Syracuse, Sun. Dec. 13, 12pm, FS1 & 570 AM

Not minimizing the great win, but, in my opinion, SJU is better equipped to attack zones with decent shooting off high/low post play. The other side of the coin is solid pressure man to man teams will give us a lot of trouble, especially Mussini. LoVett can certainly reduce that degree of difficulty. Fingers crossed on him. Go Johnnies!
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Agree; but doesn't typing that make you feel like you are living in a bizarro world? "SJU is better equipped to attack zones"....its like Superman is using a sword made of kryptonite or something insane like that.
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So true Kid, always felt SJU was one of the weakest teams in the country adapting to the initiation of three point shooting in college hoops. Mullin era will look quite different for sure.
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I have been harping on the lack of outside shooting at SJU for years. The 3 point shot revolutionized college basketball, and we somehow missed the memo. Players are a reflection of their coaches, or better put the coaching philosophy of their coach. Mullin will recruit shooters, and shooters will want to play for one of the greatest outside shooters in history because they know he will make getting them the ball in shooting position an offensive priority. Teams that can spread the floor are much tougher to defend. For once, SJU will be one of those programs as long as Mullin is here.
 
Not minimizing the great win, but, in my opinion, SJU is better equipped to attack zones with decent shooting off high/low post play. The other side of the coin is solid pressure man to man teams will give us a lot of trouble, especially Mussini. LoVett can certainly reduce that degree of difficulty. Fingers crossed on him. Go Johnnies!
Click to expand...

Agree; but doesn't typing that make you feel like you are living in a bizarro world? "SJU is better equipped to attack zones"....its like Superman is using a sword made of kryptonite or something insane like that.
Click to expand...

So true Kid, always felt SJU was one of the weakest teams in the country adapting to the initiation of three point shooting in college hoops. Mullin era will look quite different for sure.
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I agree with your assessment; but I had two takeaways from the victory, First, was the coaching staff's flexibility in deciding to implement a new offensive approach to combat the zone and the players ability to absorb and execute same. Second, it looked like for the first time the team relaxed and put Mullin's mantra to heart, "just play." Both very impressive and bodes very well as the program is developed and moved forward.
 
Not minimizing the great win, but, in my opinion, SJU is better equipped to attack zones with decent shooting off high/low post play. The other side of the coin is solid pressure man to man teams will give us a lot of trouble, especially Mussini. LoVett can certainly reduce that degree of difficulty. Fingers crossed on him. Go Johnnies!
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I don't think it's minimizing the win at all, I think it's actually a testament to our ability to dismantle a zone like that with solid game plan. We have tried to dribble through or pass around the Syracuse zone for decades now and multiple coaches with little success overall. It's the nemesis for many teams.

It's impressive that our new staff along with lots of freshmen were able to game the zone so easily for great looks on the perimeter, high post, low post and just about everywhere else. Our limitations against the press are really player-specific. Add a guy like Lovett and move Mussini to SG and we would automatically make it twice as difficult to press and trap.

Lovett is a wizard with the ball, and Mussini has gotten better due to trial by fire as a PG. We are one true PG away from being much more difficult to pressure.
 
If history tells us anything, this state ain't big enough for the two of us. Rarely are both programs crushing it. I'd be very worried about the next 15 years if I were a Cuse fan
 
If history tells us anything, this state ain't big enough for the two of us. Rarely are both programs crushing it. I'd be very worried about the next 15 years if I were a Cuse fan
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Agree, because Hopkins got schooled yesterday. I'm not a huge believer that in-game coaching is as prominently important as others, but for Hopkins yesterday it was problematic. He allowed us to torch his 2-3, not just because of shooting but lack of adjustments. Yes we made shots, but we made shots because we prepared specifically for that 2-3 and exploited all the gaps... expertly at that, despite us relying heavily on freshmen.

Syracuse fans should be concerned if the coaching staff can't even make minor adjustments to the zone. He also allowed us to pull the entire 2-3 away from the baseline and towards mid-court, giving a ton more baseline room for us to operate. It fell right into our hands. Poor job by Hopkins. Maybe he's been an assistant in the same ole system for too long?
 
I know Syracuse loves the 2-3 zone, I know its part of thier history and thier identity, but how did they not come out of it and challenge Mussini either with full court press earlier or with bringing the guards higher? Mussini has yet to prove he can handle pressure from MAAC level defenders let alone the kind of athletes that should be playing at an ACC school. Basically i'm asking if we have just improved dramatically at ball movement or did Syracuse just not do it's homework? Or is Syracuse just too arrogant to think they would have to make adjustments? Or do they just not have the legs to pressure us for 40 minutes like some of the smaller schools have?

That said I'm thrilled with the way the boys played and even more thrilled that we had the answers in the 2nd half not Syracuse. I still don't expect us to pull of any miracles this season but it's nice to know we can go to the Garden with a shot at knocking off some of the favorites. I'm so happy to be wrong as I thought we would get pummeled. We are New York's Team!
 
Yesterday's shooting was all about confidence. Mullin has this team confident. He seems to be enjoying it like a proud father.

This is great to see.
 
This Syracuse team is just not that good. Before we kill Hopkins, where are the Pros?
Gone are Carter-Williams,Grant ,McCullough etc. Testament to Boeheim that they were
ranked 14th at one time this year.
 
Part of our shooting success is due to Mullins tutelage ,IMO. Not many better shooting coaches out there. Look at the arc on Mussinis shot, even Amars shot is much improved relative to last year. I cant remember the last time a SJU team had such a well balanced offensive attack and put on a shooting clinic. Yakwe is a lot better offensively than I thought he would be Although Jones is a pleasant surprise. I think Yakwe will ultimately be the starter and Jones the bench player.
 
