BET: Hoyas - Syracuse

[DanMcQ]

One game at a time.

[superan]

Redemption Run: 1-0

From Twitter:
"AFree_15 That's 1 down 3 more to go"


Against USF... Monroe only played 23 minutes. Vaughn only 16 minutes. Thompson only 17 minutes.

Legs and energy level should be well preserved against Syracuse (not too worried about guards).

[HoyaFanNY]

do one thing.......win ;D

[Boz]

A little worried about Awesome, understandably, but he's got great medical care and I think he'll be fine tomorrow. Whether he can keep it up all weekend is another story, but one game at a time.

We owe this team a beating.

As Dave SUckup Pasch noted today, nothing would please me more than Boeheim having to walk into the post-game presser again tomorrow like he had to do 26 years ago and whine about "the best team" (in his deranged mind only of course) not winning the game.


GO HOYAS!!! BEAT CUSE!!!!!

[hifigator]

3rd time's a charm! I can't help but think that the way the first two games went will work in the Hoyas favor. In the first game up there, the guys started out hot and jumped out to a quick, big lead -- something like 17-3, but then it fell apart. Then at home Cuse had the big lead but had it whittled down to a point with Greg on the line, only to have the comeback fall short. There's not that much difference in talent level between the teams and I expect the guys to play focused. I like our chances. Also, if there are any intangibles, Syracuse isn't really playing for anything. Every mock bracket I have seen has them as the 1 seed in the south, regardless of how they do in the BE tournament. Sets up for a GU win in my mind!

[bigelephant]

It's hard as hell to beat a good BE team 3 times

Go HOYAS Beat Ex'cuse

[Dhall]

Syracuse will make the jump shots and gimmes that USF missed today, though they probably won't draw as many fouls against us. We need to play better on defense. Offensively, if we shoot 50% from three and only turn it over 9 times like we did today, that will be plenty good to win.

[RockawayHoya]

Mar 10, 2010 14:22:17 GMT -5 Dhall said:

Syracuse will make the jump shots and gimmes that USF missed today, though they probably won't draw as many fouls against us. We need to play better on defense. Offensively, if we shoot 50% from three and only turn it over 9 times like we did today, that will be plenty good to win.

I think you hit the nail on the head. I can't remember a time today against USF where we gave up the ball near midcourt with sloppy passing. Almost all of our turnovers were off of missed backdoors, which while still not great, are "more acceptable." We NEED to take care of the ball tomorrow. A missed shot is 10X better than an unforced turnover that leads to a layup on the other end. As for our shooting, we just need to hit the open looks when they present themselves. They have come and will continue to come as long as we keep running our offense.

Would love to see CW and AF continue to attack the rim despite not being able to get to the line. Louisville has been very successful in this regard against Cuse and we are going to need to do more than swing the ball around the perimeter to generate offense tomorrow.

Today was 2 good defensive games in a row. Let's make it 3 tomorrow. Buckle down, guard your man and crash the boards. We can do this.

[FrazierFanatic]

Ball movement, in and out against the zone, close down on Rautins, and pound the boards. Syracuse will start slowly, we need to be ready to jump on them and not let them up.

[sleepy]

Defensively, I would like us to play in a similar fashion to how we played USF, but with different methods. For instance I say we give Rautins the same sort of attention we gave Jones, but instead of avoiding the drive deny deny deny the open shot. Have Chris and Jason pressure their guards on the perimeter. I think you put Chris on Rautins to start the game and have him and Jason pick up their men 3/4s court to make them work. Switch defenses from Man to match to a box and one on rautins every so often to keep them off balance. Have to play aggressive on the perimeter, try to force turnovers, not allow shots and make entry passes very difficult. To to draw offensive fouls on the bigs down low and box out. Thats how I think we should approach this game defensively.

Offensively, just run our stuff. Make open shots, go into Monroe down low and take care of the ball. You can't allow them to score of of our turnovers.

I actually think we are built pretty well to beat this Syracuse team. We have quick guards who can pressure their backcourt, we have bigs that can score down low and we are the best three point shooting team in the Big East. We CAN do this. We just need to play aggressive the whole game.

