Instead, we're going to have a little fun with game previews. Rather than bore you with the heights, stats, and favorite colors of the returning players from Southwest Eastern Connecticut State in an effort to give you some sort of insight as to whether they will lose to Cuse by 35 or 45 points, I'm simply going to give you a few predictions and a lot of useless information.
I'm going to have a cast of five people, some regulars and at least one guest spot each week, give their predictions for the game and then answer a question posed to them by yours truly. The questions will range from relevant to semi-relevant to completely irrelevant. For instance, here are some examples of questions I may have posed had I done this preview for the San Diego State game:
- Who will be the go-to scorer this game?
- How much will Boeheim trust his freshman in their first shot against a top 20 team?
- More relevant ancient Indian culture in 2012: Aztecs or Mayans?
- Aircraft Carrier this year, ______ next year?
- Erin Andrews or Giada DeLaurentis?
- How upset were you upon hearing about the breakup of Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez?
You get the idea. Nothing but hard-hitting analysis on this here blog.
Steve Schirmer:
Q: The freshman had a pretty inauspicious debut. What are you expecting this time around? Over/under 45 minutes combined? Please for the love of god, tell me over. I don't want to go back to the days of the six-man rotation
A: I will admit, watching the San Diego St. game with you was a bit of a let down. Nothing that you did wrong by any means. I was just so looking forward to the multiple Cooney-gasms that I know you have in you. Whether it was the windy conditions or Boeheim thinking he was paying way too much attention to Erin Andrews, it just didn't happen.
However, I do think you'll be much happier this time around. I see the playing time for the Freshmen significantly increasing for this game. Looking back over the past couple of years, Freshmen have been getting 15-20 minutes of time in our annual Carrier Dome Cupcake Schedule. Hell, even Baye Mousa Keita was getting 20 minutes a game as a freshman early on in his career!
Boeheim knows that with the limited depth at guard and question marks on who'll fit where down low, he's got to find out what he's got in Coleman, Cooney, and Grant. That's why I'm calling for a resounding OVER on your +/- 45 combined minutes for the Freshmen. I see the game getting out of hand rather quickly, so that'll mean lots of second half minutes to induce multiple Cooney-gasms from you, as well as several ill advised alley oop attempts from MCW to Jerami Grant that will continue to make Scoop Jardine proud.
Cuse takes it 83-56. Coleman gets 16 minutes, Cooney gets 19 minutes, and in an upset, Grant gets 22 minutes!
Dan Theal:
Q: This is a Wagner team that returns 3 of their top 4 scorers from last season, when they upset Pittsburgh. Any chance they put a scare in the Cuse fans in their home opener?
A: Any time a team can manage to pull off an upset over the eventual CBI Champion (The postseason tournament for big name programs that can't qualify for the NIT), you have to come away impressed. Sure, that win will bring the Seahawks a bit of confidence when they step into the Dome, but we must keep in mind that Jim Boeheim does not let his teams lose focus against the mid-major patsies. The last time Syracuse lost a game before January was when Kristof Ongenaet was in the starting lineup (2008 vs. Cleveland State, if you couldn't recall). That being said, I fully expect the Orange to be 17-0 when they prepare for their feast at the KFC Yum! Center on January 19.
Now, back to the Wagner contest, if you recall the games over the last few seasons where a mid-major team put a scare into the Orange, one of two things usually happened: 1) The opponent had a dominant big man who roamed the baseline and racked up the boards as a slow-reacting front court zone could not seem to locate him, or 2) An opposing player got red hot from deep and drained about 10 3-pointers. Does Wagner boast of a dominant big man? No, but they do have a 6-11 space eater in Naofall Folahan. So, who is the guy that can potentially beat the Cuse from long distance? The only "threat" Wagner has is Junior guard Latif Rivers, who has averaged two 3-pointers per game in his first 2+ seasons. I am willing to spot him his 6 points and conclude that Syracuse will still win comfortably. My only fear is that the Cuse shooters don't fully adjust to playing indoors and clank their jumpers off the left rim in an effort to over-compensate for the effects of the air conditioning vents.
Final score: Cuse 83, Wagner 65
Chris Tripodi:
Q: We'll let you get to Syracuse next week, but given the implosion of the Jets locker room this week now seems as good a time as any to bring this up. You have to pick your team's QB for next season: Mark Sanchez, Tim Tebow, Ryan Fitzpatrick, or my 3 year old cousin. Who you got?
A: None of the above, although if I had to choose it would probably be my 3-year-old cousin (not yours) because the kid has a rocket attached to his arm. We think he's an illegitimate member of our family, but we might as well profit off him while we've got him.
In all seriousness, the Jets are an abomination of an embarrassment. I'm afraid to admit to being a fan of these finger-pointing, talk-bigger-than-you-play prima donnas. It's not even completely on Sanchez but the calls for Tebow should stop; he was awful with two great receivers in Denver last year and the Jets' "receivers" put the definition of the word to shame. He will be even worse than Sanchez.
My advice: Tank the season (if they haven't already), take Geno Smith to inject some life into the team and fan base and trade some vets for draft picks. And I'm not even THAT high on Smith, just need my season tickets to sell better.
