Running Diary - SU v. Notre Dame: Bringing Back the Blog! Bringing Back the Cuse?
Bill Simmons has very few rules in life, but one of them is if Syracuse loses two back-to-back games for the first time in two years, and I haven't had a post in three months, I have to do a running diary
Pre-game: There's a lot going on with the Syracuse team this season, but I think their ceiling boils down to one guy, and it's not James Southerland. The Orange will go as far as Michael Carter-Williams takes them. If he improves his scoring (or gets hot in March) AND improves his game management late in games, Syracuse is a dark horse for the title
Tip-off: Sean McDonough, Jay Bilas, and Bill Raftery court-side! There goes any regret I had about not being in the dome tonight. Love these guys.
19:10: Jerami Grant strikes first in this week's second biggest brother-versus-brother showdown. It's stating the obvious, but his continued emergence is the gigantic silver lining of the Southerland suspension and Coleman injury. He's going to be good.
17:19: After scoring the last time down, Rakeem Christmas gets rejected by a white guy for the first time in his life then fouls him on the other end. Not a good sequence there, but overall Christmas has been more than steady for the Orange this season even though he's not exactly putting up eye-popping stats.
16:40: Jerami Grant again, with a nice J! Cut to a shot of Jack Harbaugh...I mean, Jerami and Jerian's pop, Harvey Grant, highly amused.
15:40: Mike Brey has to call a timeout as the Irish go down 10-0, with 4 turnovers, 3 missed shots, and only 2 black guys.
11:33: Brey finally gets more black guys in and immediately the Irish hit three threes to make it 11-10 Irish. F'ing Dems!
11:32: Fair hits two on the line. Would you believe he shoots 82.7% from the line? It's true! Up from 60.9% as a Freshman, and 74.3% as a Sophomore.
While we're talking free throws, my new mantra is "Free throw shooting isn't a team skill!" It makes no sense to say a team is bad at shooting free throws. It's as individual an action as you can get in team sports!
10:00: Trevor Cooney has checked in. Cooney shoots 89% from three point range in the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center, but only 29% in games everywhere else on the planet (and even that feels surprisingly high).
8:55: He heard me! Cooney nails a three. That feels like the first time his teammates passed him the ball in three games. 16-13 SU.
7:40: I really enjoyed that extended split screen of Boeheim and Brey. My new favorite thing to do at SU games is watch Boeheim for extended periods. (I've been lucky to get good seats on the movable bleachers for a couple games this year.) I never noticed how much he lives and dies with each shot. He tries to body language the ball in or out. It's priceless.
7:00: Back from the timeout, Rece Davis reminds us Indiana is the new number one. What a wide open title race this year! That's why SU has a punchers chance as the title, even though I'd put them around 10th overall. This year's tournament is going to be nuts. I could see a double-digit seed making the finals, maybe even winning it this year. Or maybe Butler or Gonzaga will finally get it done from a 3 or 4 or 5 seed. Good times coming in March!
4:00: Triche slips and turns the ball over as Boeheim screams for a foul. No MCW for a while, I just noticed. SU gets the ball back, then CJ Fair slams home a Cooney miss with extreme tenacity (ferocity? audacity? New York City?)!
3:20: I'm excited for Jack and the Giant Slayer to get to theaters. Not that I want to see it. Just the opposite, in fact. There were WAY too many good movies the last six months. They're sucking up all my allowance!
Halftime: 30-24 with a nice finish from Jerami Grant, who leads 10-6 over his brother.
18:45: Christmas hits a 20 footer with the shotclock expiring to open up SU's account. 32-24 early 2nd.
18:00: MCW does a lot of things very well. Passing. Defending. He also has some obvious areas where his game needs work. But one of his underrated flaws appeared here. He was able to get into the lane, but then he came up against a well-positioned shot blocker. The great PGs will either dump the ball off (Christmas might've been open on the low post) or dribble back out and reset. They also might initiate contact and get to the line, although, again, the defender was well positioned. MCW did none of those things. He tossed up a prayer while falling over. Rebound, and Notre Dame is headed the other way. I'm not sure if he can improve his decision-making in that situation, or if he just isn't quite skilled enough heading to the hoop (he's not the greatest finisher, let's be honest), but his off-the-dribble game has a long way to go.
16:20: Notre Dame just scored an open lay-up, but only because they got some of that Irish you-know-what. MCW is a FANTASTIC defender - and this is where he doesn't get enough credit. He's got great instincts with the reflexes and athleticism to match. On this play he was losing his balance as a Notre Dame guy moved from the wing towards the lane, but he managed to reach backwards and poke the ball away initiating a loose ball. It ended up in Notre Dame's hands, but more often than not that's another MCW-initiated turnover headed back the other way.
