After the depressing showing that was the Georgetown-Syracuse game on Saturday, I needed something to cheer me up (or distract me if the Orange decided to score 46 points again tonight). So I decided to take a page out of the Sports Guy's playbook and keep a running diary. Here is what transpired.
Pregame - Your announcers tonight are Bill Raftery, Jay Bilas, and Sean McDonough. We start the broadcast tonight by reminding you that no that was not a bad dream and yes Syracuse did indeed only score 46 points on Saturday. I was not aware of this at the time, but unsurprisingly that is a record in Syracuse futility, as it was their lowest scoring game ever at Carrier Dome.
Right before the tip, ESPN throws up a poll for Big East Player of the Year. The options include Shabazz Napier, Russ Smith, MCW and Otto Porter. Allow me two thoughts on this quickly. First of all, can we all agree that the MCW bandwagon hasn't just taken a wrong turn, but more like the wheels have fallen off and the bandwagon has veered into the median and flipped over in a roadside ditch? I was among those driving the bandwagon earlier this year, but right about now I'd rather be in the path of a student driver car being simultaneously driven by Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Bynes, than be caught riding shotgun with MCW. Secondly, whoever even put that poll up in the first place has to be a Georgetown fan right? Who else would dare throw Otto Porter so brazenly in our face right off the top of the broadcast.
19:47 - And just like that Michael Carter-Williams makes me eat my words. Strong drive off the opening tip, finished with a half dunk / half layup. Is it just my imagination, or did he turn and wink at me after that play.
19:20 - And a great start on defense (note: sarcasm), with Christmas and Fair both picking up fouls, followed by giving up an offensive rebound.
18:51 - Good aggressive drive by Fair that narrowly averts a disaster when the Marquette defender is called for a block instead of what potentially could have been a charge and a quick 2nd foul on C.J.
17:39 - And MCW makes a 3. Somehow he has leapt into the future to read my blog post and managed to go back and shove it in my face. The announcers remind us not to expect much more of that, pointing out that it is his first three pointer in the last 5 games. I knew he struggles with his 3-point shot, but that seems like a long stretch even for him.
16:45 - Christmas botches an alley-oop, followed by Triche getting the loose ball and missing a wide open layup. Lindsey decides that Christmas did absolutely nothing on that possession. I disagree. I think he did plenty of bad things on that possession. Also, we're pretty sure there was an "oh shit" picked up by the microphones as Christmas realized he had no chance to finish the alley-oop. That pretty much sums up Christmas the last month. Oh Shit.
15:22 - Syracuse settles for back-to-back long jumpers early in the shot clock that unsurprisingly miss and lead to fast breaks for Marquette. Just like that, it's a quick 5-0 run for Marquette and the lead is gone. For a team that isn't that good a jump shooting team, they seem to settle way too quickly for long shots (open or not).
14:56 - Syracuse answers the Marquette run with a nice alley-oop slam to C.J. followed by a reaallllllyyy weak technical on Fair for slapping the backboard. Actually I would almost call it petting the backboard. I know that is technically a technical foul by the letter of the law, but give me a break.
In a unique turn of events, Marquette chooses the biggest player on their team, Robert "Tractor" Traylor's doppleganger, to take their technical foul shots.
12:41 - You know the team has been struggling on offense when you try to talk yourself into Trevor Cooney giving them a spark off the bench
11:43 - Cooney! Drives and dishes to Keita for the dunk. Say what you will about how disappointing Cooney's shooting has been this season, but at least he has continued to play hard and has shown some promise with his defense and passing.
11:25 - Textbook "what not to do on defense" by Southerland there. Watches the offense rebound and then makes a weak challenge and foul on the shooter to give the and-1 to Marquette.
Coming out of the commercial break, ESPN gives us some Otto Porter clips from Saturday, sending me into a fit of 'Nam like flashbacks. We get it ESPN producer, you got rejected from the Syracuse school of communications. Give up the grudge.
10:02 - A ball gets knocked into the backcourt, followed by Triche getting his legs cut out from under him with no call. I have no idea how they could possibly not call the foul there. That would've been a 15-yard chop block and $100,000 fine in the NFL. In fact, if Roger Goodell ran college basketball, I think that Marquette defender would've been suspended for the Big East Tournament and would've lost meal card privileges for 2 1/2 days.
