Here we DON’T go again

January 24, 2012 – 3:09 am

Admit it. When Cincinnati opened the game by hitting a series of 28-foot three-pointers, you had that thought go through your head: “Oh man, here we go again.” As fans we were still reeling from Saturday’s debacle (myself perhaps more than most, since I’d just watched the ND game on tape earlier Monday afternoon), which would be bad enough. But we are not just any fans, we are naturally pessimistic Syracuse fans. Thus we had little faith at that moment that SU would be able to come back and take this game.

But then something fantastic happened. Over a three-minute span, SU scored nine straight points to turn the early 15-6 deficit into a 15-15 tie. It started with CJ Fair throwing down an uncontested fast-break dunk, SU’s first fast-break points since the Pitt game. After a Cincy miss, Scoop was sent to the line. He missed both his free throws but Fair got the offensive rebound, which led to a three-point play by James Southerland. Cincy missed again and committed a foul on the rebounding action, giving the ball back to SU, a possession that ended with a jumper by Fair. Then Waiters stole the ball and pushed the action. Fair missed a jumper, Southerland missed the putback, Fair missed another putback, but then Rakeem Christmas finally put in SU’s third offensive rebound of the possession, tying the game with 12 minutes remaining in the first half.

Take note that all of SU’s points in this run were scored by CJ Fair, James Southerland, and Rakeem Christmas. They got four offensive rebounds in this span, too. It was this run that convinced me — and I think it convinced the players, too — that this game was not going to be a repeat of Saturday night. It gave them a mental lift to erase the early deficit. Even though Cincy briefly pushed the lead back up to five points, SU was back to playing with confidence, and their superior talent eventually shone through.

The next 22 minutes of game action were essentially the two teams trading baskets. Well, sort of. “Trading baskets” suggests that both teams were scoring regularly. In reality they traded about as many missed shots as made shots. But neither squad really got any separation until the midway point of the 2nd half, when SU went on a 12-2 run to open up an eight point lead. That run was led by the vets, and it’s the one you’re reading about in the papers. Scoop and Brandon hit back-to-back threes, Kris Joseph had two great drives to the hoop, and Rak found Scoop cutting underneath the basket (a play that is usually good for one hoop a game, though it hit twice tonight, the second time to Triche). That was the veteran leadership stepping up late in the game. But I really think the early run, led by the “youngsters”, was what settled everyone’s stomachs and got them back to playing Syracuse basketball.

It is hard to overstate the positive impact Rakeem Christmas had on the game, so I won’t try. I will point out that in addition to his nine rebounds, he “won” SU at least two more possessions that I can remember by fighting for a board that ultimately went out of bounds off of a Bearcat. But he wasn’t alone in providing some presence. Southerland also had 7 boards, and Joseph and Fair each had 6. Granted, outside of Yancy Gates UC is a small team that has trouble on the boards — they have actually been out-rebounded this season overall by their opponents — but SU has had several games this season in which smaller teams have out-scrapped them for rebounds, and Southerland has often been the culprit in this. I was glad to see the Orange determined to hold their own on the glass. For the game they ended up tied 40-40, but SU controlled the boards at key moments: they outrebounded Cincy 7-1 during the first-half run detailed above, and 8-4 during the long stretch of the 2nd half where they grabbed and then extended their lead.

All that said, I am looking forward to the day when SU starts draining threes again like they were early in the year. Here was another game where they missed several wide-open looks in the first half, any one of which would have been a huge boost. I don’t know if it’s mental or if some guys have fallen into some bad shooting habits midway through the season, but let’s break out of this slump, please?

By Josh | Posted in Brandon Triche, C J Fair, Cincinnati, James Southerland, Kris Joseph, Rakeem Christmas, Rebounding, Scoop Jardine, Wins, syracuse | Comments (0)

A perfect storm

January 23, 2012 – 3:03 pm

I know this is late but I had a crazy weekend and just now got around to watching the sad, sad events of Saturday evening. I’m in this weird emotional state of alternating between pissed off and serene… and both for essentially the same reasons.

Let’s face it. SU laid a stinker and their opponent capitalized on the opportunity. They obviously missed Fab on both ends of the court, but it wasn’t his absence that cost them the game — at least not “physically”. It may have contributed to their lack of composure and mental sharpness. But although Cooley (a.k.a. “Fake Luke Harangody”) was able to have a field day in the post, shoving both Keita and Christmas around with his bulk, that’s something that SU on a good day would have been able to overcome.

