Now I am not going to put to much stock into a simple exhibition game, I have no clue if the starters played the majority of the time, if they were just trying out different combinations, etc, etc. Though the bottom line is you should roll against this Le Moyne team no matter what the situation is. The Cuse is predicted to finish in the top tier of the Big East, around 6th through 8th. I think that is an accurate assessment. I don't even think its necessarily bad for this cuse team to suffer a loss like this. It might be a wake-up call and better to have it when it doesn't count, because the Cuse are notorious for getting upset early in the season by some scrub team on their home floor. Last year it came from Cleveland State on a full court shot with no time left. Turns out Cleveland State wasn't all so bad, but still a game the Cuse should win at home 9 out of 10 times at least.
The Orange are going to be a very interesting team this year. Not really sure where they are going to find their scoring, or leadership from. They are going to miss Jonny Flynn big time. Eric Devendorf and Paul Harris look like fools. Last I checked Eric was entertaining offers to go play in Turkey or Greece, or here in the United States for the NBDL. Yikes. Paul Harris on the other hand looks to have a real promising future as he was not offered a roster spot on the Timberwolves team after summer league. The Utah Jazz then invited him to their pre-season camp, and Harris injured his ankle before camp began and was waived. No word on what his future holds, except for being the father of one too many kids.
Anyways, the PG spot will either be manned by freshman Brandon Triche, or redshirt sophomore Scoop Jaurdine. Jaurdine got some burn his freshman season and was fairly unimpressive, though not terrible. He sat out all of last year after I believe some legal trouble and an injury. Either way it is a huge drop off from possibly the best PG in the country last year. I secretly hope Triche can outplay Scoop, as I prefer him to come off the bench unless he has drastically improved.
Andy Rautins will start at the SG spot. Rautins has a solid game and has been better at attacking the rim and playing defense, and we all know his shots is lights out. I just fear that opponents will go into the game keying on him and he will have to do his best Steph Curry impression to run like a mad man on the court just to get shots up.
Small Forward is where all they hype is on this team - and this team will only go if this man is who everyone claims he is. Wesley Johnson is a transfer form Iowa State where he had many accolades his freshman year there. He had a cool 32 last night in the exhibition, but apparently this man can fill it up inside and out. I have not seen him play, but for some reason I feel he will be like a Donte Green minus the horrible shot selection, weakness, and stupidity like most recent cuse players to come out of college way to early. Donte Green, Paul Harris, Eric Devendorf could all be on this Cuse team right now - and now none of them are making an impact...anywhere. Last I checked donte Green was flip flopping from the Sacramento Kings to the D League.
The big strength for this cuse team is the front court. Rick Jackson (who I used to shred) and Arinze Onuaku are arguably one of the best frontcourt duos in America. Arinze is a flat out beast, and apparently he shed some fat and is just ready to dominate. These two should be good for at least 10 and 10 a night and are the only constant on this Cuse team. Let's hope they have learned how to hit a free throw. They are both about the worst free throw shooting big men in the history and should add to the fact that cuse teams can never stroke from the line. Funny how the only title they have won was because Kansas was AWFUL from the charity stripe.
Reserves Kris Joseph and Mookie Jones will be key contributors off the bench, and for cuse fans sake lets hope they improved since last year. They also lost Kristof Ongenaut who seriously grew on me last year and was a great glue guy. Loved Kristof!!!
Anyways - not a huge deal that they lost, but very concerning where this team goes this year. The backcourt could be a huge weakness, and as always SU depth should be limited. It remains to be seen if Jimmy B will go back to his 2-3 zone defense that he abandoned last year. It was the right move last year because the cuse were so athletic, but a switch back to the trapping 2-3 may be the right move with this team. The cuse will have some early season tests in the tournament they enter they will play I believe California then the winner/loser of Ohio St. vs North Carolina. They also have Florida and Memphis on the out of conference schedule so Jimmy B can't take to much heat for not playing anyone, though outside of the games I just mentioned, they don't play anyone else worth much value at all.
Excellent breakdown. I think you're right that this might have been a good wake-up call for this team as many people were sipping the kool-aid despite the significant departures. Bottom line though, I've never heard of a Final-4 team that lost to a D-II school, exhibition or not. If someone can find me evidence of that, then I will change my tune..until then, I say it matters - and shows that Cuse is lacking in depth at the least, and probably is in for quite the drop-off.
ReplyDeleteDisagree on a few things. A few years back Mighigan State had a sweet 16 team and also lost to a D2 squad preseason. LeMoyne played a very hard, determined game and looked as if they had something to prove. Cuse didnt and was evident with a forced Kris Joseph 3 when they were down 1 with around 6 seconds left. Whatever, they still played horrible defense with little effort. LeMoyne shot 48 percent and ran with way more energy than Cuse did. Bottom line they appeared to want to win the game more. Yesterday the orange was 0-0 today they are 0-0. Im kind of glad they lost gives them a shock earlier rather than later. They are a to 25 team. There is a lot to be excited about Wes Johnson can immediately lead this team. Huge spot for him hitting the go ahead 3 late in the 2nd half. Brandon Triche can immediately contribute as a freshman and they have 2 physical big men and Andy Rautins to hit every shot hes can get set for. Onuaku was a bit of a dissapointment but hes only been on the court for the last 2 weeks due to injury. Healthy or not the big fella still airballed a ft and we will see the hack-oaku gameplan alllll year. But by the time the confernece games come along he should be back at full speed. Tons to be excited about. Scoop is back he had knee surgery and he should be a glue guy along with joseph. This squad will be deep and talented if the newcomers are able to get pt. Bob they had essentially a starting lineup all night- no scrubs played. Whats important here is syracuse only had a +10 rebounding margin, out fast breaked 8-2 and got out scored in the paint 42-30, basically got outhustled. So what they lost.
ReplyDeleteGood points and interesting to get perspective of someone who watched the game, or alteast did some serious box-score research. I am for one shocked that the Syracuse vs. LeMoyne exhibition game was not shown to the DC/Virginia Market.
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