9:15 - Cooney! Hits the three to give Syracuse the lead.
8:40 - And there's bad Cooney, taking a three as he's drifting sideways that misses badly.
7:45 - Triche find Baye Moussa Keita under the basket, who then proceeds to miss two point black layup attempts. That is why Keita should be nothing more than someone who gives you a couple of minutes of energy and 5 fouls off the bench. Unfortunately, with Christmas regressing and Coleman recovering, Keita is being asked to do a lot more than that.
4:17 - Syracuse runs a set play for Fair to get the ball on the low block, and it works. Not sure why they don't do that more often when the game bogs down into a halfcourt game. Fair seems to be the only player on this team capable of creating his own offense. As soon as the rest of the players realize and play to that, the offense will be that much better off. Syracuse is on a 11-0 run to stretch the lead to 25-14.
2:18 - Davonte Gardner gets a basket and a foul, followed by beating his chest, screaming to the heavens, and punching the basket support. So, were okay with that display of sportsmanship, but Fair's "slap" of the backboard was too much? We're sure about that?
1:24 - Another bad shot early in the shot clock, this time by Triche. To make matters worse, it leads to a breakout the other way for Marquette, followed by Jerami Grant fouling a 3-point shooter for a 4 point play. Throw in a bad turnover by MCW that leads to a fast break layup and just like that a 12 point lead is down to 2. Giving up 4-point plays in back to back games has to rank among the worst things I've seen on defense in a while.
:16 - Up 32-29, Syracuse will hold for the last shot here. *SPOILER ALERT* they will most likely settle for a long, contested jump shot that will miss terribly.
:00 - And there it is. Michael Carter-Williams with a 20 footer jumper at the buzzer that clanks off the rim. I'm shocked (I'm not really shocked).
2nd Half
16:32 - Syracuse missed the memo that the 2nd half started, allowed Marquette to repeatedly get into the teeth of the zone and make short jumpers or putbacks to start the 2nd half. I don't know that it necessarily correlates to anything, but I really don't like Boeheim starting Southerland straight out of the gate in the 2nd half. Why not stick with Grant and bring in Southerland for a spark if we start out slow like this? It works in the first half.
15:06 - Southerland open at the top of the key as Triche passes the ball right past him to Carter-Williams. Carter-Williams catches the oversight and passes it back to Southerland who drills the three. Cuse leads by 4.
14:20 - And another Southerland three off a good look from Triche. The game of ridiculous runs continues, with Syracuse now stretching it's lead out to 44-37.
13:13 - And just like that, Cuse gives up a three and a put-back and we're back to a 2 point game again.
12:47 - Fair with the foul line jumper. He is just having a monster, efficient game tonight. He's got 14 points on 6-8 shooting. I'm going to start a campaign for every possession to start with him getting a touch at the foul line or on the baseline. I don't see how this could possible be a bad thing
12:17 - I know I'm biased, but I really hate Davonte Gardner. The celebrating is a little over the top. I mean I know he's happy he's just managed to play more than 20 minutes without keeling over on the court, but still.
12:09 - Handcheck called on Junior Cadougan after he takes a piggy-back ride on Carter-Williams 3/4 of the way down the court. That is by far the most inconsistent call in college basketball. There is no rhyme or reason to which ones they call or why.
11:46 - Vander Blue gets trapped in the corner, walks backwards out of bounds... and gets a foul called on Southerland. That is just a terrible call and could be a key turning point in the game as Southerland picks up his 4th foul on that play and heads to the bench to take a seat next to Boeheim for a while.
9:47 - WHAT?!?!? Keita with a pirouette through the lane followed by a sky hook that would make Kareem Abdul-Jabar jealous. Did Keita mean to shoot that? Or did it slip out of his hand? Either way, I'll take it. Cuse back up 7, 51-44.
9:26 - As much as I hate Gardner, I have to admit he is a pretty devastating option on offense. There are not many people that are that big and can just draw foul after foul on the other team, then proceed to shoot 85% from the line. I was shocked to find out he is the third-best foul shooter in the Big East. Who knew?
