Schedule Talk

Right about now, ESPN should be hosting a preseason prep course for their college basketball analysts and studio personalities.  Expected content to be covered includes the greatness of Coach Cal, the depth of the Big Ten this season, and a stern reminder that no matter what the evidence suggests Syracuse never plays a difficult non-conference schedule or leaves the state of New York.

Never mind that over the last 5 seasons, Syracuse has played similarly difficult schedules to other notable blue-blood programs like Kentucky and Duke.

What's that?  Poppycock you say?  Kentucky and Duke always play soooo many tough games and Syracuse just plays Canisius and Cornell?

Don't believe me?  Check out the stats from the last five seasons for yourself.  (All strength of schedule stats courtesy of kenpom.com)

Syracuse:  25, 20, 44, 2, 29 (average of 24)
Kentucky:  26, 14, 50, 76, 59 (Average of 45)
Duke:  22, 27, 3, 13, 12 (average of 15)

If you go back and look at the schedules, you will see that Syracuse is good for three road/neutral non-conference games against power conference teams each season.  Just in the past five seasons they have played "neutral" games against Kansas in Kansas City and Florida in Tampa, plus true road games at Memphis, N.C. State, and Virginia.  Not to mention numerous games in Madison Square Garden against the likes of Ohio State, North Carolina, and Michigan State.  This year is no different, with neutral court match-ups against San Diego State and Temple and a road tilt at Arkansas.

Ok, thank you for allowing me to preach from my soapbox for a brief moment.  I feel much better now.  With that off my chest we can move on to the real purpose of this post, ranking Syracuse's top 5 games on the schedule this season.  This is an especially difficult task this season with it being the last go round for all the storied Big East rivalries, but I'll take a stab at it anyways.

5)  Syracuse vs. San Diego St. (Friday, November 9th, 8:00 p.m.)

It takes a pretty special game to knock key Big East rivalry games like UConn and Notre Dame out of the top 5.  But this is a pretty rare treat.  Syracuse is going to open the season with a prime-time Friday night game.  Against a top 20 team.  Across the country.  On an aircraft carrier.

I have already bubble-wrapped my living room in anticipation of what should be an exciting opening night, as after an off-season of waiting I figure to be far too amped up for the good of any breakable objects in my house.

4)  Villanova @ Syracuse (Saturday, January 12, 12:00 p.m.)

This one is a little bit of a selfish pick.  Marquette and Cincinnati are probably significantly better teams this season.  Connecticut and Notre Dame are certainly more historical rivals in the big picture.

What all those other games lack, however, is the personal ties that this game holds for me.

This game is an annual reminder of my mother's sports bigamy.  Frankly, I'm surprised she hasn't found a way to sew together one of those half Nova / half Cuse t-shirts yet.  You know, the kind a mother wears when she has two sons playing against each other.  She may not have the t-shirt, but she certainly has the cheering for every play for both teams down pat.

This game is also an annual conversation starter for the roommates of 84 Milburn of a great road trip to the highest attended on-campus college basketball game in history.  And the many related inside jokes that are not suited for the airwaves of this blog.

And most importantly, this game is an annual opportunity to talk trash to my sister, Pat and the oh so many Villanova alumni that I interact with on a semi-regular basis.

3)  Syracuse @ Pitt (Saturday, February 2nd, 12:00 p.m.)

Pittsburgh is one of the few Big East programs that has traditionally owned Syracuse over the last decade or so.  Prior to Syracuse's victory over Pitt last season in the Dome, their last regular season victory over the Panthers was all the way back in 2004.  Do not adjust your computer screens, that stat is correct.

To put that in perspective, the last time Syracuse had beaten Pitt in the regular season prior to last year...

... Syracuse was defending national champions.
... George Bush was still in his first term as president.
... Lebron James was a rookie.
... Facebook was 3 1/2 weeks old.
... Phil Mickelson was still two months away from winning his first major.
... Steve DeNero was still shorter than me (or at least close to it).

