The Big East Regular Season: It all comes down to this...and this...and this...

I saw Avatar-3D tonight. Count me among the "This Movie Changes Film Making" bandwagoners; the digital effects were forgettable... meaning I forgot I was watching digital effects because they were so good. Great story with a thinly-veiled post-9/11, anti-imperialism message. The 2 hours and 40 minutes rolled by twice as fast as 2012 did when I saw it the other week. Like all great sci fi/fantasy epics, you could sense it hurtling towards the final cataclysm: the Battle of the Tree of Souls. Indeed, it was right there with some of the great film battle scenes. While we're here, let's rank 'em...

5. Battle of Stirling (Braveheart) - Loses points for coming in the middle of the movie, but this was the first uber-violent battle scene my innocent eyes ever beheld.

4. Battle of the Tree of Souls (Avatar) - The battle begins with the general of the humans crying, "Our only security is in a preemptive strike!... We've got to fight terror with terror!" In other words, the humans are pure evil in this movie!

3. Battle of the 2nd Death Star/Endor (Star Wars: Return of the Jedi) - Star Wars Episodes I and II actually had larger climactic battles, but since the movies weren't as good, I'm giving it to the ultimate victory over the Dark Side. Still, I did like the "Order 66" scene in Episode III; a climactic battle scene that doesn't end happily.

2. Battle of Minas Tirith (LOTR: Return of the King) - Everything you could possible want in a battle scene...although I always felt the whole unleashing of the unstoppable army of death on the side of the good guys was a little unsatisfying.

1. Battle of Helm's Deep (LOTR:Two Towers) - I hadn't read the books, and since the Ring wasn't in Helm's Deep, I was partly convinced the battle was going to be lost by the good guys. I loved the addition (not in the novel) of the Elves coming to die alongside mortal men. And, of course, the deus ex machina-ish appearance of Gandalf and the Rohirrim was delightful.


The thing about these battles is you're never sure who's going to survive them. Almost any of the characters you've come to love over the last 2 hours might fall victim to the film's need for an emotional punch in the gut that shows the audience the battle isn't going well.

(Now let's MAGICALLY transition to college basketball.)

My feelings about Syracuse heading into the Big East Basketball regular season are similar. At any moment SU could take that punch in the gut. It might come from the obvious villain, or it might be a stray arrow that catches us out of nowhere.

So, I was worried about the Seton Hall game coming in... and they're in last place in the conference as of this moment! Now that it's over, I'm extremely relieved we stuck the sword in Jeremy Hazell, and, with Seton Hall done from our schedule, he won't be getting off any surprise kill shots when we least expect it.

The worst part of the Big East season is, unlike all of those epic movies, there is no guarantee the good guys will prevail in the end. There are a lot of things that could derail SU in the Big East season and lead to an unhappy ending:

• Onuaku's knees could go - Frankly, somewhere in the last few games I started to like Rick Jackson even more than A-O in the center of the zone on defense. But SU's pair of big men is virtually incomparable in the NCAAs.
• Rautins' body could shatter - He's made of glass, as we all know. I hate the sound of the dome when he takes an extra long time to peel himself off the floor.
• Triche/Jardine could fail to develop - As I've said before in this space, the Orange will only go as far as their PGs take them. At this moment, do you trust either of these two bringing the ball up with a 4-point lead in a tournament game? How about with a 4-point lead in ANY Big East game? Not yet. Watch the PGs carefully.
• The doldrums could strike - It will happen. SU will hit a bad stretch. Everything I'm reading suggests this is a tight-knit team that genuinely gets along. They're great at defense and loaded with offensive weapons. It's hard to imagine the team staying cold. But every Big East team (except West Virginia, unless someone told Huggins we play a 2-3 zone) knows how to attack Jim Boeheim. The Orange will lose a few games in conference. How will they handle it?
• Wesley Johnson could start to suck - Just kidding! That's not going to happen. You've probably seen his line against The Hall by now, but let me share it with you again: 20pts, 19reb (8off), 5blk, 50%FG.

That's all I could come up with. Frankly, it's a short list. The best part? 1 or 2 of those things could happen, and SU would still be an NCAA tourney team, and a dangerous one at that. That's the power of having a Wes Johnson.

One arrow dodged, eighteen more to go (not counting the Memphis game). A few will connect. It's gonna be a battle.

The Vikings are Getting Favre'ed for Christmas

Editors Note: Cousin Eric, as long as he refrains from pimping his own defunct blog, will be contributing regularly to The Sports Sauna. For his day job, his career is business.