9:02 - Crisis narrowly averted there by Triche, as he nearly loses the ball in a trap near midcourt, followed by somehow managing to sneak out of it and get the ball all the way to the rim for a layup.
8:05 - Not so lucky that time, as Triche rifles that pass into the 5th row. I'm breaking the "(SC)OOPS" of the game award back out just for that play. Congratulations Brandon, you earned it.
6:52 - Triche is not even close with his shot tonight. He's shooting like Trevor Cooney tonight. He can't even get his normal Triche-y type rebounds and putbacks to go. Nothing is working.
6:16 - As inconsistent as he's been at times this year, I have to give Triche credit for at least maintaining his aggressiveness more often this year. That's always been my biggest complaint about him, and although he's had a few too many off nights this year, he certainly has not been afraid to shoot even when they're not falling. Of course, right about now I'm wishing maybe he would just fade into the background for the rest of this game.
3:37 - And the brainfarts continue. In the last two minutes, all Syracuse has managed to do is get two turnovers and a missed 3 from MCW on the offensive end, and two offensive rebounds given up on the defensive end. what had been a pretty steady lead for most of the game has turned into a six-point defecit and things are looking pretty bleak.
1:53 - Coming out of the timeout, we get our results to what may possibly be the most biased poll ever. MCW pulls in 34% of the vote for player of the year, with Otto Porter coming in a distant second at 27%. The only possible explanation I can think of for these results is that Syracuse fans stuffed the ballot box after MCW's good start to this game and then added sarcastic votes (the equivlent of a bronx cheer) in the last few minutes when MCW was handing the game to Marquette on a silver platter.
1:47 - Syracuse manages to force 2 straight timeouts and then a shot clock violation on that possession. Glad they finally woke up about 19 minutes too late.
1:30 - And Triche turns the ball over again. The guards have been absolutely terrible in this closing 5 minutes. ESPN shows Triche's stats and it says he only has 2 turnovers. I call schenanigans on that. It seems like he's had at least a half-dozen.
1:10 - Absolutely terrible possession by Syracuse there, as they manage to take 20 seconds off the clock and settle for a 30-foot three-pointer. They get bailed out only because Southerland happens to hit an NBA three.
1:04 - I know they haven't exaclty used it a lot this year, but doesn't it seem like their press is shockingly ineffective for the length and speed that they have. They should get way more tips and deflections than they do.
:33 - Southerland has his own personal 3 point shooting contest as he manages to take 4 three-pointers in 17 seconds, before finally knocking down the last one. Syracuse is still down 67-63.
:08 - C.J. Fair knocks down a 3 to make it a 72-68. Least excited I've ever been about a CJ03
:02 - Michael Carter-Williams knocks down a three to make it a 2 point game but there is only .02 seconds on the clock by the time they can foul. Too little, Too late.
:00 - 74-71 Marquette. Final. Adding insult to injury, I know have to watch the Bachelor.
5 Minutes into the Bachelor: At least the girls on the Bachelor know how to attack on offense. They're dishing out kisses like MCW dishes out assists in non-conference games. This is what my life has devolved too. Kill me now.
Postgame - That was a particularly appalling loss by the Orange. They had a solid lead most of the game before unraveling and forgetting what got them there over the last 5 minutes. Way too few touches for Fair down the stretch. With the loss, we can basically write off any hopes of winning the Big East regular season title, and just set our sights on gaining some momentum heading into the postseason. Ironically it was the second straight game where a Syracuse player was going head-to-head with his main competition for a postseason award and was completely outclassed. Saturday it was Otto Porter laying the smackdown on C.J. Fairs blossoming campaign for Player of the Year. Tonight it was Davonte Gardner devouring James Southerland's hopes at Sixth Man of the Year like he would devour a Five Guys cheeseburger. If the trend continues with Peyton Siva having a monster game on Saturday, I will be in a very dark and depressing place (and my local liquor store may just have a record month).
Monday, February 25, 2013
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Here we go...
It seemed like an innocent enough comment.
With her last words before rolling over to go to bed on Wednesday night, Lindsey threw out the hypothesis that she thought the reason Syracuse had played so well that night against Providence was because I had finally posted a blog again.