Yes, this same Steve...

... Honey Boo Boo was not born yet

And the craziest one of all...

... Lindsey and I had only been dating for 3 months.

In other words, it was a really long time ago.  So yea, beating Pitt on their own court in what may be the last time these two teams meet for quite some time would certainly be a sweet little taste of revenge.

2)  Louisville @ Syracuse (Saturday, January 19th, 4:00 p.m.)

For anybody who has lived under a rock for the last couple of weeks, Jim Boeheim and Rick Pitino aren't exactly fans of each other.  I'm sure those quotes from Big East Media day won't be the last time these two spout off about each other.

Add to the fact that this year's game figures to be a match-up of top 10 teams and the Dome figures to be packed for this game (I'm guessing 33,000+), and it should be an electric atmosphere.

Personally, I can't decide what I'm more excited for.  Rick Pitino being lustily booed by 30,000+ fans or Peyton Siva being benched after this 7th ill-advised turnover in the first half.

1)  Syracuse @ Georgetown (Saturday, March 9th, 12:00 p.m.)

This is just about the easiest pick ever.

Syracuse and Georgetown are like Peanut Butter and Jelly, Mario Kart and Super Nintendo, Taylor Swift and bad relationships, Sriracha and any meal Steve Schirmer has ever made.  Some things are just meant to go together.

Any list of Syracuse's biggest rivalries that doesn't start with Georgetown just isn't legitimate.  Other rivalries have ebbed and flowed throughout the years.  Connecticut has been a strong rivalry since Jim Calhoun turned the program around.  Villanova and Louisville have had their moments, especially in recent years.  But Georgetown has been the one constant throughout the years dating all the way back to the start of the Big East in 1979.  Just check out this link.  Georgetown dwarfs everybody else in terms of Syracuse attendance records.  This series clearly means the most to the fans.

We may not be able to "close" the Verizon Center, like John Thompson once claimed Georgetown did to Manley Field House.  But we can close the door on the Big East with a victory over our biggest rivals, and oh how sweet that would be.

New Public Enemy #1

One of the biggest reasons most Syracuse fans are upset with the switch to the ACC at the end of the season is what it means for our rivalries.  Nothing makes you want to roll down the thruway in white-out conditions like a scintillating match-up between Syracuse and Wake Forest on a February night.

But nonetheless, the move is happening whether we fans like it or not.  That means no more Jim Calhoun (who retired anyways), Rick Pitino, and Jay Wright in our lives.

We need some new villains to fill this cavernous void and give Jimmy B someone to spout off about or disgustedly roll his eyes at.  Unfortunately, Coach K and Boeheim are friendly from spending the last few summers coaching the Men's National Team together and Roy Williams and his Huckleberry Hound attitude don't seem likely to ruffle any feathers any time soon.  Who's a fan to hate?

Fear not, fellow Orange faithful.  An unlikely candidate has emerged from the woodwork, and that person is... a writer?

Yes that is correct.  Ladies and Gentleman, welcome Ron Morris of the The State (a newspaper in South Carolina).

The first AP poll of the season came out this past week and Ron Morris is the only voter who did not put the Orange in his top 25.  This may not be that egregious if Syracuse was ranked in back-end of the poll and was considered a fringe top 20-25 team, but they are not.  They are a top 10 team in both preseason polls and in checking about 15 other AP voters polls, nobody else had Syracuse lower than 14th.

Still, even with those facts on the table, Morris could probably be forgiven.  After all, preseason polls are essentially meaningless.  We can assume that he would see the light after a week or two and make amends.  That is, if this was an isolated incident.

It is not an isolated incident though.  For those of you who may have had a nagging feeling throughout this article that you've heard Ron's name before, that is because you have.  He is the same voter who last season had an undefeated Syracuse squad at #4, behind one-loss Kentucky and two-loss UNC and Ohio State, at a time when 60 voters had Syracuse #1 and the other four voter had them at #2.

