Miyagi-Do Karate

Seems strange.

i agree. This article is super bad form.

PFF ranked our oline in the top 10. You can quibble with the oline re run blocking, but their great pass blocking was not masked due to JA mobility. Simply the eye test too shows me that JA had a significant amount of time this season, sitting in a clean pocket. https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-final-2020-offensive-line-rankings

I am totally cool agreeing to disagree, and please don’t take what I am saying as attacking you or the OP. Just good-natured debate! 😀 it just bothers me that many on here are taking the 1 data point of the KC game to extrapolate more systemic problems. That was 1 game, and an absolutely important data point— but it should be considered along with all other data we have on this team to see what sorts of changes are needed at oline, coaching, or anything else. I also hate this notion of generally being so critical of the oline and oline coaching after what I considered to be a ridiculously successful offensive season. Again, they have to get better at run blocking. But I the “we need a new coach,” or “we need three new interior linemen, or “we need a 1st round RB” approach seems disproportionate to the nature of the “problem.”

this is a great point and something you hear olinemen talk about all the time. Also look at the few times when we committed to the run this past year? We ran well against SD, and basically ran out the last 8 minutes of the game against the Steelers.

“horrendous” at run blocking? I would argue mediocre— which is fully supported by the data. They were middle of the pack in YPC and rushing yards this season. They need to be better. But this oline was exceptional in pass blocking and about average/slightly below average in run blocking. (I also think the stats on this are skewed because Winters was such a problem for a large part or the season and we were without our best run blocker in Feliciano for a lot of the season, and then missing Moss in the playoffs). They need to improve at run blocking. But I would disagree that they were “horrendous”— a description that would suggest massive changes, as opposed to some tweaks.

Not meant to be critical of the OP, but it’s nuts that that narrative is the oline has “problems,” when the Bills had one of the most prolific offensive seasons in team history. Yeah, the line can improve in some ways (including re run blocking)— but they overall had a tremendous season.

Ugh. This seems bad. Really hope he has a full recovery here.

I believe it is multiple issues-- personnel, for sure-- but I do think these teams in the ACC have adjusted and just play it a lot better now, and they have the better personnel to beat it. For example, gone are the days when we used to let a guy catch and shoot the ball from the high post, figuring that a bigger forward out there couldn't beat us on 17-footers or be a nimble passer. That used to be a viable strategy. The only guys in the old Big East who would really give us consistent issues in that spot were Dante Cunningham at Villanova, and Chevy Troutman at Pitt, when he would absolutely dice us up with shooting or great high/low passing. Other than that, we could live with giving up a 17-footer to a power forward in the middle of the zone. Now-- every decent team in the ACC pretty much has a guy who can kill you from that spot. On a related note, I was thinking about the last great center Syracuse had--at least great defensive center. Tough to recall. Maybe Rakeem Christmas (though he was more of a 4). Possibly Keita?

we have had a lot of bad luck at center with injuries. Sidibe has just been cursed his entire career. it would be nice to get a big block head like a Craig Forth to just eat up space for 4 years and at least have the Bball IQ to generally know where to stand. my other theory is that the zone has just become less effective now that we are in the ACC. The ACC teams on a whole have more skilled guys and it is less physical than the old big East. Once the coaches And players got used to it, it hasn’t been as effective.

Syracuse just always looks overwhelmed at Duke. Even the fake crowd Was making them nervous!

I was guessing that Newton was injured. Newton looked great early in the year, and then JB mentioned getting him “back in” a few games ago. It made me think that he was dealing with some Injury, but I could be wrong.

Firmly on the bubble. I don’t think they will Make it. I also doubt they will hold an NIT tournament. I think it would be cool if some of the teams that don’t make the NCAA, instead hold a mini-tourney— maybe like an 8-team bubble tournament over a week.

