GatorsFirst
Gator Fan
Written by James Brown
Monday, 24 November 2008
I’ve been wracking my brain all weekend for the reason I hate Jim Boeheim. It’s not his constant whining about being left of the NCAA tournament. (Note: this type of whining should be played incessantly to any advocate of a college football playoff who claims “you can’t argue about getting left out” of a 16-team deal.) I don’t think it has anything to do with retiring Carmelo Anthony’s jersey (he was one-and-done!) Also, it’s not the fact that his alleged ‘basketball school’ has as many Final Fours as my ‘football school’ for my lifetime. I know that he directly slighted the Gators, but I can’t remember how. He also may have been part of the Eddie Fogler/Roy Williams/Mike Krzyadkhadklfhaski group that have taken shots at Donovan over the years. For whatever the reason, I’m ready to beat some Syracuse ass tonight. Here are some things to watch for in tonight’s game, some facts about their current team, and some notes on our current play…
We are lacking inside. Well, at least in experience. This is one of the game we can use as a measuring stick for our low post game. Syracuse forward Paul Harris is only listed 6’5” (could be 6’3”), but a very good rebounder, and capable of filling out all the different lines of the stat sheet. It will be interesting to see if our center-by-committee will keep him off the boards, or be able to get boards of their own when matched up with this guy. With a Jr. and a Sr. starting at PF and C, this should provide a very good test for our young group. It’s not matching up against Tyler Hansbrough, but should still be a much better frontcourt than most teams we’ll play before January. As far as our personnel, Kenny Kadji didn’t wow me in the first two games, but then he got the Billy D pep talk, and so maybe he’s going to get it going a little bit. Personally, I like Allan Chaney. He seems to have a little toughness about him, and also a good overall basketball knowledge- he seems to know what he’s doing most of the time, which is more than we could say about most of the Bonnell Colas era, and Chaney is “just” a freshman. It will be interesting, down the road, to see how the rotation shakes out, and what sort of contribution Eloy Vargas can make (he’s out for tonight’s game).
The strength of Syracuse, from an outsider’s perspective anyways, is their backcourt. Eric Devendorf and Jonny Flynn are a great duo. The 6’0” PG Flynn was fantastic as a freshman a year ago, and I will be interested to see how we can contain his ability to penetrate and distribute the ball. Devendorf is a bigger guard (6’4”, so Erving Walker or Walter Hodge might be ill-equipped to defend him for long periods), and also a good three-point shooter. He’s also able to take people off the dribble, and these are the types of guards we have had trouble defending. This game should provide a key test for Ray Shipman’s defensive ability, and could provide an impetus for Billy Donovan giving him more minutes. I’ve liked Shipman so far, and he looks to have a reasonable amount of offensive ability (I only bring this up because all of the hype was about his defense- I sort of expected him to look lost on the offensive end. But I think he’s pretty clearly a good all-around player.)
I’m not sure what to make of our young team yet. I am worried that at times I have no idea if Hodge is even in the game- he’s a senior, he should be able to make more of an impact than hitting three pointers. Also, other team’s guards have been driving at him, taking advantage of his small size. Dan Werner is probably the second best player on our team (Calathes inarguably the best); he impacts a game in so many ways, especially with his defense and rebounding. And I don’t mind the amount of three-pointers he shoots, regardless of what facebook groups may exist on his behalf. Chandler Parsons is also looking good, I am glad he is the beneficiary of Lucas transferring (CP starts now), even if he probably should have been starting before that anyways. Win or lose, we will quickly have some answers about what to expect from our squad this year, thanks to this primetime matchup with a fairly big-time opponent. Hopefully, if we are both on the bubble again this year, we can point to this head-to-head, neutral court matchup as a victory to improve our resume.
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Monday, 24 November 2008
I’ve been wracking my brain all weekend for the reason I hate Jim Boeheim. It’s not his constant whining about being left of the NCAA tournament. (Note: this type of whining should be played incessantly to any advocate of a college football playoff who claims “you can’t argue about getting left out” of a 16-team deal.) I don’t think it has anything to do with retiring Carmelo Anthony’s jersey (he was one-and-done!) Also, it’s not the fact that his alleged ‘basketball school’ has as many Final Fours as my ‘football school’ for my lifetime. I know that he directly slighted the Gators, but I can’t remember how. He also may have been part of the Eddie Fogler/Roy Williams/Mike Krzyadkhadklfhaski group that have taken shots at Donovan over the years. For whatever the reason, I’m ready to beat some Syracuse ass tonight. Here are some things to watch for in tonight’s game, some facts about their current team, and some notes on our current play…
We are lacking inside. Well, at least in experience. This is one of the game we can use as a measuring stick for our low post game. Syracuse forward Paul Harris is only listed 6’5” (could be 6’3”), but a very good rebounder, and capable of filling out all the different lines of the stat sheet. It will be interesting to see if our center-by-committee will keep him off the boards, or be able to get boards of their own when matched up with this guy. With a Jr. and a Sr. starting at PF and C, this should provide a very good test for our young group. It’s not matching up against Tyler Hansbrough, but should still be a much better frontcourt than most teams we’ll play before January. As far as our personnel, Kenny Kadji didn’t wow me in the first two games, but then he got the Billy D pep talk, and so maybe he’s going to get it going a little bit. Personally, I like Allan Chaney. He seems to have a little toughness about him, and also a good overall basketball knowledge- he seems to know what he’s doing most of the time, which is more than we could say about most of the Bonnell Colas era, and Chaney is “just” a freshman. It will be interesting, down the road, to see how the rotation shakes out, and what sort of contribution Eloy Vargas can make (he’s out for tonight’s game).
The strength of Syracuse, from an outsider’s perspective anyways, is their backcourt. Eric Devendorf and Jonny Flynn are a great duo. The 6’0” PG Flynn was fantastic as a freshman a year ago, and I will be interested to see how we can contain his ability to penetrate and distribute the ball. Devendorf is a bigger guard (6’4”, so Erving Walker or Walter Hodge might be ill-equipped to defend him for long periods), and also a good three-point shooter. He’s also able to take people off the dribble, and these are the types of guards we have had trouble defending. This game should provide a key test for Ray Shipman’s defensive ability, and could provide an impetus for Billy Donovan giving him more minutes. I’ve liked Shipman so far, and he looks to have a reasonable amount of offensive ability (I only bring this up because all of the hype was about his defense- I sort of expected him to look lost on the offensive end. But I think he’s pretty clearly a good all-around player.)
I’m not sure what to make of our young team yet. I am worried that at times I have no idea if Hodge is even in the game- he’s a senior, he should be able to make more of an impact than hitting three pointers. Also, other team’s guards have been driving at him, taking advantage of his small size. Dan Werner is probably the second best player on our team (Calathes inarguably the best); he impacts a game in so many ways, especially with his defense and rebounding. And I don’t mind the amount of three-pointers he shoots, regardless of what facebook groups may exist on his behalf. Chandler Parsons is also looking good, I am glad he is the beneficiary of Lucas transferring (CP starts now), even if he probably should have been starting before that anyways. Win or lose, we will quickly have some answers about what to expect from our squad this year, thanks to this primetime matchup with a fairly big-time opponent. Hopefully, if we are both on the bubble again this year, we can point to this head-to-head, neutral court matchup as a victory to improve our resume.
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