Going into Friday night’s game against Oklahoma, there wasn’t a single person among SU’s devoted fanbase who hadn’t heard of Blake Griffin and what he was capable of doing to the Orange. Sure enough, Griffin turned in another spectacular tournament performance, but the deadeye outside shooting of his teammates (specifically, the besleeved Tony Crocker) were the ones that put OU in cruise control. The Sooners went 9-21 from three point range, the only spot on the court from which Griffin didn’t dominate.

On the other end of the court, SU couldn’t buy a three in the first half. I can’t blame Devendorf and Rautings for not leaving the guns in their holsters in the first half, because many of their looks were good, if not wide open. Nevertheless, they clanked, they clunked, the rattled in and out – think of a way for a team to miss a three pointer and it happened to the Orange, while the Sooners swished seemingly everything it threw up. Read the rest of this entry »

After a four-day break that seemed more like four weeks, SU’s third round game against Oklahoma is finally upon us. All season long, the Orange have made the acquaintances of the country’s top big men – Hasheem Thabeet, DeJuan Blair, Cole Aldrich, Luke Harangody and Earl Clark, and now find themselves staring down the court at the pick of the litter, National Player of the Year and the projected top pick of this summer’s NBA draft, Blake Alabaster Griffin (shot in the dark on the middle name. It’s Austin. Damn, I was close). The catch? Griffin and his mythical teammates are in the exact same position with Syracuse’s lethal backcourt. Read the rest of this entry »

While there are still a few hours left…It’s a celebration, bitches! Feel the grit! We’ll be back with a preview of the Sweet 16 matchup before too long.

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So I’m at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas wrapping up an exciting weekend of basketball. In a handful of spots I’ve traveled to, I’ve found that the quality and quantity of the entertainment options available at a given city’s airport are inversely proportional to the quality and quantity of those offered in that city proper.

In Vegas, you know the deal, even if you’ve never been – there are dozens of possibilities in addition to the countless gaming opportunities, whether you’re looking for music, magicians or stand-up comedians. It’s also a safe assumption that there are topless variations on all of these.

In cities like Kansas City or Detroit, where you have to look hard for a good weekend out, the airports offer massive televisions, plenty of bars, free wireless and so on and so forth.

At McCarran, the wireless connectivity is spotty at best and there’s nary a sports bar, at least not within easy walking distance of my gate. These two things, I’ve found, are just about as good as it gets when it comes to time-killing at the airport, no matter where you are…unless there’s a tv on a Sony kiosk 20 feet from you rotating between music videos on loop of Shakira’s “Wherever, Whenever” and Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” in a white pantsuit. Score!

Apart from that, the weekend was great. People follow sports for many reasons, but one of the more common reasons is out of escapism. People go to Las Vegas for the exact same reason (amongst others), so when you combine the two, it’s really an incredible sight to behold. There’s something very amusing about watching otherwise rational fans scream bloody murder for a player from an underdog team losing by 20 points to foul a player from the favored team with 30 seconds left just so the favorite can get a chance to cover at the stripe.

Judging by all the congestion in the casinos, sportsbooks and lines for buffets, you’d have absolutely no idea the country’s in a recession. Amounts of money equal to the GDP’s of several countries being thrown around daily were the norm until recent times, but with the opening rounds of the NCAA tournament taking place, all the cash seemed to have resurfaced for at least one weekend. Go figure. I can only imagine what things were like before the economy tanked faster than Arinze Onuaku’s free throw percentage.

Speaking of AO, the thing I was most impressed with in the second round game was how Onuaku, Rick Jackson and Kristof Ongenaet totally locked up the paint. Against the Sun Devils, SU gave up just 8 points in the paint. The Lumberjacks scored 27 in the lane in the first round, but a lot of those points came while SU snoozed in the second half. Not that it can’t be written off, but we all know how disinterested the ‘Cuse can get when it has a big lead against a no-name opponent. Either way, the inside performance means a lot from a confidence standpoint because the back of the zone will have to be at its best against Blake Griffin and company Friday night.

