Saturday’s landmark victory over Villanova was an exhibition of all the things that have made this season the joy it has been. A zone defense that gives the opposition absolutely nothing in the paint; Andy Rautins making backbreaking threes and handling the ball with poise; a completely balanced effort with no one player making life on either end of the floor difficult, except from the perspective of the other team.

The last of those points is what puts this team in a category with the teams of 1996, 2000 and 2003. Syracuse clobbered Villanova on Saturday night, yet six of the seven players to tally meaningful minutes scored in double figures. Read the rest of this entry »

Here we are. Conference play has flown like Wes Johnson through the air, and the Orange are sitting pretty with three games remaining, leading Villanova in the conference standings by one game. A win on Saturday would seal up SU’s first regular season conference title since the championship campaign of 2003, barring something disastrous against St. John’s and Louisville.

SU’s fanbase has this one covered. The surprisingly successful year has led to fans buying tickets in droves, so much so that Carrier Dome management declared the game “sold out” at a quantity of 34,616, the first sellout in the history of Dome basketball and setting the new standard for on-campus crowds weeks in advance. ESPN Gameday is in the Loud House.  We even have t-shirts! Gerry McNamara’s Senior Day four years ago will be long remembered for the crowd and dozens of Scrantonian buses, but it speaks volumes when the fans rally around the entire team like they have for this one, as opposed to one player. Read the rest of this entry »

For awhile there in the first half, I had flashbacks to TJ Sorrentine. Providence went 10-19 from three during the first half Tuesday night, many of those attempts coming from crazy distances or with Syracuse hands right in the shooters’ faces. While you knew that such a tear couldn’t last forever, this was not your typical basketball game. Providence is a team that scores in bunches, due more to a high number of possessions than shooting accuracy and offensive efficiency.

Fortunately, Syracuse’s defense to start the second half was spectacular and kept the Friars from keeping the game competitive. SU built a 16-point advantage thanks to a 26-5 over the first 9:30 of the second half and never looked back, thanks largely to spectacular performances by Andy Rautins and Rick Jackson

Andy was terrific – with the point guards being mostly absent yet again, he picked up their slack, dropping a season-high 28 points on the Friars, going 8-12 from long range (6-6 in the second half) and popping his dunking cherry about midway through the second half. When the Orange trailed in the first half, he gave them some momentum going into the locker room by canning a trey. In a fast-paced game with tons of possessions, Rautins turned the ball over just twice while playing all 40 minutes.

Down in the paint, Rick Jackson came to play, equaling Rautins’ scoring output for a career high himself. While obliging to match the pace the Friars set, the guards found Jackson often, and he had very little trouble converting 13 of his 17 attempts. The Friars weren’t nearly as quick getting back on D as they were running their gimmick offense, and when they did, they were grossly overmatched by Jackson and Arinze Onuaku, who chipped in a workmanlike 12 and 7.

Now, Syracuse fans can breathe a sigh of relief, bask in a second-round Big East Tournament bye and commence focused anticipation on the Villanova game that will likely determine the conference champion, dictate whether or not the public healthcare option will prevail and end conflict in the Middle East once and for all.

It’s on.

SU’s loss to Providence last January remains as one of the most frustrating losses in Big East memory. The ‘Cuse hung  94 on the Friars that night at the Dunk and still lost, bringing back memories of high-scoring shortcomings to UMass and Rhode Island from 2007. 35 points from Jonny Flynn and 27 from Eric Devendorf, all for naught, thanks to double-figure scoring efforts from 7 Providence players.

The bright side is that five of those seven players have moved on from Providence, and this year’s team is presently locked up with Rutgers in a fervent battle for 15th place in the Big East. Not quite what second year head coach Keno Davis was expecting from a team ranking 6th in the nation in points per game and 11th in rebounds. Read the rest of this entry »

Thursday night’s affair featured a few things seldom seen from the Orange – a collective 90% clip from the free throw line, a dry spell in the second half that saw the ‘Cuse sink just two shots from the field in a span of over ten minutes, a mountain of foul trouble in the first half, and perhaps most surprisingly, Dashonte Riley getting meaningful minutes for the first time in his career (and looking like it, too).

The game also featured a few things we’ve become used to seeing (good and bad) – Wes Johnson dominating, a blown double-digit lead, Andy Rautins catching fire, steady if unspectacular play from the point, and lockdown perimeter defense from the guards.

I wrote before the game about a few things I needed to see reappear before I classify the Orange as ready to make a deep tournament run, and for at least one game, I’ve gotten some answers: Read the rest of this entry »

When the Hoyas met the Orange last month, they came into the Dome with a case of schizophrenia, having knocked off Butler and UConn, but losing to the likes of Old Dominion and Marquette. After SU squashed an early but large hole dug by Austin Freeman, it’s been more of the same for Georgetown – a home loss to USF and a loss at the RAC, which hasn’t been anything close to the road environment it was in the days of Quincy Douby, but wins against a pair of top 10 teams in Duke and a sound victory over Villanova. Oh yeah, they also beat Pitt in their house, arguably the toughest place to notch a road win in college basketball.