Rumors that Ron Morris was rejected from the Newhouse School of Public Communications or was squirted in the eye by the juice of an Orange at a young age are unverified at this time. Whatever the reason though, it clearly appears he has it in for us.  I look forward to seeing how he tries to exact revenge on us after we wipe the floor with Clemson next season.  We can only hope he covers Jim Boeheim's press conference after the game.

Five Bold Predictions

If I had this blog last year, I would have made the following bold predictions:

-  Syracuse will be ranked #1 in the nation for five weeks and will finish the regular season 30-1
-  Fab Melo will nearly record a triple-double, seemingly set the record for most charges taken in a season, and rip out the heart of every Syracuse fan by being ruled ineligible on the eve of March Madness.  In other words, he will actually be relevant.
-  Doug Gottlieb will make fun of the Syracuse non-conference schedule approximately 2,082,923 times.  So will everyone else at ESPN.
-  Dion Waiters will be our best player by the end of the season and a top-5 pick in next year's NBA Draft.
-  Steve Mayne will drop Duke like a bad habit and come over to the good guys.  He will solidify this commitment by purchasing a Syracuse hat.

What?  No, really guys, I swear those would have been my predictions.  Come on, just let me have this one.

Ok, fine. Don't believe me.  I'll just have to use this space to make similarly Nostradamus-like predictions for this season.

1.  Michael Carter-Williams will earn first team all Big East honors and record a triple-double at some point this season.

As much as I love C.J. Fair and Trevor Cooney, I actually think Michael Carter-Williams will be the biggest breakout star of the season.  I think it's reasonable to expect that he may play 30 minutes per game this season, being the only true point guard on the team.  If you look at the stats he accumulated last year in only 10 minutes per game and triple them, you'd be looking at a stat line something like this:

10 points per game, 6 assists per game, 5 rebounds per game, and 3 steals per game.

Is that something I could interest you in?

I know you can't expect a straight linear relationship between minutes played and stats accumulated, especially since most of MCW's minutes last year came in the non-conference against lesser competition.  Still, I wouldn't be shocked at all, if he stuffed the stat sheet like that throughout the year and flirted with a triple-double on more than one occasion.

2.  DaJuan Coleman will finish in the top-5 in the Big East in rebounding this season and win Big East Rookie of the Year honors.

Making a preseason prediction about a Syracuse freshman big man (other than that they will be a "starter", yet play less than 5 minutes), is fraught with peril.  Boeheim has shown time and again his reluctance to trust his young frontcourt players, no matter how highly rated they were as prospects.  The 2-3 zone seems to have a learning curve for most of our younger players who are used to playing man-to-man.  And with Coleman, there's the added risk of whether or not his conditioning (and an unlimited dining hall card) will allow him to make it up and down the court for 25 minutes a game.

With that being said, Coleman is a beast on the boards, averaging 15 rebounds per game his senior season of high school.  He has reportedly worked really hard all off-season on his weight and is down 40 pounds.  And this was a notoriously bad rebounding team last season, so he shouldn't have too much competition from his teammates.

So with every risk for Coleman, there is equal opportunity.  I think he'll be good enough to garner 20-25 minutes of playing time, and if he does he could easily get 8-10 rebounds per game.

3.  Syracuse will lead the Big East in 3-point shooting percentage.

Fact:  Syracuse finished 4th in the Big East in three-point field goal percentage last season.

Fact:  This was with Trevor Cooney cheering from the bench

Fact:  Trevor Cooney has the best jumper since Larry Bird.

Ok, the last fact may be slightly embellished, but Gerry McNamara has gone on record as saying that Cooney has the best pure shooting stroke he's ever seen.  Saying that anybody is a better shooter than Gerry in Orange country is tantamount to saying they're a better shooter than Larry Bird.  Even if it was Gerry who said it himself.

Brandon Triche and James Southerland are no slouches from behind the arc either and there are rumors (probably started by me) that C.J. Fair just may be a threat from deep this year as well.

Add it all up, and I think we'll be much better than last season and possibly the best team in the conference.

