• Seton Hall won because they shot better, rebounded better, and played better.
• SHU shot 54.1% to Syracuse's 36.1%.
• The three-ball didn't help the Orange cause: SHU 10 of 17 for 58.8%, while Syracuse was 5 of 21 for 23.8%.
• SHU won the rebounding battle 40-33.
• Leading the way for the Pirates was Jeremy Hazell with 28 points. Also, he was shot a month ago. With a bullet and/or bullets.
• Syracuse had four players in double-digit scores: Kris Joseph 17, Rick Jackson 12, Scoop Jardine & Brandon Triche with 11 each.
• Ricky had another double-double, with 11 rebounds.
• Before the game began, rumors began circulating and were confirmed around 5:30pm that the Fab Melo experiment was over; James Southerland would start in his place.
• Fab Melo came off the bench, and in four minutes had a basket and three rebounds.
• After the game, it was announced that the James Southerland experiment was over; Fab Melo will start against Marquette on Saturday.
• Jim Boeheim says he needs Melo's size. I don't buy it. Having Melo's size in the game for the first 3-4 minutes isn't going to win you a game, and you know damn well you're gonna pull him for Southerland or Baye Moussa Keita anyway.
• The move is Keita for Melo. But that's just my two cents.
• I'm getting nauseous writing this recap, so I'm done. Bravo if you made it this far.

• The leading scorer was predictably Kris Joseph with 23 points. He shot 8-15 and 4-7 from the floor and behind the arc respectively. He was by far the best player on the floor for Syracuse on the day.
• Rick Jackson played well himself, but had trouble catching the ball. He had 16 points and 15 rebounds on 7-9 shooting in 39 minutes. Just a monster day statistic wise. He tied for the team lead with five turnovers. Joseph also had five.
• Brandon Triche had 14 points, but it was on 5-12 shooting. Triche was 4-8 from the three point line. While he played the least sloppy of the guards he still did not have the game Syracuse needs out of him. He needs to create more opportunities and get to the hoop more. Otherwise he wasn't too bad.
• Melo was being Melo. He had two points and played eight minutes before sitting down for good.
• Scoop Jardine had the worst game out of any of the starters. He scored two points and had three assists and was 1-8 and 0-3 on the day respectively. He also had two turnovers in 22 minutes. What was not his fault however was when the ball was thrown out over his head while not looking. That was Dion Waiters fault for not making sure Scoop was going to catch the ball as Scoop was calling out the play.
• Speaking of Waiters he played 25 minutes and got six points on 2-12 shooting and 17 shooting from long range. He had a bad game for the Orange in terms of scoring, but he did distribute the ball well earning five assists and he also got four rebounds.
• Baye Moussa Keita went 2-3 earning five points and four rebounds in 13 minutes. However he again was a slight liability on the defensive end.
• CJ Fair had a bad day, earning one point and one rebound in ten minutes. He continues to shoot free throws at what seems to be a 50% rate. A failing grade at Syracuse.
• James Southerland earned three points and one assist in 16 minutes on the floor. He was 1-1 on three point attempts.
• An interesting statistic from the game point out by Jim Boeheim in his postgame press conference: Fair and Southerland combined for 26 minutes on the floor and one rebound. That is really not good from the forward position. While Syracuse outrebounded Villanova 32 to 26, those rebounds did not come at opportune times to close the gap at the end of the game. If the time gets tight and you know your team will be shooting several three point attempts, then you need to be prepared to be in position to potentially grab rebounds from those missed attempts. Syracuse did not.
• Villanova shot a ridiculous 11-24 (45.8%) from three point range. About seven percent above their usual three point defensive percent.
• The zone was not strong in this game. One game does not a trend make however. Teams are going to occasionally shoot hot. And when Syracuse adjusted by giving better coverage outside of the arc the percentage of made three point baskets dropped. The defense was a bit bad on the day, but I do not think this is part of some overall trend that the team is all of a sudden bad on defense. Villanova is a pretty good team after all.
• Free throws made a difference in this game. Villanova shot 22-24 (91.7%) from the stripe, which is really high and helped keep the gap in Villanova's favor. Syracuse conversely made only 8-12 (66.7%). While that is not a lot of opportunity they left four points on the table and that is still a very low percentage.
• Syracuse had 15 turnovers in this game. Syracuse needs to limit turnovers to single digits to increase their chances to be successful in the league.
• Syracuse next takes on Seton Hall in the Carrier Dome Tuesday evening at 7:00pm. That should be a somewhat easier game being at home and not against a ranked opponent.

