Preseason Thoughts

Two inferior opponents, two blowouts in the books.  Obviously, these games need to be taken with a grain of salt the size of the piles outside the American Rock Salt Factory about this time of year.  I mean, Baye Moussa Keita scored 14 points in a single game.  He usually doesn't score that much in a month. Still, it was good to see Syracuse take care of business, win these games handily, and escape with no injuries.   And beyond that, here's a couple quick observations on what might translate from these games to the regular season when it begins next week:

-  Looks like Syracuse is going to have a nice, balanced scoring attack again this season.  6 players in double-figures against Pace and 5 more against Bloomsburg.

-  Triche looked really good, especially today.  He was aggressive in looking for his shot and getting in the lane.  With all the losses we have from last years offense, we will need Triche to carry that over all season long.

-  Triche, Carter-Williams, and Fair all look determined to get into the lane and know what to do when they do get their.  Whether it's Triche's strength, CW's length, or Fair's touch, they all got into the lane early and often.  That could be important in the opening game with the potential for wind to be a factor.

-  Apparently Rakeem Christmas is trying to pull off the James Harden look this year.

  

Or as it is better known...

   + 

At least he can't demand a max contract and force Syracuse to trade him to a conference rival like Connecticut.

-  James Southerland looked reallllly confident in his shot.  This isn't really surprising, I mean this is the same guy I affectionately called "Mid-Major James" until about 3/4 of the way through last season for his tendencies to destroy the non-conference schedule and then disappear against tougher competition.  Hopefully, he keeps it up throughout the season and avoids his patented cold streaks.

-  Trevor Cooney had a quiet two games.  He was out on Thursday, recovering from a tonsillectomy, but returned for today's games.  He missed both his 3's in the first half, but got off the snide in the second half with a couple threes.  I also got extremely giddy every time the ball went to him behind the arc.

-  Lindsey decided that the reason I like Trevor Cooney so much is because he kind of looks like me.  And by that, I assume she means short and white.

-  DaJuan Coleman went 6-7 from the free throw line.  It will nice to see a big man with some touch from the charity stripe after suffering through the likes of Fab Melo, Arinze Onuaku, and Rick Jackson and their Shaq-like prowess at the stripe.

-  Coleman, however, did not look nearly as nice on the wing of the zone.  I don't see how he can play anywhere other than the center spot of the zone, he just doesn't have the athleticism, speed, or experience to cover the wing.  Especially today it seemed like it was all too easy to pump-fake and get around him.  That may fly for now, but not against better teams.  It will be interesting to see how the playing time / positions shake out in the front court.

-  A couple final thoughts on DaJuan Coleman...

He has to be in the starting line-up of the "Looks approximately 46 years older than he really is" team, right?  I'm going to go ahead and nominate him, along with Lebron James and Greg Oden.

Also, when was the last time a Syracuse player had so much ink?  Devendorf maybe?  Even he didn't seem like he had quite as many tattoos as DaJuan.  Am I forgetting somebody?  Maybe Terrance Roberts?

-  We only got to see it broken out a little bit, but this team could have a scary press defense when / if they need to use it.  Between the wingspan and speed of players like Carter-Williams and Southerland, they can cover a lot of ground in a hurry.

All in all, everything looked good and I can't wait for Friday night when we get to see if it all translates against a top 20 team.