It's Always Something

James Southerland.  Dude.  Come on.  What are you doing?

Two times in the last three seasons you have been a part of a team good enough to earn a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament and be on the short list of title contenders, only to see those dreams go up in smoke prematurely due to the loss of a key rotation player (whether by injury or stupidity).

Now here we are, gearing up for another run at a #1 seed in a year where there is no single dominant team.  A year in which you've finally become a key piece of the rotation and are a prohibitive favorite to be the Big East Sixth Man of the Year.  And you go ahead and get yourself declared ineligible.

What, you couldn't bear to drag yourself out of bed for that 11 a.m. basket-weaving class?  Not talking during Meditation 101 was reallllly hard I bet.  Sorry we couldn't afford to get you a 3rd tutor to pitch in to help with your chocolate chip cookie recipe for Home Ec.

Seriously, it blows my mind how a 5th year senior, WHO JUST WATCHED A TEAMMATE DO THE SAME THING LAST YEAR, could ever find themselves in this situation.  Yes James, the teachers at Syracuse will fail you if you don't at least give a token effort.  This has been demonstrated less than 12 months ago.  At least with Fab Melo you could chalk it up to the fact that English was his second language and he concusses himself by walking into doors, so really it was inevitable.

I liken this situation to how Boston Red Sox fans may have felt a few years ago.  Say it was Game 7 of the ALCS.  Bottom 9, bases loaded, two outs, down by one run.  If Manny Ramirez struck out looking and then proceeded to take a gigantic deuce on the middle of home plate, Sox fans probably would've laughed it off and said something along the lines of, "That's just Manny being Manny."  But if David Ortiz did the same thing, they would've been devastated and felt like they themselves were that sullied home plate.  You just expect more from some people.

That was how I felt on Saturday afternoon.  One minute, Lindsey and I were debating whether $30 was too much for three Syracuse onesies to brainwash our future child.  The next minute my phone is blowing up and I was making a bee-line to the nearest beer stand to load up on Dome Foam.  I thought about giving a 7-year old kid in a Southerland jersey a swirly, but managed to restrain myself enough to only hiss at him "Southerland is a terrible role model and you should burn his jersey in the middle of Marshall Street after the game."

Here's the rub  You could make the case that maybe, jusssttt maybe, we aren't any worse off without Southerland.  He hadn't played great of late and almost single-handedly cost us that Providence game with his questionable shot selection.  Plus Grant was a revelation on Saturday and he may actually be a better rebounder and defender than James was.  And if Southerland truly is out for the season, at least we are finding this out early enough that we can throw Grant and Cooney to the wolves and let them take their lumps against the likes of Louisville, Cincinnati, and Notre Dame now, in the hopes that they'll be better prepared for the bright lights come tourney time.

But you'd be delusional.

Because we are not better off without Southerland.  Maybe there is still enough talent on this team to make a run at it anyways.  Maybe Christmas or Coleman will finally show their potential that made them top-25 recruits.  Maybe Trevor Cooney has finally shaken the cobwebs off with those key 3's against Villanova.

But we can't replace what Southerland brought to the table.  He was the one player who could truly get his shot at any time and really the only player with the ability to put up a silly big number in a game (ask Arkansas).  Between his height, feathery touch, and irrational confidence, Southerland could get a three or a elbow jumper at almost any time.  The double-whammy of losing Southerland's outside shot is that it will allow teams to sag and take away MCW's inside passing lanes.  For a team with no true low-post threat to speak of, I'm just not sure where the points are going to come from against the better teams.

I'm not giving up on this team, not by a long shot, but the road just got significantly bumpier.  And it starts with a visit to the #1 team in the nation.  We need everyone to step up a little.

Yes that means you Brandon Triche.  You've been more consistent this year, but you still have no-shows.  You're now the lone senior on the team and you need to bring it every night.  We've all learned that you're not going to knock down threes every night, but when they're not falling you need to get into the lane and do that Brandon Triche rebound / put-back special.  And most importantly you need to stay on the floor.  No more fouling out.

Yes that means you Michael Carter-Williams.  If you're truly a lottery pick in next June's draft, then let's see you prove it over the new three months by knocking down a few more shots and committing a few less turnovers.