His 3.0 steals per game is 4th best in the country. 4th best in the country!!! MCW has been known to occasionally pad his assist stats, but you can't pad steals. The guy is a ball hawking, disrupting menace as a defender. It's time we really start to appreciate that about him.
15:00: Have you noticed? Yes, with Scoop gone, MCW is my new muse. He's also turning into the new whipping boy around Syracuse, and its not entirely unjustified. There are rumblings among SU fans that he's a little over-hyped. I think that he'll be a good NBA guard and maybe has a 50/50 shot at jumping to the NBA at the end of the season. (Unlike Waiters, I think it'd be a mistake [at this point, at least].) And again, I think he's the key to the team. And I think he's troubling shaky from the line in pressure situations. And I think he's...Well, I have a lot of thoughts, but I'll stop for now.
12:30: Syracuse up by ten and playing great basketball. Good hustle. Great team defense. Smart offense. And Notre Dame isn't making anything. Let's keep it going.
11:50: Cooney gets the bounce! Maybe they swapped the hoops over from the Melo Center. SU suddenly leads 41-28. And Mike Brey is looking down his bench, regretting that he didn't recruit more black players.
10:05: Cooney's three somehow doesn't fall...and the old adage, "a missed three is the first pass in a fast break," comes to fruition. And a the three point play after the Cooney foul and the Jerian Grant finish. The Irish cut it to 43-34. Harvey Grant looks on, like a young Jack Harbaugh.
8:30: Raftery after the Irish dribble into the corner with the shot clock winding down: "Boy, that's death valley when you go over there against the Cuse." Love the Raf'!
6:49: CJ cans two more free throws. I'd like an ap that sends me alerts every time CJ Fair notches any sort of positive stat in the box score. I could put it on my upper back and get a pleasing massage during SU games. Love that man. 45-35 Orange.
5:55: MCW cans a beautiful three, his first points of the game. His first points of the game! More importantly, he's only taken two shots before that. The rest of his line: 3 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, 1 turnover. And SU up big. That's a great game from MCW. As long as the rest of the team is making baskets, he shouldn't be looking to score.
4:42: I (heart) Jim Boeheim! I would buy a DVD that is just a video montage of his face over the years. It would give me endless pleasure. I'd pay $100 for it.
4:05: Jerami Grant from deep two in the corner. Swish! Sweet sassy molassy! He's good! 52-37. 12 points for Jerami.
3:42: Hee hee hee! The Swedish Chef is SO angry when Linda Cohn orders a hamburger!
3:22: SU going into slow down mode. They've looked HORRIBLE in this situation all year. Let's see how they do. 52-40 when Boeheim eased on the brakes.
2:50: First slow down possession is a beaut, ending with a nice look that Christmas buries to give him 12 points, along with 4 blocks. Christmas is coming late this year! Ha HAAA! 54-40
2:19: Sean McDonough offers a thoughtful critique of Boeheim's slow down methods, pointing out SU's free throw shooting woes over the years (not a team skill!). Warrants mentioning that I've never seen a team as good at scoring with the game drastically and suddenly slowed down than the 2003 Championship team. Edelin, McNamara, Carmelo, Hak, Pace, Duany...they always seemed to get that bucket with the shot clock hitting zero. SU notched two more from the foul line, by the way. 56-42.
1:47: CJ makes both shots on the 1-1 to make it 58-44. Josh Pace Redux! Now with new and improved free throw shooting!
1:20: A monster block by Jerami Grant puts the exclamation mark on his win in the Grant Bowl (as McDonough has called it all game).
:13: MCW drives the lane looking for a late assist but almost turns it over. Instead the ball ends up in the hands of a wide open CJ Fair who nails the three. Game. Set. Match. 18 points, 10 boards, 3 steals for CJ.
Final: 63-47. Boeheim tells Jay Bilas he liked how Trevor Cooney played and he was happy that MCW hit a three to boost his confidence, but it was Jerami and Rak who keyed the victory, getting the extra production the Orange lacked in Pittsburgh. No shout out for CJ?!? I guess it's par for the course for the glue guy. Good game Orange!
Syracuse ends up 3-2 through the first guantlet on their schedule. Up next it gets relatively easy for a while. St. John's comes to the dome before the Orange hit the road against mediocre UConn and Seton Hall. They'll return home for one more easy game against Providence before Georgetown arrives on February 23 as the first of 4 out of 5 ranked opponents to end the season. I'll end with this prediction: the Orange will lose one of those easy games but still be ranked #5 on February 23.
