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.

Wes Johnson and Andy Rautins, the team’s two best shooters, went 5-20 from the floor, but contributed in other ways – Johnson led the Orange in rebounding for the game and Rautins paced Syracuse in assists and steals. Arinze Onuaku played just 21 minutes, but posted 17 points and played a key role in putting the game out of ‘Nova’s reach, converting two three-point plays in the span of a minute.

Scoop Jardine and Kris Joseph didn’t start, yet they posted starter-type numbers. You could say that Jardine was as big for SU in the first half in keeping the Orange in the game as Onuaku was in putting it away in the second. And on and on.

All this isn’t to say that the fans efforts were not to go unnoticed. Not in the least.

‘Cuse fans bought tickets so far away from the court that they might as well have been standing on Comstock Ave., but they didn’t care. Being in the building for SU’s most anticipated game in four years, maybe longer, was all worth it. Such a large amount of alums returned to campus that it was a de facto second Homecoming weekend.

As kitschy as The Dome Ranger may be, bringing him out of hiding (or Tully’s, from the look of it) was a synecdochical indicator that SU hoops fever is at a level unseen since he was a regular staple of games in the 1980′s.

Finally, as excited as SU fans may be for the potential of a number one ranking come Monday afternoon, and they should be, considering how long it’s been since that happened, it’s also the furthest thing from this team’s mind. All that matters to them is being number one in April, when it truly counts, and that’s what I like most about the whole thing.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 28th, 2010 at 2:34 pm 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.