Triche joins the party

Check out the list of Orange leading scorers for the first 5 games this year...

Albany: A-O - 14
Robert Morris: Rautins - 22
Cal: Scoop - 22
UNC: Wes - 25
Cornell: Triche - 21

The best part of that list is that Wes's 25 came against Syracuse's strongest opponent. But tonight's Cornell game was a coming out party for Brandon Triche's offensive game. Cornell had no one who could match-up with his strength at the 1-guard, and he took advantage. He's a threat from long range, but I love even more the way he attacks the rim with confidence.

For those of you waiting for Boeheim to start Scoop over Triche, it's unlikely to happen. With Scoop proving his own value as a 6th-man, and such a balanced team around him, this could be an ideal situation for Triche to develop his game. We'll still see him get the early hook every once in a while, but the fate of the team doesn't depend on Triche. The pressure is off. Look for his confidence to go up as Syracuse winds its way through these weak early teams.

The only blemish on Triche's box score was one assist. Elsewhere, team passing was solid tonight, but against Cornell it was good to see Triche go aggressively at the hoop.


Other notes:

• I refused to pay for a ticket after I learned my student ticket didn't get me into this game, so I watched the action on ESPN 360. Good stuff, although it occurred to me that live streaming video quality of sports events has not come very far since I made a meager living in webcasting with XMI. Of course, ESPN 360 doesn't have CBS's high-def option that blew me away during their NCAA tourney streaming.
• Becker (who was inside the dome) is convinced Mookie is going to transfer. We traded the following texts:

Becker: Mookie will transfer
Me: But he can learn from Gerry!
Becker: Not going to happen. Boeheim just talked to him and he got up, left the bench and thew off his head band.


P.S. Mookie returned to the bench before the end of the game. Stay tuned with this story...

SU over UNC

I didn't post about the game last night. Figured most of you watched it, and it spoke for itself. We're good. Our early tourney resume is fantastic. We're going to be ranked very high. Wes Johnson is fantastic. Our defense is superb. Hooray!

I promise I'll write more after some of these SU home games which aren't nationally televised.

To make up for it, here's an excellent article about Wes by Seth Davis. Boeheim says Wes is a top-5 pick! WhaaaAAAAHHH????

Here's Dana O'Neil's article about SU today. The 2nd half explains how Wes ended up in town.

And here, for insider subscribers, is some back-handed praise from Dumb Gottlieb. Next time I mention anything he says, punch me in the face and remind me not to read him. And did you hear what he said on ESPN the other night? He said... well, I'll let him speak for himself below. The camera doesn't lie!

Doug Gottlieb... more like DUMB Gottlieb!!

I was going to complain about Gottlieb's latest blog post, "Not to rain on Syracuse's parade, but...", in which he rains on Syracuse's parade without making any interesting points, but the comments below the blog really do the work for me. A Louisville fan jumped to our defense, noting Gottleib's tendency to slam the Big East.

Whatever. If you've ever listened to his radio show, you already know he's just a negative person. Let's just roll our eyes when we encounter him and move on. Some day he'll leave ESPN. Some day...

SU's Old Men

"Oh man, my thinking about this case had become very uptight!"
-The Dude

The story coming into the season for the Orange was about replacing 3 of its 5 starters. Looking at this team, with key players all over the court who didn't play last year, it was easy to read "young and inexperienced" between that line.

Twenty years ago, that would have been true. But in the 21st century, red-shirts and transfers who spend entire seasons watching and practicing count for quite a bit.

Even though he doesn't start, Scoop is our top PG. He's listed as a Sophomore in eligibility, but his performance tonight showed he didn't waste his red-shirt season last year.

Nor did Wes twiddle his thumbs as he sat out his transfer year. Clearly, his work ethic is paying dividends for the Orange, and for his future as a professional player.

How about 5th-year Senior Andy Rautins? Without researching the point, I would wager that Andy is among the best 5th year players in the nation. What an asset!

Kris Joseph (when his teammates aren't try to kill him setting up kamikaze alley-oops) looks like a talented Sophomore who played a lot of minutes his Freshman year. I predict he makes The Leap sometime early in the Big East season. Look out.

A-O is also in his fifth year. Ricky is in his third. The duo is surely among the best combinations of experience and talent in a front court duo.

Mookie Jones likes to make threes even more than he did last year.

The offense is incredible, but the experience shows most of all on defense. The zone is cracking right now. They're still mopping up the gush of Bobby Knight over at MSG, who was on the verge of tears as he described the beauty of the Boeheim 2-3, version 2009-10.

Friday night offers a tremendous opportunity against Coach Droopy and the Tar Heels to start building a sparkling tournament resume early. Syracuse has the home away from dome advantage, the momentum from a fantastic performance, and the edge in experience- UNC lost 4 starters from its National Championship team.

Class of 2010 ranked #4

Scouts, Inc. and ESPN has SU's incoming 2010 class ranked 4th. The Orange are the only Big East team in the top 15. Syracuse is going to be one of the bigger teams in the country over the next couple years, and, if the rankings hold, one of the most talented.

The Belichick Call

Dan sent me this excellent post by Joe "Perhaps the Best Sports Columnist Not Named Simmons" Posnanski. He points out the two bad timeouts preceding the play, as well as the questionable spot of Faulk's catch: two key pieces of the story somewhat glossed over in the criticism.

I love the call, not so much for the football strategy, but rather for what it does to Belichick's legacy. He was always more willing to go for it on 4th down than any other coach. Now we have a definitive memory to tie that characteristic to him. I suspect it would have been more forgettable if they had succeeded. The Belichick-haters wouldn't have something to pile on about.

