What a difference a week makes. Last week we see the team house USF at home, as well as a struggling St. John’s team. This week, we see the team even it up in the Big East in a bad way, with losses to Cincinnati and West Virginia. In the first ever meeting between Jim Boeheim and Bob Huggins, BAC wins over IQ. The Orange are in a desperate state, as no fan can look at this team and see them competing against the elite Big East teams.

I will take us on the journey of disappointment that happened in Morgantown, but as always I start with the few good things. First, despite the overall impressions, our leading scorer was Arinze Onuaku. He earned 15 points, made seven of 12 free throw attempts, and pulled down seven rebounds. While these numbers are good, the overall performance of Onuaku was far from the performance we saw during the St. John’s game. That is the short list of praise from this affair.

Syracuse again shot well from the free throw line, making 14 of 20, earning 70%. This is again a good sign, as keeping the percentage way above 50% is a good help to the team in the Big East slate.

After those, the box score gets much dimmer. Harris, Flynn, and Greene each had 12, 11, and ten points respectively. Only Greene managed a double-double, with ten points and ten rebounds. Unfortunately Syracuse had a terrible day shooting the ball. Overall, they shot 41.5% overall, but really the story is the poor shooting in the first half. Syracuse only made seven of 23 field goal attempts, for an equivalent of 30.4%. Compared to the 14 field goals West Virginia made in the first half, the 15 point halftime deficit was too much to ask the Orange to overcome.

Syracuse could never seem to get in the shooting rhythm from the outside either, and this was led by poor shooting and shot selection from Donte Greene. Greene only made two out of eight attempts from beyond the arc. Greene, seemingly in a panic over the scoring deficit, would dribble down or receive a pass and take a rushed and poor shot. This led to his poor shooting, making three of 12 field goals. Sadly, he played like a true freshman.

Similarly, there was poor shooting in the frontcourt as well. Syracuse seemed to have an inability, especially in the first half, to feed the ball inside for easy or even just easier shots. Onuaku seemed to be missing some easy shots in the first half early on, and failed to achieve any sort of rhythm on the offensive end.

Turnovers were again a big concern. Overall there were 19 turnovers for Syracuse, while West Virginia only had 11. Syracuse seemed to just keep turning the ball over or not score constantly in this game. Jonny Flynn had six, while Paul Harris contributed five. Sloppy play from the Orange. This is something we have seen with them on the road in the Big East for two games now. It is a good thing we are heading home this Wednesday.

The bench was again a problem for the Orange. With only seven players really seeing the floor, this means that the starters will be asked to contribute more meaningful minutes. Unfortunately, this also means leaving in players that may be having a poor shooting night will be on the floor longer. It was good to see “The Belgian Waffle” Kristof Ongenaet play 19 minutes off the bench, as well as Rick Jackson contribute 14 minutes. Sadly the two only contributed for nine points in all that time. This meant that Greene continued to remain on the floor shooting so poorly.

So where does this leave us? Does it mean that we will simply just be terrible on the road and good in the Dome? I’m beginning to think so. That, or we have to presume the even more dismal thought that Syracuse is simply in the bottom eight of the conference this season, and we will not beat any of the “good” teams in the conference this year. Clearly, with Rutgers being so awful this season and with the game at home, Wednesday’s game should not be a big hassle (although I guess we cannot assume anything from now on), however, Saturday’s game against Villanova should be a real test of this theory. Currently with Villanova ranked #21, this game would qualify as a good test of the home/away theory, or even the worse scenario. This is because if we are going to beat a decent team that is ranked it should be at home. Frankly, I think the win over Villanova is a must for the March resume.

If we continue down this utter collapse of offense in the next few games I will surely have to write a post completely addressing this concern and the implications for March. However, the Orange may win both of their games this week, then take that momentum into Washington to take on the Hoyas. I think that will be gauged based on the ‘Nova game though. Once again, the dapper Jay Wright will determine the fate of the Orange.

Currently though, I am crushed at this 20 point loss to the Mountaineers of West Virginia and the Huggy Bear. It is enough to make any Orange fan that is an alcoholic drink again. It almost parallels this season’s start to The Wire, with Det. Jimmy McNulty so fed up and frustrated with the institution he loves and works with that it drives him to drink again after being sober for a year. Because of that frustration I will most likely be doing some of my best blogging work in the upcoming months, as nothing breeds good work for me more than frustration over the franchise. I will again not be able to view the Rutgers game this Wednesday due to class, but will do my best to get the information to provide some analysis. I will also be again reporting live from the Carrier Dome this Saturday for the Villanova game. Additionally, I will be making the long trek directly from Syracuse and road trip down to the Baltimore/DC area to see Syracuse take on Georgetown on the 21st. Look for an exciting chronicle of that trip in the middle of next week (maybe a sexy new video), as well as the ‘Nova wrap up then. Until next time, try to stay positive, and remember that we cannot be this bad all the time.

PS – Damn you Pittsnogle! Wherever you are.