We’ve seen this movie before, a challenging but beatable mid-major team comes into the Dome and upsets an Orange team for its first loss of the season, but Cedric Jackson’s heave* gives him the award for Best Actor (or worst, depending on your perspective). While some fans may look at this game and see the loss as the result of a freak shot that bounced just the right way off the backboard, they can’t totally disregard it, because had Cedric Jackson’s toss missed, Cleveland State still would’ve have had a chance to win it in overtime.

*Considering how close journalists are to the action at games, they’re pretty bad at judging distance. I’ve seen reports that the shot was anywhere from 50 feet from the basket to 75. I can see some deviation, but 25 feet? It’s like a tall tale.

I think this loss amounts to something deeper than just a fluke shot finding the net, but it’s not reason enough to send me headed for the hills. The Orange did erase a five-point deficit in 25 seconds despite not having any offensive flow whatsoever, and there’s something to be said for that. Taking a few steps back, there is reason to be concerned, but not panicked.

All season long, we’ve seen SU grossly underperform in the first half, and it’s finally come back to bite them. Tonight, rebounding and turnovers were the guilty parties. CSU outrebounded Syracuse on the offensive glass 10-1 in the first half and committed just 5 turnovers to the Orange’s nine. While a hot-shooting team is more likely to make you pay for those mistakes than a team like CSU who shot 32% in the first half, it doesn’t make it okay to give them those extra chances.

Fortunately for Boeheim and his team, There are still opportunities to right this ship in time for conference play, but not many. There will only be one full day for this to dwell before the Orange try to wash its hands against Canisius. After that, it’s on to Memphis for what many see as the biggest non-conference game of the season now that Florida and Kansas are struggling. The Orange can either let this snowball into something worse or come out with a chip on its shoulder for the foreseeable future and play up to its potential instead of down to lesser teams.

The quote of the night comes from Boeheim: “We either start playing better early, or we’re going to have a very difficult time. We made great shots and great plays to get back in this, but you can’t put yourself in that position.”

You’d be hard pressed to find a follower of this team, whether it be a national or local beat writer, a fan or a lowly blogger, who doesn’t agree. This team has slumbered through the first half too many times for someone not to eventually take advantage and this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I’m sure Boeheim said something of this nature to his players in the locker room but more vehemently and probably with a few expletives thrown in for good measure, so as a fan, you have to hope it lit a fire.

There’s just one question left to ask:

Is Jackson or TJ Sorrentine the big spoon?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 at 12:38 am by Brian G. . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.