Robert Morris.
Columbia.
Colgate.
St. Bonaventure.
Oakland.
Rutgers.

These are just some of the teams who scored more points against the Orange than Georgetown’s 56 on Monday night. It’s not often that you see the 7th ranked team in the country spotted 14 points on the road right out of the gate against a top 5 team. It’s even less often to see the home team come back as quickly and defiantly, and then pour it on.

Yep, I think this one gets it: The Farley.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m going to spare everyone a regurgitation of stats and go big picture for this one.

I don’t think anyone will ever make a better (or worse?) enemy for Syracuse than John Thompson, but I get the feeling that this rivalry could be getting back towards the intensity level it had in the 1980s.* Maybe it’s the possibility of both teams playing as top-10 programs for the first time since 1989. Maybe it’s all the SU-Georgetown games I watched from that era on ESPN Classic over the last week. Either way, when I look at SU making a living in the top 5 all season and Georgetown putting aside its loss to Old Dominion by disposing of UConn and Pitt, I think this rivalry is ready to get back up to 11.

*As I was too young to have any memory whatsoever of those days, I won’t pretend to know everything about the golden age of the rivalry. From what I’ve read and been told, however, those games were some of the most outrageous, loud and hard-fought battles to ever take place in the Carrier Dome.

While the court stormings of 2007 and 2008 were exciting, they were more due to what they meant to SU’s tournament hopes than the fact that it was Georgetown, and 2009′s overtime victory also feels a little watered down because Georgetown had fallen off a cliff going into that game and never recovered. Going back further, Georgetown entered the dark ages after Allen Iverson left and didn’t really return to relevance until 2006, when SU was going through their own rough patch. Hating Georgetown will always be requisite for any SU fan, but having both programs experience concurrent success is ultimately good for the rivalry and the Big East as a whole.

That being said, tear their heads off Monday night – pack 30K in the Dome, pay no heed to Georgetown’s traveling sideshow of festering strumpets and lepers, and don’t let Austin Freeman within 50 yards of a Marshall Street eating establishment.

Saturday afternoon, we saw SU execute at their best, but we also saw them execute at their worst. The game plan was to go inside, and that’s just what the Orange did from the opening tip. In the second half, they abandoned the three altogether, taking just two attempts. When past SU teams would’ve blown possessions trying to get the long ball going or resort to dribble-driving through traffic, this year’s team made much smarter decisions and exploited the obvious size advantage down low, particularly in the second half.

Below is a rundown of a few possessions on both sides of the court, beginning with 12:15 left and the Orange leading 52-46. This series is one of the best I’ve seen from the Orange all season, not just because of the decision-making, but also because of the execution. Read the rest of this entry »

Simply put, Marquette is a team that just can’t catch a break this season.

They’ve lost four Big East games by a combined margin of six points, with two of those losses coming on last-second shots by the opposition. To boot, they just lost by one to DePaul as the Blue Demons broke their 0-24 Big East skid on Wednesday night. Their inability to close games out is reminiscent of the 2007-08 SU team, but without the excuse of a short bench resulting from injuries.

Yes, it’s easy to see why some of their fans are starting to creep up towards the ledge, but more reasonable fans see a team that stuck with #4 Villanova till the very end – twice in one week – and beat the Hoyas, who could be a top-ten team come Monday. Toss in a neutral court win against Xavier and what you have is the best 11-7 team in recent memory, with a KenPom rating higher than 9 teams in this week’s AP poll. Read the rest of this entry »

While close, down-to-the-wire finishes are always exciting to watch, I love games like Monday night’s win against the Irish. This game had a little bit of everything: a mini-3-point contest between Andy Rautins and Tim Abromaitis, a collective effort from the line highlighted by Arinze Onuaku sinking four free throws in a row, and another great night from Wesley Johnson. Of course, it wouldn’t be a true SU game without Tim Higgins making a blatant officiating error like allowing the wrong player to shoot technical free throws. It’s ok, Tim, I get Tory Jackson mixed up with oversized 16-year-olds like Abromaitis all the time. Happens to the best of us.

