Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Gametime at the Garden

Sorry I've been slacking off lately, but a few other things have required my time. Now to the issue at hand. Tonight, Weds. November 21st, the 'Cuse heads to NYC to take on Ohio State at Madison Square Garden.


The Syracuse Orangemen vs. The Ohio State University Buckeyes

It looks to be another rumble, and a good test for our young kids. Seeing some top competition this early in the season can only be a good thing and I'm sure we'll learn from it win or lose.

First off a recap of our season stats:

Player

PPG

RPG

APG

SPG

TO

FG %

3PT %

A:TO Ratio

Donte Greene

19.0

8.3

1.3

1.0

3.3

0.553

0.421

0.4

Eric Devendorf

16.0

3.0

4.0

1.7

3.3

0.500

0.385

1.2

Arinze Onuaku

13.7

5.3

0.0

0.3

1.0

0.667

0.000

0.0

Jonny Flynn

13.0

3.3

7.7

1.0

2.0

0.538

0.700

3.8

Paul Harris

12.7

11.7

4.3

1.7

4.3

0.444

1.000

1.0

Rick Jackson

6.3

2.0

0.0

0.0

0.3

0.750

0.000

0.0

Scoop Jardine

1.7

0.7

1.3

1.0

1.7

0.250

0.000

0.8

Kristof Ongenaet

0.7

1.0

0.3

0.3

1.0

0.250

0.000

0.3



Overall, we distribute points fairly evenly over the five starters. All five are in double figures. Its also good to have some low post guys who can score in Onuaku and Jackson. If we can maintain the scoring diversity we should be able to go a ways this year. Also, the A:T ratio shows that Flynn after his one bad 5TO game seems to alleviating that issue and is now at a 4:1 clip almost. People wonder why I have so much confidence with the ball in his hand (Sorry Josh)...

Now OSU's Season Stats. I'm going 3 deep on the bench based on playing time for comparison's sake.

Player

PPG

RPG

APG

SPG

TO

FG %

3PT %

A:TO Ratio

Kosta Koufos

18.5

7.5

1.0

0.5

1.0

0.619

0.667

1.0

Jamar Butler

17.5

5.0

6.5

1.5

1.0

0.550

0.500

6.5

David Lighty

17.0

6.0

4.0

1.5

1.5

0.625

0.333

2.7

Othello Hunter

12.0

8.0

1.0

0.0

1.0

0.579

0.000

1.0

Evan Turner

3.5

2.5

3.0

0.5

0.0

0.250

0.333

3.0

Kon Diebler

3.0

2.0

2.0

0.5

2.0

0.100

0.111

1.0

PJ Hill

2.5

0.5

0.0

0.0

0.5

0.250

0.500

0.0

Matt Terwillinger

2.5

3.0

0.0

0.0

2.0

0.500

0.500

0.0





As you can see, Koufos, this years version of Greg Oden for them, is their leading scorer. Contrary to the Cuse though, they rely primarily on Koufos, Butler and Lighty to make their buckets. Butler is their shooter, at 9-18 from behind the arc. Hopefully the zone stretches to him, and AO, Rick and Greene don't get out of position down low on Koufos.

Lighty is the slasher/scorer/midrange guy (Think Devo, but more apt to pull up).

Koufos is my major concern though. Rick and Arinze give up 3 inches to this guy, though both weigh as much as he does. If one of them can stay bodied up on him at all times, and use the physical game on both ends of the court that I have seen out of them so far, I think we may be able to get him in foul trouble early. Jackson and Onuaku have not shyed away from the physical game yet, and if they bang hard down low on Offense, they will both be getting to the stripe, as Koufos will have to go over them to defend anything.

Overall the post will be the key to this game, along with the obvious limiting of turnovers. If we can handle Koufos down low, while getting production out of our two big men, we come away victorious.