Game Prediction: Syracuse 70, Wagner 58
In all seriousness, the Jets are an abomination of an embarrassment. I'm afraid to admit to being a fan of these finger-pointing, talk-bigger-than-you-play prima donnas. It's not even completely on Sanchez but the calls for Tebow should stop; he was awful with two great receivers in Denver last year and the Jets' "receivers" put the definition of the word to shame. He will be even worse than Sanchez.
My advice: Tank the season (if they haven't already), take Geno Smith to inject some life into the team and fan base and trade some vets for draft picks. And I'm not even THAT high on Smith, just need my season tickets to sell better.
Game Prediction: Syracuse 70, Wagner 58
Steve DeNero (aka Nate Silver):
Q: Bigger surprise of the past week: an NFL game ending in a tie or a news story breaking about a gay Sesame Street character that didn't involve Bert or Ernie?
A: Syracuse is coming off a big win over SDSU this past Friday. JMS predicted that game to be in the top 5 for this season. Wagner is not expected to produce the same amount of competition. So I preemptively expected Syracuse winning by 20+. That didn't seem quite scientific enough, so I took some further steps. After having spent the past month altering my thesis-produced air quality/climate model to accurately predict the winner of the Presidential election, I made some minor tweaks this past week to have it now focused on the Syracuse men's basketball matchups for the rest of the year. Sunday's game has Syracuse as a heavily favored victor (94.196% chance SU wins) with an average-composite score of 75 SU - 45 Wagner.
There are some outliers though. The model gives Wagner a 3% chance of winning. This was mostly reliant on Syracuse's starting 5 all losing eligibility and being benched. After that the results get a little wonky (to quote Ron Weasley) with there being a tie in this game at 1.5%, 1.03% chance that Duke wins (?!?), 0.27% chance that Paula Broadwell wins our hearts, and finally 0.004% chance that there is ANOTHER gay character on Sesame Street that comes out soon. I don't know how these extra variables even got into the model, but numbers, like hips, don't lie. It is important to note that there was 0% chance that there'd be another tie in the NFL anytime soon.
There are some outliers though. The model gives Wagner a 3% chance of winning. This was mostly reliant on Syracuse's starting 5 all losing eligibility and being benched. After that the results get a little wonky (to quote Ron Weasley) with there being a tie in this game at 1.5%, 1.03% chance that Duke wins (?!?), 0.27% chance that Paula Broadwell wins our hearts, and finally 0.004% chance that there is ANOTHER gay character on Sesame Street that comes out soon. I don't know how these extra variables even got into the model, but numbers, like hips, don't lie. It is important to note that there was 0% chance that there'd be another tie in the NFL anytime soon.
Jason Schwartz:
Q: We both saw a lot of things we liked in MCW on Sunday. We also saw a lot of things we didn't. Does MCW reign it in a bit this week, or will he still go 0 to 60 with no in between? Does Boeheim even go so far as benching him should he get out of control to prove a point? (courtesy of Steve Schirmer)
A: Yes.
That is my short, sweet, cop-out of an answer. I will elaborate a little bit though. I think one of the things that hurt Carter-Williams in the opener was the environment the game was played in. Clearly both teams were packing all their defenders as close to the paint as possible and daring the other team to shoot anywhere more than 10 feet from the hoop.
That really hurt The Hyphen in two ways. (1) He lost the chance for some easy assist opportunities hitting spot-up shooters like Southerland or Cooney on the perimeter and (2) he didn't have the subsequent spacing that those jump shots would create, allowing him to have more room to beat his man off the dribble and create shots for himself or the big men at the rim.
I expect the friendlier confines of the Dome should solve help solve these issues and help MCW have a performance more in line with my preseason expectations.
Of course, I also expect this game to get out of hand, which will cause a couple opportunities for him to blow right past 60 and go all the way to 85 with a couple ill-advised alley-oop attempts. Honestly though, what would we do without at least one botched alley-oop per game? It's become a tradition on par with standing until the first Orange basket and a shot of Jimmy B picking his nose on the sideline as the broadcast goes to commercial. As long as he doesn't decapitate Rakeem Christmas, making him attempting to jump through the backboard, then I'm fine with it.
Give me Syracuse 78, Wagner 53
So there you have it folks, 5 picks for Syracuse and an average margin of victory of 20+ points. Just because it's expected to be a blowout doesn't mean you shouldn't tune in though. The Bills have already played (and shockingly won) this week so you have no excuses, tune to Time Warner Cable Sports Net and listen to those hokey local announcers and watch the walk-ons get their first chances to jack up three-pointers at a rate that would make Mookie Jones envious.
(If you'd like to get involved and be one of the future guest bloggers for the game previews, email me at jmschwartz17@gmail.com to express your interest, complete with a list of your perceived areas of expertise so I can reach out to you when current events fall right into your wheelhouse.)
(If you'd like to get involved and be one of the future guest bloggers for the game previews, email me at jmschwartz17@gmail.com to express your interest, complete with a list of your perceived areas of expertise so I can reach out to you when current events fall right into your wheelhouse.)
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