Miami - Syracuse Postgame Reactions OR ACC Inaugural
0 Comments Published on 1.06.2014 by John Brennan
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| Welcome to ACC Basketball! |
Saturday, January 4, 2014. An historic day in Syracuse basketball history. The first league game in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The opponent to get that honor is old Big East "foe" Miami, who left the Big East back in 2004. That's the same Miami who lost all five starters from last year's ACC Championship team. I'm sure there was a bit of overlooking going on, as Miami was picked to finish something like 13th in the ACC this season. But the Hurricanes came into cold upstate New York with upset on the mind, and really made Syracuse fight for a win. The 'Canes featured a tall lineup, and played a tough match-up zone, preventing the Orange from making any big offensive plays, while eating a lot of clock while they had the ball. In the end, though, Syracuse prevailed 49-44.
- CJ Fair led Syracuse in scoring with a quiet 15 points on 6-14 shooting while playing all 40 minutes. Not really much to say about CJ. It was a typical CJ game, yet without him Syracuse loses.
- Trevor Cooney managed 11 points, despite a very chilly 2-12 from the floor (all 3-point tries).
- The only other Syracuse player in double digits was Tyler Ennis, with ten points.
- Though his numbers aren't lighting up the box score, Rakeem Christmas had a couple big situational buckets, so props to the big guy for stepping up when necessary.
- Jerami Grant got the start for the second straight game, as DaJuan Coleman was still nursing a sore lower body injury, or whatever. Coach Boeheim acknowledges that he likes Jerami much better as the 6th man coming off the bench, for the spark he can provide to the team. That spark, evidently, is lost when he starts.
- Boeheim largely stuck with his five starters, only giving Baye Moussa Keita 12 minutes, and Michael Gbinije four.
- Miami turned the ball over 15 times, resulting in 13 Syracuse points.
- To give you an indication of the slow pace of this game, Syracuse only had three fast-break points; Miami had none.
- 21,839 were on hand for the ACC inaugural. Several tried starting the wave a couple times, but could never fully get it going. Thank God.
- Congratulations for the couple sitting behind me in section 309. He proposed to her during halftime, and she said yes. I imagine you'll remember that more than the otherwise forgettable game.
So here we are. The ACC. It's real now. It's not some thing that's going to happen, something for us to eventually look forward to; it's now. Tuesday night brings the first ACC road game for Syracuse, followed by the much-anticipated home tilt against North Carolina on Saturday afternoon. Speaking of which, if you're still thinking about going to that game and still need tickets, we have three available right next to our own Brian Harrison. Check out the listing here, or if you'd prefer to buy directly from us and avoid stubhub fees, contact me on twitter @jbren.
Labels: Basketball, Recap, Welcome ACC
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