Notent Notables: The Game of the Millenium

• I just tested my cell phone's ability to Twitter. It worked. I don't like to overuse Twitter, but I'll be posting to it throughout the day tomorrow. You can follow here: https://twitter.com/pa451

• Jay Bilas is in town! I saw him this morning trying to make his way through snow banks with a fresh coffee from Marshall Street back to his room in the University Sheraton. He kindly stepped aside at a narrow point in the trail to let me pass. I freaked out, as I always do around celebrities, and couldn't think of anything good to say...

Me: "Are you enjoying the snow?"
Bilas: "Yeah, so far!"
Me: [phony television host laugh]

• These T-shirts have been all over town since the game sold out. Solid.
  

• This is hilarious and hopefully inspirational for the student section. On a more serious note, I hope Stokes plays. As a golfer, I'm not a big stickler when it comes to public urination. He shouldn't be suspended for it. Moreover, I think Syracuse is going to win, and I don't want Villanova to have any excuses when they go down.

• On to the predictions...
  

The Villanova guards - Scottie Reynolds and the Two Coreys - are outstanding. It'll be a tough game for Triche on both ends of the court. On the other hand, Syracuse has a huge advantage underneath. Villanova will out-rebound Syracuse, but A-O and Ricky will do plenty of work on offense - call it...30 points combined. Andy hasn't hit more than 3 threes at home in conference play, so don't look to him for another 20 or more. He'll just do his usual glue guy stuff. Kris Joseph has been cold as of late. It's unclear if this is the right setting for him to heat up; every once in a while he tries to do too much.

The crowd will, of course, be a factor. The dome was flat for the Louisville game, but this is the one everyone has been waiting for. Plus, it's a late game, so alcohol will loosen the vocal chords. Even if Villanova jumps out to a lead, the crowd will help drag SU back. I think Villanova will make a run at some point with three-point shooting, probably in the first half, but SU will get it close by halftime. Then the Orange will lead most of the way in the second, with a tight finish. Then again, I may just be being cautious; SU could blow them out of the water with their balance.

But if it is close, it'll be up to Wes Johnson, just like helping the island is going to be up to Jack. The question is, has Wes seen his life in a lighthouse mirror? In Iowa State, he was broken, and he thought Syracuse could fix him. Wes is here because he has to do something. He can't be told what that is. He's got to find it himself. Sometimes, Boeheim can grab a player and just tell him what he's supposed to do. Other times, you have to let him look out at the ocean for a while.

Perhaps an Orange ocean, 34,616 strong, will do the trick.

Inside the Mind of Tim Higgins

Good morning Syracuse fans! How does it feel to be alone at the top of the best conference in college basketball?

While we wait for the new rankings to come out...Dana O'Neil followed referee Tim Higgins around for several games last week, including the Louisville game. Some interesting stuff, hints of why Higgins is so respected by Big East coaches. I liked the video where he says his favorite part of the job is interacting with players.

Required Viewing

ESPN's Jay Bilas talked to Boeheim and Uncle Aku about the 2-3 zone, then Bobby Knight tried to do some work on a white board with a dry marker. Needless to say, it's good stuff.

I thought the part about "trying to play 5 on 4" is particularly interesting. That would seem to make SU susceptible to random bursts of outside shooting from guys who normally don't shoot well/much. (See: Louisville's Mike Marra)

We should put a sign on 81 north as you approach Syracuse that says, "Welcome to Syracuse: Home of the 2-3 Zone."

I (heart) Twitter

I should be grading papers, but I wandered over to https://twitter.com/J_Flynn. He twittered about the end of the game last night. It's absolutely delightful. Here it is in chronological order:

