For the Louisville game, it was good to see some fight in an arena where 'Cuse has been prone to lose any sort of fight. Down 20 in the second half, they fought back and played damn well. If it had not been for some terrible officiating. Of course, that is what you get anytime Ed Hightower referees a Big East game. Look, if you get put in a photoshop that looks like this:
you're probably not making the calls that well.
I will be boycotting all Yum! products for the forseeable future, and I encourage you to as well, as they put their name on that arena that took full advantage of some terrible homerist calls to avoid an epic collapse. And the boycott must be by all Syracuse fans. That means no Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Wing Street, Long John Silver's, A&W Restaurants (nor the root beer itself), and the Skynet of it all, KFC. Eat Kennedy Fried Chicken, Crown Fried Chicken, any other Fried Chicken, but none of these restaurants. Let's make the Louisville economy collapse. That was a rant that I do not apologize for. THE MANUAL BUZZER WILL NOT GO ON LATE NIGHT BELL RUNS FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE.
The West Virginia game showed that fight to be real, and a 4-point halftime deficit turned into an 11 point win. But still, Casey Mitchell dropped 23 in 26 minutes. Boeheim put some of the blame on Waiters being a little lackadaisical in his spot at the top of the zone, and that is reasonable, but open 3's are still coming a bit too often. West Virginia hit on 11 of 22, most of which came in the first half. Still, that will put SU in a hole.
Luckily, there is Brandon Triche to overcome this deficit. Triche is turning into an absolute star this season. As Kris Joseph has faded as of late, maybe still feeling some after-effects from the concussion, Triche has gone on a tear in the past 2, dropping 21 on Louisville and 20 last night on West Virginia. The different role from last year (moving to the 2 from the 1) has given him the chance to show he has one of the best jumpers on the team. He should continue to showcase it without issues if he keeps getting screens and kickouts. If Kris can get his game going, maybe with more of a post-up on smaller guards, and Scoop moves back to the slash and kick-out game, this team will be dangerous.
And finally, my favorite player on this team, CJ Fair. CJ is the new Josh Pace, or as Steve puts it, Josh Pace 2.0. He is amazing at getting those floaters in the lane, but he is also picking up the garbage for the team. Broken zones are saved when he swats away open lay-ups, as we saw against Georgetown last week. Having him in with Rick gives great rebounding, even as Baye's length is not there. CJ is already developing into a fan favorite, and if he develops his jumper, add NBA prospect to that list.
So what is the outlook the rest of the way? Rutgers in the Dome should be a win if they play them as tough as they've played their past two opponents. Then, the two game road trip of Catholicism will be quite a challenge. Villanova, sick of not having played a true home game against Syracuse in the past few years, as the Wells Fargo Center usually ends up half and half Nova and 'Cuse, has a Big Monday shot at the 'Cuse in the Pavilion. Georgetown has them coming to visit the Verizon Center, and despite the fact that they restricted ticket sales to Syracuse fans, Syracuse fans have found a loophole that doesn't require them to donate $25 to Georgetown. Expect Syracuse to hang around in both of these games, and I think they take at least one. Finally, DePaul for Rick Jackson's senior day? Rick Jackson isn't going to let them lose. 'Cuse will have one bye for the Big East Tournament if they do finish 11-7, and it should put them in prime position for a tourney run this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment