Dajuan Blair is good

Much better than Luke Harangody.

That was a Paul Harris game. Well, it was a Pittsburgh game first and foremost. Ugly, no flow, high turnovers. Every offensive possession for the Orange was a battle. Syracuse was down by 7 with a little over 7 minutes to play. Against any other team, that would be no problem. Against Jamie Dixon's Panthers, that felt insurmountable.

It all went wrong after Paul got into foul trouble. The technical was inexcusable. The fifth foul, the offensive charge, was rightly criticized by Jay Bilas. Other than the foul trouble, Paul was brilliant. He clamped down on taller players, blocked shots, and played, well, Pittsburgh-esque basketball. So again, a double-digit road loss that is hard to gauge.

I would be more concerned about the road play of Syracuse if not for the Memphis game, when the Orange played superbly amidst a fantastic crowd. I'm mildly concerned about Devendorf, who looked rattled as the predictable taunts rained down on him. Chris pointed this out to me long ago: some guys you don't want to taunt, because they'll use it as motivation. I'm not sure if Devendorf, for all his emotion, is that kind of a guy.

Ultimately, that's an expected bounce back victory for Pitt, and Syracuse will be back in bounce back position at home against Louisville on Sunday.