• Jus got done wit practice. About to shower up, go home, and get ready for the "Shut It Down" procees to continue! Cuse vs GTown about 22 hours ago
• ok georgetown is on a little run. soooooo.... about 18 hours ago
• ALL THESE FOULS!!!! about 18 hours ago
• BYE BYE Georgetown about 17 hours ago
• RT @FAMEous1: Yea that was sweet cuse ill give yu that! Lol<--- daaaag who gon root for? Ay cuse fans we gotta hoya that wants to be down! about 17 hours ago
• its funny how when GTown goes on a little 6-0 run the whole gym erupts hahaha thats when you kno your dominating the game #orangenation about 17 hours ago
• @GotGomes heeeey buddy been a while since you tweeted something. making sure you ight. tell debo i said whats good lol about 17 hours ago
• shut the people up andy!!! about 17 hours ago
• If youre a cuse fan on twitter, you all good wit me #orangenation about 17 hours ago
• RT @GotGomes: RT @J_Flynn: Cuse might need u @ da 4 min mark. Let's Go Hoyas!!lol<--- dis is ryan gomes. Providence guy. Get em!!! about 16 hours ago
• #orangenation relax. we got this. we always do this. am i right? boheim about to settle them down and we are going to win by double digits about 16 hours ago
• nooooo!!!! thats not a foul!!!! they keepin gtown in this about 16 hours ago
• I must say this did turn out to be a good game tho!! about 16 hours ago
• Wes gotta take over about 16 hours ago
• Greg MOnroe Is possessed!! never seen him like this before! about 16 hours ago
• HERE WE GO CUSE!!! #orangenation stay strong!!! about 16 hours ago
• Give it to kris jo. let him create about 16 hours ago
• kris jo is really good. coach didnt really let him go last year about 16 hours ago
• NA NA NA NA, HEY HEY HEY, GOOOOODD BYYYE about 16 hours ago
• RT @hautechiQ: We won the game!<--- we won? What was the score? Who did we play? ;-) about 16 hours ago

Predaction: Georgetown and Providence

Syracuse 75, Georgetown 71

The major issue of the Georgetown game was officiating. Jim Burr, or as we know him in the dome "The Poor Man's Tim Higgins," and the rest of the officiating crew blew so many whistles, they must have thought it was a women's lacrosse match or an ACC game! Of course, it was called horribly both ways. In the first half, Greg Monroe picked up 3 fouls and was being substituted in and out by JT3. The Hoyas had no flow on offense, while the Orange didn't seem to mind the constant stoppages. In typical Boeheim fashion, he let A-O and Rick Jackson play extra minutes with the high foul totals, and SU built its big lead.

The fouls came back around of course, with the two SU bigs picking up cheap fourth fouls early in the 2nd half. (By the way, A-O gets called for way too many offensive fouls, usually because his defender flops like an Italian soccer player. If he's pivoting around to face the hoop, incidental contact with his defender shouldn't be called, but often is. Of course, there A-O is just like any other bulky center.) That led to the disastrous DaShonte Riley episode coinciding with the Hoya's initial 10-0 run to get back into the game. A-O and Ricky came back in and fairly quickly fouled out again, both on whistles that shouldn't be called above the rec level.

By the way, Wes Johnson had two points in the second half. And Kris Joseph was quiet for most of the game, but took the ball to the hoop when it mattered most, and made 5 of 6 from the line (though the miss came on his last FT of the game at a crucial moment). But I'm sure you noticed these things, didn't you faithful reader?

Still, I actually feel better after this game. The Orange responded fantastically to Sunday's loss, dominating Georgetown for 28 minutes. That's 68 minutes out of 80 of dominant basketball against a top-10 team. The end of the game was screwed up by the fouls, so it's hard to draw conclusions. I'm still not too concerned about SU's ability to close games.


Syracuse @ Providence, Tuesday, 7:00 PM

This Providence game feels like a rout in the favor of the Orange. The slumping Friars are terrible defensively, so it should be a real morale booster. Look for Rautins to have another huge road game. Keep watching Wes, of course. The match-up with Providence back on February 2 was the game when he crashed to the floor, the incident that seemed to start his recent slump. Maybe he can come full circle with a big game Tuesday. In the first meeting, KJ had 23 and A-O had 20. Add ten points to SU's total from that first game for the final score of this one... Syracuse 95, Providence 68. And while we're at it, if they somehow meet in the Big East Tournament, the final score will be SU 105, Providence 68.

