Running Diary - SU v. Minnesota

Bill Simmons has very few rules in life, but one of them is whenever Syracuse almost loses at home to a school with the same name as the Pope, I have to do a running diary for the subsequent game.

1st half, 20:00 - Boeheim vs. Pitino! No, not that Pitino. Rick's son, Richard "Don't Call Me Junior But Feel Free to Call Me Rick" Pitino, who, in his first season as Minnesota's Head Coach, apparently runs a full-court press. I wonder where he learned that from! Rick Pitino Jr. is definitely doing better than Jim Boeheim Jr., who still hasn't graduated high school! C'mon, Jim Junior! Get it together!

19:45 - Minnesota also runs a 2-3 zone, which Trevor Cooney is unimpressed with. 3-0 Orange on the Cooney three.

18:44 - A hearty "Let's go Orange!" chant from the Orange alumni in Maui. Good show! SU's point guard buries two FTs to make it 7-0, while Minnesota's PG is bleeding after a collision with the media table. Not the best start for the Gophers.

18:10 - Cooney misses a wide open three in the corner. Those are shots he has to bury. I think the jury is in on Trevor Cooney. He's a poor man's Marius Janulis at best.

16:00 - Cooney hits a three. Nice shot. OK, he might BE Marius Janulis...

13:05 - Minnesota weathered the early Orange spurt with some good defense. A run-out gives them their first lead, 15-14. This guy, A. Hollins, is really good for them, but I also like their second-leading scorer, A. Hollins.

11:00 - Grant passes up an open jumper only to get blocked at the rim. I never mind the drive to the hoop, trying to draw fouls, but Grant has to take and make those for SU's offense to have a chance at being great. Minnesota scores on the other end 17-14.

10:05 - Disastrous brick from a wide open Cooney on the brick. Definitely a poor man's Janulis. I'm sticking with that.

9:30 - Coleman with a great rebound. He looks excellent early, with 4 pts and 4 boards. Very active, and looking to take advantage of the "weaker" (i.e. white) Minnesota front line. Grant adds a follow-up dunk to give SU the one-point lead.

6:22 - Interesting point from the broadcasters about this Maui tournament...none of the eight teams in the field has lost a game yet this year.

5:10 - Cooney is carrying the offense with 12 points. He's had six great looks and made four of them. There is not much more you can ask for from the kid. 31-27 SU.

4:28 - Holy cow, he's cut! CJ Fair is cut! He just got whacked in the face on a massive dunk and now he's got blood all over the place! Yikes. Count the dunk, but no foul called. (!!??!!) His reaction is vintage CJ Fair. He hops to his feet, looks to the ref for the foul, then starts jogging back down the court muttering what I think was, "Good heavens! That felt like a foul to me! Oh well! Them's the breaks!" Then he notices he's bleeding profusely and strolls casually to the bench.

:10 - Grant blocked by Elliott Eliason, the big center for Minnesota who deserves to be mentioned. He's got three blocks already and is really clogging up the lane. If Cooney cools off from outside, the second half could be dicey for the Orange offense.

Half - Nice play by Ennis, taking the ball right to the hoop and drawing a second foul on Eliason right at the half. He makes both FTs and it'll be 39-36 at half for the Orange. Not bad. Minnesota looks like a solid team that plays excellent defense.

20:00, 2nd Half - Tyler Ennis without a turnover in this game. He hasn't hit a shot, but let's not forget...let's NOT forget, that he's only a Freshman. This is his first game against a major conference opponent. He looks very controlled out there and he's got three assists...make that four as he hits Cooney for a three. SU doubles its lead to six early.

18:44 - Am I the only one who thinks Rak Christmas looks like a completely different player on offense? He's putting the ball on the floor a lot. He does it here again and draws a devastating third foul on Elliot Eliason. Very intriguing development in Rak's game.

17:13 - Offensive rebound tip-in for CJ Fair gives him 10 points and SU a 10 point lead. Love that man, CJ. Josh Pace who?

16:24 - DaJuan Coleman came out of the gate really sluggishly against Cornell, and he had me wondering if he was ever going to be much of a factor. But he had a double-double against Fordham, 14 points against St. Francis, and he is holding down the middle of the Syracuse offensive very effectively tonight. He's got 7 points and 3 offensive rebounds. More importantly, it looks like he's figured out his spacing and positioning. On the last play he snuck under the hoop and got a nice pass from Ennis. He turned under control and went up strong with two hands, drawing a foul. The sophomore might be getting it. If he can combine the finishing touch he had in high school with the footwork and in-the-paint savvy he needs at this level, he might be an occasional 20-10 threat by the end of this season.

14:45 - Sweet pump-n'-duck move by Coleman spinning to his right, with a nice touch off the glass to give Orange a 54-42 lead. The big fella is fired up. He's going to love the ACC atmosphere...I can see it now.

12:30 - Ennis is 0-6 from the field. I don't believe that is the real Ennis. He's taking good shots, he's just not making them. Feels like a chance for Minnesota to close the gap here...

