help. Lots of teams get blown at Cameron but first time I've paid much attention and guy is going to find a way to get fired from something unfireable.

Getting blown at Cameron before the game might lead to playing a little lethargically.

[DSafetyGuy]

Chris Mack and Louisville are no more.

[A_B]

Chris Mack and Louisville are no more.

You hate to see it.

[Shirley]

WTF, Jim? This isn't cool.

[Rex]

The ACC needs to get its shit together. I don’t want to have to stay up until 1AM to watch the good college basketball games. Already have to do that with the NBA.

[mister d]

Totally shocking quote from Boeheim.

[DSafetyGuy]

He's not wrong. Edwards does need to add strength, particularly in light of having his shot get blocked by three different players while being the tallest player on the court in the game that preceded that comment. He can't power through block attempts to either score or create enough contact to get a whistle.

Edwards is actually in his third season and the pandemic cost him the 2020 offseason (he traveled home to the Netherlands when the season was canceled in March and did/could not return to campus until the start of the following school year). You could also say Edwards is ahead of schedule for how good he has been this year.

You could also say that what the team needs Edwards to do is an impossible ask because no human alive can paper over the lack of athleticism among the other four starters.

[Shirley]

You could also not say that out loud to reporters. He's a kid playing basketball for free (well, mostly) for a millionaire.

[mister d]

Also he's talking about (statistically) his best player.

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[DSafetyGuy]

Do you think he hasn't said worse to his face?

The fan base has an absolute hard-on that the 16th-ranked player on that list get a lot more playing time. The fanbase is so scared that he's going to transfer (be run off by Boeheim), he chose to go on a local radio show to tell the fans he's not transferring. A large part of the fanbase still thinks he's going to transfer.

[Shirley]

I feel like you're missing the point. Criticize players all you want in practice if that's your style. But don't call them out to the world in an interview in an effort to explain why YOU'RE not the one to blame for your program's slide. (or maybe to deflect blame from your two kids on the team)

[DaveInSeattle]

Watching Gonzaga/Loyola Marymount. Gonzaga is cruising (Chet Holmgren is having a game...blocking shots, hitting threes, running the break).

But the eye opener....Keli Leaupepe. Look at that Aussie power-mullet!

[A_B]

Gotta be ready for when the Rhythm of the Night hits.

[DSafetyGuy]

I feel like you're missing the point. Criticize players all you want in practice if that's your style. But don't call them out to the world in an interview in an effort to explain why YOU'RE not the one to blame for your program's slide. (or maybe to deflect blame from your two kids on the team)

Shirley, I promise you that I hear way more about what Boeheim does outside of the Swamp than in it (how about a guy asking when the Board of Trustees is going to step in and force him to retire?). I'm well aware of the point. I don't understand why everyone acts like a guy who hasn't had a filter for the overwhelming majority of his very long career doesn't have a filter now. Or does it just seem worse because they're not winning games and have struggled below their normal levels since they got clipped by the NCAA (four NCAAs, a Final Four and two other Sweet Sixteens in six years where they "haven't been up to snuff")?

He's not even on Edwards as hard as he's been on other players in recent years (he relentlessly ripped Tyler Roberson after at least half the games his last two seasons here). He has dogged his son Jimmy this season for his free throw shooting (2/8 against Virginia, he mentioned it several times in the postgame presser).

He leaned in hard on three-point shooting (I think in part because of his experience with Team USA being around Krzyzewski and Mike D'Antoni) and it's biting him in the ass because he's got a mostly unathletic team outside of his centers and a freshman forward who has been mostly in over his head in games, save for highlight-caliber blocked shots.

Their defense (the real reason they've been good over the years) sucks out loud because they are unathletic. Last in the nation in opponent assist rate (too unathletic to keep up with good ball movement) and just got passed by UNCG to make them next-to-last in opponent three-point rate. They've survived the ongoing trend in the latter stat in recent years because they've been able to contest threes with some athletic players on the court through closeouts and rotations. This year? Nope.

[mister d]

I don't understand why everyone acts like a guy who hasn't had a filter for the overwhelming majority of his very long career doesn't have a filter now.

I think some of the more astute college basketball minds have been making this point for as long as the swamp has been around.

Boeheim is such a dick. Although I guess he gets credit for not using a name when calling a guy out this time.

[A_B]

I don't understand why everyone acts like a guy who hasn't had a filter for the overwhelming majority of his very long career doesn't have a filter now.

I think some of the more astute college basketball minds have been making this point for as long as the swamp has been around.

Boeheim is such a dick. Although I guess he gets credit for not using a name when calling a guy out this time.

This is Heath Ledger Erasure!

[Giff]

I don't understand why everyone acts like a guy who hasn't had a filter for the overwhelming majority of his very long career doesn't have a filter now.

I think some of the more astute college basketball minds have been making this point for as long as the swamp has been around.

Boeheim is such a dick. Although I guess he gets credit for not using a name when calling a guy out this time.

This is Heath Ledger Erasure!

Jim Boeheim's shame is never ending. Just one psychological drama after another.

[EnochRoot]

So the fact Boeheim has rostered himself a collection of un-athletic slobs isn’t his own fault?

[Shirley]

I agree that Boeheim has always been an asshole, but that doesn't absolve him of blame for doing it again. There's no reason for a non-pro coach to ever call out a player publicly like that. Criticize the team in general if you like (probably shouldn't though) or criticize your own coaching, but don't criticize a specific kid to the media. Seems like obvious point.

[Nonlinear FC]

So tempted to go Godwin's Law here and bring up notoriously awful humans and state "we know they're awful, why are we even talking about this latest event?"

But I won't do that. Because of Godwin's Law.

[DSafetyGuy]

I hope Tyler Roberson is enjoying a good laugh at all of this.

[Giff]

Not a great day for the top of the Big XII.

[Rex]

I am losing it at the Bob Huggins lookalike at the Baylor game

[Giff]

Man, watching him struggle to give a couple answers at halftime makes me wonder if we'll see him keel over mid-game at some point in the future.

[DaveInSeattle]

Duke is taking UNC to the woodshed. How did Carolina get so bad?

[EnochRoot]

UConn desperately needs to recruit some ball-handlers/point guards. This kid, RJ Cole who transferred a couple years ago out of Howard is their defacto PG, but he's basically a shooter. Can't create many open looks, and the team's growth suffers as a result. That and Dan Hurley gets out-coached pretty much every game they suit up.

Jay Wright has that (arguably inferior, talent-wise) Villanova team humming. I think I saw that they were 2nd or 3rd to last in the entire NCAA at pace of play. Very methodical style of play that always seems to find the open shooter.

[DSafetyGuy]

Duke is taking UNC to the woodshed. How did Carolina get so bad?

They're so bad, they're 16-6. Hard to believe Krzyzewski could get his guys motivated for his last game at Carolina.

They lost a couple big (6'10" or taller) transfers after last season - Walker Kessler and Garrison Brooks - and Day'Ron Sharpe declared for the draft. Kessler is averaging 11 and 8 at Auburn and Brooks 11 and 6 at Mississippi State. They could also do with a true point guard and some better defense.