MVP: James Southerland
I'm going to go out on the limb here and say that this will be the most obvious MVP honors of the season. It wasn't just that Southerland tied the Syracuse record for most three-pointers in a game with 9 or smashed his previous career high in points with 35. It was the manner in which he did it.
Check out these highlights. With Syracuse off to a slow start, Southerland came in and proceeded to hit 5 treys in a 5 minutes span, turning a one point deficit into a 15 point lead in the process. After Arkansas stormed back to cut the Orange's huge lead down to three early in the 2nd half, Southerland hit threes on consecutive possessions to bump the lead back to 9. Then, after a trip to the bench due to foul trouble, Southerland came back to hit a final three pointer, a free-throw line jumper, and a dunk in the final three minutes to salt away the victory.
Without James Southerland, the Orange lose that game plain and simple.
LVP: Rakeem Christmas
Christmas had been quietly having a pretty good year so far. Not a Fab Melo-like sophomore year leap by any means, but he was averaging close to 8 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 1/2 blocks per game in only 20 minutes coming into this contest.
Then he came into this game, put up a bagel on the scoreboard, and had the (SC)OOPS of the game (more on this in a minute...), all while only getting 12 minutes of playing time. I say blame it on the haircut. If Christmas puts up one more stinker like this, we all need to start a petition for him to grow the James Harden fauxhawk / beard combo again. It's our duty as Cuse fans.
Play of the Game:
With all James Southerland's record-tying 9 three pointers, it was his dunk that earned play of the game.
For those of you who missed it, it's included in the highlight reel linked above. Southerland went flying through the air, got hip-checked by an Arkansas defender, and finished the slam anyways.
Then, after landing, Southerland did a 360 degree, helicoptering fist pump that luckily did not have any unexpectant Razorbacks in its path. We don't want any Ron Artest incidents on our hands. We already know Southerland has a silky, smooth jump shot and crazy hops. I'd prefer to leave MMA elbows out of his bag of tricks for the time being.
(SC)OOPS of the Game:
Rakeem. Poor, poor Rakeem. Already our scapegoat for LVP of the game. Then you had to go and miss a wide-open dunk in the opening minutes of the game. Unfortunately, video of this incident does not appear to have made its way to YouTube just quite yet. So for now you'll just have to trust me, it was Susan Boyle level ugly.
The only possible explanation to me, is that Christmas is still struggling to adjust to the lack of wind resistance on his new ergonomically shaved face.
Hopefully a couple extra days of practice will rectify this situation in time for Christmas to posterize DaShonte Riley on Monday night.
General Observations:
- Despite an early trip to the bench with foul trouble, MCW came up one assist away from making me look like a genius with his first career triple-double. I've said it before and I'll say it again, he's going to flirt with triple-doubles multiple times this year, and I think he'll get one at some point.
- Of course, with the good comes the bad. Carter-Williams was more than halfway towards making that a quadruple-double with 6 turnovers. Although I don't like the turnovers, they're somewhat understandable given the pace the game was played at and the fact that Carter-Williams is our primary ball handler.
The bigger concern to me, though, is just the overall feel of the game when MCW gets sped up. It seems like once he gets going to the basket, he can't slow down. And that leads to bad shots or passes. This is a problem that the Orange will need to figure out sooner rather than later, because you can bet Louisville and other future opponents have taken note of that and plan to use it to their advantage.
- After another slow start, Brandon Triche finally came alive a little in the 2nd half. He had his own personal 10-0 run, including back-to-back three pointers that led to a very un-Triche-like moment in which he turned around and let out a huge yell in a rare show of emotion.
I couldn't find a photo of that particular incident, but I did find this picture, which proves that Brandon Triche has shown emotion exactly twice in his life...
- Another game, another offensive bust for Trevor Cooney. I'm smelling a little bit of the stink of the Jay Schwartz mancrush curse on him.I'm guessing (hoping?) that it's only a matter of time before one falls from outside for him. We sure could use another consistent outside threat, since Southerland can't possibly continue torching the nets at this pace.
At least he's been able to keep his head in the game and contribute defensively so far. If he keeps that up, he'll earn enough time on the floor to break his slump.
- We were commenting during the game that Cooney seems to just play a little too fast for his own good sometimes. Case in point, when he nearly blew a fast-break opportunity by dribbling the ball off his own knee, before recovering in time to find an open teammate. It's almost like the seventh grader who's playing up on varsity and feels like he has to prove his worth with every single second on the floor, and winds up forcing the action as a result.
- C.J. Fair sure has been quite since the opener. At the end of the day you look up and he has his stats, but you sure don't remember how he got there. I hope he gets it going again soon. I miss screaming non-sensical acronyms starting with CJ at my tv.
- Another solid performance from Baye Moussa Keita. If he keeps this up, he will make Schirmer look verrry smart. He also will be contractually obligated to keep the Moussa in his name for next season.
Next Games:
Busy week for Cuse this week, with matchups against Easter Michigan (Monday), Long Beach State (Thursday), and Monmouth (Saturday).
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