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...