Even when Griffin is hitting his shots, the offense doesn’t look great with him out there. He’s just an ISO, shoot-first player, with a quick trigger. It’s great when he makes his shots, but even then, the offense is stagnant. And he’s not good as a defender in the zone— he is just slow to rotate and get out on shooters on the wing. He can sometimes recover with ridiculous blocks, but all those easy high-lows are usually Griffen’s Fault. (To be fair, he would probably not look nearly as bad in the zone playing next to a legit 5). I agree. Will be great to see him develop a more Complete game over time. For now though, KR almost doesn’t need that little floater or pull up. He seems to get to the rim At will, with great body control to sort of hang to make some tough finishes. He has to be one of my most favorite freshmen in years.

if you like McCarthy’s style, you might check out stuff by the late Kent Haruf. I love his stuff and style— very minimalist writer. But the topics of his book are much better and less bleak than McCarthy. Would highly recommend Plainsong and its sequel, Eventide.

I am way behind the times, and started watching all the marvel movies on Disney plus Last month. I think I just am starting on phase 3. Looking forward to adding Wanda vision series when I hit phase 4.

You might be right. But this was a weird game, and you could be giving JB a little too much credit. Seemed like the press just threw ND out of rhythm. They were so scared just bringing the ball up court, And when they did, it seemed like mass confusion on offense. this is what Buddy said— seemed like this had more with ND being totally out of sorts: “Even after the press, we just went into zone and they looked like they didn’t know what to do,” Buddy Boeheim said. “Our defense was a little better in the 2-3 for sure, but like they were just passing around the perimeter. They weren’t looking inside. They weren’t looking for Durham on the lob or anything. … They were just out of sorts.” Regardless, the defense really upped its game in the second half, and this comeback was really a great win. I hope they can build on it for the Duke game.

Honestly, today it didn’t look like any wizardry by JB or major adjustments. It looked like the addition of two better defenders for Two Worse ones, and guys just hustling and moving faster. I was just watching JB’s Presser and he basically said that he thought the press caused His D to just overall play with more energy and faster in the second half.

What a great victory! Buddy really saved the day. The press was terrific. And I really loved Braswell‘s minutes and Marek being the go-to guy down the stretch. That said, can I complain a little Bit about that first half? 1) Griffin pretty much epitomizes this Syracuse team. He does some things really well and some things horribly. When he is on, he is on. When he hustles on D, he can make LebRon like blocks. But then he is horrible at times on defense, takes a lot of terrible shots, never passes, and has stretches of just lazy play. You could just feel the team play with so much more energy when he is not out there. 2) this team cannot or does not want to pass. In the first half, what’s the point of running those pick and rolls if you don’t pass to the open roll guy? They just double the ball ball handler. then it’s Dribble, dribble, Dribble, tough shot. The offense thankfully ran smoother with Kadary out there in the second half, as his driving can at least open things up. 3) I have no idea what defense they play. Everyone at every position was wide open for ND. 3’s, high post, low post. ND could have whatever it wanted. I actually am not sure the defense improved much in the second half except they pressed a lot more, which caused ND to Play faster, and they generated a lot of nice turnovers. And not having Griffen out there probably helped.

It’s really tough to say. This decision will be based almost entirely on how far Davis Webb has come. He has never played an NFL Snap. Does the staff trust him? Is he ready? You cannot contend Without a legit backup QB who can step in and go .500. It’s way too risky.

Regarding Tropper being a 1-trick pony, totally agree. All his books blend together in my mind. A few times I would read one of his books and about 50 Pages in, I wasn’t sure if I had read that one before. They all mostly concern some middle-aged dude going through a crisis and sitting Shiva after someone died. this reminds me of a similar author— Richard Russo. I really liked his books, but they all concern similar characters in similar locations doing mostly similar things.

I hope you are right, but I know they have the cap space, Milano went to college there, and Milano is the sort of player that I think BB loves and could really utilize.

I hate to say this, but the obvious place Milano will land is New England.

I am/was a big Tropper fan, but don’t think he has written anything in a long time. Same with Nick Hornby, who I would compare Tropper too.

Re Grisham, I have read a handful of his books over the years, but my wife has read everyone. What I find interesting about Grisham is how he started off. He was a lawyer, but wanted to be a novelist, and I think he said, “I am committing to write at least 1 page per day.” That’s what he did and how he wrote his first novel, A Time to Kill. As someone who has tried to write novels and have never had the discipline to finish, I always thought that was a really great Approach. the other thing I like about Grisham is that he doesn’t take himself Too seriously. He knows he writes pretty formulaic legal books for beach reads etc, not high-brow literature. he knows what he is good at it and who is audience is, And I find that to be pretty refreshing.