• After one of the worst starts I have ever witnessed (Pitt starting on a 19-0 run), Syracuse answered with a run of its own: 17-0. A couple more runs on each side led to a Pittsburgh 31-27 lead at the half.
• I'd like to just end the recap there. Say that this team showed tremendous poise and perseverance in overcoming a 19-0 deficit, making it close, and just coming up short. But there was a whole other half to play.
• The second half was at times exciting, and at times frustratingly horrible. A 3-pointer by James Southerland with 13:52 remaining tied the game at 41 each. Unfortunately, that was the closest Syracuse would get to Pitt, who never trailed in this one.
• For the first time, the starting 5 was: Brandon Triche, Scoop Jardine, Rick Jackson, James Southerland, and Fab Melo.
• Fab Melo played that initial two minutes, and then was sent to the bench the rest of the game.
• Melo's benching made room for both Dion Waiters and CJ Fair, who clocked in at 25 and 36 minutes respectively. Waiters mainly took the place of Triche, who was absent without much of an explanation (at least I haven't heard one as of publication time).
• Fair was the leading scorer with 16 points. His other stats: 9 rebounds (5 offensive), 2 blocks, and 2 turnovers. While he was by no means electric (especially on defense), it was great to get production and minutes off the bench like that, and have him in the right place at the right time to swashbuckle as many points as he did. He's quickly becoming the next Josh Pace, both in style of play and in importance at keeping this team together (see also, Glue Guy). He's got a long way to go (especially on defense) but he's a freshman, and that has to get you excited.
• Other Orangemen in double digits included Scoop Jardine with 12, Triche with 11, and Jackson with 10.
• With his 11 rebounds, Jackson records another double-double. He logged 39 minutes, and also chipped in 2 assists, 3 steals, and 3 blocks. With both Melo and Baye Moussa Keita (6 minutes) seeing limited action, Jackson was pretty much Syracuse's only big presence inside, and he certainly made the most of it at both ends of the floor. Without Ricky, Syracuse doesn't stay in this game as long as it did.
• James Southerland had a pretty solid outing in his first start, for the injured Kris Joseph: 8 points, 4 assists, and 2 blocks in 38 minutes. He also left a lot to be desired on defense -- especially at rebounding -- but given the situation it was nice to see him perform as he did.
• Scoop being Scoop. I'm not going to harp too much on him. All 12 of his points came from the long ball which, on the one hand is encouraging because that means he made 4; but is discouraging because that means he shot like Cincy did the other day inside the arc.
• On the Pitt side of things, they were pretty much as advertised, and more. They're always a big, physical team, and they showed it. They won the rebounding battle 41-27 (with Gary "The Predator" McGhee pulling down 13) .
• Other than killing us on the boards, McGhee was almost a non-factor stat-wise. He only scored 4 points in 27 minutes of action. What the stats don't show is the jawing he started with Ricky. Much to his credit, Ricky would not be intimidated, which is what I think McGhee was going for -- Ricky gave it right back to him, which caused the officials at one point to stop play to warn both of them to not be so physical.
• Brad Wanamaker somehow had a quiet 15 points. Maybe I just wasn't playing close enough attention, but it just seemed like his number wasn't called as much as I expected it to be.
• The big stats to look at here which I believe led to the Pitt victory: the rebounding margin mentioned above; Pitt shooting 48.2% from the floor vs. Syracuse 39.1%; all the empty Syracuse possessions down the stretch. More on that next.
• Let me start in the second half with 7:23 to go. Scoop turns the ball over, 57-51. 6:48 Southerland misses a jumper, 59-53. 6:09 Waiters misses a 3, 62-53. 5:26 Scoop is fouled and misses both free throws, 64-53. 4:38 CJ misses a jumper, 65-56. 3:44 Triche turnover, 67-57. 3:10 Triche heaves a 3 and misses, still 67-57. 2:32 Waiters' dunk is blocked, still 67-57. 1:44 Southerland misses a 3, still 67-57. :58 Jackson turnover, 70-62. :54 Scoop misses a layup, 70-62. :26 Waiters misses a 3, 72-64. :03 Waiters misses a 3, game over.
• That was as frustrating to type out as it was to watch.
• I want to give a big thumbs down to ESPN for showing the end of the KState/Missouri game, which was not even close, instead of switching to this game's tip-off. The least you could have done was go split-screen until the end of that horrible Big-12 game.
• There's a new attendance record at the Pete, which was smashed tonight by 5 more people than the previous record. Congratulations. Impressive. I'm pretty sure I could get 12,925 people to show up for something.
• For some perspective, the Carrier Dome will have about 2.5 times that many in attendance this Saturday against Villanova.

