AP Photo/Kevin Rivoli
Three basketball games, three wins. None of them very pretty, especially an 11-point win over Detroit last night. Against Canisius it was the speech to end all speeches from Jim Boeheim.
‚ÄúRight now, we‚Äôre the most overrated team that I‚Äôve ever had. Right now. And I‚Äôm a little shocked that everybody‚Äôs bought into this whole thing. We‚Äôve got a long ways to go. We are not a good basketball team.”
That was after a 19-point victory.
On a night the Orange actually trailed Detroit at the half, Boeheim had more gripes about his team:
“If somebody was guarding one of these guys, I might have some kind of an understanding. You’re in college, you’re not in high school. You have a scholarship. When they don’t guard you, you have to be able to make that shot. If you can’t, you shouldn’t be playing college basketball. That’s why guys don’t play.”
Gotta love The Per’fesser’s honesty. We all know this team isn‚Äôt as good as last year‚Äôs squad, but nobody has come out and said it. Tucker Max put it best when it comes to telling the cold, hard truth:
“No one is ever honest, but when you are, when you say the things everyone knows but won’t admit, it’s so shocking and amazing that the world can’t help but stop and look.
Oscar Wilde wasn’t kidding when he said, ‘If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.”’
Well, Boeheim does make us laugh. Whenever he pulls something out of the bag that’s not from Coachspeak 101, i’s our only reaction. He’s right though. The Orange shot less than 21% from the field in the first half and under 37% for the game. As for individual players:
Kris Joseph: 0-5
Brandon Triche: 2-8
Dion Waiters: 1-6
James Southerland: 1-9
Those are cringe-worthy numbers. Boeheim almost implied the rotation could be back to it’s usual seven players:
“I don’t mind if a guy takes a shot and tries to make it, but when they start aiming it and can’t get to the rim, then you’re not a college basketball player. We have some guys who need to figure out whether they are, or aren’t really quick because we don’t have a lot of time.”
Call it snark. Maybe it’s just Boeheim calling out his players without naming names. See it as whatever you like, but it‚Äôs the most effective way of getting things done.
He’s telling his team they’re not cutting it right now, and it’s up to them whether that changes. It’s a tough sell to call SU the 10th-best team in the country right now.
The Fizz foresaw this trouble a while back saying, “This season will be defined by lessons learned.”
We just didn’t think the lessons would be against Detroit.
Posted: Mike Couzens