So, they could have won despite losing the interior battle. But they shot terribly and the offense was stagnant for long stretches. Missing Fab hurt the offense too. Not that he is a primary scorer, but as color commentator Beth Mowins* astutely noted (and I can’t believe I’m saying that but it’s true) he is their most effective screen-setter. It’s harder for a defender to get around Melo than it is for him to get around Keita. Even so, SU did have a number of wide-open shots that they simply missed. Make just a couple of those and the complexion of the game is totally different.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame was having a game where just about anything they did went right (other than their press break). They had at least three possessions which ended with someone hitting a desperation contested three-pointer with one second on the shot clock. Two of them were by a guy who shoots 21% from deep. Another one was banked in. Add to that the natural tendency of refs to favor the home team — nothing egregious, but just about every call or non-call that “could have gone either way” seemed to go ND’s way — and there was just too much adversity for SU to overcome. (By the way, I am officially sick of the “elbow rule” replays. If the ref sees an elbow, by all means call it. But otherwise just let the game go.)

I’m serene because something like this was bound to happen eventually. We knew SU was going to lose a game somewhere along the way (frankly I was expecting it to be tonight at Cincy, even with Fab). And it took ND getting a number of bounces to go their way, and SU having a terrible shooting night, having just lost their starting center, for it to happen. I don’t expect that particular combination of factors to come up all that much going forward. But at the same time I’m pissed off because most of the guys on SU came up small on a night when they should have stepped up their game. The adversity of losing Fab and playing in a hostile road environment would ideally have galvanized the team, made them get their shit together tight and show the world that they can handle adversity. Instead, for the most part they came up small. Not just the missed shots but what appeared to be a general lack of enthusiasm and focus. I hope they take the feeling of having the ND students rush the court all around them and put it in their pockets, and use it to fuel them in what will undoubtedly be another physical contest tonight. A loss is OK. but you don’t want a loss to become a losing streak.

* - it may possibly have been Doris Burke instead of Beth Mowins. Honestly I can’t tell their voices apart.

By Josh | Posted in Fabricio de Melo, Losses, Notre Dame | Comments (1)

Pitt-cher Perfect

January 19, 2012 – 8:51 am

OK, this is now the twentieth winning game recap in a row I’ve written. By now you know the drill:

  1. Description of my personal game-watching experience that is relevant only to me
  2. Statement of obvious factoids and game trends that have been thoroughly discussed on other sites
  3. Nugget of insight that I self-importantly feel has been under-reported elsewhere but is nevertheless key
  4. Various declarations of awe at the athletic feats of the players and the wisdom of Coach Boeheim
  5. A brief peek forward to the next game

…annnnd scene.

Seriously. All this winning has basically exhausted my supply of superlatives. You saw the game. I saw the game. SU won the game. This happened:

And all is right with the world. In fact, it’s better than all right. It’s perfect.

PS. Here’s how I feel after finally beating Pitt, for the first time in ages, and purging the stink of their Dome winning streak:

By Josh | Posted in Dunks, Pitt, Wins, syracuse | Comments (1)

Ladies and gentlemen, CJ Fair

January 16, 2012 – 8:57 pm

The game isn’t over yet but I couldn’t wait.

By Josh | Posted in C J Fair, Dunks | Comments (3)

Señor Leadership

January 15, 2012 – 2:00 am

With about 7 minutes left in the first half of last night’s game, SU led Providence by a slim 15-12 margin. PC had the ball after a turnover by Michael Carter-Williams. At this point, Jim Boeheim inserted Scoop Jardine back into the game. After PC hit a pair of free throws, Scoop assisted on SU’s next basket. After PC hit two more free throws to make it a 17-16 game, Scoop scored SU’s next two hoops which were the first points in what turned out to be a 21-5 run over the last 5:30 of the half. The run was capped by Scoop’s buzzer-beating three-pointer to close the half (his second consecutive such shot, though this one was more conventional than the 35-foot runner against Villanova). The tide turned when Jardine came back in the game. To be sure, he did not “take over” in the traditional sense of the term, namely by hitting shot after shot like, say, Kobe Bryant will do. But the offense clearly flowed much better when he was in the game — they only scored five points while he sat for over 8 minutes in the half — and the defense got tighter. Partly due to the success of the full-court pressure, but also Scoop’s presence at the top of the zone kept Providence from easily getting the ball into the paint.