• Your leading scorer was Rick Jackson with 15 points, who also led with 11 rebounds and yet another double-double. That was his 11th double-double of the season.
• Kris Joseph went down halfway through the first half and hit his head pretty hard on the court. He did not return. He finished with 2 points.
• Both Scoop Jardine and Brandon Triche had 11 points a piece. They continue to shoot the ball pretty well, but Triche had stretches where he had trouble handling the ball.
• Fab Melo had a career six points on some nice buckets in the second half.
• Dion Waiters and James "Southie" Southerland came in off the bench and added eight points a piece. Southerland was 2-2 from behind the arc and 3-4 in the game.
• Syracuse led in scoring with 56.3%. They held Cincinnati to 30.5% from the floor and 39.3% (11-28) from long range. Syracuse was 6-14 (42.9%) from behind the arc.
• Syracuse continues their free throw shooting woes with 7-13 on the day.
• Syracuse crushed on the boards 35 to 25.
• Syracuse had ten blocks to Cincinnati's zero. Both teams had five steals.
• Unfortunately Syracuse had 13 turnovers to Cincy's five. Jackson and Jardine each had 5.
• Syracuse takes on Pittsburgh tonight at 7:30. Preview out next.

We all remember how much hype that game got. It was near the end of the regular season. It was College Gameday on ESPN. It was an Orange-Out the Dome day. It was a sell-out capacity crowd. In fact, it was declared sold-out weeks in advance. It was, at the time of the sell-out declaration, a potential #1 vs. #2 matchup. It would surely have Big East Conference and NCAA Tournament implications. It was easily one of the biggest college basketball games Syracuse had seen in years. We all remember that Syracuse won handily 95-77. We all remember that that victory secured at least a share of the Big East regular season championship for Syracuse [which later became solely Syracuse’s]. We all remember how Syracuse was voted the #1 team in all of college basketball that following week. We all remember how elated and overjoyed we felt after that game. We all remember the high expectations that carried through the rest of the season and postseason. All because of one game.

News flash, people. Villanova is visiting the Carrier Dome in nine days. So I have to ask: Why is nobody talking about this game?

Simply put, the January 22 matchup against Villanova is the victim of some awful timing. Consider the following:

· It’s a January game. January games don’t decide anything. It’s another game that either goes in the win column or in the loss column. Sure, no one win or loss is more important than the other, per se, but January games don’t carry the visible implications end-of-February games do.

· It’s not ESPN Gameday. Evidently not wanting to perpetuate the lie that Syracuse only plays home games, the Gameday crew is not visiting the Carrier Dome this season. Thus, this game simply receives noon coverage on the flagship. Hell, we’ll probably get stuck with Len Elmore on the call.

