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.

GRADING THE ROAD TRIP

SU completed a rare sweep of three straight road games in conference play. While not very “gauntlet-y,” the victories will go a long way in the seeding discussions come March. I’ve graded each SU regular based on my observations and the listed stats from the trip. I get that the bench players aren’t being counted on to contribute as much as the starters etc., but I tried to “neutralize” the stats as much as I could. In other words, the grades aren’t relative to my expectations of a given player, simply performance over the last three games. If you disagree or agree, I encourage you to warm up the comments section.

Andy Rautins:
18.7 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 4.0 APG

For the record, Wes Johnson’s season stats include 16.8 PPG and 8.8 RPG, which helps convey how valuable Andy has been over the last week. He picked a great time to break out of a 14-44 three-point slump after a hot start. He still totaled one more turnover than assists (13/12) , but he wasn’t going to let Tim Abromaitis beat SU on Monday, as we saw in the first half when he scored 9 of SU’s first 11 points and had 15 by halftime. It isn’t hard to see why Boeheim has confidence in Andy when he picks up a couple quick fouls as he did against Notre Dame. The two dozen scouts in the crowd were just icing on the cake.

Grade: A

Wes Johnson:
15.3 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 4 turnovers in 113 minutes

He may not have much of a dribble-drive game (though he did make a couple nice moves through traffic), but you have to give Wes credit for knowing that himself and not putting the ball on the floor unless absolutely necessary. There was some fortunate timing in the schedule in that the team faced a lowly Rutgers team as Wes was recovering from food poisoning. A great game against the Irish boosts Wes’ grade from a B to an A-.

Grade: A-

Arinze Onuaku:
9.0 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 7-11 FT (63%), 2.3 SPG.

AO’s most impressive offensive contribution was his 5 made free throws against Notre Dame – the most points from the line for him since a pair of games in November 2007. I think it’s worth noting that those games were at home while Monday night’s game was in South Bend. Sure, it’s a small sample size, but I don’t think I’m too much of a homer when I say that he could be on his way to not being a liability from the line. AO lost track of Harangody a couple times when he camped out on the baseline, but otherwise played solid defense. Like Rautins, AO played well through early foul trouble against Notre Dame.

Grade: B

Brandon Triche
12.0 PPG, 5-10 3PT FG

Jim Boeheim’s been vocal about giving Brandon Triche serious minutes, and the freshman is starting to assert himself. Triche grew up a lot this week and played a key role in securing the wins in Morgantown and South Bend. We’re beginning to see why Boeheim anointed him as the starter before practice began. His ballhandling could be better, but for a freshman, I’m impressed by the balance of his confidence get to the rack without fear of contact in the lane and being a distributor.

Grade: B

Rick Jackson
4.6 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 46% FG

No one’s expecting Rick to play all season like he did against Florida, but he’s really struggling on offense. Considering how many point-blank scoring opportunities he had, it’s frustrating to see that his scoring average for the road trip was 5 full points below his season average. I know he played well defensively against West Virginia, but I’d like to see more consistency.  Though I don’t think Kris Joseph is going to take his spot in the lineup anytime soon, Rick has to finish better.

Grade: C

Now for the bench…

Kris Joseph
7.6 PPG, 2.3 RPG

Despite the unspectacular stats, Kris continued to emerge as a great slasher to compliment the outside attack of Andy Rautins and Wes Johnson and the brute inside game of Arinze Onuaku and Rick Jackson. Joseph has also become a dependable foul shooter which is a great asset when you get to the closing minutes and need to put games on ice. Joseph is still improving and as long as he’s only playing an ancillary role, that’s all I need to see.

Grade: B-

Scoop Jardine
7.3 PPG, 4.0 APG in 18MPG

Scoop lost some ground to Brandon Triche in the playing time battle in the past week. Between some poor decision-making in the closing seconds of the West Virginia game and the fact that he just couldn’t get going against the Irish, he hasn’t played like the type of player who deserves a lot of time. Can’t blame Boeheim here, and if Scoop is only going to get 18 minutes per game, I wouldn’t bicker much with 7 and 4 off the bench. He’s quick on the dribble-drive, but once he gets deep into the paint it becomes hard for him to finish.

Grade: C

Mookie Jones
Mookie played very well when given 22 minutes against Rutgers. He was accurate from beyond the arc and picked things up on defense, specifically 4 rebounds and 2 steals, but then you remember that this was against Rutgers and things fall back to Earth. Against West Virginia and Notre Dame, SU had chances to pull away and get him the opportunity for more playing time, but the Orange just couldn’t get the cushion Boeheim needed to feel comfortable going to Jones.

Grade: Incomplete, but something resembling a pulse on defense is encouraging.

The Orange now get a hard-earned break until Saturday’s home game against Marquette, easily the most underrated team in the conference.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 12:20 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.