Now, in the past few games in which SU had a big halftime lead, they came out flat to start the second half. Suffice to say they bucked that trend tonight, and Scoop again was the gas that made the car go. Here are SU’s first six field goals of the 2nd half:

Layup by Christmas, assist by Jardine (19:35)
Three-pointer by Joseph, assist by Jardine (19:04)
Dunk by Melo, assist by Jardine (17:13)
Dunk by Melo, assist by Jardine (16:08)
Layup by Joseph, assist by Jardine (15:31)
Dunk by Christmas, assist by Jardine (15:01)

And, courtesy of my new video capture ‘toy’, here they are for your enjoyment:

That’s crazy. Six buckets in a row assisted by El Cucharón Grande. That’s Stockton-esque. SU’s only other points in this stretch were two Rakeem Christmas free throws, which he hit after — guess who! — Scoop fed him the ball as he was cutting through the lane. So Scoop essentially assisted on every Syracuse point for the first five minutes of the half. (He nearly had another, but Kris Joseph mis-timed his jump on an alley-oop attempt that Scoop lobbed up nicely.) Anyway, after the Christmas dunk at 15:01, Boeheim made a “line change” at the next whistle by sending in five subs, and Scoop’s night was done. The score was 53-25 and it was all over but the Mookie-ing.

All told, over the twelve minutes that Scoop was on the floor (counting from when he came back in the game at the 7-minute mark of the first half), SU outscored Providence 38 to 13. In fact, SU outscored Providence by 31 points total during the time Scoop was on the court (including the first 4:30 of the game — when he went to the bench, SU was up 10-4). Scoop ended the night with 9 assists and ten points… in 17 minutes.

Overall the team had 23 assists on 30 baskets. After going through a ridiculous 2-16 shooting dry spell midway through the first half, SU hit 7 straight shots over a 4-minute span late in that half, and they were 7-9 from the floor in a 6-minute span to begin the 2nd half. It was beautiful to watch the offense clicking like this. Just imagine if they hadn’t had that dry spell, where the shots just didn’t fall

Of course, to get assists you need to have teammates scoring the ball (though it’s much easier when you are feeding them for dunks and layups). Nearly every Orangeman on the floor had a solid game. Christmas was particularly active, and it was great to see him score the ball a few times. Dion Waiters had his mini-explosion to lead the run that closed the first half. Fab and Keita combined for 8 points, 9 boards, and 5 blocks, holding PC to just 18 points in the paint. CJ Fair was back playing smart — after a couple games where he often tried to force his offense, he returned to the CJ we know and love by taking what the defense gave him, in this case several open mid-range jumpers. MCW continues to improve and showed flashes of what he will hopefully be able to do consistently next year. The only players who really didn’t play that well were Southerland and Triche. Brandon didn’t really play poorly at all. It just was his turn to take a back seat in the backcourt while Scoop and Waiters did the damage. He did play solid defense and grabbed 3 boards. Southerland shot 1-9, but I’m glad he keeps shooting it because when he gets hot he is lethal. He also had 3 boards and continues to put in effort on the glass, even if he’s still swatting at rebounds more often than he is grabbing them.

This was basketball worthy of the #1 team in the land. Granted, it was at home against a not-good Providence team that was missing their best player, but still. It’s the kind of dominating display that Syracuse doesn’t really seem to put together very often. We’re used to seeing the guys in Orange play down to their competition, ease up and let the other team back into the game, and not really put their boots on the necks of their opponents. But not tonight. Tonight they came to play and kept the heat on for a full 40 minutes… well, 32 or so, after which point it was Mookie Time! In a topsy-turvy Big East season, not to mention all across college basketball (five ranked teams lost on Saturday), it was great to see them showing up full throttle.

By Josh | Posted in Assists, Baye Moussa Keita, Brandon Triche, C J Fair, Dion Waiters, Fabricio de Melo, James Southerland, Michael Carter-Williams, Mookie Jones, Providence, Rakeem Christmas, Scoop Jardine, Wins, syracuse | Comments (1)

No Va

January 11, 2012 – 10:08 pm

If there was ever an offense that “doesn’t go” it’s that of the 2011-12 Villanova Wildcats. I even caught myself feeling bad for Jay Wright, maybe it was the third time that some Cat threw the ball wildly into the backcourt while under virtually no pressure. (However, I quickly quashed my nascent sympathy by summoning memories of Dante Cunningham and Allan Ray. Especially Allan Ray.)

The funny thing about that game was that SU played kind of uninspired for long stretches as well. It was as if the malaise that has enveloped this year’s Nova team is contagious. Just being in close proximity to the Wildcats, it seems, can cause normally steady players to lose control of their dribble, take ill-advised contested shots, and miss numerous open threes and even some layups. CJ Fair shot 3-12, including a few “What was he thinking?” attempts. Kris Joseph was 2-10, including 0-5 from deep, most of which were wide open in the flow of the offense — shots he has been draining with regularity all season. Triche was 3-9, and Scoop 3-7 (including the halfcourt G-Mac style runner to close the first half). This was a game that SU could well have lost, if Villanova had not turned into, say, Bucknell.

