Syracuse students agree: Beating UConn is almost as sweet as a Sweet 16.
Syracuse heads to the world's most famous arena this week, for the 2K Classic. They already knocked of Eastern Washington and Morehead State in this "tournament", which is really a few games and the four big boys head to New York. Syracuse takes on UConn and Iowa plays Oregon. Winners and losers match up Friday. But Syracuse, and Orange fans are obviously first focused on UConn, one of the biggest games on the early schedule. Obviously. UConn still moves the needle with the fan base and obviously matching up in MSG takes it to the next level. The two biggest game questions are will the Syracuse scorers show up, and can the 2-3 Zone stop Jalen Adams (or any other random player that wants to try and get hot)? The answer to the 2nd question is probably easier. Syracuse will play some of their best defense of the season in New York. The 2-3 will be working, firing on all cylinders, and Chukwu will look to block a ton of shots from the middle of that Zone. Jalen Adams will have trouble getting to that 18 points he averages. The issue still remains that Syracuse needs to score more points than UConn. Brissett had a brilliant first half. Battle had a brilliant second half in the last game. That's the thing about the makeup of this team. There is someone that can score that is on the floor at all times. Syracuse, with their tough defense, will be able to get turnovers off of UConn, which should lead to some easy buckets. And so far this year, Syracuse has found it easier to get to the rim than last season which helps. What helps is that Syracuse now has a credible outside shooting threat, from Boeheim and others. This game is the biggest early test Syracuse will face (until Friday night), but even freshmen on Syracuse know this game is very important. UConn will have their runs, but this should be a nice Syracuse win. I'm taking the Orange by 13. This game is available nationally on ESPN 2 / WatchESPN at 7:00pm. John will be in the Garden. I'll be in the home office. UConn... U SUCK and GO ORANGE!
Labels: Madison Square Garden, Preview, UConn, UConn USuck
Syracuse students agree: Last night wasn't pretty.
And just like that, this young team brought expectations crashing back to reality as the Orange got a pretty serious beat down at the hands of California. Turnovers, bad shots, missed shots. You name it, Syracuse did it last night. But with such a short turnaround, Syracuse now plays Iowa, a team that basically looked equally as stunned with the longer, more athletic Texas finally taking it to them in the second half of their game. One thing is for sure, Iowa can box out. They limited Texas to only a handfull of offensive rebounds. And to limit that large Texas team in any rebounding stat is a feat. The same thing happened to Syracuse last night. If Syracuse isn't making shots on first efforts, they will be hard pressed to get second chance buckets. Therefore, Syracuse must force turnovers and convert into transition offense to have a shot in this game. Syracuse does not have a dominant scorer that can carry the offense on it's back. It needs to make smart choices in passing and get quick, easy buckets when they can. Scoring will come at a premium and Rakeem Christmas needs to stay on the floor as long as he can as both a veteran scorer and also on defense. But he has to get smarter about the defensive plays he tries to make. Thankfully, Syracuse is larger than Iowa and should have a ton of blocks like last night. Converting those into meaningful possessions is the key. While last night snapped us all back into reality this is still a decent team right now and they should be able to handle Iowa. Syracuse over Iowa by 9. This game is available tonight on ESPN 2 / WatchESPN at 5:00pm. We'll see you on the internet.
Labels: Basketball, Madison Square Garden, Preview
Syracuse students agree: Gotta make the championship game.
