Calathes v. Flynn

SU takes on Florida in Kansas City tonight. Watch out for Nick Calathes, Florida's own star sophomore. He doesn't score as much as Flynn, but he does lead the Gators in points, as well as just about everything else. If the Orange defense looks anywhere near as good as it did against Oakland, Syracuse will be in good shape. On the other side, I'm not sure if Florida can stop Arinze Onuaku, who has quickly become everyone's favorite player here in Syracuse: our secret weapon.

I think the Orange pull it off tonight, but get stopped by Kansas on Tuesday. Hard to see anyone other than Kansas winning this tournament in Kansas City. The Jayhawks would be a tough matchup for the Orange on any court with their interior height and great guard play.

The one glaring weakness in an otherwise brilliant defensive effort against Oakland on Friday was SU's transition defense. That's usually a fatal flaw against Kansas, and could really hurt against Calathes and the Gators.

On offense, the Orange turned the ball over 20 times against Oakland. I'm not concerned about Flynn's 4:4 A/TO. He was almost 2:1 last year and will be even better this year in the long run. I was displeased with some of the perimeter passing. Oakland was jumping passes outside the arch.

Finally, you should know Kris Joseph is TALENTED. Until Rautins gets his shot going, Joseph is legitimately SU's best offensive option off the bench. Pay attention to how fast he gets into the game tonight. We'll see how much Boeheim trusts him early in the season. He also had 4 TOs Friday, but went 6-6 FGs, with 6 boards.

Go Orange

Bad Memories

Here's a quiz... I watched the following and immediately related to these girls because of what day in my life??


Teens Wail Over American Idol Finale - Watch more TV Videos

Answer below...









Here's a hint... the "loser that doesn't shave" is symbolic of the University of Arkansas.











Answer: The 2007 NCAA basketball tournament selection show. That was me.

Thanks to a friend of a friend of The Sports Sauna, Kevin, for posting this on facebook!

Devendorf!!! or Devendorf!

Devendorf!!!
Now we remember what we missed last year! Devo was brilliant today against Richmond. Midway through the 2nd half he hit two threes and a two on a nice drive to the hoop keying the run that put the Orange up permanently. His emotions really got going a couple times, whipping the smallish crowd (16,000+) into a frenzy. I love his borderline insanity, which is a perfect complement to Flynn's grin-on-his-face coolness. Both guards are fantastic at taking the ball to the hoop, AND they both shoot free throws well, which is so useful down the stretch in close games.

On the other hand...

Devendorf!
He's accused of punching a woman in the face, and the matter has been turned over to the Syracuse Judicial Affairs Office. The story is a bit odd, but if its true, Devo deserves to be suspended and prosecuted. (I won't try to suggest a duration of suspension.) No friend to the basketball program, Judicial Affairs tends to put the burden of proof on the defendent. Expect some sort of draconian punishment for Devo sometime soon. We'll talk about what that means for the team when it hits.


P.S. I think it's inappropriate for syracuse.com to allow web users to post their comments anonymously at the bottom of the page that the news story is on. Its fine to host a web forum for people to react, and even link to it off the news item itself. (For that matter, I think it's fine that blogs like this one can speculate beyond the usual ethics of journalism.) However, placing the reaction of random people on the same page as the news story blurs the line between news and rumor, drawing the reader from the news facts directly into the realm of rumor, speculation, and personal attacks. Meanwhile, the anonymity of the comments frees the users from any repercussions for their extreme comments. This is particularly troubling when the subject in question by the story is a member of the local community. With guilt not yet established, the commentary might cause more damage to Devo's image than the story itself.

Fyall? Thoughts?

Predaction!!! (LeMoyne reaction and Richmond prediction)

Went to the LeMoyne game Sunday courtesy of my STUDENT TICKETS!! It was an interesting feeling to be sitting back in the student section after a 4-year hiatus. Neat.

Difficult to draw a lot of conclusions watching the Orange against a D-II opponent, but here are a couple thoughts:

• Kris Joseph (Frs., G) has a good look to him. He's got that lean, rawness that is so typical of the 21st century forward. Think Nichols, D-Brown... dare I say... Hak? No, I don't yet dare.
• Onuaku looks like a different person. Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me, but I'm buying into the whole "Onuaku is in uber-good shape" claims that have been swirling since he got back to campus this fall. He looks smaller... but not. Apparently he's got his body fat down to 7%, but kept the same weight. In a league with some scary-good centers, I'm confident going to battle with him
• Look at how balanced our scoring was. That's good, but only to a point. Basketball seasons are built on teams, but basketball games are won by individuals. As much as I buy into the whole "addition by subtraction" theory with Donte Greene, he was clearly the alpha dog on offense last year. Now, I would argue that he was not a good alpha dog, in that he didn't carry the team on his shoulders in those brutal collapses. But still, the team needs one player who everyone expects to step up his game at the key moment. Any one of those five guys who scored in double-figures can carry the team offensively for a game. But ultimately Jonny Flynn's ceiling is Syracuse's ceiling. (Note: Devendorf might be confused about this. Luckily, Flynn is the PG.)
  
• High hopes from Syracuse residents this year. Lot's of excitement. I'm buying in, but I'm also buying into the ridiculousness of the Big East, which I feel like Syracuse folks aren't yet thinking about. Good teams are going to miss the NCAAs again this year from this conference.

------------------

I'm secretly worried about Richmond. Primarily, I think I'm just scared of them because of their NCAA tournament success (particularly, this infamous debacle). That aside, this is an A-10 team. This is a very early season game. There is much to lose and very little for SU to gain here, unless Richmond makes an unlikely surge into the NCAAs.

Luckily, Richmond doesn't matchup well with the Orange. They're inexperienced, short, bad rebounders, poor shooters, and run a Princeton-style offense against which the Syracuse 2-3 has proven to be more than effective (See: recent Georgetown victories).

Syracuse should be thinking of this as their real home opener, and come out strong from the start. The home crowd was pretty solid for the LeMoyne game, and should be about as good tonight, even though earlier today I was reminding some SU students that there was, indeed, a game tonight. (There's a danger that everone will think that the game starts at 7, when it actually starts at 6.)

Trying to think logically, I see Syracuse controlling this game with a double-digit lead the whole way, but never putting the Spiders away until the final 10 minutes.

Illogically, I fear Syracuse trailing early, leading at half, then Richmond getting the lead back around the 10 minute mark, making for a frightening conclusion.

(I like that logical-illogical prediction style. I'm gonna try to use that from henceforth.)

Worst ref ever

So I don't have cable TV anymore, which means I never watch ESPN, which means that I had never seen this video until I stumbled across it just now:

What in the world is going on there?

I've never seen a ref collision that looked more like a tackle. Ever. I've seen real tackles that looked less like tackles than this.

Anybody know what happened there? Anybody but this weird fan site?

Clamor for complete rankings?

Last year The Sports Sauna previewed the NCAA season with a complete ranking of all 341 NCAA teams, then revisited those rankings at the end of the season. My question to you, the smattering of readers who still check this site semi-regularly for our insight: do you want me to do it again? If so, comment below, and talk me into dedicating that time to the project, which I must admit was enjoyable.