Just interested what the fans, and specifically people who are going to these Pro-Am games think. Highlight reels can be misleading, so I am curious.
How is our interior defense and rebounding going to be at the 5? I am a little scared that we as fans might overestimate our interior players. We have not even had anyone who is physically gifted with the size of a big guy the last few years, that some are so excited to just have Otule and Gardner, that we have not considered whether they are ready to contribute. Jimmy/Crowder at the 5 for most of the game is not ideal. Otule and Gardner are still young and developing and deserve some patience still (Gardner deserves all the patience we have).
So, has Fulce gotten bigger so that he can get some serious minutes at the 5? Can Otule give 20 minutes? Can Fulce, Otule, and Gardner combine to give 40 minutes of play at the 5?
Write this down. Gardner is the Second coming of Robert Jackson. Give him some time, he will be key in this team's rise to the top.
Quote from: HoopsMalone on July 19, 2010, 12:32:34 PM
Just interested what the fans, and specifically people who are going to these Pro-Am games think. Highlight reels can be misleading, so I am curious.
How is our interior defense and rebounding going to be at the 5? I am a little scared that we as fans might overestimate our interior players. We have not even had anyone who is physically gifted with the size of a big guy the last few years, that some are so excited to just have Otule and Gardner, that we have not considered whether they are ready to contribute. Jimmy/Crowder at the 5 for most of the game is not ideal. Otule and Gardner are still young and developing and deserve some patience still (Gardner deserves all the patience we have).
So, has Fulce gotten bigger so that he can get some serious minutes at the 5? Can Otule give 20 minutes? Can Fulce, Otule, and Gardner combine to give 40 minutes of play at the 5?
On the defensive end, I thought Otule looked pretty good on Friday. He was on a team with Grimm and Trend, so they were pretty darn good down low. There wasn't a whole lot of post offense to be honest, so its tough to tell how good he'd be one on one. As far a rebounding goes, it seemed like he had pretty good position, but its really impossible to tell how he'll perform in a real-game environment. The games were entertaining and players went hard, but they weren't exactly scrambling for every rebound and loose ball. Also, they games very up and down, which makes it hard to evaluate a post player.
On the offensive end, Otule looked horrible. He let at least 4-5 crafty passes for easy buckets go right off his hands. Really needs to improve that awareness.
Gardner isn't all that tall (he looked the same height as Jamil, who was bigger than I pictured him... he's got a big body, not all arms and legs) but he is bulky and had a little bit of an offensive game. I only watched his team for about 10 minutes, though. He attempted a drop step late in the game, which was a good idea, but his footwork was really slow and the defender caught up easily. He also made a nice dribble drive-drive from the arc to the rim, actually. Again, I don't think you can tell much about defense and rebounding at a friendly exhibition game, especially with so little inside play.
It'd be nice to see either of them guarding Ousmanne, to get a better gauge on how they can handle adept post players. Ous was the only big man there last Friday that could really provide a decent challenge, as far as I saw.
I'll be back next Friday, it was a ton of fun to watch and listen to the team.
Thanks. It probably is hard to judge the interior play at these games.
I really, really think it would help the program if Fulce/Gardner/Otule can give a combined 32+ minutes at the 5 so that Buzz only plays small ball for a few minutes each half. Fulce may need to be the key guy to step up as a senior this year.
Small ball is effective for part of the game since Butler can guard post players on defense and then create a mismatch on offense, but it is not a game plan that gets us a top 3 finish in the Big East and to the Sweet 16.
If Fulce ends up playing the post, he will be abused down low in the BEast.
I try to be a realist. I expect nothing from Gardner this year. And about 20 minutes per game from Otule. I expet Jae and EWill to fill in the 5 spot at certain parts of this season. If Gardner wants to play this season, he should focus no his defense as I think Buzz will fill the 5 spot with whoever he is most comfortable putting in defensive.
Otule will play 15 to 25 minutes a game depending on matchup's and foul trouble. The rest of the time will be small ball.
Jones and Gardner will not get any more time than Williams and Mbao got last year. Williams will play 5 minutes a game assuming Crowder is a player.
