Rautins Shines In Another Sound Victory
So much for that bum ankle. Wednesday night, Andy Rautins led SU in another blowout, scoring 22 points in 20 minutes with a red-hot 7-10 performance beyond the arc, brushing aside all who doubted his health status going into the game against Robert Morris. It’s always a good thing when you have a starter totaling more points than minutes played*.
*This has happened just four other times this decade, after some cursory research:
1. Gerry McNamara, in his memorable game against BYU in the 2004 NCAA Tournament (43 points in 37 minutes)
2. Paul Harris, against Colgate last season (22 points in 21 minutes)
3. Preston Shumpert against Binghamton in 2001 (36 points in 28 minutes)
4. Shumpert again, against Albany in 2000 (30 points in 28 minutes)
Big ups to statsheet.com, where you can find a very thorough archive of college basketball stats going back to the late 90′s. They don’t archive stats going back this far, but I have to think Lawrence Moten turned the trick at least as many times as Shumpert.
Back to Wednesday’s game, you have to love the shooting night enjoyed by SU: 64.5% in the first half, 58.3% for the game, and a scorching 50% from beyond the arc. Syracuse scored only five fewer points in the first half than RMU scored all game. No complaint here.
The Orange clamped down on defense once again, forcing 28 Colonial turnovers and holding Robert Morris to a paltry 35.5% from the field on the night. They had no answer for SU’s perimeter attack both on offense and defense. Brandon Triche showed nice improvement from his debut and looked much more at ease with his first game behind him. He and Scoop Jardine combined for 18 points, 16 assists and four turnovers in 38 minutes. I think we may have the makings of a two-headed monster at the point. When calm and unnerved, both players do a very good job of passing, ball-handling and get to the basket efficiently to dish as well as finish on their own occasionally. Scoop being slightly more productive on the defensive end, but having Brandon out there won’t hurt either.
In the frontcourt, Rick Jackson and Arinze Onuaku each put up double-figure scoring efforts without much of a problem. Wesley Johnson, showing off his athleticism, flushed a few slams, including a spectacular finish on a set lob on an inbounds play. He added 4 more steals and now has more thefts in his first two games with SU than Donte Greene had in his first nine games. That’s not a totally fair comparison to make, since Johnson played two years at Iowa State, but I still think it’s very impressive.
Holding a 25 point lead a few minutes into the second half, Boeheim got a very long look at his bench. Mookie Jones, the goat of the Albany game, if there is such a thing for the winning side of a blowout, ended up leading the SU bench in scoring with eight points to go along with five rebounds. His closest competitor for playing time, James Southerland, had an identical 2-5 shooting performance but also added three blocks. Right now, I give Southerland a slight edge in the battle, but it was nice to see a passable outing for Mookie as well.
Elsewhere with the freshmen, DaShonte Riley played 17 minutes and pulled down six rebounds, which ended up being enough to lead the team in that category. For the game, SU outrebounded Robert Morris by just four. At first glance, that would appear to be cause for concern, but then you remember that Boeheim deployed a smaller lineup for the last 1/3 of the game and in the end, you can’t be too worried. For the Orange, it was a chance to get the young players’ feet wet in a situation without much pressure and continue to get a clear picture of what those more inexperienced players need to work on. I mentiond that the guards played with more ball control, but the team still turned the ball over 24 times to Robert Morris’ 21. That can’t happen against legitimate opponents like the ones SU will see next week. On a similar note, It’s silly to expect SU to force 30 turnovers a game all season, but they’ve done a fantastic job of trapping in the open floor as well as using the sidelines to “create” an extra defender.
SU now gets a lengthy break before making a trip to their second home to take on Cal at Madison Square Garden next Thursday. If all goes according to plan, Tobias Harris will have a very good view of the ‘Cuse bench.
Lastly, Mazel Tov to Eric Devendorf, who is bound for Israel according to ESPNU’s announcers. Whether or not you were hoping for Devo stay at Syracuse after last April, his NBA prospects never really developed, so it’s great to see him get a shot at making a career out of basketball somewhere.