That’s not to say that there weren’t some bright spots. Southerland played well in extended minutes, and even though he had a couple good three-point looks rim out he stayed focused and had good energy. (I’m still concerned about his ability to dribble though.) Obviously Waiters played great in front of his hometown folks, and he adjusted well to his ankle injury — by the way, were you cringing as much as I was when he jump-hobbled out to try to give Scoop a chest bump at the end of the first half? Stay down, kid. Polite applause is fine in that situation. He was the one guy who seemed to have his “A” game, or at least his “A-minus” game. And for the most part the team played good interior defense, and the perimeter D zeroed in on Wayns (the zone was leaning towards his side all game) and just shut him the hell down. But really I think a lot of the credit for this win goes to the pure ineptitude of the Wildcats rather than any particular awesomeness from the Orange. There was never the sense that SU was firing on all cylinders, or even most cylinders. Their big run over the latter part of the first half, the one that opened up the big lead, was sort of ho-hum. Unlike, say, the NC State run where it was just raining threes and dunks for about ten minutes, this one was much more methodical. Several free throws, some 2nd chance points, and hitting a few jumpers, while Nova clanked threes and foul shots and threw the ball away over and over and over again. By the end of the run, SU was up by 18 but it didn’t feel like they were. In fact, I found myself thinking “If they’d made a few of those open threes they’d be up 30.”

But I should probably shut up now. A win is a win is a conference road win. Such things are never to be taken lightly. And I’m starting to sound like I’m entitled to blazing, high-flying entertainment. Far from it. In fact, we should be thankful that SU got out of there unscathed on a night when they shot 28% from deep. Even SU’s “medium” game was more than enough to beat Nova. Your goal for a rod game should be thus: Get the win, get on the bus and get home safely. And they’ve done that (well, they’re in transit right now but presumably they’ll get back to Cusetown OK). Better shake off the mini-shooting slump. Providence is coming Saturday and they gave us a good run last week. The 73 points they scored is the second most SU has given up this season. (You’ll never guess who scored the most. Go ahead, look it up.) 18-0 and back to work.

By Josh | Posted in Dion Waiters, James Southerland, Villanova, Wins, syracuse | Comments (0)

Revenge Ain’t Easy

January 9, 2012 – 1:17 am

First, to business: The Streak is officially continued.

Now, about that Marquette game. It reminded me a lot of the NC State game. SU exploded in the first half and basically could do no wrong. On defense they were forcing turnovers, challenging every shot, denying the GEagles any access to the lane. On offense they were draining threes, snaking into the paint for layups, and generally efficient and poised. The rout was on… except it wasn’t. Just like against the Wolfpack a few weeks ago, they came out with less energy and focus, and let the GEagles scratch and poke their way back into the game. Unlike the NC State game, though, the lead never quite disappeared completely. And it’s probably a good thing, too. Psychologically I think it was important that Marquette never quite tied up the game, so that when SU pushed the lead back up late, it seemed more like the door was officially shut. Which — eventually — it was.

Frankly, I’m just glad to get that game out of the way. I’ve had enough of Marquette and their scrappy, undersized, tenacious, football-physiqued team. Their rugged style is always a tough matchup for SU, and you never know which way the annual scrum with them will go. I would rather not meet them in the Big East Tournament — or the NCAAs, obviously. This one helps to exorcise the demons of last March, but only barely. It would have been much more cathartic if SU had actually blown them out of the gym, but it was not to be.

Please note: the rotation is tightening, as we knew it would. It took longer than I expected, but that’s partly because you can still count the number of close, tight games on one hand. That said, I actually started to think early in the 2nd half that Michael Carter-Williams maybe should get a little bit of time in the backcourt. When he came in against Providence, he brought a lot of intensity, especially on defense. He gave the team a little jolt when they were growing lackadaisical, and that jolt helped put the Friars away for good. SU could have used that sort of a jolt early in the 2nd half of this one. This is not a “second-guess” because I learned long ago to trust in the wisdom of James A Boeheim Sr. Just a nervous thought I had while watching the lead shrivel as various GEagle players drove the lane at will.