Pre-game: There's a lot going on with the Syracuse team this season, but I think their ceiling boils down to one guy, and it's not James Southerland. The Orange will go as far as Michael Carter-Williams takes them. If he improves his scoring (or gets hot in March) AND improves his game management late in games, Syracuse is a dark horse for the title
Tip-off: Sean McDonough, Jay Bilas, and Bill Raftery court-side! There goes any regret I had about not being in the dome tonight. Love these guys.
19:10: Jerami Grant strikes first in this week's second biggest brother-versus-brother showdown. It's stating the obvious, but his continued emergence is the gigantic silver lining of the Southerland suspension and Coleman injury. He's going to be good.
17:19: After scoring the last time down, Rakeem Christmas gets rejected by a white guy for the first time in his life then fouls him on the other end. Not a good sequence there, but overall Christmas has been more than steady for the Orange this season even though he's not exactly putting up eye-popping stats.
16:40: Jerami Grant again, with a nice J! Cut to a shot of Jack Harbaugh...I mean, Jerami and Jerian's pop, Harvey Grant, highly amused.
15:40: Mike Brey has to call a timeout as the Irish go down 10-0, with 4 turnovers, 3 missed shots, and only 2 black guys.
11:33: Brey finally gets more black guys in and immediately the Irish hit three threes to make it 11-10 Irish. F'ing Dems!
11:32: Fair hits two on the line. Would you believe he shoots 82.7% from the line? It's true! Up from 60.9% as a Freshman, and 74.3% as a Sophomore.
While we're talking free throws, my new mantra is "Free throw shooting isn't a team skill!" It makes no sense to say a team is bad at shooting free throws. It's as individual an action as you can get in team sports!
10:00: Trevor Cooney has checked in. Cooney shoots 89% from three point range in the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center, but only 29% in games everywhere else on the planet (and even that feels surprisingly high).
8:55: He heard me! Cooney nails a three. That feels like the first time his teammates passed him the ball in three games. 16-13 SU.
7:40: I really enjoyed that extended split screen of Boeheim and Brey. My new favorite thing to do at SU games is watch Boeheim for extended periods. (I've been lucky to get good seats on the movable bleachers for a couple games this year.) I never noticed how much he lives and dies with each shot. He tries to body language the ball in or out. It's priceless.
7:00: Back from the timeout, Rece Davis reminds us Indiana is the new number one. What a wide open title race this year! That's why SU has a punchers chance as the title, even though I'd put them around 10th overall. This year's tournament is going to be nuts. I could see a double-digit seed making the finals, maybe even winning it this year. Or maybe Butler or Gonzaga will finally get it done from a 3 or 4 or 5 seed. Good times coming in March!
4:00: Triche slips and turns the ball over as Boeheim screams for a foul. No MCW for a while, I just noticed. SU gets the ball back, then CJ Fair slams home a Cooney miss with extreme tenacity (ferocity? audacity? New York City?)!
3:20: I'm excited for Jack and the Giant Slayer to get to theaters. Not that I want to see it. Just the opposite, in fact. There were WAY too many good movies the last six months. They're sucking up all my allowance!
Halftime: 30-24 with a nice finish from Jerami Grant, who leads 10-6 over his brother.
18:45: Christmas hits a 20 footer with the shotclock expiring to open up SU's account. 32-24 early 2nd.
18:00: MCW does a lot of things very well. Passing. Defending. He also has some obvious areas where his game needs work. But one of his underrated flaws appeared here. He was able to get into the lane, but then he came up against a well-positioned shot blocker. The great PGs will either dump the ball off (Christmas might've been open on the low post) or dribble back out and reset. They also might initiate contact and get to the line, although, again, the defender was well positioned. MCW did none of those things. He tossed up a prayer while falling over. Rebound, and Notre Dame is headed the other way. I'm not sure if he can improve his decision-making in that situation, or if he just isn't quite skilled enough heading to the hoop (he's not the greatest finisher, let's be honest), but his off-the-dribble game has a long way to go.
16:20: Notre Dame just scored an open lay-up, but only because they got some of that Irish you-know-what. MCW is a FANTASTIC defender - and this is where he doesn't get enough credit. He's got great instincts with the reflexes and athleticism to match. On this play he was losing his balance as a Notre Dame guy moved from the wing towards the lane, but he managed to reach backwards and poke the ball away initiating a loose ball. It ended up in Notre Dame's hands, but more often than not that's another MCW-initiated turnover headed back the other way.