The Orange is back in action tomorrow at 12:10 to face 6th seeded Arizona St.

The Sun Devils will be an intriguing matchup and offer a much more dangerous foe that SU’s first round opponent – Stephen F Austin.  Arizona St is lead by G James Harden who averages over 20 points per game.  He is a solid all around player and has the talent to not just play but suceed at the next level.  He is joined by forward Jeff Pendergraph as main cogs in the ASU offense.  Pendergraph shoots it extremely well and unlike our interior is an excellent foul shooter.  From the perimeter, Rihard Kuksiks is the main 3 point threat shooting it at 44% from beyond the arc.

The Sun Devils also like to employ a zone defense although it is not the same type of zone that the Cuse sees everday in practice.  Look for the Devils to employ a 3 -2 look that will spread out the perimeter and try and limit entry into the low post.  Rick Jackson and Arinze Onuaku will have to be at their very best to keep ASU from controlling the boards.  Point guard Derek Glasser is not a huge scorer but if he gets 22 like he did in ASU’s opening round win over Temple, the Orange will be in a world of hurt.

There seems to be an abundance of storylines.  Harden and Flynn reliving some fun times in ABCD camp over dinner.  Herb Sendek, coach of ASU and JB go pack to Herb’s early years in the BE with Providence.  And of course the looming cloud of health over the Orange team, with JT, Kong and possibly Andy suffering from effects from the flu.  Also a concern for ASU is the potential East Coast time zone effects of playing a virtual 9am game.  UCLA fell to Nova in a similar setting today.  It will be interesting to see if the same thing applies to tomorrow.

Compliments of the AP

The Orange came out strong from the get go and ran off to a relatively easy 59 – 44 win over the Lumberjacks of Stephen F Austin.  The Cuse was just too good athletically against the smaller Lumberjacks.  The tone was set on the opening possessions of each half.  Rick Jackson and Arinze Onuaku had emphatic blocks that epitomized the athletic disparity between the two teams.

SFA’s two main cogs, Josh Alexander and Matt Kingsley combined for 10 points.  The Lumberjacks were content to chuck up 21 3 pointers, hitting just two.  The game was never in doubt.

But it wasn’t all sunshine and happiness out there.  The Cuse committed an atrocious 21 turnovers, mainly by trying to make the trivial look superlative.  There was too many one on 4 forays by Jonny Flynn and Eric Devendorf.  Also the Orange managed to hit just 2 of its 16 three point attempts.  Andy Rautins looked like he left his legs at MSG coming up short on all of his 6 three attempts and all of them of the wide open variety.

The good news is that the team was able to cruise without having to play Kristof Ongenaet who came down with flu like symptoms before the game.   Hopefully this doesn’t spread across the team.

Syracuse plays the winner of Temple and Arizona St on Sunday.

Well, it sure is nice to be previewing Syracuse as an NCAA tournament team. After a two year absence the Orange is back in the tournament as a #3 seed in the South taking on NCAA newcomer Stephen F Austin. Game time is set for 12:15pm Friday in Miami.

What do you know about Stephen F Austin?

Well, the first thing that jumped into my head was this: “Steve Austin, astronaut, a man barely alive.  Gentlemen, we can rebuild him.  We have the technology…”  And that’s before we even get to Stone Cold Steve Austin.  But alas, the university is named for the Father of Texas, as is the capital of Texas.

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Sean over at Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician already went with the Schoolhouse Rock standby “Three Is A Magic Number,” so I had to come up with a different song involving 1970′s television and the number three.

The brackets are finally out, and as an Orange fan, you can’t be much happier to see a three next to SU. While you spend your Monday morning poring over your pool brackets and inventing illnesses that will enable you to leave work early on Friday, here are a few quick thoughts.

It looks like the Orange’s historical performance in Madison Square Garden last week was rewarded on a few levels:

1. Seeding

SU went from being projected as a fifth or sixth seed and climbed all the way up to a three. Even after the UConn marathon, I didn’t think SU could get any higher than a four seed without beating Louisville, but the committee believed otherwise.

