Wednesday’s 85-68 victory over DePaul turned out to be the good old-fashioned sound beating that most fans and writers were expecting. The Orange beat DePaul in nearly every category, in addition to the obvious score: shooting, three-point shooting, rebounding, assists, steals and even free throw shooting. In fact, when you go along the team totals in the box score, the only spot where DePaul topped Syracuse is in turnovers, and despite the rough start to the second half where SU turned the ball over five times in as many possessions, they only had one more turnover than the Blue Demons. In the end, the Orange stripped down the Blue Demons and made them look like something more indicative of the picture to the right.

About those early second half turnovers – When you have a team with the firepower of a Syracuse, and they commit five turnovers to start the second half and all you can salvage is a layup, you’re crippling your already grim chances. You’re also shooting yourself in the foot when you sink only one shot over the final 3:47 of the first half. Good teams, hell, even decent teams, execute and score points off turnovers and avoid prolonged droughts, and that’s the kind of thing you absolutely have to do to keep up with a squad that averages over 80 points per game. As hot as Syracuse was in the first half, DePaul wasn’t doing itself any favors.

Syracuse also had six players score in double figures, and if it wasn’t for the aforementioned slow start to the second half, I would proclaim this game as the most sound offensive performance of the year. Wing/fire hazard Andy Rautins continued his incendiary shooting and is now at a 56.8% (25-44) clip over his last four games, and has led the team in scoring in each of those contests. Devendorf, rather quietly, might I add, scored 13 and Arinze Onuaku looked like he was having the most fun on the court out of anyone, throwing authoritative dunks and even taking it coast to coast in the waning minutes.

Speaking of those three, and I hope I’m not speaking too early, but I think it’s high time to anoint this year’s junior class (would be senior if all three hadn’t redshirted a season apiece with knee injuries) as the most overachieving recruiting class in SU history. I know the postseason legacy isn’t there, so I’m not ready to put it ahead of the one-two punch of Carmelo Anthony and Gerry McNamara just yet. This is strictly in terms of performance vs. ratings and expectations.

According to Scout.com, neither Rautins nor Onuaku were rated, though Devendorf has lived up to expectations as the 8th-best shooting guard in his class. A quick aside on Devo’s ranking – only two of the seven players ahead of him in Scout’s SG rankings for the class of 2005 are still playing college ball (Danny Green of UNC and Lewis Clinch of Georgia Tech are the ones still in school). The other five (Gerald Green, Monta Ellis, Martell Webster, Louis Williams and CJ Miles) are all draft picks. Would Devo have left early as well had he finished last season and not torn his ACL? Maybe, but there’s no way to be sure.

On the other end of the spectrum, Rautins had nothing I would call competition from top programs, or even mid-majors. I’ve been trying to qualify his recent performance with the assertion that three point shooters are streaky by nature and that he’ll eventually come back down to earth, but with each passing game, I find myself lowering my guard just a little bit more. The upcoming grind of Big East games is going to be intriguing for many reasons, but I’ll be most interested in seeing how it affects Rautins’ performance.

Lastly, Onuaku was a three-star recruit coming in, ranked 37th at his position, and now he’s one of the best big men in the conference. Add in the fact that he turned down Pitt for a scholarship, and I’m that much more grateful that he plays for Syracuse.

If Saturday’s game against Rutgers was at home, I would be quick to look past it, but the Scarlet Knights have proven to be a surprisingly tough team at the RAC, losing close games to Pitt and Marquette. SU will have to wave bye-bye to the cupcake aisle because the mountain is about to get much steeper.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 12:35 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.