Uncharacteristic Pessimism for the Orange
We are not good.
OK. So I've only watched one SU game all year, and that was the St. Bonaventure game, and I was sitting where the student section would have sat if school had been in session (right behind the basket - not a great angle for the action). But we looked terrible against a bad team. And we haven't beaten any of the good teams we've played.
The explanation is simple. In basketball you need at least one The Man. You can have more than one The Man, especially in college, when The Mans don't have as big an ego. But you need at least one to be really good. Right now, we don't have one.
Our closest contender is Dmitris Nichols. Paul Harris was right. Chris was wrong. Nichols is our best player right now. This is good for Nichols, because up until the Pitt game last night, his confidence was translating into much better play. But it's bad for Syracuse, because Nichols isn't great. He's good. But at best (and he is giving us his best right now), he's a poor man's Preston Shumpert.
Devendorf could be The Man, but he's not even starting. He's still got a lot to learn about leading the team.
Paul Harris will be The Man, but I didn't see any sign of that against St. Bonaventure, a team he should have decimated.
Mookie Watkins won't be The Man, but he will give us the best season from any center since Etan Thomas. Which is saying more than any of you think, because you all underappreciate Craig Forth's contribution to the National Championship.
Terrance Roberts may be The Man, but the only reason I haven't given up hope is he was injured against the Bonnies so I didn't get to see him play and thus the jury is still out.
Josh Wright is a good little point guard, but not The Man.
Andy Rautins is starting!
Matt Gorman started against the Bonnies and didn't play against Pitt.
So you see, we're in trouble. We stink right now and I don't think this is a tournament team. Still, there are a couple reasons to hope. You didn't think I was going to write a post without hope for the Orange did you?
We can hope that Boeheim and the zone get us our usual 20 wins. And 20 wins in the Big East should get us into the tourney.
We can hope that Paul Harris plays better against better teams. Freshman always take a while to get going. I'd be surprised if he didn't improve.
We can hope that Devendorf also improves. The next time he bricks a three with 20 seconds on the shot clock, repeat the following to yourself: "He's only a Sophomore. He's only a Sophomore." Who knows? Maybe that will be the last time he'll take that shot. Or maybe that will be the last time he'll miss that shot!
We can hope that Roberts/Watkins average 30-20 in conference play, like they should.
We can hope we're the second half Big East team this year that always appears.
OK. So I've only watched one SU game all year, and that was the St. Bonaventure game, and I was sitting where the student section would have sat if school had been in session (right behind the basket - not a great angle for the action). But we looked terrible against a bad team. And we haven't beaten any of the good teams we've played.
The explanation is simple. In basketball you need at least one The Man. You can have more than one The Man, especially in college, when The Mans don't have as big an ego. But you need at least one to be really good. Right now, we don't have one.
Our closest contender is Dmitris Nichols. Paul Harris was right. Chris was wrong. Nichols is our best player right now. This is good for Nichols, because up until the Pitt game last night, his confidence was translating into much better play. But it's bad for Syracuse, because Nichols isn't great. He's good. But at best (and he is giving us his best right now), he's a poor man's Preston Shumpert.
Devendorf could be The Man, but he's not even starting. He's still got a lot to learn about leading the team.
Paul Harris will be The Man, but I didn't see any sign of that against St. Bonaventure, a team he should have decimated.
Mookie Watkins won't be The Man, but he will give us the best season from any center since Etan Thomas. Which is saying more than any of you think, because you all underappreciate Craig Forth's contribution to the National Championship.
Terrance Roberts may be The Man, but the only reason I haven't given up hope is he was injured against the Bonnies so I didn't get to see him play and thus the jury is still out.
Josh Wright is a good little point guard, but not The Man.
Andy Rautins is starting!
Matt Gorman started against the Bonnies and didn't play against Pitt.
So you see, we're in trouble. We stink right now and I don't think this is a tournament team. Still, there are a couple reasons to hope. You didn't think I was going to write a post without hope for the Orange did you?
We can hope that Boeheim and the zone get us our usual 20 wins. And 20 wins in the Big East should get us into the tourney.
We can hope that Paul Harris plays better against better teams. Freshman always take a while to get going. I'd be surprised if he didn't improve.
We can hope that Devendorf also improves. The next time he bricks a three with 20 seconds on the shot clock, repeat the following to yourself: "He's only a Sophomore. He's only a Sophomore." Who knows? Maybe that will be the last time he'll take that shot. Or maybe that will be the last time he'll miss that shot!
We can hope that Roberts/Watkins average 30-20 in conference play, like they should.
We can hope we're the second half Big East team this year that always appears.
Labels: Syracuse Orange
posted by Prof. A at 11:09 PM
3 Comments:
Hey Paul!
Remember when we beat Marquette yesterday? That was great times. There is hope(?)
Nah.
Nice blog, my friend -- I was very pleased to discover it over the break.
Justin Weinberger
I'd just like to re-run my original post about Nichols:
"I think we'd be kidding ourselves if we thought a Demitris Nichols-led Orange could do major damage in March.
Frankly, it's a little disturbing to call him our best player. I mean, what? I think of him as a more pure P-Money, The "Original Number Three", Preston Shumpert. And we all know how the Preston-led teams did. (In bed).
Anyway, any decent D-1 school in the county has better Nichols' type guys than Syracuse. Very few have Watkins-Roberts combinations like we do. That's our A game. And Harris, Devendorf is our B game. Nichols is our three game."
I feel like I can still defend that. If Nichols is, indeed, our best player, that is bad news for Syracuse. That was my point at the start, and I think it is still defensible. If only Watkins/Roberts would emerge (as they occassionally threaten to do)!
Also: Yo! Justin!
Yo! Chris! Hey!
Can't argue with that. I love the gratuitous use of P-Shump's nickname to correlate with his tertiary quality.
Oh, and a quote from a buddy that 'Mookie' is, at this point, still a waste of a perfectly awesome nickname.
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