2. SU Is The Only Big East Team In The South Region

The Midwest has Louisville and West Virginia, the West has UConn and Marquette and the East has Pitt and Marquette. SU had a sparkling 11-1 record in non-conference play (12-1 if you count the Le Moyne win) and took its lumps in conference play. When you consider the strength of the conference, it’s a nice sigh of relief to see no other Big East teams in the region. Sure, taking down UConn in six overtimes, beating West Virginia the next night in another overtime and controlling Louisville for the first half on Saturday does wonders for the team’s confidence against conference foes, but I like to think the selection committee did Syracuse a favor here.

That’s not to say that there aren’t any teams in the South good enough to beat SU, or that SU isn’t capable of putting up a stinker against a lesser team, but I think that not having another Big East team in the bracket definitely helps SU’s chances through the first four rounds.

3. Syracuse Is Scheduled For The Second Day of First-Round Action

Will one extra day of rest make a difference? In the short run, probably not since even on short rest, the Orange would likely roll over Stephen F. Austin, but when you look back to 2006, the Orange won the conference tournament on a Saturday and looked absolutely spent as it lost to Texas A&M the following Thursday.

Looking at the teams seeded higher than SU in this year’s South region, there are the powerful Oklahoma Sooners and a UNC team that loves to turn every game into a high-scoring track meet. You also can’t discount teams like Clemson, Gonzaga and Arizona State. With that in mind, the fatigued ‘Cuse squad needs every minute of rest it can get.

March hath arrived.

Last night, college basketball fans were treated to something that will not happen again for a long time. The Big East’s longest ever game on the conference’s biggest stage, pitting the conference’s two most successful coaches against one another. Six overtimes, nearly four hours in real time, 67 minutes played by Jonny Flynn, 93 combined free throw attempts, and the Orange had the lead in overtime exactly zero times before Andy Rautins’ three shortly after the final extra frame began.

Gaudy stats aside, everyone pulled their load and then some in this game. It seemed like someone different was keeping SU in the game every time it was needed, whether it was Andy Rautins hitting a 3, Jonny Flynn feeding Rick Jackson, Paul Harris finally redeeming himself after botching bunny after bunny at the end of the 4th overtime, or Kris Joseph and Justin Thomas coming off the bench ice cold and keeping the Huskies at bay. AO even connected on both ends of a trip to the free throw line late in regulation.

Jim Boeheim said that he has never been more proud of a team than this group and right now, I can’t argue otherwise. SU played with the drive you would expect of a team in need of a win to make the Big Dance, but then you remember that SU didn’t have nearly that much to gain by winning this game. They could have very easily packed it in and said “oh well, we’ll get a nice week of rest for the tourney,” but they had more pride than that.

And after everything that happened, there’s another game Friday night (and maybe another one after that on Saturday). The team will obviously be gassed for its encore against the Mountaineers, and Orange fans may be disappointed to hear this game in and of itself hasn’t knocked UConn out of the running for a 1-seed, so all you can do is stay geared up for the run while it lasts.

By Sal Capaccio
www.SalSports.com

Some thoughts and information collected from press row of Gerry McNamara’s personal playground…….

—On a positive note. I was told by a couple people that Iowa State transfer Wesley Johnson looks absolutely amazing in practice for the Orange. “They’ll definitely find a lot of minutes for him next year,” once source said. He could even make the starting lineup. Word is Johnson has freakish athletic ability and is a personal highlight reel sometimes at practice. Think Paul Harris with a good mid-range game! That’s a scary thought. Johnson does everything well. Dribble, pass, shoot, rebound. But it’s his leaping ability that had one source’s eyes popping out at me when he was telling me about him. “He can jump through the roof,” I was told. The only concern with Johnson is that he’s been a living transfer student his whole life. Several different high schools and now again moving colleges. Lucky for SU fans he cannot transfer again. But if his game is really that good, he could be a one-and-done player for ‘Cuse. Johnson will be considered a junior with two years eligibility remaining when he finally suits up for the Orange next season.