[SirSaxa]

Freeman did not have a great game today. That's OK, we didn't need him.
But in my thinking, it makes it even more likely he'll be En Fuego manana!

[chep3]

Mar 10, 2010 14:30:02 GMT -5 RockawayHoya said:

Would love to see CW and AF continue to attack the rim despite not being able to get to the line. Louisville has been very successful in this regard against Cuse and we are going to need to do more than swing the ball around the perimeter to generate offense tomorrow.

I think this is exactly right. We need to attack the zone, not just with the pass, but also off the bounce. L'ville, and Sosa especially, I thought, was very good at attacking the zone off the dribble, and making it lose its shape. Now granted they hit a bunch of 3s and had the lead which forced Cuse to extend a lot, but they still didn't settle for swinging it around the perimeter, or making really tough bounce passes in the teeth of that zone.

It's going to be damn hard to win against Syracuse, they're an extremely good team with a very good defense. But if they don't shoot 90% from the FT line, we probably win that 2nd game. We can beat them, we just have to play like it.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

Attack the zone and refs call all the damn reaching in cuse does.

[FrazierFanatic]

So what is the over/under on how many references Dave SyraPasch makes to the 6 overtime game tomorrow? My money is on 8, with at least 4 clips from the game action. We need to win this game to save the rest of the country from having to listen to it all over again Friday night.

[Boz]

Mar 10, 2010 14:51:55 GMT -5 HoyaSinceBirth said:

Attack the zone and refs call all the damn reaching in cuse does.

Remember the second half of Game 2 this year.

Attack them and they will crumble.

Pass around looking for the outside shot -- all the time, anyway -- and you're playing right into their hands.

Oh, and refs? Would you mind calling this game straight up and not taking Greg Monroe out of the action in the first two minutes?? kthxbye

[brooklynhoya]

I went to GU. My wife went to SUcks. Let's hope I have a big smile on my face mid-afternoon tomorrow after a season of all-'Cuse, all-the-time in our household.

[calhoya]

Get the ball inside early and often and that will open up the outside shot--not the other way around. Cuse is long and fast and can extend their defense to play tight on our perimeter players. This should open up things for Monroe and Vaughn. Let us hop our percentage from inside 5 feet is at least 75%. No one I would rather play tomorrow than the Orange.

[FrazierFanatic]

If we can somehow get them in foul trouble underneath, their zone will take a beating. Get it inside, go strong and QUICK to the hoop, they are big but slow.

[grokamok]

The second-half near-comeback occurred with SU in foul trouble. Onuaku only played 13 minutes the entire game and Jackson fouled out near the end. This could happen again, but I think it is unwise to count on it. We need to play such that we don't end up in a hole in the first place.

If the zone is compact, let Austin/Jason/Chris/Hollis shoot over it. If it extends, attack it with Chris/Jason (and, to some degree, Austin, if the opening/matchup is good) with an intent to make an interior dish if Johnson isn't there on the weak side (he gathered a load of blocks against us when we tried this early last game) or a dish to the man Johnson leaves on the outside if he moves to help. There would be a high likelihood of a foul on one of their bigs though we would risk an interior turnover on the pass -- whichever guard was not driving would have to rotate back to prevent the break. Of course, if there is no help at all, completing the drive would be essential, but I think our guards are relatively capable in this regard. Passing around the perimeter against the extended zone guarantees the Orange a few easy buckets off of turnovers. If they ever go man, we have to get a clear pass in to Greg on the blocks.

On D, we simply MUST block out. If they've created interior mismatches with our switches, our bigs will have to crash the boards to prevent the easy hoop for Jackson/Onuaku. If they get the rebound, our guards might have to let it go or opt for strong foul on the ball to keep our bigs out of foul trouble. I also hope we don't get rattled if they hit one or two difficult threes -- overcompensating for that leaves a lot open, and we just have to let them keep taking ridiculous shots.

Most importantly, we need to improve our FT Defense . Maybe we can get the other non-SU student sections involved.

[billywhite]

It is nice to win by 20 when Freeman Struggles. We need to keep this momentum going. www.lexy.com/feed/episode?id=124487 Audio Minute