Not because C.J. Fair continued his quiet run at a Big East Player of Year award and tallied a double-double for the 3rd time in his last 5 games.
Not because James Southerland showed off his silky smooth jumper and pogo-stick like leaping abilities in an uber-efficient, versatile 20 point performance.
And not because somebody managed to convince Michael Carter-Williams that Providence was a member of the American East conference, allowing him to return to his non-conference ways by tallying more assists than the entire Providence team.
No, it wasn't any of those impressive individual performances that led to a 31-4 run and a rare easy conference victory. If was me finally taking 20 minutes to sit down and bang out a mediocre blog post that led to all of that.
If you're keeping track at home, that now means in the past week my mom has called me out for giving up on the blog, my sister twisted the knife by attributing my silence to a lack of things to say since the debacle that was the Villanova game, and Lindsey subliminally planted the seed that when I write, Syracuse wins. When I don't, it's a flip of the coin.
That may not seem that big for a sane person, but as most of you are probably painfully aware, I am not a sane person when it comes to Syracuse basketball. After all, you're talking about a man who once spent the entire six overtimes of that Cuse-Uconn classic in a squatted position in front of my chair because that was the position I happened to be in when they tied the game at the end of regulation. For that guy, this is a troubling development.
Either my family does not know me very well after 20+ years of co-habitation, or they had a diabolical plot to force me to pick up the blogging output. All I can do is present the facts, I'll let you decide. Either way, expect to see an extreme uptick in blogging from here through (hopefully) the first week in April. You know who to thank...or curse.
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As least if I'm going to make a strong comeback to the blogging game, I'm picking the right time to do it. As we sit here today, Syracuse is tied with Georgetown and Marquette atop the Big East standings with 5 games to play. Louisville is lurking one game back of the pack. In the next 7 days, Syracuse plays all three of those teams once. Then they get a breather against DePaul (knock on wood) before closing out their days as a member of the Big East in the most fitting way possible, at Georgetown. If that game is for the Big East regular season title... I don't even know how to capture the excited, neurotic behavior I will display.
All in all, that is a brutal closing stretch. Far more difficult than any of the other three teams they are battling for the regular season title. In fact, none of the other three teams face anyone else in that group other than Syracuse in their final five games.
If you're a glass half-full type of person, then you're probably thinking Syracuse holds their fate in their own hands. If they play well this next week, they could grab a stranglehold on the conference. Plus 3 of their next 4 are at home, where the Orange haven't lost in over two years.
And although it appears unlikely right now, a #1 seed in the NCAA Tourney isn't out of the realm of possibilities. If they were to go 4-1 or 5-0 to close the season and make a run to the finals of the Big East Tournament, I think the committee would have to at least take a long hard look.
If you're a glass half-empty type of person, then you're probably thinking Syracuse has their work cut out for them. And you'd be right. Without going through the schedules of all 347 Division 1 teams, I'd venture to say that Syracuse may have the most daunting closing slate of any team in the country. 4 of their last 5 games are against teams currently ranked in the top 20.
Georgetown is on an eight-game winning streak and was the last team to beat Syracuse in the Dome. Marquette has seemed to have our number the last few years and we've struggled on the road this season against lesser competition than them. Louisville should've beaten us the first time and will be out for a revenge. MCW better rest up nice and good next week leading to that game, because Russ Smith and Peyton Siva will be in his face all day.
Add it all together and it's not inconceivable that Syracuse could finish the season in a mini-slump and be at risk of falling out of the top four seed lines come tourney time.
Ultimately, I think it's an optical illusion and the glass is neither half-full, nor half-empty, but rather somewhere in between. Did you follow that? Good, neither did I. Forced to choose, I think Syracuse finishes 3-2 in this stretch, good for 2nd or 3rd in the Big East and a 3 seed in the Big Dance.
One thing is for certain, the picture will be a whole lot clearer 72 hours from now.
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And it all starts with Georgetown this afternoon.