5 Reasons Why Syracuse Lost to Louisville

1. The Intentional Foul Call - Congratulations to Tim Higgins who reached 25 games that his officiating has cost Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. By all accounts, Higgins is a good referee. You'll see him calling games in the NCAA tournament. And I'm not even going to suggest he has some deep-seeded, Gottlieb-like hatred of SU. But he consistently makes bad calls against the Orange in the dome. This is oxymoronic but true; unless its malicious, you NEVER call an intentional foul when a guy is intentionally trying to foul at the end of the game! Supreme acting job by the Louisville guy to draw it, by the way.
2. Mike Marra - The 16 offensive rebounds undersized Louisville grabbed were a major factor, and a concern going forward (as they always are for SU fans). But one was worse than all the others. Mike Marra got that devastating offensive rebound off the missed free throw and then buried that huge three on the same possession. Four 3s total. Why didn't we guard him tighter on the perimeter? Maybe because he'd only made 14 threes all season??!! After Samardo Samuels (huge down the stretch), Marra is the savior of the Louisville season.
3. Louisville was desperate. Syracuse wasn't. - Rick Jackson, before the game: "Right now we're preparing ourselves for March, trying to get ready for the tournament... We want to be great in the tournament." Syracuse has played 26 games this season. Including today's game, they've yet to see a team that is better than them. They can drop a couple games and still get a 1-seed. People (not me) have been talking about them as title contenders even more than the 2003 team to this point in the season. Meanwhile, Louisville was coming off a loss to St. John's and, like UConn on Wednesday, needed a marquee win to bolster their tourney chances.
   
4. Mookie Jones didn't get enough minutes - Just kidding. Wanted to make sure you were paying attention. I'd like to see him get a run every now and again, but if Mookie doesn't play another minute this season it won't have an affect on the team's destiny. If you don't live in Syracuse, let me explain these Mookie Jones people. They're lunatics. And they might be organizing; just like the Raptors in Jurassic Park, they've figured out how to turn a door handle. They manage to call in to every post-game and weekday sports talk shows to the point where the hosts now burst out laughing when Mookie's name is mentioned. Until further notice OR the end of this season (whichever comes first) Mookie Jones is banned from the Spots Sauna.
5. Louisville's defense - What is the number one commonality in Syracuse's two losses this season? Excellent half-court defense. Syracuse has so many weapons, it's not enough for the Orange to merely have an off-night on offense. They have to be off for a reason. Louisville's full-court press didn't force a ton of turnovers, but it did shorten the shot clock in the half-court, where the Cardinals' inspired effort was the differene.
6. Syracuse's offense - Folks around here like to think Wes Johnson's 5-20 FG performance is indicative of him still feeling the effects of that tumble he took in the Providence game 12 days ago. I hope that's true, but I suspect it's more indicative of Wes's learning curve flattening out against some tough opponents. Is Wes capable of consistently demonstrating the kind of ability off the dribble that Kris Joseph showed us once again on that late dunk (the one that cut the lead to two before the intentional foul)? Or will he continue to settle for that pretty, NBA-ready jumper? The answer to that question might be the difference between the Elite Eight and the Championship. Meanwhile, Brandon Triche is in a slump, and his confidence seems to be faltering a bit, particularly with his three-point shot. He's hit 2 of his last 10 from outside over the last seven games. He turned the ball over 5 times against UConn, and played only 14 minutes today. My buddy Becker wondered if Scoop might get twice as many minutes than Triche from here on out. Bottom line: Wes and Scoop (ironically, the best and the worst of the top 7) are the two biggest question marks on offense right now for the Orange.

Five regular season games left. Even if Syracuse plays well, it could lose three of them. We circled this part of the schedule months ago, and now the Orange head into it playing their worst basketball of the season.

Geheyeheyeheyeheyehey! (grabbing collar)



OK, OK... let's not jump off any bridges yet. Here's some perspective from Rick Pitino. Click on his post-game press conference and skip to about 4:15 in the clip. It's good stuff, and mandatory viewing for all SU fans.

The Syracuse Orange and Lost

An email I recently received...

Dear Paul!

Your blog is awesome, baby! I have one question, and since you're a fan of both Lost and the Syracuse Orange, I thought you'd be the one to answer it! If SU's team were characters on Lost, who would they be?!

Thank you very much!
Richard Vitale, Tampa, FL


Well Richard, it just so happens I've been thinking about the same thing. I've come up with some (admittedly imperfect) answers below. I'd love to know what you or anyone else thinks of them.

WHAT IF... THE SYRACUSE ORANGE MEN'S BASKETBALL TEAM CRASHED ON THE LOST ISLAND?

Here's who they'd be...

Mr. Eko = Eric Devendorf: Mysterious, and a little frightening. Arose from a dark past to play a remarkable role for a brief moment in time. Never fully understood or appreciated by most fans. People have already forgotten how great he was. In the end, the island took him.

Shannon Rutherford = Paul Harris: VERY attractive in early appearances, but ultimately they killed her/him off at just the right time.

Charlie Pace = Jonny Flynn: Everyone's favorite character while he was around. Many will argue that his departure came at the perfect moment, that his narrative arc was complete, and that his exit served a greater purpose for the show. Still, I was sad to see him go and, seriously, you know he'd be great this season if he had stuck around. Of course, his presence is still felt around the team anyway via Hurley/Twitter.

Smoke Monster/Man in Black = Doug Gottlieb: He's been searching for a loophole to kill Jacob (see below) for his entire life. Fortunately, we all know good will triumph over evil.

Charles Widmore = Jim Calhoun: We love to hate him, but we don't want him to die. The story is better when he's a part of it.

Benjamin Linus = Bernie Fine: Pulling all sorts of strings to control the players, but ultimately he's not in charge.

? (Jacob's Replacement) = Mike Hopkins: Jacob's (see below) heir. Even Jacob isn't immortal.

Richard Alpert = Rob Murphy: A great recruiter and assistant. He knows a lot of secrets.

Jacob = Boeheim: A few years ago, he left his home and traveled far and wide meeting people, touching them, and calling them to their destiny. Now all the pieces are in place and he can finally win that Coach of the Year trophy he's long been coveting. Also, there are interesting parallels between Jacob's free will philosophy and Boeheim's open offense - "It's your choice... You can shoot, pass, or drive."

James "Sawyer" Ford = Mookie Jones: Loner. Wildcard. Gunslinger. Moody. Prone to outbursts. There the similarities end, as Sawyer has taken on the massive role that female fans hoped he would have, while Mookie has remained on the bench much more than a vocal minority of SU fans demand he should.

Sun Kwon = Brandon Triche: For a while, it looked like he/she would be extremely important. Now it's not so clear what his/her role is ultimately going to be. We care about him/her, and remember his/her key moments fondly, but now our attention has turned elsewhere. We'd never admit it, but deep down, we're confused at why he/she is still starting.

Kate Austen = Scoop Jardine: Moves fast. Crafty. Easily underestimated by foes. Criminal indiscretions in the past. Gets along with everyone on the team. Brings a dose of sanity if the guys are getting out of control. Loves to climb up/drive past tall trees. Looks VERY sexy when passing the basketball/wearing underwear.

Hugo "Hurley" Reyes = Rick Jackson: Our affection for him just keeps growing with every season. He'll be lurking around in the background in an episode, chiming in every once in a while and then out of nowhere he'll take center stage and run with it, making a massive contribution. If his confidence ever matches his skill set, he could really take things over.

Sayid Jarrah = Arinze Onuaku: Surprisingly talented and intriguing for a guy with a foreign-sounding name. Still surviving after all those brushes with death/career ending injuries. Always doing his bit to help. Less likable than Hurley, but ultimately more important to the show...at least so far.

Desmond Hume = Kris Joseph: Sexy, talented, lovable. There isn't a better guy coming off the bench. If he's carrying the show for you, you're in great shape. In fact, I think next season Kris Joseph should start calling himself, "The Constant." Wouldn't that be a sweet nickname? In fact, I want you all to start calling ME The Constant.

John Locke = Andy Rautins: Plays the game on a different mental plane from everyone else. Thus, his style naturally sets him apart from his teammates. Arose from a devastating injury to become more powerful than anyone could imagine. Throws knives/threes with deadly precision. Usually makes great decisions, but has been known to make memorably terrible plays as well. Also, since Rautins is made of glass, he's the most likely to end up being literally carried around by a bunch of walk-ons from game to game late in the season.

Jack Shepherd = Wes Johnson: If this was a comparison of Lost actors to SU players, Wes would be Michael Emerson; if I had told you four seasons ago he'd be carrying the show, your response would be, "Who?" But we're talking characters, so Wes has to be Jack. He's been through rough patches in his careers, and has struggled with self-doubt. Ultimately though, the fate of everyone comes down to him. He's the (spinal/basketball) surgeon. And yet, you get the sense that part of him will always be unwilling to fully embrace that role, that behind all the adorable smiles the uncertainty remains. He'll have to overcome that before the end. Whatever happens, you can bet it's going to be a memorable March (and April and May).