Hey Paul, did you hear about Tiger!? My buddy Skip Tiger, got a DWI over the weekend, blew a 0.22!

Anyways, I have decided to write a bi-weekly column in the Sports Sauna pending your concurrence of course. Why bi-weekly you ask? Well, weekly was a bit too much and monthly not enough. Any more idiotic questions? Oh and I wanted to make sure this wasn’t all about how awesome Syracuse hoops is. Granted they beat up on my Tar Heels a month or so back but this team just struggled to put away the Bonnies minus their best player. Some balance to the editorial staff couldn’t hurt cuz…

Let me first share my thoughts on the NFL. In the classic movie “Kingpin”, Roy Munson was so infamous for his inability to capitalize on his god-given talents that the American public verbalized his last name. In other words, to get Munson’ed was to have the whole world in the palm of your hand only to piss it away (courtesy of urbandictionary.com). I would like to be the first to coin the verb Favre’ed. The definition would be something like; to build unrealistic hopes and dreams to an entire fan base only to break their hearts when you can’t possibly deliver. For example, the Jets got “Favre’ed” last year going 8-3, loving life, thinking Super Bowl, only to sputter down the stretch (1-4) and miss the playoffs. Granted, Brett did have a torn biceps tendon but let’s look at what’s happening with the Vikings. After starting the season an impressive 10-1, they have now dropped two of three. Much to my chagrin may I add as I have/had him starting on my FF team. There are articles popping up all over the internet explaining how Favre refuses to be benched, the Vikings are falling apart and they can’t match up to any of the NFC playoff teams. Being a Bears fan, nothing sees me happier than to watch Favre lose football games during the holiday season and it looks like the streak will continue. It will be a sad state of affairs in Minnesota if they get beat by the Bears this Monday.

Speaking of the Bears, Cutler has obviously been a disappointment. You can’t lead the league in picks and expect people to love you. Unless of course, you are Favre who makes up for it by throwing a snowball after a TD and laughing on the sidelines…oh wow look at how young Brett appears, he is really enjoying himself, it’s so refreshing….that was me doing my best impression of any commentator doing a Packers/Vikings game the last decade or two. Back to Cutler, it’s tough to watch the Bears as normally, each loss brings bad teams closer to better picks come April but Chicago traded their first and second rounder (Gaines Adams!) so literally there is not a single thing to root for. When you watch your favorite team and your only wish is for no one to get seriously injured, you need to move on to the next sports season.

That’s all I got for right now. I will provide my annual College Bowl Recap after the new year where I review my picks and why they didn’t work out for me, then we can move on to the start of the PGA Tour and of course, college hoops!

Observations Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence David Bennett

SU 85, Bonnies 72

I attended the sporting match with the esteemed David Bennett, Professor of Modern American History, former faculty rep to the NCAA, season ticket holder, and teacher at SU since the late 60s. Since he is smarter than me in every way, I'll turn this post over to him...


Loves: Jim Boeheim.

Hates: Loud music blasted at the dome

Loves: Andy Rautins. Professor thinks he's our 2nd best player, and was disgusted for most of the game that Andy wasn't getting good looks. Quote: "Remember that shot against Florida?... He's such a money player!"

Hates: All the advertising in the dome, particularly the loud ads played during breaks and the massive new Turning Stone ads covering the upper-deck seats at the opposite endzone.

Loves: Wes Johnson, although "If he plays like this he won't be entering the draft much less getting in the lottery!"

Hates: St. Bonaventure, who he called "a bunch of thugs" and "turkeys" multiple times, particularly after Rautins got hit in the male situashe. [Andrew Nicholson, St. Bonnaventure's best player, was tossed.]

Loves: The new permanent seat cushions the dome installed for all season ticket seats. Since the dome opened, he's been lugging his own seat cushion to the game. He showed me the scratches on his bench to prove it. Now he just brings garbage bags to protect coats and other excess clothing on the floor.

Hates: Ronald Reagan. But that's another story.

Loves: Rick Jackson. "He's going to be a great player," he noted, referring to Ricky's NBA potential.

Hates: Knee injuries. Professor put his head in his hands twice during the game, and cried, "That's it! That's the season!" after both A-O and Brandon Triche limped to the locker room with some kind of knee injury. [Both returned, but saw limited (Triche) to no (A-O) action in the 2nd half.]

Loves: Kris Joseph's athleticism on offense, and sees KJ replacing Wes nicely next year.