Yes that means you C.J. Fair.  You've been the man so far in Big East play, and now we need you to be a consistent threat more than ever.  You've proven the last few weeks that you're capable of a 20-10 nightly.  Now prove you can keep doing it even when defenses are keying on you.

Yes that means you Rakeem Christmas.  You're supposed to be a top-25 recruit.  Now stop wasting time taking instagram photos of your ridiculous shoe collection and start letting fans take instagram photos of you dunking on people's heads.

Yes that means you Trevor Cooney.  Syracuse wants to love you, they really do.  The fans went crazy when you made those threes on Saturday.  We don't need anything crazy, maybe just try hitting 2 treys a game and not airballing any shot attempts.

Yes that means you Jerami Grant.  You're going to get a lot of Southerland's playing time, so keep using that pterodactyl-like wingspan to swoop in for rebounds and blocked shots.  And if you've got a couple of extra minutes, call your uncle Horace and ask him about pointers for riding other's coattails to a title.

Yes that means you DaJuan Coleman and Baye Moussa Keita.  Protect the rim, get rebounds, use your 10 fouls to keep the other team from getting easy buckets, and just don't make us want to kill you.  That's not too much to ask right?

It doesn't have to happen overnight, but we need to see some improvements from everyone if we're still going to be a top contender to be around that first weekend in April.  And it all starts with a great litmus test on Saturday afternoon.  To quote the immortal Bart Scott...



Can't Wait.

(P.S.  - Somehow I have now made it to over 1,000 pageviews.  I don't know whether to be proud or feel bad for all of you who have continued to come back over the past couple months.  Probably a little bit of both.  Thanks to all of you though for taking some time to enjoy what I've been writing.  Especially you random dude from Vietnam who stumbled across my blog once and then for some unknown reason actually came back again.  I couldn't have done it without you.)

The Diabolic Plan of an Evil Mastermind

I'll have some thoughts on the Orange's first conference roadtrip of the season later in the weekend, but first I'm going to flip the script and take a look ahead to this afternoon.

You see, today is the final visit to the Carrier Dome by the Villanova Wildcats (at least as conference rivals).  The rivalry with Villanova is probably the one closest to my heart.  It is the alma mater of my sister and one of my best friends.  It is the main source of my mother's sports bigamy.  It is the team we crushed in one of my most memorable trips to the Dome.

Never mind that the Wildcats have been mediocre at best for the last 3-4 seasons, it is still one of the games I get most excited for on the schedule.  I may hate Connecticut more or dread playing Louisville the most, but the Villanova game is the most fun if for no other reason than it is the team that I know the most people to talk trash to when Syracuse rolls over them.  This includes my favorite go-to tweaking point of Villanova fans... Jay Wright's suit collection.

Which leads me to this morning.  Although I wasn't planning on going to this game, I recently was presented with the opportunity to purchase a few extra tickets that a friend couldn't use.  I couldn't pass this up, especially since my sister was flying home from Cincinnati just to go to this game with my mom.  Unbeknownst to me, they had tickets to the Villanova booster club breakfast beforehand.  Once they found out that we were also going to the game, they offered to get us tickets also.  Naturally I said yes, I'm always a fan of good food, and so my mom got the tickets.

Only after the tickets were purchased, my sister attempted to attach strings to our attendance.  No Syracuse gear or at least cover it up until gametime, she didn't want to be getting the stink eye all breakfast long (can't blame her).  Of course, this only provoked me into thinking how much Syracuse gear I could possibly manage to fit on my person at once (can't blame me).

Once my wheels started spinning, they got going real fast and veered off the tracks.  Rather than just trying to tweak my sister, how could I try to get under the skin of every single Villanova fan in attendance and watching at home?  Why, by messing with Jay Wright's Don Draper look of course.

How would one do such a thing?  Well, obviously I would have to ditch my Syracuse gear for dress slacks and a sports coat.  It's called camouflage.  You wouldn't go into the forest and blast Ke$ha on max volume while grilling venison over a massive bonfire , and shooting off your leftover Fourth of July fireworks if you wanted to get a deer.  Likewise, you don't wear a Syracuse hat and Gerry McNamara jersey if you want to get within five feet of Jay Wright's precious.