Syracuse has advanced (they would have even if they lost) to the Semi-final round of the 2K Classic in the home away from the Dome, Madison Square Garden. California has played the Orange a few times in the last few seasons, and therefore people probably think it's funny to repeat a familiar phrase about California still competing in the games they are playing. Don't be tempted. Either way, California does one thing pretty well, and that is shoot the ball from outside the arc. They have shot 47.2% from long range so far this season. That is pretty darn good. There are only two things that can keep Cal from being blown out. The first is the outside shooting, but the second is Rakeem Christmas getting in foul trouble. Cal hasn't faced a team that plays primarily zone, and traditionally Syracuse has guarded the line well in recent years (Cooney included). I think Cal will resort to chucking a lot of low percentage shots when they find it trouble to penetrate the zone. Sure, some solid ball rotation will produce some open corner looks for Cal, and they will hit a few. But the constant barrage of Christmas and McCullough in the paint should get Cal into some foul issues, as well as give Syracuse the free throw advantage. Also, Syracuse should get some turnovers and runouts over steals at the top of the key and off long threes missed by Cal. I think Syracuse has too much firepower for Cal in the end, as well as the much stronger defense. If Christmas makes smart choices, this one shouldn't be close in the second half. I like Syracuse by 18. This game is tentatively schedule to start at 9:00pm, but really it will happen 20-30 minutes after the conclusion of Iowa / Texas. This game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN 2 / WatchESPN. Both John and I will be Tweeting along for the start of the season. Giddy up.
On a serious note, thoughts and prayers go out to our friends at Florida State affected by the shooting that happened there recently, from us here at Orange::44.
On a serious note, thoughts and prayers go out to our friends at Florida State affected by the shooting that happened there recently, from us here at Orange::44.
Labels: Basketball, Madison Square Garden, Preview
Syracuse - St. John's Postgame Reactions OR New York's College Team
0 Comments Published on 12.18.2013 by John Brennan
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| Reunited and it feels so good! |
Syracuse knocked off Binghamton on December 7 by a score of 93-65, then took a week off for final exams before continuing the quest through New York teams to establish DOC Gross's dream of state domination. That came to a head Sunday afternoon at the World's Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden. Syracuse is no longer in the Big East, and but for scheduling this game against St. John's, wouldn't otherwise have a regular season game in MSG. This game had a down-and-dirty Big East feel to it, which was exciting if not stressful. Syracuse held the lead or was no less than tied for the entire first half, but couldn't really find a way to pull away. The second half brought its own challenges for the Orange, the least of which included, well, a difficult time scoring. Four lead changes and four ties in the second half weren't quite enough for the Johnnies to put away Syracuse, who held on for the victory 68-63.
- Co-players of the game honors go to CJ Fair and Tyler Ennis, who each scored 21 points. CJ was 9-17 with five rebounds in 36 minutes. Ennis was 5-12 including an impressive 10-10 from the free throw line, with six assists, in 39 minutes.
- Jerami Grant gets honorable mention with another solid performance of 14 points on 5-7 shooting, a team-high seven rebounds, and a couple great highlights in 34 minutes.
- Trevor Cooney evidently played 27 minutes in this game. He has three rebounds and an assist to show for it. That's. It.
- Michael Gbinije. We need to find a way for you to be effective on this team. Let me know when you figure it out.
- D'Angelo Harrison (no known relation to BH) scored 21 points on 6-19 shooting. Also notable, he scored St. John's's (is that grammatically correct for possessive St. John's?) only three point goal.
- That Johnnies three-point percentage works out to 6.7%. But, who's keeping track?
- The teams tied at 33 rebounds.
- Syracuse is still struggling to find its free throw shooting since returning from Maui; 19-28 in this one for 67.9%.
- This officiating crew of Karl Hess, Michael Stephens, and Roger Ayers really gave this a Big East feel. And of course frustrated Orange fans.
With the win, Syracuse improved to 10-0 on the season, and earned a #2 ranking in both polls released on Monday.Up next is High Point University on Friday, former Big East foe Villanova the following Saturday, and Eastern Michigan on New Year's Eve, to round out the non-conference schedule.
Labels: Basketball, Big East memories, King Karl, Madison Square Garden
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| Syracuse students agree: we need to leave the Big East Conference with a championship! |
When I was pouting at Clyde's last week after seeing Syracuse only put up 39 points against Georgetown, if you had told me Syracuse would be playing in the Big East Tournament championship game tonight, I would have told you you were crazy. But the Orange team we've seen this week is a lot different than that mess we saw in DC. So the stage is set for tonight: Louisville won its semifinal game against the Notre Dame
Labels: Basketball, Big East Tournament, Last Big East Game Ever, Madison Square Garden, Preview