Villanova is next. They finally got off the conference schneid with a win over DePaul this weekend, but you can be sure they will be hyped up and ready to give SU their best shot. Jay Wright often has a good system for attacking the zone. It used to involve Dante Cunningham hitting about a dozen foul-line jumpers, but he’s been gone for a couple years now. If they can find someone to fill that role Wednesday night, they could pose another solid challenge for the Orange.

By Josh | Posted in Jim Boeheim, Marquette, Wins | Comments (3)

Slowly streaking

January 6, 2012 – 10:12 am

Having defeated Providence, SU now has 16 wins on the season. Though I may be tempting the sports gods, I feel fairly confident in saying that the Orange will win at least one more game this year. Once they reach that 17-win mark, they will have assured themselves of another winning season. This means that Syracuse is about to extend their historic streak of winning seasons:

This will be SU’s 42nd consecutive winning season. Not only is this the longest active streak, it is the 2nd-longest all time behind UCLA’s record. You want consistent success? Here it is. The streak started under Ray Danforth in 1970; Boeheim has never had a losing season, or even a .500 season.

Who knows if they will reach or surpass the Bruins in the years to come (Hopkins!), but still. Why nobody else talks about this is beyond me. Perhaps someone ought to get on the phone with Pete Moore and tell him to stick this in the media guide. Look, there’s plenty of room. You could put it here, on the inside cover with all the other notable accomplishments of the program:

Or if that’s (inexplicably) too prominent a placement for you, there is even some white space in the section titled “Syracuse Streaks” that is begging to be filled up:

Here, I even fixed it for you:

Now, how difficult was that? Come on, get in the game people.

By Josh | Posted in Records, Wins, syracuse | Comments (1)

Big East Scoreboard Items Of Note

January 6, 2012 – 1:49 am

DePaul 84, Pitt 81
USF 74, Villanova 57 (at the Pavilion no less!)

Both Pitt and Nova are now 0-3 in conference play. In case you forgot, Pitt won the conference last year and was a 1 seed in the NCAAs. I know they lost some key guys from last year but Ashton Gibbs and four rocking chairs should be able to beat DePaul. (Or Wagner for that matter.) They even got a first place vote in the Big East preseason coaches’ poll. Wonder who that was. (Maybe Ron Morris stole Stan Heath’s ballot and filled it out based on what he remembered seeing last season.)

Also, on the off chance that you missed it, after losing to Syracuse last week Seton Hall beat the pants off of West Virginia over the weekend and then beat UConn on Tuesday for the first time in over ten years. At 13-2 and with an RPI of 3, the Pirates are officially legit, which makes SU’s domination of them all the more impressive (of course with the usual caveats of “any team can crush any other team on any given night” and so forth). And I know RPI is not everything. But it’s worth noting that the Big East currently has three of the top four RPIs in all the land (SU #1, Hall #3, UConn #4) and six of the top nine (Georgetown #6, Louisville #9).

By Josh | Posted in Big East, Pitt, RPI, Seton Hall, Villanova, syracuse | Comments (0)

Baptism by Friar

January 5, 2012 – 2:13 pm

(which is probably something that actually happens, now that I think about it)

I want to publicly thank the Providence Friars Basketball Club Inc. for giving Syracuse a bit of a dogfight last night. They tested SU on both ends of the floor, and gave them a good solid Big East Conference road game challenge. Specifically, they forced SU to make plays. Providence played a clean game. They didn’t turn the ball over much, at least not without SU forcing them to. When SU gave them an open look, they usually hit the shot. So SU had to tighten their defense, contest shots and create turnovers. When the Orange had the ball, Providence played a variety of defenses (even switching from one defense to another partway through a possession on many occasions) and made SU work in the halfcourt for good shots. The difference in the game was that SU made a ton of their shots. But it wasn’t that PC was playing terrible defense as much as it was that SU was executing a crisp offense and had too many weapons on the floor at all times. They were finding the mismatch or the open man, moving the ball and hitting their open shots. In a lot of the games this season, SU has been able to… not coast, exactly, but kind of just bide their time and trust that their opponent will make plenty of mistakes while they (SU) will only make a few. This game was more evenly matched in the mistake category (and the referees helped to make it “more even” by tilting measurably towards the home team). So SU had to step up their game. And step it up they did.

In the postgame, Jim Boeheim said the following, after expressing his deep admiration for Dave Gavitt and what he accomplished in building the Big East. It sums up my feelings on conference realignment perfectly:

If [the Big East] could have just stayed basketball, we could have had the greatest basketball league ever, forever. But unfortunately it doesn’t work that way.

By Josh | Posted in Providence, Wins, syracuse | Comments (0)