Half-time: SU v. ND
Halftime of the Notre Dame game and you know what? For the first time all season long, I'm content with this team.
First of all, up by three against the #16 team in the country in the post-season...AND our best scorer has one point. Anyone would take that.
But it's more than just this game that I'm content about. I went to one game while I was home over Christmas, against lowly St. Bonaventure (no offense Brian). We beat them, but the way that we beat them was just SO unconvincing. Even in victory, we were not a good team.
It took us a while: even a month ago I was still feeling crummy about this team. But since then, Jimmy's got them into shape. The only thing I feel is completely wrong with this team is an injury: Roberts's knee. Here's what's right:
Watkins: right now he's got 6 points and 4 boards, and he's playing great defense. At the end of his career, we have to be pretty pleased with what he's given Syracuse. The best Orange center since Etan Thomas.
Roberts: How much will we miss his energy on the court? The enduring image in my mind will be him pointing in one direction while the ref points in the other. I feel like that happens every other game. Right now he's gutting out 6 points and 10(!) boards.
Rautins: See Fyall yesterday. But also see that pass he whipped inside to one of the big guys in this game? (Jay Bilas compared it to Moses Malone.) And see that full-court pass he made to Watkins to punish Notre Dame for their botched fast break? Apparently, those are the types of plays his dad made. We appreciate his three point shooting now, but we're only starting to appreciate his all-around play. Exciting!
Devendorf: Finally, FINALLY settling down at the point. Right now I love the way he's prioritizing his game: 1st get teammates involved, 2nd drive to the hoop, 3rd shoot the three. Perfect, Eric. PERFECT. Keep it right there. That's FINE.
Harris: Leading Syracuse with 9 points right now. Early in the season he gave us a few tastes of his brilliance, but that was against lesser opponents. Now we're getting those same tastes against quality teams. I'm excited. Even if it does mean people will do a double-take when I introduce myself around Syracuse from now on.
Wright: At the very least, he's looked good against Notre Dame. Arguably the biggest play of the first half was Russell Carter's 3rd foul, caused by Wright's speed and aggressiveness on the break. That's the intelligent use of speed we need to see more of from him, in the 1+ year he has left.
Nichols: To be fair to Fyall, who is picking the last bit of meat off the crow on his plate right now, no one really saw this season coming from Nichols. And coming into the year, Roberts was supposed to be the go to guy. And maybe that's the reason why it took so long for this team to click. But they're clicking now.
And I'm content. Even if we lose this game to the Irish and get bounced in the first round of the NCAA, at least we'll go down playing our very best. It's nice to feel good about the Orange.
First of all, up by three against the #16 team in the country in the post-season...AND our best scorer has one point. Anyone would take that.
But it's more than just this game that I'm content about. I went to one game while I was home over Christmas, against lowly St. Bonaventure (no offense Brian). We beat them, but the way that we beat them was just SO unconvincing. Even in victory, we were not a good team.
It took us a while: even a month ago I was still feeling crummy about this team. But since then, Jimmy's got them into shape. The only thing I feel is completely wrong with this team is an injury: Roberts's knee. Here's what's right:
Watkins: right now he's got 6 points and 4 boards, and he's playing great defense. At the end of his career, we have to be pretty pleased with what he's given Syracuse. The best Orange center since Etan Thomas.
Roberts: How much will we miss his energy on the court? The enduring image in my mind will be him pointing in one direction while the ref points in the other. I feel like that happens every other game. Right now he's gutting out 6 points and 10(!) boards.
Rautins: See Fyall yesterday. But also see that pass he whipped inside to one of the big guys in this game? (Jay Bilas compared it to Moses Malone.) And see that full-court pass he made to Watkins to punish Notre Dame for their botched fast break? Apparently, those are the types of plays his dad made. We appreciate his three point shooting now, but we're only starting to appreciate his all-around play. Exciting!
Devendorf: Finally, FINALLY settling down at the point. Right now I love the way he's prioritizing his game: 1st get teammates involved, 2nd drive to the hoop, 3rd shoot the three. Perfect, Eric. PERFECT. Keep it right there. That's FINE.
Harris: Leading Syracuse with 9 points right now. Early in the season he gave us a few tastes of his brilliance, but that was against lesser opponents. Now we're getting those same tastes against quality teams. I'm excited. Even if it does mean people will do a double-take when I introduce myself around Syracuse from now on.
Wright: At the very least, he's looked good against Notre Dame. Arguably the biggest play of the first half was Russell Carter's 3rd foul, caused by Wright's speed and aggressiveness on the break. That's the intelligent use of speed we need to see more of from him, in the 1+ year he has left.
Nichols: To be fair to Fyall, who is picking the last bit of meat off the crow on his plate right now, no one really saw this season coming from Nichols. And coming into the year, Roberts was supposed to be the go to guy. And maybe that's the reason why it took so long for this team to click. But they're clicking now.
And I'm content. Even if we lose this game to the Irish and get bounced in the first round of the NCAA, at least we'll go down playing our very best. It's nice to feel good about the Orange.
Labels: Big East Tournament, college basketball, Syracuse Orange
posted by Prof. A at 3:27 PM
3 Comments:
And we did go down playing out best. That was frustrating, but not in the same way as the first half of the season was frustrating. Notre Dame is a much better team than I gave them credit for going in. They're very well coached (Brey deserved coach of the year), and I'm insanely thankful that Colin Falls is graduating. How many times in the last 8 minutes did SU come within a bucket of cutting it to single digits? Notre Dame plays good defense, they find the open man on offense, and no deficit is too large for them to come back from with those shooters. Watch out for them in the tourney.
As for our seeding, I really feel like Lunardi and Co. are getting too hung up on SU's computer numbers. I think the committee will give us a better seed than people are giving us credit for because of the good wins we have on our resume and because we played well down the stretch. So whatever seed Joe has us in his finally Bracketology, subtract 1-2 and that's what we get.
Just finished watching the game on Tivo... We played reasonably well down the stretch, I thought, but Notre Dame was money from the charity stripe.
If we hadn't gotten down 10 in the third quarter of the game, we might have been able to win. But, against a team that shoots like ND, it wasn't a hole we were going to dig out of.
Not a devastating loss, as there were some bright spots, but Nichols' inability to get rolling is troubling. Just a day after eating crow, I'm starting to doubt yesterday's certainty.
Boys....They stole my madness. Paul, are you still content?
*Begin degenerate gambling*
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