So now that I look the part, I just have to down a few mimosas for some liquid courage and then time my foray into the buffet line so that I happen to wind up next to Jay Wright.  While we're in the line, I'll have to pay Lindsey off to faint right as I get to the waffle station.  I then can suddenly turn around to make sure she's okay while conveniently holding the syrup ladle and taking a wide-ranging arc with my right arm.

Having used a statistical model to determine the proper angle I'll need, factoring in the draft from the air conditioning vent and all the hot air from the Nova fans, I give myself a 97% chance of making sure Jay Wright gets hit and crumples to the ground in a Barney Stinson-like moment.  Meanwhile, I'll be ripping off my dress shirt to reveal my C.J. Fair jersey, scream some kind of nonsense about Orange Forever, and make a mad dash out of the Sheraton ballroom and up the hill to the Dome.

Great plan right?

Ah, who am I kidding.  Jay Wright's got all kinds of stain repellent on that ish.  The syrup will probably just bounce back onto me.  Even if it penetrates that impermeable force-field  he's probably got 17 extra suits in the visitors locker room.

Oh well, a guy can dream.

Check back later in the weekend for some thoughts on the Cuse's first conference roadtrip, plus how the Orange looked live and in person (albeit from approximately 3 zip codes away).

Syracuse vs. Rutgers Recap

I'm back and better than ever.

I had to take a brief break from blogging because I "wanted to be more challenged" by doing some projects around the house and I "voluntarily" choose to spend some time with my family and friends.

Ignore anything you may have read otherwise.  I definitely was not suspended by the Commissioner of Blogger due to attempting to submit a profanity-laced tirade against Doug Gottlieb as my last post.

Seriously though, I did start about three different attempts to post some kind of piece on Boeheim's 900th win (and subsequently 903rd win - second most all-time), but they all devolved into long, rambling, nonsensical diatribes against all the haters.  So I won't fall into that trap again this time.  But allow me a couple quick rebuttals to everybody who came out of the woodwork to congratulate Boeheim with some of the best back-handed compliments I've ever seen.  

To everyone who says Boeheim's win total is inflated because he plays a week non-conference schedule every year:  Boeheim has 393 career Big East wins, Coach K has 382 career ACC wins.  So Boeheim has more conference wins against a conference in a more difficult conference.  Face.

To everyone who says Boeheim's not a great coach because he has only 1 national title and 3 final four appearances:  Breaking News.  Are you ready for this one?  You may want to make sure you're sitting down.  Okay.  It's really difficult to make the Final Four, yet alone win it all.  The NCAA tournament is a fickle beast.  One scrappy white kid making an improbable jumper (I'm looking at you T.J. Sorrentine) or one poorly timed injury (R.I.P. Arinze Onuaku) is all it takes to derail a promising team from making the Final Four and potentially winning the title.  Even with those lost opportunities there are still only 4 active coaches with more Final Four appearances than Boeheim (K, Roy Williams, Tom Izzo, and Rick Pitino) and only 3 active coaches with more titles than Boeheim (K, Williams, and Billy Donovan).  So yea, it's not as easy as it sounds to pile up titles and Final Four appearances.  Face.

To everyone who says Boeheim's wins are tainted because too many players have been arrested or suspended or transferred:  Right, because no other coach has this problem.  18 and 19 year old kids who have been handed everything there whole life and are mere months away from being multi-millionaires never get in trouble.  If you named a coach and gave me an hour and a Google search engine, I'm sure I could come back with nearly as many, if not more, issues in that program as well.  At least Boeheim himself stays clear of the law and hasn't had any vacated Final Fours (<cough> Calipari <cough>), been caught publicly cheating on his wife by banging his waitress (<cough> Pitino <cough>), or physically assaulted a player (<cough> Knight <cough>).  Face.

Ah, what a nice cathartic cleanse that was.  I feel much better now, don't you?