His 3.0 steals per game is 4th best in the country. 4th best in the country!!! MCW has been known to occasionally pad his assist stats, but you can't pad steals. The guy is a ball hawking, disrupting menace as a defender. It's time we really start to appreciate that about him.
15:00: Have you noticed? Yes, with Scoop gone, MCW is my new muse. He's also turning into the new whipping boy around Syracuse, and its not entirely unjustified. There are rumblings among SU fans that he's a little over-hyped. I think that he'll be a good NBA guard and maybe has a 50/50 shot at jumping to the NBA at the end of the season. (Unlike Waiters, I think it'd be a mistake [at this point, at least].) And again, I think he's the key to the team. And I think he's troubling shaky from the line in pressure situations. And I think he's...Well, I have a lot of thoughts, but I'll stop for now.
12:30: Syracuse up by ten and playing great basketball. Good hustle. Great team defense. Smart offense. And Notre Dame isn't making anything. Let's keep it going.
11:50: Cooney gets the bounce! Maybe they swapped the hoops over from the Melo Center. SU suddenly leads 41-28. And Mike Brey is looking down his bench, regretting that he didn't recruit more black players.
10:05: Cooney's three somehow doesn't fall...and the old adage, "a missed three is the first pass in a fast break," comes to fruition. And a the three point play after the Cooney foul and the Jerian Grant finish. The Irish cut it to 43-34. Harvey Grant looks on, like a young Jack Harbaugh.
8:30: Raftery after the Irish dribble into the corner with the shot clock winding down: "Boy, that's death valley when you go over there against the Cuse." Love the Raf'!
6:49: CJ cans two more free throws. I'd like an ap that sends me alerts every time CJ Fair notches any sort of positive stat in the box score. I could put it on my upper back and get a pleasing massage during SU games. Love that man. 45-35 Orange.
5:55: MCW cans a beautiful three, his first points of the game. His first points of the game! More importantly, he's only taken two shots before that. The rest of his line: 3 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, 1 turnover. And SU up big. That's a great game from MCW. As long as the rest of the team is making baskets, he shouldn't be looking to score.
4:42: I (heart) Jim Boeheim! I would buy a DVD that is just a video montage of his face over the years. It would give me endless pleasure. I'd pay $100 for it.
4:05: Jerami Grant from deep two in the corner. Swish! Sweet sassy molassy! He's good! 52-37. 12 points for Jerami.
3:42: Hee hee hee! The Swedish Chef is SO angry when Linda Cohn orders a hamburger!
3:22: SU going into slow down mode. They've looked HORRIBLE in this situation all year. Let's see how they do. 52-40 when Boeheim eased on the brakes.
2:50: First slow down possession is a beaut, ending with a nice look that Christmas buries to give him 12 points, along with 4 blocks. Christmas is coming late this year! Ha HAAA! 54-40
2:19: Sean McDonough offers a thoughtful critique of Boeheim's slow down methods, pointing out SU's free throw shooting woes over the years (not a team skill!). Warrants mentioning that I've never seen a team as good at scoring with the game drastically and suddenly slowed down than the 2003 Championship team. Edelin, McNamara, Carmelo, Hak, Pace, Duany...they always seemed to get that bucket with the shot clock hitting zero. SU notched two more from the foul line, by the way. 56-42.
1:47: CJ makes both shots on the 1-1 to make it 58-44. Josh Pace Redux! Now with new and improved free throw shooting!
1:20: A monster block by Jerami Grant puts the exclamation mark on his win in the Grant Bowl (as McDonough has called it all game).
:13: MCW drives the lane looking for a late assist but almost turns it over. Instead the ball ends up in the hands of a wide open CJ Fair who nails the three. Game. Set. Match. 18 points, 10 boards, 3 steals for CJ.
Final: 63-47. Boeheim tells Jay Bilas he liked how Trevor Cooney played and he was happy that MCW hit a three to boost his confidence, but it was Jerami and Rak who keyed the victory, getting the extra production the Orange lacked in Pittsburgh. No shout out for CJ?!? I guess it's par for the course for the glue guy. Good game Orange!
Syracuse ends up 3-2 through the first guantlet on their schedule. Up next it gets relatively easy for a while. St. John's comes to the dome before the Orange hit the road against mediocre UConn and Seton Hall. They'll return home for one more easy game against Providence before Georgetown arrives on February 23 as the first of 4 out of 5 ranked opponents to end the season. I'll end with this prediction: the Orange will lose one of those easy games but still be ranked #5 on February 23.
posted by Prof. A at 7:03 PM
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