· Syracuse basketball is suffering from Syracuse having a good football season. I say this not to complain, but to point out that as of late, Syracuse fans have shifted their focus from football to basketball in early November, if not sooner. But not this year. As we all know, Syracuse football is merely two weeks removed from its Pinstripe Bowl victory at Yankee Stadium. We’re still kind of hungover from that (in more ways than one?).

· Syracuse basketball is in the midst of a tough stretch: putting aside the 1/1 game against Notre Dame and the 1/8 game at Seton Hall, the Orange have had to play 1/12 at St. John’s, and will face Cincinnati 1/15 at the Dome and Pittsburgh 1/17 at the Pete. To focus on Villanova right now would be to overlook two teams who, up until Cincy’s January 9 loss (against Nova, mind you) were undefeated in league play and had numbers next to their names.

· More football distractions. Syracuse fans seem to be obsessed as to whether Ishaq Williams will sign with the Orange, excited that Brandon Reddish did indeed sign with the Orange, and ecstatic that Paul “Coach P” Pasqualoni has been named the new head coach at UConn.

And yet, with all of that, here stands the Syracuse basketball team with a #4 ranking in both national polls, a perfect 17-0 record including 4-0 in the Big East, and a very real chance to move up to #3 come Monday, should the pollsters chastise Dook for losing to Florida State and not having another ranked team on its schedule the rest of the way. For the first time since I can remember, Syracuse basketball is not getting the hype that it deserves.

But let me qualify that statement. We’re all excited about Syracuse basketball. We all see how well the team can play when it wants to play well. We all have that cautious optimism about this team that we feel that if we get too excited or say the wrong thing, we’re going to jinx something and ruin the season.

And that’s okay with me.

Cincinnati on Saturday, Pittsburgh on Monday. Then we can really start gearing up for Villanova next Saturday. But in the meantime, please, can you just start thinking about it? Even if you don’t consciously do it, don’t worry. If you’ve made it to the end of this article, my job is done; I’ve planted the seed in your subconscious.

• Kris Joseph was again the leading scorer with 18 points. He shot 8-11 from the floor and also added five rebounds, three assists, and two steals. He played really well and he continues to have one of the best mid-range jump shots on the team and has great awareness on the court.
• The scoring was really balanced with Joseph with 18, Brandon Triche with 15, Scoop Jardine with 14, and Rick Jackson with 12.
• Speaking of Jackson, he had another double-double with his 12 points and ten rebounds. Most of the scoring and rebounds occurred in the second half, but he got there.
• Triche had another impressive scoring night. He got 15 points on 6-11 shooting, 3-6 from long range. He started out terribly, but again settled into a great scoring night for the Orange.
• Fab Melo played all of five minutes and for the first time did not start the second half. He needs to develop more. I'm honestly good if he sits for the rest of the season if he comes out better next year. He is still a major liability on both ends of the floor.
• Dion Waiters was the most impressive freshman on the day. He finished with eight points in 16 minutes of work. He went 3-6 from the floor 2-4 from behind the arc.
• CJ Fair was the biggest disappointment of the day. In 20 minutes he earned 2 points on 1-5 shooting. He was good on defense however and picked up three rebounds, two steals, and a block.
• James Southerland continues to put in good minutes. He was exceptional on the defensive end, but did earn five points on 2-5 shooting, and three rebounds in 16 minutes.
• Baye Moussa Keita scored no points, but played good defense in 12 minutes. He needs to rebound and box out better, and the kid cannot catch a ball to save his life.
• Syracuse shot 57.4% from the floor (63% in the second half) and 9-20 (45%) from behind the arc. They also did a little better from the free throw line (5-8) but just barely.
• Conversely, Syracuse held St. John's to just below their defensive average at 36.8%.
• St. John's wisely only took 12 shots from three point range, and sadly only made two (16.7%).
• Syracuse led in rebounds (32-26), assists (20-9), and blocks (5-2). Both teams had 11 steals.
• Turnovers have not been a problem for Syracuse this season, but they did have 20 in this game. St. John's had 15.
• Syracuse looked like Syracuse. We really didn't learn anything new from them. But with another loss to a top tier Big East team, St. John's obviously hasn't improved enough to hang with the league heavies yet.
• As I predicted the crowd in MSG was about 50/50 in favor of the Orange or St. John's. That Red Storm half was awful quiet in the second half though.
• Syracuse next takes on one loss Cincinnati at home in the Carrier Dome this Saturday at 12:00pm. Cincinnati's only loss is to Villanova. But they really have not played anyone good this season. Both teams will get a status check on Saturday.