Finally, I haven't seen many people discuss the brief live shot on NBC that seemed to show Brady talking Belichick into going for it. I am fairly certain Belichick said something like, "OK, let's do it," and then Brady turned and ran back onto the field. They may have been talking about the play call, though. Also, it's ultimately on Belichick as the head coach. Still, it's interesting.

Fantastic football game.

SU v. Robert Morris: Threes! Fabulous Threes!

Have you heard of this text service, ChaCha? They'll answer a limited number of free text questions - any kind of question, it doesn't have to be yes or no. Usually, it's pretty solid. Early in the game tonight Becker asked ChaCha, "Who is Robert Morris?" ChaCha responded, "Robert Morris was a man of wealth and integrity in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary period, in the late 1700's." I've graded history tests with answers worse than that...but not many.

[Hold on...we're about to experience a sharp transition...]

Speaking of integrity, the integrity of Rautins' ankle held up nicely. 7-threes tonight. Nothin' wrong! Now, without looking, what would you guess Andy's 3PT% was last year? Write it down. The answer is below.*

More threes...

• Wes hit two threes. Another "quiet" night stuffing the box score. Theory: Wesley Johnson is a skinny Terrance Williams. Unfortunately, he lacks the supporting cast Williams had at Louisville.
  

• Mookie hit two threes to open his account for the season. He's clearly the 8th man off the bench this year. TBD: can he be a reliable source of offense in that role?

• James Southerland hit two threes. That could be useful... next season.

• Despite his enormous height, DaShonte Riley did not attempt a three.

• 1st Bracketology is up!!! We are a 10-seed, not a 3-seed. If 10 is the over/under, I'm betting under...but not by much.
  

Correction: Monday I predicted SU would be 10-1 going into the Big East opener. Forgot to count the second game in MSG next week. Put me down for 10-2.


*Andy shot 37% from long range last year. That seemed low to me. We need him closer to 40 this year. But he's probably too streaky to approach Kyle McAlarney territory (42%).

I'll leave you with two other notable SU 3PT shooters...

Gerry:
02-03 - 36%
03-04 - 39%
04-05 - 34%
05-06 - 33%

Devo:
05-06 - 38%
06-07 - 35%
07-08 (Tore ACL 10 games in) - 41%
08-09 - 39%

Devo remains one of the most underrated players ever to wear orange.

Notent Notables: Opener and Milestone

A few thoughts while I watch the TiVo'ed version of SU-Albany...

• Great night. First, our professor let us out early for the basketball game. That was slightly insane, since it was a graduate class. I was particularly pleased since I had forgotten that it was a 9pm game, not 7pm. I ended up catching all but the first 5 minutes. SU won easily. The best part was the brief ceremony to celebrate Boeheim reaching a big, round number of wins. There was a delightful video montage followed by pre-recorded messages from Coach K (I cheered loudest) and Detroit Mayor Dave "The Mayor" Bing. To top the night off, when I got home I found my signed copy of The Book of Basketball had arrived. Thanks Dan!
• While I was still getting my bearings, I had to ask my buddy Becker, "Who's number four?" Wesley Johnson just doesn't jump out at you at first glance. Suddenly our roster is filled with tall, wiry guys (KJ, Mookie, Frosh James Southerland). Except for a couple (wow!) dunks, Wes didn't really stand out all game. His line in the boxscore does, though: 12pts, 8reb, 4ast, 6stl. For his orange debut, 12 points is not bad. But if the Orange is going to be a great team this season, he'll have to score in the twenties regularly. No one else on the team is capable of being The Man.
• That said, I think we will win a portion of the games just from the play of the two bigs. A-O apparently didn't play all summer because of his bad knees, so he won't be into shape for another month. Rick Jackson, on the other hand, looks bigger and better than ever. I think it's safe to expect another leap from him this year (as many, including me, expected - but did not get - from A-O last year).
• Scoop Jackson's ceiling is Allen Griffin. That's a good thing. A capable, steady, good-handled PG who knows how to use his body when he attacks the rim. That's a guy you can win with in the Big East. He won't kill us.
• Brandon Triche, on the other hand, played like a Freshman. Note his 3 assists to 6 TOs compared to Scoop's 4 to 1. I'm a little surprised Boeheim is starting Brandon over Scoop. If those ratios continue, that will change. On the other hand, Boeheim wouldn't start Triche on potential alone, so stay tuned...
• Rautins went 0-6 from the field, then left the game in the 2nd half after twisting his ankle. He returned for the festivities wearing a walking boot. Perfect.
• I was delighted with Kris Joseph. He was flying around the court, picking up where he left off last season. He's going to be a great weapon off the bench.
• Becker predicted Mookie will transfer. That might be best for him. He got 11 minutes in the blowout, but went 0-6 from the field. You can sense his offensive game lurking, but it seems like he needs to play 25 minutes a game to really get it going. I don't think he's the kind of guy who can just play single-digit minutes a game and hit a couple threes. (Like Rautins in that way, perhaps.)
• DaShante Riley is tall. James Southland is lanky. Look for them in 2010-11. Especially Riley.
• SU will be 10-1 when they hit the Big East slate at Seton Hall on Dec. 29.
• Good news/bad news: that ridiculous stretch that every Big East team gets in conference happens at the end of the year for SU. That will give the team time to mature, but also could mean a slow finish to the end of the season, threatening tourney chances. I'll leave you with the last 7 games of the regular season:

UConn
Louisville
@Georgetown
@Providence
Villanova
St. John's
@Louisville