Part of me thinks Georgetown isn't nearly as good as their record, and that we can handle them fairly easily. That part of me is the part that watched Georgetown struggle to get to 50 points against Tennessee and Marquette earlier this season. That part of me looks at the stats and sees a team that ranks near the bottom of the Big East in rebounding, one of Syracuse's strengths. That part of me sees a team that doesn't take a lot of threes, one of Syracuse's weaknesses.
The other part of me thinks there is no way this game doesn't come down to the last possession. I saw a stat in the paper this morning that 20 of the last 87 matchups between these two have been decided by 2 points or less. That part of me sees Otto Porter, a prototypical zone buster. A big man who can shoot, pass, and handle and play right in the middle of the zone. That part of me remembers plenty of times when a seemingly less talented Georgetown team came into the Dome and walked out victorious.
At the end of the day, I think Syracuse is just a little more talented than Georgetown. I don't think Georgetown has the pressure defenders to get up into Michael Carter-Williams and knock him off his game, which is one of the main ways to stifle Syracuse's offense. I also think Brandon Triche shows up in a big way from here on out, with only 3 games left in his home career on the hill. And with the electricity of the record-setting crowd to get behind them, I expect that James Southerland's irrational confidence could be off the charts, leading to a sequence of 2 or 3 threes in a 90 second span.
My prediction?
3 dazzling passes and 2 bone-headed plays from MCW.
A double-double from C.J. Fair
A rebound / putback among at least 3 significantly taller players from Brandon Triche
32 head bobs from James Southerland
1 "Oh hey, Trevor Cooney is in the game" moment
And a 67-62 victory for Syracuse.
With her last words before rolling over to go to bed on Wednesday night, Lindsey threw out the hypothesis that she thought the reason Syracuse had played so well that night against Providence was because I had finally posted a blog again.
Not because C.J. Fair continued his quiet run at a Big East Player of Year award and tallied a double-double for the 3rd time in his last 5 games.
Not because James Southerland showed off his silky smooth jumper and pogo-stick like leaping abilities in an uber-efficient, versatile 20 point performance.
And not because somebody managed to convince Michael Carter-Williams that Providence was a member of the American East conference, allowing him to return to his non-conference ways by tallying more assists than the entire Providence team.
No, it wasn't any of those impressive individual performances that led to a 31-4 run and a rare easy conference victory. If was me finally taking 20 minutes to sit down and bang out a mediocre blog post that led to all of that.
If you're keeping track at home, that now means in the past week my mom has called me out for giving up on the blog, my sister twisted the knife by attributing my silence to a lack of things to say since the debacle that was the Villanova game, and Lindsey subliminally planted the seed that when I write, Syracuse wins. When I don't, it's a flip of the coin.
That may not seem that big for a sane person, but as most of you are probably painfully aware, I am not a sane person when it comes to Syracuse basketball. After all, you're talking about a man who once spent the entire six overtimes of that Cuse-Uconn classic in a squatted position in front of my chair because that was the position I happened to be in when they tied the game at the end of regulation. For that guy, this is a troubling development.
Either my family does not know me very well after 20+ years of co-habitation, or they had a diabolical plot to force me to pick up the blogging output. All I can do is present the facts, I'll let you decide. Either way, expect to see an extreme uptick in blogging from here through (hopefully) the first week in April. You know who to thank...or curse.
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All in all, that is a brutal closing stretch. Far more difficult than any of the other three teams they are battling for the regular season title. In fact, none of the other three teams face anyone else in that group other than Syracuse in their final five games.
If you're a glass half-full type of person, then you're probably thinking Syracuse holds their fate in their own hands. If they play well this next week, they could grab a stranglehold on the conference. Plus 3 of their next 4 are at home, where the Orange haven't lost in over two years.
And although it appears unlikely right now, a #1 seed in the NCAA Tourney isn't out of the realm of possibilities. If they were to go 4-1 or 5-0 to close the season and make a run to the finals of the Big East Tournament, I think the committee would have to at least take a long hard look.
If you're a glass half-empty type of person, then you're probably thinking Syracuse has their work cut out for them. And you'd be right. Without going through the schedules of all 347 Division 1 teams, I'd venture to say that Syracuse may have the most daunting closing slate of any team in the country. 4 of their last 5 games are against teams currently ranked in the top 20.
