He’s been saying it all season. At 5-0. At 12-0. At 18-0. At that point, his message was drowned out by the big #3 next to Syracuse in the national rankings. We should have listened to him. After all, his name is on the court.
When it comes to all matters basketball, I will defer to Jim Boeheim. He tried to tell us that his Orange weren’t as good as their record. Clearly at 18-0, he was right. What’s happened since? 2-6 and quite a drop in the rankings. Is it the tougher schedule? I don’t think it’s that simple.
The workings of a team are very intricate. It’s much more complicated than looking at the talent of the players. We hear talk of chemistry and intangibles. Sometimes when a team does better or worse than expected, it’s because the “experts” missed on what should have been expected. In 1969 the Colts were favored by 17 over the Jets in Super Bowl III. After the Jets won it was clear that they were greatly undervalued by the “experts”. So was it really a big upset? The same with the Jets beating the Patriots in this year’s playoffs. Upon further examination, it looks the Patriots might only have advantage over the Jets at head coach and quarterback.
Trying to evaluate college teams depends on the performance of 19-21 year olds. It’s not just that their play can be inconsistent, it’s also that we’re forecasting on potential more than we are performance. Case in point is SU freshman Fab Melo. He was chosen as Big East pre-season freshman of the year and can barely get off the Orange bench.
On the court, this year’s Orange were relying on three players new to their situation We just discussed Fab Melo’s struggles. Last year Kris Joseph was national sixth man of the year. While he has had a decent season, he has found out that it’s different when the focus is on you. I’ve watched Brandon Triche since he was in third grade. He has always been a distributor, even though he could have scored virtually at will. This year he is asked to play shooting guard and be a little more selfish. While he is really coming on, there have been times that he has needed to look for his shot a little more.
The bigger issue with this year’s Orange might be what was such a strength of last year’s team. Chemistry and intangibles. Leadership. Something seems off with this year’s team. From day one they have struggled offensively and now the defense has been porous. Defense is effort and that’s been lacking. We’ve seen issues with Dion Waiters, James Southerland and now Fab Melo as far as losing playing time. Does this year’s team get along as well as last year’s? Having never been in the same room as these guys, I can’t say. But something seems off.
Can this be turned around? Sure. Who knows, the Hall of Famer might just have us all where he wants us.
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