We didn’t see the balanced scoring attack we’re used to seeing on Monday night, with just three players hitting double figures, and Andy Rautins and Wes Johnson accounting for more than half of the Orange’s scoring. Hey, sometimes you just need guys to simply take over. It may not be a good habit to get into, but it’s great to have guys like Andy and Wes who can seize control when the supporting cast (I’m looking at you, Scoop and Rick) isn’t getting it done on offense.

Every game, I’m more impressed with Brandon Triche. One turnover in 27 minutes tonight in front of a hostile road crowd. Based on his play alone, it’s getting hard for Boeheim to take him off the court; then you factor in Scoop’s tepid-at-best play as of late, and it’s easy to see why Boeheim trusts the freshman as much as he does. Read the rest of this entry »

Two down, one to go. After topping Rutgers and West Virginia on the road, SU finds itself in South Bend, Indiana, playing for a rare sweep of a three-game conference road trip. It’s been 5 seasons since the Orange won three consecutive road games in conference play, but you’d have to go all the way back to 1990-91 for such a streak where the road games were consecutively scheduled, as they are in this instance. Read the rest of this entry »

The state of Rutgers basketball is reaching critical mass.

The fact that they haven’t been ranked in the equivalent of over ten full years is the least of their problems. First, the average RPI of the nine teams Rutgers has beaten this year is 230. Secondly, the Scarlet Knights lost center and building block Greg Echenique for the season to a detached retina, and then for good when he announced he was transferring. Lastly, the recent firing of former DePaul Head Coach Jerry Wainwright has Scarlet Knight fans clamoring for Athletic Director Tim Pernetti to follow suit and put Fred Hill out of his misery. Read the rest of this entry »

In a crazy week of college basketball, the Orange made sure they wouldn’t be among those who drop in the next poll by trouncing the USF Bulls on Sunday afternoon.

While the game was close for the first eight minutes, SU took command with a stellar run and before you knew it, we had a tune-up game on our hands. Rick Jackson converted most of his point-blank attempts (though I wish he would just flush the damn ball more often), AO was a perfect 5-5 from the field, Andy Rautins didn’t commit any turnovers* in 33 minutes and Brandon Triche enjoyed the most playing time he’s had since the Cornell game. Jim Boeheim said Triche would get plenty of run in the early part of the conference schedule, so this wasn’t that big a surprise. The surprise was that Triche outrebounded Rick Jackson and Arinze Onuaku.

Yeah, it’s a little fluky because AO was in foul trouble and only played 20 minutes, but SU has had rebounding issues for most of the season, and Onuaku and his four rebounds per game is one of the major causes behind that deficiency. Read the rest of this entry »

Wednesday night, the Orange did a very good job of putting Pitt in the rearview mirror and getting back on track with a good but not great win over Memphis. Sure, there were plenty of highlights…

• Kris Joseph having a Johnson-esque takeover in the second half
• Andy Rautins shaking off the cobwebs at the end of the first half
• Dominance in the paint until garbage time came
• Elliot Williams’ botched dunk, which helped key a 9-1 run to blow the game open

…but execution remained an issue on offense in the first half. Rick Jackson kicked it out to Willie Kemp to start a fast break, the problem being that Willie Kemp plays for Memphis. Brandon Triche looked like the freshman he is. Before Andy Rautins got going late in the first half, he made three turnovers right out of the gate, none of them being the result of anything I would call “rabid defense” by the Tigers. While he didn’t exactly flip a switch in the second half, Andy seems to be emerging from his most recent funk. Looking at SU’s next two matchups, at home against USF and a trip to the RAC, he’ll have a big chance to return to early-season form. Read the rest of this entry »

After three days of gathering themselves following yet another loss to Pitt, the Orange look to rebound against Memphis when the Tigers come to town to wrap up a home-and-home Wednesday night. Last season, SU notched a big road win at the FedEx Forum despite losing Eric Devendorf to a suspension. They did so largely by packing the zone inside and welcoming the Tigers to shoot a woeful 7-33 from beyond the arc.

Since then, a lot has changed for the perennial champs of Conference USA. John Calipari and Tyreke Evans skipped town, but Memphis gained one of the best non-Wes Johnson transfers in the country when Elliot Williams became eligible after leaving Duke. When you take a look at some of the Tigers’ team stats, they appear similar to last year’s team. Read the rest of this entry »