If the season ended today, they’d be on the outside looking in at teams with favorable enough seeding to warrant a game close to campus. Since they haven’t won as many as four in a row since December, it would be hard for the selection committee to justify giving the Hoyas a trip to Providence or Buffalo, the two Northeastern sites for the opening rounds.

The Hoyas are something of a land mine, and the fact that they’ve dropped three of their last six coupled with a heated rival coming into town should be enough motivation for them to play well Thursday night, but as has been the case throughout the season, will the execution be there to match?

Read the rest of this entry »

With or without respect to Wes Johnson’s tumble against Providence two weeks ago, the Orange had been walking across coals since their triumphant win against Georgetown last month. First, the close call against DePaul, then big second halves propelling the ‘Cuse to wins against the Friars and Bearcat, a near-meltdown against Connecticut, and finally, some comeuppance against the Cardinals on Sunday afternoon.

Behind lackluster efforts from Scoop Jardine, Brandon Triche and an ice-cold day from the field for Johnson, it felt like SU was pedaling a bicycle through cream cheese just to hang around. Andy Rautins played decently, uncorking a couple of big threes, but I feel oddly comfortable saying that there wasn’t one player for the Orange who I would say played well. I think Arinze Onuaku could have proven me wrong, but he wasn’t given many opportunities. Jardine, and to a lesser extent, Triche, seemed too impatient to wait for the bigs to establish position to feed them the ball, thus abandoning the gameplan that often brings SU the most success. Read the rest of this entry »

Just wanted to post this incase no-one caught it in the UConn post-

“pacusefan Says:
February 14th, 2010 at 3:56 pm

Chris got back to me. Website is being moved to a new server and the server company is having some small issues. He hopes to have it up ASAP.”

Might be a good thing after todays game. Hope it’s back up soon and thanks PA.

With apologies to Duke, Kentucky and Texas, this is the game that UConn circled on the schedule when it came out. The long-awaited rematch of the six-overtime classic from last March will be the dominant storyline Wednesday night, not how UConn has uncharacteristically lost six of nine in what is becoming a lost season, nor how Syracuse has emerged from the woodwork to become a front-runner for Indianapolis.

It’s common knowledge that SU’s 2-3 has been highly effective this season, perhaps the most best of any of Boeheim’s teams. It’s also no secret that UConn has struggled to find a perimeter game outside of Jerome Dyson, but to demonstrate how lacking the attack has been, Andy Rautins and Wes Johnson have more threes between them (89) than the entire UConn team (85). Yes, Stanley Robinson has been a surprise, but UConn really can’t afford to keep him that far away from the hoop for long.

When you get a team with as weak a perimeter threat as UConn has fielded this year coming to your house, you can breathe pretty easy and pack it in in the paint as if the three point line weren’t even there. Doing so becomes less of a chore when there’s no Emeka Okafor, Hasheem Thabeet or Hilton Armstrong types diverting SU’s path to the basket, and that’s to say nothing of the fact that their Hall of Fame coach is missing his 7th consecutive game.

Jim Calhoun has been a great foil to Jim Boeheim over the years, and I think he’s associated with UConn just as strongly as Boeheim is linked to Syracuse. The rivalry will feel very different whenever he’s gone for good, and it’s too bad (for me at least) that we’ll get a taste of that with Calhoun still not healthy enough to patrol the sideline.

The Huskies will get an opportunity to move away from the bubble, but it’s very difficult to see them pouring a shot of closure for their fans. That being said, it always seems like UConn always gives Syracuse a tough time and is often the best in the Big East at attacking the zone. In fact, the teams have split their last four Dome meetings, all of which have been decided by ten points or less.

Sunday afternoon will see the Orange take its undefeated road record to the test at Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati, home of Lance “Born Ready” Stephenson, the hyped freshman phenom. Wait, turns out the season has started and Lance actually isn’t doing so hot. We’re in February now and Stephenson has yet to string together four straight double-figure scoring games, leaving a lot of slack for Deonta Vaughn and Yancy Gates to pick up. Of course, it takes awhile to develop chemistry anytime you trot out 11 different players to start games as Mick Cronin has done.

As I write this, Cincinnati managed just 27 first half points on the road against Notre Dame, which isn’t exactly the defensive crown jewel of the Big East. In addition, a November win against Vanderbilt in Hawaii is the only notch on their belt (they also beat UConn, but that was at home, where Cincy was favored). They say any team can pull off a surprising win in the Big East, and I can agree to an extent, but it’s just unrealistic for Sunday to be that day for the Bearcats. Read the rest of this entry »