Cuse Country

There’s only one thing worth talking about after last night’s game against Ohio State.

I don’t want to hear about Jonny Flynn’s Oh-fer, I don’t want to hear about bricking open threes. I don’t want to hear about lack of bench production, I don’t want to hear about untimely turnovers. Nobody need bother talk to me about awful shooting percentages or Devo’s questionable shot selection. None of this concerns me. There’s only one thing that matters; only one word I want to hear about:

Defense.

Defense, defense, defense. DEFENSE.

None of the other predictable weaknesses that reared their head last night come even close to being as important as what was going down on the defensive end of the court last night. It was simply atrocious. I saw a total collapse in every aspect: effort, intensity, fundamentals, rotations, passion, desire, reaction. It was all gone. The most basic of skills and concepts were utterly absent. If they play defense in the Big East like they did last night, we can forget about the NCAAs. So we should be thankful this ugly side reared its head early so the team can acknowledge its issues and learn from it.

After the break, I officially become the first Syracuse blogger to talk shit about Donte Greene:

Here’s another thing I don’t want to hear from anyone: that Donte Greene had a good game. He did not. I repeat: he DID NOT. Same with Onuaku, who sure as hell better not be happy with himself for putting up double digits again. Onuaku and Greene combined for 33 points, but collectively gave up something in the range of 40-50 points. Onuaku looked totally lost and overmatched, and eventually seemed to stop trying. Donte at least hit the boards, but he couldn’t guard my grandmother on the three point line right now. Arinze has been a major revelation on the offensive end, and Greene’s offensive talents are nearly Carmeloesque, but the two of them were miles from competent last night during the 50% of the game spent on the defensive end. Arinze seems to tire himself out working so hard to get his offense in gear (not only did I see him not getting back on defense, a few times he didn’t even get back on offense); and Greene appeared to simply lack basic defensive skills and awareness. If Donte doesn’t make major progress on the defensive end his early NBA aspirations are going to be nothing but a pipe dream. How’s he going to check an NBA SF or PF when he can’t check an Ohio State backup? If he plays like he did last night, he needs to put up 30 every game just to get his plus-minus to zero.

Some credit: Paul Harris played great in every aspect of the game. He looked like he cared on defense, and he never stopped flying around. Also, Devo wasn’t so bad. Not particularly good, but not awful. He played a Devo type game, but his shot wasn’t on, which is going to happen from time to time. If it wasn’t for the turnovers he would have been a bright spot. We know he’s not a lock down defender, so there’s going to be times when people blow by him; but overall he wasn’t a glaring weakness on defense yesterday. The problem is, if Flynn is going to have people blow by him all night, and if he’s not going to get a hand up in shooters’ faces, that means both of our guards are defensive liabilities. We can’t afford that. Flynn needs to use his superior athleticism and speed to be a better defender. I think he can do it, and it’s good that now he knows how far he has to go. My only concern is that at his height it looked like Ohio State’s guards were having no trouble getting clear sight-lines over his outstretched hand. Because of that Jonny needs to be just that much faster to the ball. He has a lot of work ahead of him.

The endless open three pointers weren’t only the guards fault. The forwards (read: Donte) weren’t flashing out or were way too late. Meanwhile the endless wide open inside baskets weren’t only the front line’s fault. If the guards stop the penetration then it’s not so easy to slip open on the back line. It was a collective failure last night. I know we took way too many threes and bricked way too many of everything, but honestly those problems will take care of themselves. When you’re playing well in all facets, the shots will start to drop. I’m not concerned about that in the slightest, and Jimmy will get the shot selection issues sorted out; he’s always been good at that. But the defense, as predicted, is the number one issue on the plate of this team right now, and if we don’t see improvement real quick, we’re going to earn loss #2 to Washington tomorrow.