• You would have thought a week off would have done this team some good. Instead, they looked very rusty, very tired, almost as if they were jetlagged.
• Syracuse managed only 20 first-half points. Not to be outdone, Seton Hall put up 19.
• Seton Hall did what every other team facing the 2-3 zone does: chuck up 3s. They hit none in the first half. None. They eventually finished the game 3 of 26 for an astounding 11.5%, which I believe is the unemployment rate for Newark.
• Syracuse went 6 of 17 from long-range for 35.3%, which I suppose is acceptable. However, as you could guess, Syracuse was pitiful in that department in the first half.
• Overall, Syracuse shot 19 of 43 for 44.2% compared to the Pirates' 21 of 67 for 31.3%. Ouch, SHU. Ouch.
• Both teams seemed to be stymied by the defense they saw. Seton Hall tried to figure out the 2-3 zone, while on defense they showed their own 2-3 zone while at times switching to man. Syracuse couldn't keep up with what they saw.
• The leading scorers for Syracuse were Kris Joseph and Brandon Triche, each putting up 15 today.
• Brandon Triche sparked the Orange at the beginning of the second half, hitting a few threes (some from quite long-range). Though the Cuse would eventually let those gains slip away courtesy of a later SHU run, it was great to see Brandon get out there and shoot with some confidence. Syracuse can be a dangerous team if he's playing well.
• Fab Melo logged 11 minutes in this one. Most of them felt like they came in the second half. While I understand the need for him to get playing time and game experience, I'm really failing to see his contribution on the floor. He was 1 of 2 from the floor with a rebound and two turnovers. I guess it's the "intangibles"?
• BMK and Southie each had 14 minutes off the bench, Dion Waiters 10, and CJ Fair 8. Rather deep for a Boeheim bench. Total offensive output: 8 points.
• While Rick Jackson pulled down a team-high 14 rebounds, Syracuse got beat in this department 43-30. That can't happen against teams that shoot better than 31%.
• Speaking of rebounds, let's give credit where credit is due. Herb Pope had 20 rebounds for Seton Hall which, to go along with his 14 points, gave him a nice double-double for the afternoon. Much of his playing time was with four fouls. I marked down 12:08 as the time he left the game with four fouls, because TV told me to.
• The team that shot 84.6% at the free-throw line lost to the team that shot 47.2% at the free throw line. Yuck. Somebody needs to watch Boeheim on Basketball on the plane home.
• Several times I heard through the TV broadcast pretty loud cheers of "Let's Go Orange!" Good job out there, fans! Let's not give Syracuse a "true road game" all year!
• I couldn't watch this game live, so I set the DVR, and even recorded 5 minutes over, just in case. It still wasn't enough. I missed the final 15 seconds of gameplay. Twitter told me we won. Thanks, guys.
• Up next? A good, gutsy St. John's team on Wednesday night. Where? Madison Square Garden. You know the next line.

