Ever scalp a ticket from an old white woman? I didn't think so...

What a crappy Syracuse win. St. John's showed what you need to do to beat this team: foul trouble. With Donte out, 'Cuse couldn't ever get 3 points on a possession because Johnny Flynn, the only guy on the team who could make a 3 refused to shoot one after Donte got his 4th foul; and whenever Arinze got fouled making a shot, he immediately bricked the free throw. The reason Syracuse managed to win was that Arinze could score at will. 11-15 from the field is some terribly good numbers. When they have to rely on him in the Big East, they could run into trouble as he goes up against bigger centers like Hibbert and Caracter. In that case, Johnny is going to have to switch to being score-first. He is quick enough and can pull up on a dime, but he always passes unless the shot clock is running down. If he isn't aggressive the rest of the year, don't look for any Syracuse tourney talk.
And Anthony Mason, Jr. is just his dad's face with a completely different game. Really skilled and big enough at 6'7", but he has to put up bigger numbers if he is going to get to the NBA.
I also have to say I'm quite opposed to the ticket prices I encountered at the Dome. $28 for St. John's? We almost couldn't go, but luckily a woman (title character of this entry) approached us asking, "Looking for tickets?" Not how one imagines a scalper after having gone to many Philadelphia sporting events in the past two years, but she did actually show me the tickets, one thing scalpers don't usually do, and she even promised to sell them for face value, which was only $25. We ended up sitting in the corner near the Syracuse bench in the first row, right near where the players enter from the locker room. Probably the best job I've done scalping in my life.
On to the Quakers. FireGlenMiller.com will be up by the end of the month. I would have given him two extra weeks with a victory at Miami, with the Hurricanes out of the Top 25 and pissed after losing its first of the year to Winthrop (yeah, that Winthrop with Taj McCullough that won a tourney game last year). What better whooping post than Penn, who fell to 4-9 with the loss? None. FireGlenMiller.com countdown is now at 28 days.
Last night, after I got back from the game, my buddy Steve came over and we opened up what turned out to be a gem from days past: a little VHS called Boeheim on Basketball. We weren't sure of its power, but it sure was powerful: Boeheim hitting 30 straight free throws and trash talking Sherman Douglas and Herman Harried. The best quote: "When our big guys get fouled, I should come in and shoot for them." It also includes some stereotypes of instructional films from that era (think Baseball World's Defensive Drills by Tom Emanski), including: MC Hammer instrumentals, Harried sporting a blonde horn at the front of his head, ridiculous freeze frames, Boeheim fighting wind in the intro so as to have the Dome in the background, and some ridiculous film technique by the camera operator, who we guessed was Bernie Fine. During the aforementioned intro, Boeheim said the video would teach fundamentals, as Sherman Douglas through a full court pass as if he were a long-snapper and dished out behind-the-back passes. There was also a section dedicated to the alley-oop. Who else would narrate but Doug Logan.
West Virginia was downright nasty in the Fiesta Bowl. Oklahoma should never go back to Tempe if they can. They fell victim to a Cinderella story one year, and then they give a guy his job this year. Congrats to Bill Stewart for earning his job and making Rich Rodriguez look like a punk. I bet West Virginians are hoping that Stewart retains Rodriguez's staff that he hasn't hired yet at Michigan. The Mountaineers definitely look like title contenders next year, and I don't think their coach will throw the Backyard Brawl next year to get another job and betray his alma ma...oh, he went to Fairmont State. The Pat White endorsement after the game was also a good signal for the future. Stewart has worked with White the past four years, and I expect him to not make the jump (Slaton too) after the athletic department granted his request.