4. Rick Pitino and Jim Boeheim will brawl at mid-court during one of their matchups this season.

Nah, too easy...

Let's try this one instead.

4.  Syracuse will win the Big East Regular Season Title

Now this may not seem like that bold a prediction.  After all, Syracuse was voted #2 in the conference preseason media poll.  But considering that they did not get a single vote for first place, I'm going to allow myself to take this one and run with it.

Let's play a quick game.  What if I told you that there was a student who skated by, didn't turn in any of their assignments and was barely going to pass their courses?  What if I told you this same student made up some of their late coursework during finals week, aced their finals, and squeaked out a place on Dean's List?

Other than saying this student sounds an awful lot like me in high school, what would you say? Would you say that this student was probably going to be one of the top 3 students in the college the following year?  Or would you expect that he probably would fall back into some of his same bad habits and go through some rough patches throughout the year but ultimately do just enough to make Dean's List again?

Of course you would pick the second option.  Last year's Cardinals finished seventh in the Big East, barely above .500 in conference play.  They return essentially the same players plus a borderline top-100 recruit.  But they made it to the Final Four last year so everyone assumes they must be a favorite to do that again.  Don't get me wrong, I think the Cardinals will be a lot better than last year and will give Syracuse everything they can handle in the fight for the title.  I just don't think they should be considered a clear and away favorite, and I for one will not be the least bit shocked if we knock them off their perch and defend our title.

5.  Syracuse will win the National Championship

Why not?  I mean I didn't start a blog to write about some national title runner-up. ..

Recruiting Update

Breaking News from intrepid reporter Jason Schwartz...

...is something you will never hear on this blog.

I am by no means a recruiting expert, but I do spend a fair (probably unhealthy) amount of time reading other Syracuse blogs, websites, and "tweeters" so I feel fairly plugged into the world of Syracuse recruiting news.  It only makes sense that I would consolidate all this information here and use my wasted time to your benefit.  After all, you're already wasting enough of your time reading this blog.

CHINOSO OBOKOH

For those who haven't already heard, earlier this week Syracuse received a verbal commitment from Chinoso Obokoh.  Chinoso is a 6'9" power forward/center type from Bishop Kearney (Rochester, NY).  Although he is only a three-star recruit and not listed on most Top 100 rankings lists for the Class of 2013, I think he is a very important recruit for a few reasons.

1)  Chinoso fills in two coveted spots on our Annual Syracuse Recruiting Bingo Card.  Chinoso has a fun African sounding name (following in the lineage of Baye Moussa Keita and Arinze Onuaku) and is a big man who's defense is light years ahead of his offense and is likely to be buried on the bench in his freshman season (following in the storied footsteps of Rakeem Christmas and Fab Melo).

Combined with Tyler Ennis (cross "Token Canadian" off your boards), we are already more than halfway to BINGO with the Class of 2013.  All we need is a forward who is in the 6'7" - 6'9" range and woefully malnourished and a token white guard.  We'll get to the string-bean small forward in a minute, but the prospects for a token white guard in this class do not seem favorable.  Looks like we'll need the free space to win this year.

2)  On a more serious note, although Obokoh is not extremely highly regarded, he seems like he will be a solid four-year contributor who could develop into a key rotation piece by the time he is an upperclassman.  Boeheim has had success with these types of players before.  Hakim Warrick, Rick Jackson, and Arinze Onuaku come to mind.

3)  A preliminary google search shows Bishop Kearney playing at Fairport on January 3.  That means I get to watch a future Syracuse player destroy my alma mater.  Looking forward to it.

4)  Syracuse is also recruiting a player in the Class of 2014 named Goodluck Okobonoh.  I am giddy about the possibilities of gibberish I can yell while watching a frontcourt of Obokoh and Okobonoh reject numerous layup and dunk attempts by our opponents.  The Dikembe Mutombo finger-way will be used excessively.    