Offense

A

This was the best offensive game Syracuse has had in maybe the last 5 years. The first Syracuse scoring play, a 52 yard touchdown flea flicker to Marcus Sales from Ryan Nassib, was one of the sexiest things on a Syracuse football field since the McNabb era. Ryan Nassib (13/21, 239yds, 3TD, 0 INT) had a banner day, playing very well, throwing long balls perfectly, and only had one bad pass hit the turf. But the true player of the day was senior Delone Carter. Carter (27car, 198yds, 7.3avg, 2 TD) had a career day in yardage as he found the perfect way to go out on top as a Syracuse player. Credit as well to the offensive line for playing a great game and giving a lot of time to Nassib and big holes to Carter. Marcus Sales where have you been? He exploded for all three Syracuse touchdowns in the air and caught 172yds on five receptions. The offense clearly benefited from a month off and a terrible Kansas State defense. With a total of 498 total yards, 23 first downs, and 8-14 on third down conversions, statistically it was one of their best performances of the year as well.

Defense

C

Kansas State really had one major threat in RB Daniel Thomas. While he was limited to only 90 yards on the day, he managed three touchdowns, including a 51 yard touchdown run. Additionally they allowed 379 total yards of offense and 3-4 conversions on fourth downs. However they did manage to limit Kansas State to 6-14 on third downs and limit KState to only 3.4yds per rush. But the secondary allowed soft zone coverage and some true home run balls. Not their best day of work, which turned this game into a shoot out.

Special Teams

D

Most of it was due to the fact that Rob Long was not punting or kicking, but kickoffs were terrible. The coverage was fine, but the ball just was never kicked far enough, and its fairly embarrassing when the opening kickoff goes right out of bounds. Additionally Ross Krautman missed an extra point, which as we all know are as close to a gimmie kick as there can be. He did drill the one field goal attempted from 39 yards out. And the punting was fairly prodictive from Ryan Lichtenstein. Overall not a good day, but when there isn’t a true special teams coach or your star punter/kicker it was a pretty good effort overall.

Coaching

B

I’m not sure if it was because the team was so banged up or there was just no time to implement all of these plays before, but the offensive playbook basically had no limit. And it was awesome. The coaching staff had the offense ready to play. I wish that the team had spent some more time on tackling drills or zone coverage on the defensive end, but overall the team played well, was not that conservative, pounded the ball until they were stopped (which was almost never), and made great play calls. Overall a great job.

GPA

B-/C+ (2.5)

Once again this was a fantastic game. No matter what you think of the infamous call Syracuse played better and deserved the win. It was a great game in a great venue and I think any SU fans that attended had a great experience and saw a very nice bowl win. The season has to be determined a success as Syracuse went from four wins to eight, with four coming in conference and all on the road. While the final season’s report card will be out soon, this game was a win during the bowl season, and considering that Syracuse has not had that since 2001 that was pretty great.

The Call

The call was correct, but I agree it was absolute bullshit. As a football referee myself I would have maybe made that call earlier in a game, but NEVER in that situation where the game was clearly in the balance. Now Kansas State very well may not have converted that two point try, nor would it be the case that SU could not have at least scored a field goal in the time remaining, especially how they were moving the ball in the game. But either way the game ended the way it did and we’ll all have to live with that. A win is a win and Syracuse won.

Intangibles

A+ to the Syracuse faithful for showing up in the Bronx. I freely admit I’m spoiled by our roof and I haven’t been out in the cold for a football game in a few years. But the weather could not have been more perfect for the time of year and location of the game and it was well worth it to see so many SU fans, friends, and a nice win.

D to the officiating crew. They were from the Big Ten and made some absolutely terrible calls. Mostly against Syracuse but I’d say when it was said and done it was pretty even. There is a reason most teams don’t get called for defensive holding. Because it doesn't happen.

A+ to all my friends that came out and a special shout out to my friends that I was with for both this bowl game and the Insight.com bowl back in 2001. It has been quite the ride. Let’s hope for another decade of being friends.

The football season is done but we’ll be back with the final report card for the season and our final postgame thoughts sometime in the next week or two. Meanwhile, it’s all basketball. Stay tuned to Orange::44 for it all.