"Next year" is all I can say

I don't think anyone can describe my excitement after the Marquette game. Kristof showed some non-Europeanness as a players, Donte Greene realized that he was 6'11" and his defender was 6'3" so he (/GASP!) started posting up, Johnny was on fire, Arinze was on fire, Scoop and Rick were playing well off the bench, and Paul Harris was getting his. And a chance to play 'Nova at a neutral (Wachovia Center in Philadelphia is essentially a neutral site, with a 1:1 'Nova: visitor ratio)? If I were Terry Schiavo, this would be the time to check if I needed a change of pants (Luckily I did not). So Wednesday came, and Syracuse shut down as it always does when Syracuse has a game during the day on a weekday: no one at Wegmans (source: mother) and people staying home from work (source: Steve, who hosted my viewing of the contest), as well as classes not being taught (source: Steve's brother, who provided text message commentary, and came up with the idea that Harris gets his in order to pad his stats). The ugliest start to a college basketball game I've seen (no score until 17:43 left and just a ton a loose ball scrums and terrible shots) led to Syracuse getting control with 28-19 lead with 2:27 left. And then the second epic collapse went down. 'Nova scored eight unanswered to end the half. The second half started with a little back and forth, but 'Nova was hot, and Syracuse was not. They shot 8-9 from 3 in the second half. Every team has trouble shooting free throws at that clip, and they were hitting 3s like they were lay-ups. Not to mention that Paul Harris set a career-high for 3s in a game with 10 minutes left in the first half, so he stopped driving and started to settle for jumpers, taking away more chances of a comeback. Not to mention that panic mode started with about 8 minutes left, and panic mode got ugly. Steve went to work and I left with 3 minutes left. The NIT is next, and I ain't too happy, but this team literally had nothing to be expected of it. Two ACL tears, one aloof point guard, and only 8 scholarship guys left, one who isn't allowed to play because he is that bad (I'm talking about you, Sean Williams) and you have a worst-case scenario for a season, and you can't ask a team to be the best. I'm proud of the effort, and I really can't wait for next year with Devo and Rautins back, Mookie Jones hopefully being good, and Donte learning how to do more stuff than Steve Novak does (Yes, I believe his year made him the new Steve Novak, another guy who settles for 3s despite a height advantage), Johnny Flynn being able to take a few breaks (even though he could play every minute next year, but he'd probably burn out pretty damn fast), and Arinze hopefully learning to make shots outside the lane. This is going to be a damn good team, and I think they should have a bye in the BET next year as well as a more comfortable position for an at-large to the Dance.
I'll be back for some bracket analysis on Sunday, along with some terrible picks that will make you lose all your money. Until next time, don't try to fuck prostitutes without condoms. Spitzer learned how risky that business is, and I hope I'm not the one who teaches you that lesson. It should be his idiotic speeches given beside his wife and past as being "hard on johns" that hammer that lesson in. And knowing Bill O'Reilly had to change his pants after this story broke and probably forced an assistant to do it.