B.J. JOHNSON

Syracuse also received another verbal commitment this week from Class of 2013 forward B.J. Johnson.  Johnson is a three-star forward from Lower Merion High School in Pennsylvania.  Coming in at in intimidating 6'7", 165 lbs., Johnson is our rail-thin wing forward that I teased above.

I don't know nearly as much about Johnson as I do about Obokoh, but I did do a quick scour of the internet and it appears that he is very young for his class (only 16 entering his senior year).  Maybe he is a late bloomer and will turn out to be a steal.  It certainly doesn't hurt to get an early commitment before he has the chance to blow up during his senior season and attract more competition.

Interesting Trivia:  Johnson's high school is same as none other than career NBA journeyman Kobe Bryant (I kid Lakers fans, I kid).

That's it for now on the recruiting front, but Syracuse may not be done just quite yet.  They are still in the hunt for a few coveted players in the Class of 2013.  They include big men Noah Vonleh (#7), Jermaine Lawrence (#12), Tyler Roberson (#43), and combo guard Rysheed Jordan (#41).

Either way, it looks like the cupboard will remain well stocked as we make the move to the ACC next year.

Orange Madness

Putting too much stock into a five minute intrasquad scrimmage is useless, unproductive... and extremely fun. Besides, if you're reading this blog, your standards are clearly lower than Alex Rodriguez's postseason batting average (shots fired!).

I promise that as this blog evolves, the posts will get a little more structure.  But for now, I'm just going to go with a stream of consciousness style to break down our first look at this season's Orange.

-  Our MC's for tonight are former Syracuse point guard Scoop Jardine and his girlfriend Jasmine Jordan (yes, that Jordan).  I fully expect Scoop to make a couple good, solid jokes to get everyone in the flow of the event, and then go for the home-run joke that fails, followed by dead silence and murmuring throughout the crowd.  Much like his career and his affinity for the unnecessary 3/4 court alley-oop attempt.

-  Brandon Triche is going to be really good.  And then really bad.  He is going to dunk on a player 8 inches taller than him.  And then you are going to forget he is on the court for 15 minutes.  Such is the enigma that is Brandon Triche.

-  Baye Keita has brought the Moussa back!  That means he will be approximately 33% better this year.  It also means I have spent approximately 33% more words on him than I think he is worth.

-  Syracuse Men's Basketball Dancing Ability Power Rankings:  1) James Southerland, 2) Brandon Triche, 738) Jim Boeheim

-  I am not going to be able to talk rationally about Trevor Cooney this year.  Listen C.J., it's not you, it's me.  I hope we can still be friends...

-  I forgot we got this Michael Gbinije fellow.  The good news is he looks like he's going to be a real player for us next year.  The bad news is he transferred from Duke.  I am going to have a very hard time not feeling conflicted rooting for him.  I hope for his sake that he's as good as people say he is, because if he's not I will certainly be at the forefront of spreading the rumor that he is an evil Dukie spy planted by Coach K to sabotage Boeheim's chances to catch him on the all-time wins list.  Luckily, I have one more year to come to terms with this.

-  Jerami Grant will take the throne from Rakeem Christmas, who begot Fab Melo, who begot Dashonte Riley, who begot Sean Williams, as the freshman big man who just isn't ready yet and gets buried on the bench.  Mercifully for Jerami, Boeheim will spare him the embarrassment of placing him in the starting lineup before yanking him 30 seconds into the game and planting him firmly on the bench for the next 39 and a half minutes.

-  If we didn't play 2-3 zone so much, Michael Carter-Williams would be Big East Defensive Player of the Year this season.  He may just make first team all-defense anyways.

-  C.J. Fair was surprisingly absent from the 20 or so minutes I watched.  I'm going to chalk it up to his disappointment in my decision to dump him approximately .72528235 seconds after the first Trevor Cooney three-pointer.  C.J. -  I know this is going to be awkward since we are still hanging with the same group of friends, but don't let this affect our season.  

-  Rakeem Christmas is really good at finishing alley-oops.  The jury is still out on if he can do anything else.

