Now, last night I pondered whether we were seeing a return to prominence from St. John's basketball. While some may give the definitive answer "no," I still think we have to wait a little bit to make this judgement. Judge Lavin by what he does with his recruiting class next year, and appreciate what he has been able to get out of these players that he didn't choose for this year. But Lavin made a huge strategic blunder last night going into the 2nd half. Lavin kept the press going that had slowed down SU getting its offense set, but instead of keeping his matchup zone going, he switched to a pressing man. This allowed for three things that let the Orange offense get into its groove. First: Scoop could operate as his normal self, bullying weaker guards and using exquisite crosses to easily get into the lane to make opportunities for others or get in lay-ups. Second, it freed up Rick to operate down low against the weaker St. John's bigs, and when there was a collapse, he got the ball to the open man (he finished with 3 assists). Third, his team wasn't ready to play man defense. While the man on the ball was generally focused on his job (albeit with quite a bit of handchecking), off-ball defenders were looking right at the ball the whole time. This freed up Scoop for a wide open lay-up underneath on an assist from Jackson inside the free-throw semicircle. It also helped Kris get 2 wide open backdoor dunks, an unacceptable outcome for any defense. While this was a good win, it was partially the product of some crappy strategy on St. John's part.
Highlights from the Garden
-One St. John's fan impressed us with his combination of a lack of height, a surplus of scarf length, and maybe a few too many beers. He tried to insult Boeheim, to which many kindly asked him to "kiss the ring." For some reason, he also decided to see this one out, and with 3 minutes left started calling for Boeheim to bring in subs. In the words of Omar Little, "Come at the king, you best not miss." Overall, the St. John's cheering section was a joke. I'm fairly certain Syracuse fans made up about 75% of the crowd. It's understandable to have a Wednesday night game in the Garen to get the revenue of the Syracuse alums, but it also alienates a huge chunk of your student fans who won't always be able to make the trip.
-The St. John's dance team may be overfunded. They had 2 wardrobe changes for the night so that they could give the crowd two terrible dance routines, one of which included a sequin leather jacket with a huge St. John's patch. When they were in regular uniform, they essentially just stood in place.
-Danny Schayes was in attendace, and by God, he was wearing an ugly shirt. He also made himself the most visible seven footer in the world with this jacket, which he walked through New York wearing:
Yeah, that's NBA ball jacket.
-Jim Burr was kind of tolerable tonight. He made a couple bad calls, but not on the level I remember seeing from him in the Dome growing up. The true officiating enemy is Gene Steratore, who seemed to love hearing the love from the home crowd that was outnumbered at the Garden.
In other news, Brittfarv's sister is a gourmet...of meth. (h/t Deadspin)
And Duke lost to unranked Florida State, so I'm extremely happy. Even if Dick Vitale tries to justify it to the world.
Good Mownin'...Just breathe:
No comments:
Post a Comment