MVP: James Southerland
Southerland came in and got a career-high 5 steals in the span of about 7 possessions. 30 minutes later, he had a career high in points (22) too, and with that his first MVP honors of the season.
It's certainly early in the season, and James has been prone to going from scintillating hot to frigidly cold and back in the blink of an eye throughout his career, but it's good to see him being so confident in his shot. He's really been showing a lot of growth in his game this season too, taking his man of the dribble and then pulling up for jumpers as an alternative when players close out on him behind the arc too hard.
If he keeps playing like he has early on in this season, he could be the favorite to be the 3rd Orange bench player to take home the Big East Sixth Man of the Year award (in only its sixth year in existence).
LVP: The Walk Ons
I don't want to hate on the walk-ons. I love cheering for them as much as the next person at the end of a blowout. And I know they only got into the game with about 30 seconds since Princeton stayed within striking distance for the majority of the 2nd half.
But to not get a single shot up? When their only job is to shoot at a faster pace than Jack Taylor and give the fans something to cheer about at an otherwise meaningless point in the game?
Bad job by them.
Play of the Game:
My favorite whipping boy, Keita, had a great defensive play in the 2nd half. A Princeton player leading the fast break lobbed up an alley-oop to a teammate streaking down the lane. The Tiger went up for the lay-in only to be met at the glass by Moussa Keita, who came flying in from behind to pin the ball against the backboard.
The play led to a run out the other way that James Southerland finished, plus the foul, and all of a sudden what would've been a 10 point game had opened back up to a 15 point lead.
There may or may not have been a little contact on the block, but I can't blame the refs for letting it go because it was one hell of an impressive play by Keita.
(SC)OOPS of the Game: I may need to start thinking of how I am going to make a clever play-on-words award name in Michael Carter-Williams' honor next season, because he has been putting an even stronger stranglehold on this award than Scoop ever would've been able to during his tenure on the hill.
On this night, it was a play during the 2nd half when Carter-Williams came up with a loose ball and tried to immediately lob it up in an alley-oop attempt to C.J. Fair. Unfortunately, not only did MCW get the pass off so fast that the Princeton defenders couldn't react, but also so quickly that Fair himself did not have time to react. The result was an "alley" flying at the backboard that had no "oop-er" on the slamming end.
Fair did come up with the rebound and lay it back in for 2 points, so all's well that ends well. However, it is a little concerning that The Hyphen has managed to throw 2 alley-oops in the first 3 games that hit nothing but backboard. Although, on the flip side it is impressive that he's managed to do this without so much as a sideways glance from Boeheim. Maybe all those years with Scoop just broke Jim's will to reprimand alley-oops gone awry.
General Observations:
- As much as I've been picking on Carter-Williams in some of these recaps, I have to give him credit for putting up some numbers without even looking particularly good yet. Through 3 games, he's averaging a tidy 11 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals per game. The scary part is I don't think he's even come close to scratching his potential.
- Boeheim was in mid-season form,with multiple of these...
Followed by a classic Boeheim post-game presser in which he went off on the absurdity of conference realignment, and claimed that if college basketball league commissioners were our founding fathers, we'd be looking at country with Brazil and Argentina as states.
He's a real gem. I'm going to miss him when he's gone.
- It's a little disconcerting that for the 2nd time in 3 games, Boeheim employed a very short bench. This game is even more worrisome than the opener, given that this game was against an inferior opponent (nobody cares if Princeton is the preseason Ivy League favorite, they are no where near the Orange's level), rather than a top 25 foe.
Boeheim basically utilized a 5 man rotation in this game - Triche, Carter-Williams, Fair, Southerland, and RaJuan Moussa Chriseitaman. Cooney and Grant combined for only 15 minutes, and I'm fairly certain all those minutes were in the first half. If either played in the 2nd half, I don't recall noticing them at all.
Hopefully the bench will earn a few more minutes the rest of the non-conference schedule and do some things that build Boeheim's trust.
- Mmmmm, pie...
Thanksgiving Day Pie Rankings:
1) Pumpkin
2) Apple
3-157,925,023) Anything Else
158,025,024) Pecan
Regular Day Pie Rankings:
1) Triple Berry
2) Apple
3) Peach-Blueberry
Next Game: Syracuse takes on Colgate in the Dome on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m., with Michael Carter-Williams trying to make me look good by piling up a triple-double.
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