As long as Fulce-Otule-Gardner are able to stay on the floor so Jimmy can stay on the wing then I will be happy with their contributions.
Quote from: bilsu on July 19, 2010, 01:19:58 PM
Otule will play 15 to 25 minutes a game depending on matchup's and foul trouble. The rest of the time will be small ball.
Jones and Gardner will not get any more time than Williams and Mbao got last year. Williams will play 5 minutes a game assuming Crowder is a player.
I think this is pretty accurate. It's pretty apparent that Williams is an athletic wing player; he'd be a fish out of water staying in the post, and I'd say the same about Fulce. If either of them are our "5", we are playing small ball. Otule will play as long as he is contributing and the rest of the time we'd be better off putting our best 5 out there.
On offense, I am fine with Fulce being a wing player. We already score enough points to win games and I don't think that will be a problem next year either. It's more on defense where I would like Fulce to give a lot of minutes covering the other team's center so Jimmy does not get worn down.
I was at the games on Friday, and I had the same curiosity about the interior play. Unfortunately, these up-and-down games can go several trips down the floor with one-pass possessions (and in many cases 'no-pass' possessions). The big guys are not rewarded at all for running the floor and establishing position. Half the time the shot is up before they cross the foul line. So their best chance to contribute offensively is crashing the boards or finishing on a late dish. I don't mean to complain though. The Pro-Am was a lot of fun.
As for Chris Otule...I root for Chris as much as anybody, but he must develop stronger hands. He had a few balls slapped away. Granted, the officiating may have been loose. I'd love to see him go incredible-Hulk style and emerge from a scrum with a thunderous dunk. He had a nice follow up dunk on a missed dunk by Trend. It looked like something from a Harlem Globetrotters game.
Watching Chris, Trend, and Grimm crash the boards against an undersized opponent was pretty fun. They were tipping the ball around like it was a game of keep-away on the playground. Their opponent had 3 guys under 6 feet - including one particularly tough guy who may have had Acker by an inch - so it was tough to judge the rebounding.
I saw Gardner play too. I was actually impressed with his feet, but appears to have very little lift. That may take some time to develop, but his feel for post positioning should help him avoid blocked shots to an extent. Soft touch in deep as well. In regard to size, he has slimmed down considerably since those high school videos were posted. In terms of height, I agree with the previous poster that he's about as tall as Jamil Wilson. I look forward to seeing him in the non-conference match-ups.
Speaking of Jamil...he was a standout physically. Taller than I thought. Lean, but strong. Incredibly swift moving around the court.
Also, I found myself standing next to a handful of players as we waited for a break in the action to take our seats. These guys are so much bigger in person than I ever realized. Erik Williams looked like he was wearing shoulder pads as he walked by me. DJO looked shorter than I expected, but his .1% body fat makes him a living anatomy chart. I knew Junior was stout, but he is taller than I realized. Byckes is too tall to be as quick as he is, its unfair. Vander walked by me as I entered the gym and I did a double take because I was expecting him to be skinnier.
All in all, the overall length of the team should be good at all 5 spots. I hope that translates into a good rebounding team. I do not expect a low post scorer this year, but I'll be happy if Chris gets a handle on some dishes and finishes at the FT line as Gardner's game develops.
Assuming that CO stays healthy we are still going to be a long way from the kind of size Syracuse had last year. That said we can get by at the 5 if we have a guy that can at least offer the other BE level center some resistance when we are on defense and some threat on O so their 5 can't just sit in the lane waiting for our guys to drive. For 20 minutes a game CO should be that guy if he stays healthy. After that its true we go back to "small ball" BUT keep in mind the other team's starting 5 has to sit as well and the backups are likely to be either more our size or not real skilled. That is a lot different than trying to play a whole game small against a team like Syr. As far as Gardner I'm hoping he is like a year ahead of where Dwight Burke came in. By the 2nd half of junior year Burke was serviceable. If Gardner could get to the same level by 2nd half Soph year that would be fine (so I don't think that is asking too much). It does mean that despite all the high expectations of the talent and the perimeter guys we are recruiting for 2011-2012 we still need a 6'10" or bigger 5 to join the team by the time CO starts his senior year if we are building towards an elite level team.