[BasketballJunkie224Participant]

is it me or do many of syracuse’ highly touted big guys not make it to the nba. With the exception of hakim warrick, nobody in recent memory has played in the nba. Fab melo but its kinda a flip flop with him from dleague to nba so i dont even wanna count him yet. But rick jackson i thought couldve, rakeem xmas has had his stock just go downhill like a bowling ball falling off a bridge. dujuan coleman dosnt look like he is going to get much better. Idk, i mean do you guys think it is syracuse fault or are these guys just not good enough for the L? and this is based on the past 10 years or so. Not saying cuse big guys never made it

[cuseflynn10Participant]

Rick Jackson wasn’t as highly touted a prospect as the other players. Rakeem Christmas has always been raw offensively, and he doesn’t know how to communicate as the middle man in the zone, which is the primary reason he doesn’t get more minutes. Fab Melo came in out of shape but worked his way into becoming one of the best bigs in the country by the second year, but he too had a raw offensive game. He may be able to contribute defensively for an NBA team down the line. As for Dajuan Coleman, he is both out of shape and has knee problems. He’ll need to get better conditioned in the offseason if he wants to see the court next year. Rakeem and Baye Moussa Keita will both still be in Orange next season, so Coleman will have to prove to Boeheim he deserves more minutes or else he may not get a crack at the starting lineup until he’s a junior, which I’m guessing wasn’t his plan when he originally committed to Syracuse.

[BenchWarmerParticipant]

Lots of cuse guys in general for me. Donte Greene, Wesley Johnson and Johnny Flynn are all first rounders that I thought would be impact players, but were more meh players. Johnny Flynn could have and still could make it in the league if put in the right situation.To me he was a P&R pg that was put in Kurt RRambis’ “triangle offense”. Then it seemed he wasnt given a chance. I think the spurs should give him a chance.
Got off base here a little but to me Cuse guys generally disappoint me. There are exceptions tho

[BenchWarmerParticipant]

Wesley johnson I think could still become a solid player but still hasnt met my expectations.

[phila9012Participant]

Wes johnson is a bum. He can’t shoot or dribble.His only offense is his athleticism and he is turning 26 in july. He is an above average defender because of his athleticism. He has barely shown any improvement since his first year in the league. He is like a poor mans version of ronnie brewer.

[SiggyParticipant]

Boeheim could very well be the most overrated coach of all time given his # of wins. ‘Cuse’s style is very simple on both ends of the floor. His defense never changes. Its predicated on the physical size and length of it’s players. It doesn’t do much to help prepare his players for the next level outside of maybe some help principles. His offense has very few complexities as well. Can anyone even describe what they tried to accomplish offensively or the tactics they used to try to accomplish that?

I think that’s one of the reasons why his players tend to not pan out. What do they learn while they’re there? His style is way too simple IMO.

[machu46Participant]

Honestly, I think it’s more of a case of Syracuse landing some overrated recruits. Big men are tough to evaluate in high school because they usually have a huge size advantage.

Examples:

DaJuan Coleman came in as one of the highest ranked big men in the country. However, watching him this year, he has zero touch around the rim, can’t defend at all, and really struggles to hang onto the ball. The only thing that he is legitimately good at right now is rebounding.

Rakeem Christmas is a great shot blocker, but he has to lead the country in missed dunks. Doesn’t have much of a post game, again, has no touch around the rim, and while he blocks a lot of shots, he also misses on a lot of blocks, which takes him out of position for rebounding.

Regarding Wes Johnson, he was a great college player, but he was like McLemore in the sense that he was a pretty good shooter and he was very athletic, but he couldn’t create his own scoring. Drafting a guy to be a scorer that doesn’t really have an ability to create scoring is a disaster waiting to happen.

[BasketballJunkie224Participant]

i like cuse a lot but i agree that boeheim is an overated coach absolutely. i mean of course i dont know how he coaches his kids cause im not in that locker room but his game coaching and actions(or non actions) dont really make him seem like a very good coach. like i said, who knows what hes saying but he seems so nonchalant about everything. if someone makes a mistake he will say in the calmest manner ever ‘what the F are you doing?’ everytime every single time. and then when theres a foul on someone he will just squint his eyes. i dont know, i feel like he dosnt really do much. like if he was a coach at a mid major program then i dont think that thier record would be much different even tho hes ‘one of the all time great coaches’ just 1 mans opinion

[machu46Participant]

I feel like that’s part of what makes him a good coach though. There isn’t one coaching style that’s guaranteed to work with every kind of player. I think a lot of players respond well to his more stoic style. It’s almost like he’s never really nervous because he’s been around so long that he’s been through it all before.

Also, I think one example of a guy that probably was a good fit with Boeheim is MCW. If Boeheim was a screamer and just yelled at him all the time, I honestly don’t think MCW would have reacted well. He’s a very emotional player, and seems like he’s at his worst when he puts more pressure on himself.

And a lot of people argue that he isn’t a good coach because his players aren’t that successful in the NBA, but that’s honestly one of the things that makes him such a good college coach IMO. He’s had so few NBA players, and yet he’s one of the winningest coaches of all-time.

[Ghost01Participant]

I just think if you look at the post-Melo Cuse teams, they really haven’t had any stars, except Jonny Flynn, and his NBA career hasn’t been too impressive. I hate blaming coaches for NBA success, that is not in their resume and there’s really no correlation. It comes down to how good the players actually are, what teams they go to, and how they work with their new team. I’m not a Boehiem fan, but if anything, it is more impressive that he basically has this team in the top 10-12 every year with no NBA talent. But again, other than Flynn, who were you all legitimately surprised didn’t light the NBA on fire?

[Bmore_DCParticipant]

Syracuse recruits players that fit THEIR system…they dont care about how their players will do in the NBA (why should they?) The reality is, the system makes these players look a lot better than they really are. The 2-3 zone disguises individual defense, so guys like Johnny Flynn and Wes Johnson look great till they have to play man-to-man. This is especially true offensively, because the zone gets you easy, transition buckets. So of course the more athletic, long players thrive there.

As far as the big men being over-rated…there are two sides to the argument. You cant criticize them for guys like Rick Jackson not developing when they also make guys like Keita look great (at times). The zone may hamper some players defensively, but i really blame Christmas for his own short-comings.

For all the busts they have had, they also have a bunch of over-acheivers (Hakim Warrick). So i like i said, there is 2 sides to this argument.

And if you really think Boehiem is over-rated then you dont know what you are talking about. He is SECOND ALL TIME in wins in college basketball HISTORY. Have some respect!

[theballerwayParticipant]

once that stop hes fired , They win, consistently.

I thought Wes Johnson would be better and I love the BMac comparison too(except hes shorter).
I still expect good thing from Coleman btw

[Moon RiverParticipant]

I think Jerami Grant has the most potential of the existing bigs on the roster. He did not get many minutes late in the season, but when Southerland was suspended he played a lot of minutes and played very well. Much better basketball IQ than Christmas or Coleman, but as was pointed out Coleman is out of shape and hurt, so his body of work is really small.

Next year rides on Tyle Ennis. It scares me to have a true freshman PG, but they have nothing in the roster pipeline. Selfishly, I would love to see what the team does with MCW back, but realistically, MCW is in the Association next year.

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