March Mediocrity

With about six minutes to go in today’s loss at Notre Dame, Donte Greene fouled out. But really, it was a net gain when he went to the bench, because it’s better for him to do nothing on the bench than on the court. At least that way we were playing five on five. I don’t mean to lay all of this on Donte, but in the eight conference losses, Greene has shot 22 percent from beyond the arc. And those aren’t just missed shots; they’re typically turnovers, because a 6-11 forward is twenty plus feet away from the boards. Matt says he hopes Donte jumps to the NBA, because his play is so selfish. He rarely passes to advance the ball, but only to give it up when for some reason he can’t get his shot off. But after the past year, I can’t see how anyone drafts him, certainly not with the expectation that he’s ready to play. Soft play inside; lazy passes leading to turnovers; out of position on defense leading to dumb fouls. I’m ambivalent, because a big man who can shoot from the outside can create havoc for most defenses. But in truth, this is a project, and we’re going to need major improvement if he sticks around.

Used to be that we always looked forward to March. Orange always made the tournament, and in Boeheim’s tenure, made it to the Final Four three times. So once football season ended, usually with an anticlimactic Super Bowl, and the excitement of the swimsuit issue had passed, we settled in for the end of the conference season, for the Big East tournament, for selection Sunday to learn the seeds, and then for the big dance, March Madness, the road to the Final Four. All that.

But things have changed. No more is Cuse assured a place in the tournament. Probably, this March, for the second straight year, we’ll be playing in the NIT. I don’t remember last time that happened two years in a row. But with the Big East so tough, with so many mid-majors improving to the point where they’re competitive with the best of D-1, and then this year, with injuries to Devo and Rautins, the NIT is really all we could reasonably hope for. I mean, after all, this is really a freshman team that’s playing. Of the seven scholarship guys, four are frosh; one (KO) is playing in D-1 for the first time; another (AO) is getting major playing time for the very first time; and only one guy (PH2) had any real D-1 experience before the season. OK, I recall the fab five going all the way to the finals, but the fab five were unique. Our guys have had a pretty good year for a bunch of freshmen, with a short bench, with no upper class leadership to rely on in close games, and with two great shooters going down with injuries.

In fact, if we want to look at things from the silver lining perspective, today was another close game were we in, until the end, against a ranked opponent, on the road. Plus, ND shot the lights out. Fifty-five percent from the field; fifty-six percent on three-balls. McAlarney an unbelievable 9 for 11 beyond the arc, some of those shots from way beyond the arc. Despite that, Cuse was within six late in the game. If we had knocked down a few more lay-ups; if Flynn had hit a couple more threes…. We played G-Town and UConn close; we were in the Louisville game till the very end. This short-handed group of freshmen has, all things considered, played pretty well this year.

Matt says this year is really just next year’s pre-season. It’s a two-year, sixty-four game season, at the end of which we should be ready for the NCAA tournament. Only problem is that it’s making for a real gloomy winter.