-  DaJuan Coleman will lead the team in rebounds, ill-advised mid-range jumpers, and Chipotle burritos eaten this year.

That pretty much covers the exciting events of the night and all the key players for this years team.  I'll be back with some better organized thoughts and predictions for this years team throughout the next couple weeks in the run up to the first exhibition game.  In the meantime, if there's any topics you'd like to see me address, feel free to shoot them over to me at jmschwartz17@gmail.com.

Intro

Welcome to my blog.  I am an avid sports fan who fancies himself an amateur writer.  I’ve had many half-baked ideas for books over the past few years but have never actually taken the leap to putting something out there.  That is why I’ve finally decided to take some initiative and find a creative outlet for all my thoughts.  If nothing else, this will save the inboxes of all my family and friends who I incessantly email or text before, during, and after important games.  So you’re all welcome for that. 

This blog will be focused on Syracuse Basketball, but I make no promises that it will not veer off the tracks many times over the course of the season.  There may be entire posts that have nothing to do with Syracuse basketball.  Other interests of mine include the Buffalo Bills (sadly), Atlanta Braves, cooking, general trivia, and Denzel (both my dog and the actor).  And there certainly will be random unrelated rants within my posts about Syracuse.  I write the way I think, which is to say I take three times longer than necessary to get to the point, but hopefully I make it fun for you on the way there. 

Having spent my entire life in Upstate New York and forming an unusually strong passion for college basketball at an early age, it is natural that Syracuse has become my favorite team.  What is not natural is how strongly they dominate my train of thought year round, but especially from October to March (and hopefully April).  My wife is a fan as well, but even she has been forced to perfect the “glazed over, nodding her head, I can’t believe he still has more to say about this team…” look over the past couple years.

I've probably been asked if I went to Syracuse about 7,325,043,189 times over the years due to the number of Syracuse hoodies, t-shirts, and hats I wear throughout the year.  But at least that makes it easy on my family and friends when they are at a loss for birthday or Christmas present ideas.

I’m extremely superstitious.  I have switched seats, stood for entire halves, politely asked roommates to leave the room (ok, more like yelled), and worn the same shirt during each game for the last five years, all in the name of helping Syracuse win.

When the team lost to Oklahoma in the Sweet 16 a few years ago, I had been at a charity dinner-auction.  When I got home and flipped on the DVR, I was devastated as I watched Blake Griffin devastate our defense.  I knew that, surely, if I had been watching it live Blake would have blown out his knee on his first dunk attempt and we would have coasted into the Elite Eight (Turns out he only needed to be drafted by the Clippers for that to happen). 

I’m not old enough to remember Keith Smart’s jumper (my nine-month old memory was not as sharp as the current one), but I hate him anyways.  When Kentucky beat us in 1996, it sent me to bed crying.  And only 15% percent of that was because I was overtired from staying up wayyyy past my bedtime.  I still hate all of them and that program to this day, never mind that they were heavily favored.  Especially you Tony Delk.  Damn you and your G-Mac like performance from 3-point range. 

Kansas, on the other hand, is a blue-blood program I can get behind.  I will forever be grateful to them for studying Syracuse’s free-throw shooting technique before the big game in 2003 and aiding us in our quest to give Jimmy B his one and only national title. 

And that is where we come to the title of this blog.  I wanted to pay homage to the 2003 team in some way, and what better way to do that than to name it after our favorite whipping boy from that team, Craig Forth.  I’m not sure if he’s the best big white stiff to ever man the middle for a national title winner, but he’s our big white stiff and that’s all that matters.

So with that introduction out of the way, I’ll send you on your merry way.  Hopefully you enjoyed what you have read so far and are interested in coming back for more.  I make no promises about how regularly I will post, but I am going to try to post a few preview pieces over the next couple weeks in the run up to the Battle of the Midway, and then I'm sure the posts will become much more frequent as I have actual games to react to.  Check back regularly and enjoy!