Cuse fans seemed a lot tamer at the game yesterday than they have in previous years. We were surrounded by them in sec 113 but they really werent too obnoxious, which was unfortunate bc it would have made the win that much sweeter. Of course they still did the always irritating stand until they score. I yelled to sit down and they turn around and explain that they dont sit until they score bla bla bla. This is MSG, not the Carrier dome...The NY's team chant at the end was incredible. What a game!
 
This Syracuse team is just not that good. Before we kill Hopkins, where are the Pros?
Gone are Carter-Williams,Grant ,McCullough etc. Testament to Boeheim that they were
ranked 14th at one time this year.
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If we had that many 4 star recruits on the roster we would have high expectations -
Coleman
Roberson
Joseph
Lydon
Richardson
Howard
Obokoh
 
This Syracuse team is just not that good. Before we kill Hopkins, where are the Pros?
Gone are Carter-Williams,Grant ,McCullough etc. Testament to Boeheim that they were
ranked 14th at one time this year.
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They still have a lot of highly ranked players on that team. Maybe no Carter-Williams, but their roster is still mostly 4+ star talent.
 
This Syracuse team is just not that good. Before we kill Hopkins, where are the Pros?
Gone are Carter-Williams,Grant ,McCullough etc. Testament to Boeheim that they were
ranked 14th at one time this year.
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They still have a lot of highly ranked players on that team. Maybe no Carter-Williams, but their roster is still mostly 4+ star talent.
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We had a few of those the last few years and it did not always pan out.
 
I know Syracuse loves the 2-3 zone, I know its part of thier history and thier identity, but how did they not come out of it and challenge Mussini either with full court press earlier or with bringing the guards higher? Mussini has yet to prove he can handle pressure from MAAC level defenders let alone the kind of athletes that should be playing at an ACC school. Basically i'm asking if we have just improved dramatically at ball movement or did Syracuse just not do it's homework? Or is Syracuse just too arrogant to think they would have to make adjustments? Or do they just not have the legs to pressure us for 40 minutes like some of the smaller schools have?

That said I'm thrilled with the way the boys played and even more thrilled that we had the answers in the 2nd half not Syracuse. I still don't expect us to pull of any miracles this season but it's nice to know we can go to the Garden with a shot at knocking off some of the favorites. I'm so happy to be wrong as I thought we would get pummeled. We are New York's Team!
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Certainly not singling your post out but it is kind of ironic to me that very, very few of us even thought we had a chance to win but now we are compelled to blame the Syracuse coaches / strategy. Taking nothing away from the thrill of the win but objectively analyzing, one cannot ignore that Mussini and AA shot 8 for 12 and all 3 of Alibegovic's 3's and a couple of Mussini's were area code deep. As I stated earlier, I am sure the Cuse coaches were saying they can't keep shooting like this but we did. AA never shot like that before and Mussini's shooting has been up and down. IMO, no one is to blame, we played very well, shot great and won. Syracuse played well by and large but shot poorly and lost. If we played them again it may be totally different. I guarantee you we shoot 50% on 24 3's every game and we will be in every game and win more than anyone could have even dreamed of.
 
As Rothstein notes here, our inside game was not too shabby yesterday, either:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebas...as-best-team-since-its-2008-elite-eight-squad

The long-term potential of St. John's first-year power forward/center combo of Kassoum Yakwe and Yankuba Sima continues to be palpable. The duo combined for 24 points, 12 rebounds, and three blocks in Sunday's upset victory over Syracuse. And yes -- both of these kids are freshman.
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It's exciting, and happening now! adding Owens to this mix next year will be sweet
 
I know Syracuse loves the 2-3 zone, I know its part of thier history and thier identity, but how did they not come out of it and challenge Mussini either with full court press earlier or with bringing the guards higher? Mussini has yet to prove he can handle pressure from MAAC level defenders let alone the kind of athletes that should be playing at an ACC school. Basically i'm asking if we have just improved dramatically at ball movement or did Syracuse just not do it's homework? Or is Syracuse just too arrogant to think they would have to make adjustments? Or do they just not have the legs to pressure us for 40 minutes like some of the smaller schools have?

That said I'm thrilled with the way the boys played and even more thrilled that we had the answers in the 2nd half not Syracuse. I still don't expect us to pull of any miracles this season but it's nice to know we can go to the Garden with a shot at knocking off some of the favorites. I'm so happy to be wrong as I thought we would get pummeled. We are New York's Team!
Click to expand...

Certainly not singling your post out but it is kind of ironic to me that very, very few of us even thought we had a chance to win but now we are compelled to blame the Syracuse coaches / strategy. Taking nothing away from the thrill of the win but objectively analyzing, one cannot ignore that Mussini and AA shot 8 for 12 and all 3 of Alibegovic's 3's and a couple of Mussini's were area code deep. As I stated earlier, I am sure the Cuse coaches were saying they can't keep shooting like this but we did. AA never shot like that before and Mussini's shooting has been up and down. IMO, no one is to blame, we played very well, shot great and won. Syracuse played well by and large but shot poorly and lost. If we played them again it may be totally different. I guarantee you we shoot 50% on 24 3's every game and we will be in every game and win more than anyone could have even dreamed of.
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That's a very good point, my thoughts on Syracuse's reluctance to put pressure on Mussini were actually more connected to his (and the entire team's) high turnover rate rather than our shooting success. I would have expected us to cool off sooner or later as well, but I know we arent very good at taking care of the ball and I woulod have thought SU would have forced that issue. You are right if we shoot like Steph Curry we are gonna be very difficult to beat but I wouldn't expect us to have too many more 50% 3pt shooting games.
 
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