Hates: When Kris Joseph attempts a three. He also hates when the following people attempt threes: Scoop, Ricky, A-O, Mookie. I got the feeling he also hated when Triche took a three before tonight, when he hit two big ones in a row.

Loves: A-O against big, strong frontcourts more than against small, quick frontcourts (like tonight).

Hates: Small children who wave pom-poms three rows in front of him, obstructing his view. Basically, anything blocking his view is a problem, especially if its a family who decides to leave while the game is going on even though there were 100 time outs and stoppages that offered a window to leave without being disruptive.

Loves: Dome cuisine. We got there an hour early so he could have dinner. I ordered a pepsi. I think they gave me a diet.

Hates: Referees Tim Higgins, James Haney, and Gary Prager, who he referred to as "blind nitwits," and shouted frequently, "you can't call THAT!" To be fair, the game dragged on longer than 2012, with just as many diversions away from the fun parts.

Loves: Scoop's quickness. Although he was convinced Scoop was trying to score simply to match Triche's total.

Hates: Tonight's game overall. It was sloppy on all ends. "We're not losing to Oakland, but if we play like that against Seton Hall, we'll lose."


Indeed.

Severe Ownage

I literally just peed my pants.

Lunardi: "Teams I have seen in person include Syracuse, Villanova, Purdue, Tennessee, Minnesota, Northern Iowa and Boston College. Syracuse was far and away the best of the bunch, with Wes Johnson of the Orange and Scotty Hopson of Tennessee standing out as the top individual performers."

In other news, I'm going to the St. Bonnies game Saturday night with Prof Bennett who I TA for and who is my single favorite professor of all time. Needless to say, I'll be blogging extensively Saturday night. If he introduces me to Jim Boeheim, my head might literally explode.

Also, if you follow me on Twitter @pa451, you'll know I follow @SethDavisHoops for good college basketball twittering.

Thaaaaat's social networking!!

Mookie Jones Link

http://blog.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2009/12/jonesing_for_playing_time_mook.html

Mike Waters on the ongoing Mookie Jones-playing time tension.

Ridiculous stat: Mookie has scored double-digits in his last four games played. The guy can score. I just don't know if we need him right now.

Zing!

Have you seen this? A headline on ESPN.com today read "Calipari matches Rupp as No. 4 UK rolls." Have you head about this? Have you seen this?

What did John Calipari match Adolph Rupp in, anyway... most racist?!?

Thank you! You're a wonderful audience!

Business Trip: Syracuse 85, Florida 73

Just an outstanding game on all sides, particularly for this point in the season. Great crowd. Even the commentators were en fuego. I loved Jimmy Dykes' analysis all game. We don't get to hear him enough in the Big East. Same with the sweet, sweet pipes of Brad Nessler. Well done gentlemen.

Quick note... Ricky just became the 6th Orange to be team high in points this season. So that's nice. Kris Joseph is on deck...

This game was a lot closer than it should have been. Those little Florida guards were red hot for threes. SU, on the other hand, was shooting blanks from deep until Florida grabbed that lead at 59-57. Rautins came right back and nailed one, and then soon after that Wes hit a contested 3-ball with the clock winding down. SU ended 23% from three, and 58% from the foul line and still won by 12.

Ultimately, I think Florida's ranking is inflated at this point. They're a top 25 team, but not a top 15 team. And it kills me to say it, but they're only that good because of Billy Donovan's coaching. The talent just isn't there.

Speaking of there, that's where I am with Wes Johnson. I'm late, but now I'm there. I'm on board. He was invisible in the first half, so in the second half he decided to just take difficult shots. It was like he was playing H-O-R-S-E, trying for high degree of difficulty. Unreal.

On the other hand, I'm not there with Triche. Maybe it was the ugly start to the game he had. (He only had one turnover, in the end.) Maybe my feelings for Scoop are like OJ's were for Nicole Brown...I love him TOO much. But Triche remains the biggest question mark for this team.

Luckily, the schedule is cake for a little while. Home against three stiffs (although the Bonnies beat LeMoyne by 11 tonight, and the Dolphins are the only team that could beat us so far), then away at weak Seton Hall to start the Big East. Syracuse starts 2010 in the dome against two team who are unranked, but probably tournament-caliber: Pitt and Memphis. More likely than not Syracuse will head into those games 13-0. The question from now until then is, to paraphrase the SU T-shirt for the season, Will the best keep getting better?