Georgetown is on an eight-game winning streak and was the last team to beat Syracuse in the Dome. Marquette has seemed to have our number the last few years and we've struggled on the road this season against lesser competition than them. Louisville should've beaten us the first time and will be out for a revenge. MCW better rest up nice and good next week leading to that game, because Russ Smith and Peyton Siva will be in his face all day.
Add it all together and it's not inconceivable that Syracuse could finish the season in a mini-slump and be at risk of falling out of the top four seed lines come tourney time.
Ultimately, I think it's an optical illusion and the glass is neither half-full, nor half-empty, but rather somewhere in between. Did you follow that? Good, neither did I. Forced to choose, I think Syracuse finishes 3-2 in this stretch, good for 2nd or 3rd in the Big East and a 3 seed in the Big Dance.
One thing is for certain, the picture will be a whole lot clearer 72 hours from now.
_________________________________________________________________________________
And it all starts with Georgetown this afternoon.
The other part of me thinks there is no way this game doesn't come down to the last possession. I saw a stat in the paper this morning that 20 of the last 87 matchups between these two have been decided by 2 points or less. That part of me sees Otto Porter, a prototypical zone buster. A big man who can shoot, pass, and handle and play right in the middle of the zone. That part of me remembers plenty of times when a seemingly less talented Georgetown team came into the Dome and walked out victorious.
At the end of the day, I think Syracuse is just a little more talented than Georgetown. I don't think Georgetown has the pressure defenders to get up into Michael Carter-Williams and knock him off his game, which is one of the main ways to stifle Syracuse's offense. I also think Brandon Triche shows up in a big way from here on out, with only 3 games left in his home career on the hill. And with the electricity of the record-setting crowd to get behind them, I expect that James Southerland's irrational confidence could be off the charts, leading to a sequence of 2 or 3 threes in a 90 second span.My prediction?
3 dazzling passes and 2 bone-headed plays from MCW.
A double-double from C.J. Fair
A rebound / putback among at least 3 significantly taller players from Brandon Triche
32 head bobs from James Southerland
1 "Oh hey, Trevor Cooney is in the game" moment
And a 67-62 victory for Syracuse.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Home Stretch
A lot has happened since I was last able to sit down and put together a post.
- Miami went from unranked to undeafeted in ACC play (including a 27 point romp over Duke. Sorry couldn't pass up pointing that one out) and receiving 20 votes for 1st place in the AP Poll
- Oscar Pistorius went from feel-good story of the Summer Olympics to alleged murderer.
- The #1 team in college basketball lost for a stretch of 5 consecutive weeks. Casualties included Duke, Louisville, Duke again (seriously you guys, if they give me the chances I have to take the shots) , Michigan, and Indiana.
- The Pope decided to retire, which happens about as often as the Bills make the playoffs (see: never)
And then there's Syracuse...
The Orange beat #1 Louisville on their own home court.
They went 3-0 against ranked opponents
James Southerland won his appeal hearing, giving the Orange a deep threat back in their rotation that they so desperately needed to open up the driving lanes for MCW, Triche, and Fair.
They saw Jerami Grant valiantly step up in Southerland's absence, given them another option that Boeheim can trust in his limited rotation.
That was the good.
They also lost 3 consecutive road games to unranked teams. Or in other words, more games than they lost to the Big East the entirety of last season.
Michael Carter-Williams assists per game plummeted in Big East play at a rate that it finally cost him his lead in the nation.
The Orange were held to under 60 points on three separate occasions, which was more times than they had been held below that total the entire rest of the season.
That was the bad.
So here we sit today with a team ranked #8 in the country and tied for first in the Big East, but one that has its flaws as well. I think this team still has a legitimate chance at a Final Four and National Title, but there is no doubt that they are also vulnerable. The good thing is, I do know that we'll have a much better idea of where they stand by the end of the regular season three weeks from now.
That is because 4 of the Orange's final 6 games come against Marquette, Louisville, and Georgetown (twice). I'm guessing the Orange gets tripped up just enough to not win the Big East regular season title, but I won't be shocked if this team steps up and gets the job done. And I know how they can.
