It's a Mini-Horse Competition Highlight Reel

Wow. But who didn't see this coming? After the Rivalry Week meeting where Syracuse barely lost, don't you think that Boeheim and his young guns had this team figured out. For the first 16 minutes it certainly looked like it, as Syracuse took a 21 point lead against the #8/#8 team in the country in the first half. Vanderbilt had taken a 41-11 lead on Kentucky earlier in the week, but Kentucky gargles balls right now. The Hoyas were struggling, as seen with their 2nd half 20 point lay-down-and-die trick against Louisville, and needing John Cahill (I believe I remember correctly) to call a very ticky-tacky foul with .1 left to beat a Villanova team that some may say have been roughin' it as of late. 'Cuse was coming off a terrible loss to South Florida on the road, and they knew they needed this one. Paul got in the flow tonight and hit a 3 in the first half, which led me to rub my eyes to see if I was actually awake. Johnny and Donte ("Don'te Leave" is the best advice he received today) struggled from the field, but they hit some big shots, especially Johnny who along with Paul made free throws late as fake Jonathan Wallace dropped many a bomb from 3. The zone gave up a lot of threes, but Georgetown had all their other shots challenged, leading them to shoot 40% from inside the arc.

ESPN put up a stat that just summed up how badly Georgetown had lost it after starting with an 8-4 run. Whole Georgetown had 0 2nd chance points and 0 points off turnovers, the Orange had already reached double digits in the first 12 minutes. Other highlights for SU fans included a Pat Ewing, Jr. rim check, Arinze getting #2 called on Hibbert with the basket a little more than 3 minutes in. Looks like Arinze stopped being scared of tall dudes from the absolute domination of fear by Hasheem Thabeet a week before this past Wednesday. 

The Wednesday to Wednesday schedule didn't seem to work too well for Syracuse, as they never had a chance to shake off the dust against another team before South Florida beat them. It was a trap that Admiral Ackbar could have seen coming. South Florida had put up a good fight in the Dome in January, and no one wants to take on a not-so-good team at their place after barely beating them. The UConn game before was a letdown, as Hasheem blocked 7 shots and Arinze began to remind some a soprano in the Harlem Boys Choir...one that is at least 13, as he pump faked, some Thabeet, and immediately threw the ball out to the perimeter instead of taking it at him. 

Syracuse now has their tournament destiny in their own hands with 5 games left, all on national TV, and I'm not sure anyone wants to play them. Louisville and Notre Dame welcome 'Cuse in on Monday and a week from tomorrow, respectively, Pitt comes to the Dome in 2 weeks, a trip to Newark to play Seton Hall 4 dys after that, and finally, Marquette three ays after that comes to the Dome for Senior Day. Syracuse's main objective in these five: DON'T LOSE TO SETON HALL, win at least 3 against the other teams, and DO NOT MISS THE BIG EAST TOURNAMENT. Doing these things will definitely ensure a tourney invitation, but would be helped by a win or two at the Garden.

Since I've been alive, there have been a few exceptional meetings in the Hoya-Orangemen rivalry. My top 5:

1.) Barely holding on against Georgetown at home in 1995. It made one thing certain: Allen Iverson would never beat Syracuse in his Georgetown career.

2.) Senior Day, 1998: LaSean Howard, who would transfer to Howard after the season because he never got any playing time, made a huge 3-point play in overtime (playing for Marius Janulis, who hurt his hand earlier in the game) to beat the Hoyas. Syracuse fans already hated Georgetown for being Georgetown, but when Georgeton players ogled the Syracuse dance team, walking through their performance formation (if this is the terminology used, wow is all I can tell myself), and receiving a chorus of boos from nearly 30,000 people. I went in the locker room after the game, and LaSean was autographing programs from another game that he was on the cover for, trying to promote his case for more playing time.

3.) 2003 Sweep: Syracuse had never beaten Georgetown 3 times in a year before the Year of the Chip. Carmelo probably shit-talks to Iverson a lot about how he couldn't lose to Georgetown and Iverson couldn't win against Syracuse.

4.) 2007: As I watched on a borrowed television, Demetris Nichols had his best game of his career and gave one amazing memory to his fellow 2007 seniors, Terrance Roberts and Mookie,  who never won a tournament game.

5.) 2008: They learned their lessons in DC, and they used them to get a win they needed a lot. Possibly Paul Harris' best game so far at Syracuse.

Last night I had the greatest musical experience of my young life as I got to see Levon Helm and his band play at the Electric Factory. I don't know how good Levon's new stuff is, but damn, the guy can't stop smiling. His voice is a little weird from the throat cancer, but the man put on a clinic on the skins as well as the mandolin. Mckee may have called put him in an equation as equal to Roger Maris, but I think Maris should be taken out and replaced with Steve Nash, because he just facilitates others and directs the magic. Dr. Dog opened and talk about how happy he was to have free tickets to see "Luh-von," which was stupid. And with the average age at this place at around 45, I got to witness a guy have a heart attack and try to start human dominoes from the front row. The Factory did have bleacher seats set up for the old crowd, but they were not used by this guy, who couldn't take the wait through the opening music. And good news for Levon: his daughter had his first grandchild on Wendesday, and he is baby Levon (her band Ollabelle played with a replacement and did an awesome "Ain't No More Cane" after realizing that they didn't sound very good). I expect baby Levon on a kit no later than his fifth birthday and for some Jason Bonham style tapes to come out of the kid playing like his dad no later than 2014.

That's all for today, I might get a short entry in after Syracuse-Louisville on Monday, otherwise look sometime on Saturday for a two-game wrap-up. Midterms galore make me angry as hell. Until next time, peace.