At least someone got the notice that the Syracuse coach was great.  Unfortunately for the Bills, they didn't realize this meant the basketball coach, not the football coach.  At least Marrone is a perfect fit for the Bills.  I mean anytime you can grab a coach who knows how to take lesser talent and get it to perform mediocre, you gotta do that.  Right guys? Cheers to three more years of stress-free playoff weekends and the 2016 coaching search. 

Now on to those Scarlet Knights.

Player of the Game:  Brandon Triche

Pretty obvious who was the star of this game.  Triche made three 3-pointers before the first TV timeout and never looked back from there.  At the end of the day, he finished with 25 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds, and 4 steals.  Not too shabby.

I actually was mildly surprised he had only 3 rebounds, but I suppose that is just because when Triche gets rebounds they are not the cheapy variety that most guards wind up with.  They are usually a very signature Triche-type rebound that is much more memorable.  You know the kind.  Where about 4 or 5 other players that have 6 inches on Triche all lazily stand around the basket waiting for the ball to drop to them, only to have Triche come flying in out of nowhere and steal the rebound.  

Those plays have become my favorite moment of each game.  I may just have to come up with some wacky acronym for them, like I did for C.J.'s jumpers last season.  

Goat of the Game:  DaJuan Coleman

Nobody stood out as particularly egregious this game, but I did take notice that Coleman is slowly morphing into Boeheim's token freshman big man that starts but only plays 5 minutes a game before our very eyes.  Coleman only got 9 minutes of burn on this night, which was good for last among the regular rotation players.

Cooney is going to keep getting some minutes out of necessity with only two guards and as long as Jerami Grant continues to do Jerami Grant type things, he'll continue to see a handful of minutes.  The proof is in the pudding for Coleman.  Hopefully this doesn't lead to a situation where Coleman gets depressed, eats the pudding (along with multiple Chipotle burritos, Jimmy John subs, and Varsity pizzas) and winds up looking like Michael Sweetney by the time the Big East Tournament rolls around.

General Observations:

-  The last seven minutes of the first half were about as perfect as a team can play.  There was good defense, slick passing, and lots of easy layups.  Say what you want to about Rutgers and how good or bad they may be, but a 21-0 run to end the half is pretty damn impressive no matter who the opponent is.

-  Very impressed with Carter-Williams in this game.  10 assists with only 2 turnovers.  I think the general perception of Carter-Williams in the non-conference portion of the schedule was that all those double-digit assist games against Canisius and Central Connecticut State were cute, but they weren't going to be there in Big East play.  That seemed to be backed up by the fact that against some of the tougher competition in the early part of the season, Hyphen's assist totals were much more pedestrian (4 against SDSU, 6 against Temple).

I'm sure there will still be games where he can't hit double-digits, like when the refs allow our games against Pitt and Georgetown to devolve into street brawls where the first team to 40 wins.  But I think it's becoming more and more evident that when Triche and Southerland are knocking down their three-point shots, double-digit assist performances for MCW are the rule, not the exception.  I expect him to make a very strong run at Kendall Marshall's record for highest assists per game total for a major conference player (9.8 apg last year).

-  Plus his steals are down the last couple games, so that's good right?  Cue the drumroll, followed by crickets chirping.  Thank you, thank you.  I'll be here all week.

-  Lindsey has dibs on Jerami Grant.  She loves watching him play and makes sure to point out this out at least four times a game.  It's like me with Trevor Cooney, in a less creepy, stalkerish kind of way.  

-  Lindsey also mixes up James Southerland and Rakeem Christmas at least four times a game.  For her sake, one of them needs to take one for the team and channel their inner Dennis Rodman and dye their hair in some kind of blue and orange basketball pattern.

- C.J. Fair is having a sneaky good year.  I had no idea before last game that he was shooting 81% on free throws and 40% on threes (albeit in a limited amount of attempts).  For a player whose know for scoring on slithering drives through the lanes and putbacks, he's really become a pretty good shooter.

Next Game:

Next up for Cuse is the South Florida Bulls this afternoon.  This is the Big East opener for the Bulls, who are 9-3 on the season.  Brace yourself for plenty of "Jim Boeheim left the state of New York for a game, it must be January" jokes.  Don't let solid facts, like that we've played in San Diego and Arkansas already this year, get in the way of a good joke.