NCAA Tournament

[jonvi]

The ACC tournament thread didn't last long. Oh Well. Shit happens.

What seed do you think the Cuse is looking at? The overall record suggest maybe a 2 or a 3. The way they've played the month of March is more like a 12.

I'm guessing they are going to get a 4 seed.

 

[jonvi]

Coach JB thoughts:


Greensboro, N.C. — Following Syracuse University's 66-63 loss to North Carolina State in a quarterfinals game in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament Friday night, Jim Boeheim (along with C.J. Fair) addressed the media for a period of some nine minutes.


Here are the highlights of what the Orange coach said inside Greensboro Coliseum:


On that last wild sequence of shots in SU's final possession: "We needed a 'three' at that point. I think we got four looks at it, which is more than you're normally going to get. But we had to get a 'three' at that time."


On Rakeem Christmas's foul trouble: "You'd like to have him in there. There's no question about that. But he was out of position three times, and, you know, if he'd been in the right position he wouldn't have been in foul trouble."


On Tyler Ennis' looking to score against the Wolfpack: "Trevor (Cooney) was hurting a little bit. He wasn't moving as well. He turned his ankle. Tyler tries to score when we need points. And we needed points."


On whether the Orange is trending poorly on the eve of the NCAA Tournament: "You know, we played our best game of the year Sunday. That was an optimistic turn for us. Two of our last losses, we didn't have Jerami Grant, so I just discount that completely. We played extremely well against Florida State and I thought we would play well here. I don't think we played that poorly; I think we shot the ball badly. It's hard to recover. When you're not shooting the ball well, it's very difficult to win.


"I thought we did everything we could to come back. We tried to get to the basket more, get to the foul line . . . but we just have not shot the ball well from the three-point line the whole year. But we've been able to get back in the games, and when we get back in them, we've been able to make good plays down the stretch. Tonight, we made two offensive fouls and we took a bad shot when we had a two-point lead. Tyler got in traffic and took a bad shot, and they got the ball out and we had to foul and they made two shots. It was a really bad play, and we haven't been making those plays.


"I'm not concerned about our team. I think we've played well all year. I think we struggle shooting it. And I think that's been pretty well-documented. But in spite of that, we won 27 games. So I'm pretty pleased with what these guys have done and I believe we'll be a very good (NCAA) Tournament team."


On the ACC Tournament experience: "I thought we had huge fan support tonight. We had a lot of people down here. We've had great support wherever we've gone this year. The people in Greensboro are great. They try to take care of everything. It's just a matter of when you go to a tournament, there's only one thing that matters: It's how you play. And if you don't play, then it's a bad experience."

 

[TEB11]

"I'm not concerned about our team. I think we've played well all year. I think we struggle shooting it. And I think that's been pretty well-documented. But in spite of that, we won 27 games. So I'm pretty pleased with what these guys have done and I believe we'll be a very good (NCAA) Tournament team."

Let's hope so 'cause I am not that confident at this point in time!

 

[jonvi]

I have a good feeling TEB.

 

[jonvi]

Keita is about to have the best tournament of his life.

#breakout

 

[jonvi]

SU vs WMich....about to t-off.

 

[jonvi]

Looks like SU has knocked off some of the rust. They are just too much for WMich.

Dayton is on deck....and a much better team. Still like the Orange past Florida.

 

[Malibu]

Cuse played a great game today vs a team that had no clue on how to attack the zone. Cooney played well, and Grant is a beast. Good to see some bench guys get some time. Dayton will be a tougher game for the Cuse.

 

[jonvi]

Dayton coach Archie Miller says his basketball team has to "push the ball as fast as we ever have all season" against Syracuse on Saturday.

Miller, appearing on ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike" on Friday morning, detailed three things Dayton needs to do if it wants to beat the Orange in the third round of the NCAA tournament.
The game will be on TBS at 7:10 p.m.

Here are Miller's three keys from the interview (we'll provide the audio when it becomes available):

• "The big thing is to take our system, our style, do what we do against them and make sure we're locked in on the things we have to control. Against Syracuse, you can not turn the ball over. That's part of their deal against the zone. If you're not organized and you're not sharp, the turnovers lead to just run-outs, and that will kill you.

• "Secondly, you don't want to play against them in the half court. We have to push the ball as fast as we ever have all season, see if we can't get some movement early, some reaction early.

• "And then obviously defensively, we're going to have to find a way to get stops and let our defense create some offense as well. One of the big things yesterday against Ohio State was we had 10 steals, and of those 10, we had some ability to get out. We didn't do a great job of converting all the time, but we did get enough to get us some confidence.

Miller also talked about the challenge of playing in Buffalo, just two hours down the road from Syracuse.

"We've got, obviously, a difficult challenge. I walked out there to do a radio interview with about 16 minutes left in the first half and Trevor Cooney made a shot and the roof just blew right off the building. That was my first inclination of, 'Uh oh, we've got a little deal going on here tomorrow with some Orangemen in the house.' It's a road game for us."​

 

[jonvi]

Dayton played 11 against tOSU so they have the wheels to run hard. I'm not so sure that's a smart way to go after SU.

It seems to me the games SU struggled in were the games teams slowed down to a crawl.

We'll see how this works out.

 

[Malibu]

Jonvi we just watched a pathetic game by a pathetic team. Thats the truth and like I said if Cooney isnt making 3's he is usless. This teams had to many flaws which I pointed out even when they were undefeated but yet you wouldnt listen. Hopefully its better next year.

 

[jonvi]

Jonvi we just watched a pathetic game by a pathetic team. Thats the truth and like I said if Cooney isnt making 3's he is usless. This teams had to many flaws which I pointed out even when they were undefeated but yet you wouldnt listen. Hopefully its better next year.

Worthless? You should have shot better. Oh Wait.

But really Mal....any mouth breather can come out after the game and be the expert. Everyone on the planet expected the above from you. You at least keep good time.

They lost a game. Shit happens. It was a very good game at that. And that SU team was a great team. Just not last night.