This probably won't come as a huge surprise to anyone who has watched this team this year, but the key is our backcourt. C.J. Fair is going to do C.J. Fair things. James Southerland will knock down some outside shots. And Rakeem Christmas will have a finely groomed beard.
But Michael Carter-Williams and Brandon Triche are the keys to this team, and in two very different ways. In order for us to survive this tough stretch and wind up winning the Big East title in our swan song, Triche needs to shoot the ball well and Michael Carter-Williams needs to not shoot the ball at all.
That is obviously a slight exaggeration (he can shoot it 2 or 3 times), but check out these stats...
In Big East Conference Wins:
Michael Carter-Williams - 10 shot attempts per game, 6.7 assists per game
Brandon Triche - 48% field goal percentage, 37% 3-point percentage, 2 made 3-pointers per game
In Big East Conference Losses:
Michael Carter-Williams - 14 shot attempts per game, 2.3 assists per game
Brandon Triche - 30% field goal percentage, 15% 3-point percentage, 1 made 3-pointer per game
The numbers are pretty clear.
Michael Carter-Williams is the point guard. Brandon Triche is the shooting guard. They need to play that way.
If they do, we will be celebrating leaving the Big East winners come the first week of March. If they don't, I might be looking for a new tv after throwing my remote through my current one during that last Georgetown game.
- Oscar Pistorius went from feel-good story of the Summer Olympics to alleged murderer.
- The #1 team in college basketball lost for a stretch of 5 consecutive weeks. Casualties included Duke, Louisville, Duke again (seriously you guys, if they give me the chances I have to take the shots) , Michigan, and Indiana.
- The Pope decided to retire, which happens about as often as the Bills make the playoffs (see: never)
And then there's Syracuse...
The Orange beat #1 Louisville on their own home court.
They went 3-0 against ranked opponents
James Southerland won his appeal hearing, giving the Orange a deep threat back in their rotation that they so desperately needed to open up the driving lanes for MCW, Triche, and Fair.
They saw Jerami Grant valiantly step up in Southerland's absence, given them another option that Boeheim can trust in his limited rotation.
That was the good.
They also lost 3 consecutive road games to unranked teams. Or in other words, more games than they lost to the Big East the entirety of last season.
Michael Carter-Williams assists per game plummeted in Big East play at a rate that it finally cost him his lead in the nation.
The Orange were held to under 60 points on three separate occasions, which was more times than they had been held below that total the entire rest of the season.
That was the bad.
So here we sit today with a team ranked #8 in the country and tied for first in the Big East, but one that has its flaws as well. I think this team still has a legitimate chance at a Final Four and National Title, but there is no doubt that they are also vulnerable. The good thing is, I do know that we'll have a much better idea of where they stand by the end of the regular season three weeks from now.
That is because 4 of the Orange's final 6 games come against Marquette, Louisville, and Georgetown (twice). I'm guessing the Orange gets tripped up just enough to not win the Big East regular season title, but I won't be shocked if this team steps up and gets the job done. And I know how they can.
This probably won't come as a huge surprise to anyone who has watched this team this year, but the key is our backcourt. C.J. Fair is going to do C.J. Fair things. James Southerland will knock down some outside shots. And Rakeem Christmas will have a finely groomed beard.
But Michael Carter-Williams and Brandon Triche are the keys to this team, and in two very different ways. In order for us to survive this tough stretch and wind up winning the Big East title in our swan song, Triche needs to shoot the ball well and Michael Carter-Williams needs to not shoot the ball at all.
That is obviously a slight exaggeration (he can shoot it 2 or 3 times), but check out these stats...
In Big East Conference Wins:
Michael Carter-Williams - 10 shot attempts per game, 6.7 assists per game
Brandon Triche - 48% field goal percentage, 37% 3-point percentage, 2 made 3-pointers per game
In Big East Conference Losses:
Michael Carter-Williams - 14 shot attempts per game, 2.3 assists per game
Brandon Triche - 30% field goal percentage, 15% 3-point percentage, 1 made 3-pointer per game
The numbers are pretty clear.
If they do, we will be celebrating leaving the Big East winners come the first week of March. If they don't, I might be looking for a new tv after throwing my remote through my current one during that last Georgetown game.
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