10:48 - Gophers cut the lead to four and Ennis goes to work. He drops the ball off to Cooney who is covered and gives it back, so the PG drives off a screen into the hoop, right at Eliason. He misses the bucket but draws the foul, Eliason's fourth. Unless Pitino (wisely) pulls a Boeheim and leaves Eliason in (he doesn't), that is game over. I think "letting players in foul trouble play longer" is the college basketball equivalent of "going for it more often on fourth down" in the NFL. Would love to see a statistical analysis on the subject PS, Ennis makes both FTs.

9:00 - Syracuse leads by seven, thanks in large part to the fact they are doubling up the Gophers in FTs. SU's made 14 of 18 from the line.

7:40 - Malik Smith is going bonkers for the Gophers off the bench, with 16 points and four threes, some from very deep. He just picked Gbinije's pocket and scored to cut the lead to five. Smith looks like a useful spark-plug for the Gophers going forward.

6:30 - Ennis gets his first bucket, a nice floater in the lane. He looks great coming off the high screen, which is Boeheim's offense at it's most simple. 63-56 Orange.

5:07 - Elliot Eliason checks back in to the same situation he left when he got his fourth foul: SU up four with Ennis on the line. Gophers didn't lose ground with him out...just five crucial minutes. I stand by my belief he should have stayed in the game, or at least not have sat that long.

4:12 - Gophers cut the lead back to four after an offensive board by Eliason, who heads to the bench with the TV timeout looming and Minne going on defense. THAT foul management makes more sense.

2:30 - Eliason with a huge block on a Grant dunk attempt! Gophers trail by four, and haven't really been closer than that all half...

1:35 - After Andre Hollins cuts the lead to two, Ennis is rejected going to the hoop but Minnesota throws a long pass away. CJ calmly knocks down a short jumper to put SU back up by four. Good ol' CJ! I'm still not worried...

:20 - Grant grabs an offensive rebound and draws a flagrant foul. He hits the two FTs to put SU up 8. The Orange defense clamped down nicely on the Gophers down the stretch. Easy peasy! Bring on Cal Bears.

If you have two PGs, you have no PGs

I learned how to pronounce Michael Gbinije's last name within a few minutes of seeing him step on the court for the first time last weekend.

It's BEN-uh-jay.

He's 6'7". He's listed as a forward. He can play four positions. He's athletic. He fills up the box score. He's quick. And right now he's SU's backup point guard. He can and will play next to Ennis, but his most useful attribute is that he can effectively run the point while Ennis is on the bench.

Actually, towards the end of the first half I was wondering if he might be the BEST point guard on the Orange. Suddenly, the post-MCW, post-Triche, post-Waiters, post-Jardine Orange lack a point guard who can slash to the basket. Ennis was rejected twice tonight trying to do just that. Rejected, mind you, by two Colgate Raiders. I shudder to think of what the ACC front courts will do to him. Gbinije is shifty and flashy and makes you feel more confident when he is driving to the hoop. More confident than any other Orange except maybe Jerami Grant. The latter has the higher ceiling as an offensive weapon, to be sure, but this kid Gbinije...there's just something about him.

So, yeah, with a couple minutes left to go in the first half I was thinking of 1) which men's room was the closest to our seats and 2) how I would craft my blog post argument that Gbinije should be starting over Ennis. At that point, Ennis had already had one of those aforementioned layup attempts blocked. He had one rebound. And he had one turnover. That's it. We were watching Ennis whip the ball around the perimeter, passing up WIDE open three-point shots from the top of the arc as SU lazily worked the edges of Colgate's zone.

Behind me, a son turned to his father and asked, eyes wide with the innocence of youth, "Daddy? Why doesn't the man with the ball shoot when no one on the other team are standing near him?"

"Because he can't make that shot!" his father growled, emptying his beer, and cursing under his breath.

On cue, Ennis finally tried one. Swish! A minute later he canned another one. After halftime, they kept falling. Two more threes, two more swishes. He finished 4 for 6 from long range, 0 for 3 on two-pointers, and dished out a whopping zero assists. Gbinije led the Orange with three assists.

I still have the impression Ennis is a pass-first, pass-second, pass-third, shoot-fourth point guard. I LOVE those kinds of point guards, especially if they can change strategy when it matters, and take and hit big shots late in the game. But that is not the kind of guard SU needs this year, at least not yet. It's not like the SU offense is loaded with weapons.

So...I dunno. It'll be great if Ennis turns out to be a solid shooter, and if Cooney actually makes his shots this year. That would give the Orange three excellent perimeter shooters in their starting lineup, if you count CJ, which I do. It'll also be great if Gbinije can be a solid change-of-style point guard. It'll be great if everyone and everything turn out as good as we dream they can be. Thaaaaat's November in college basketball.

The SU offense is still a mess. (69 points?? How did we not get tacos against Colgate?!?) But it's a mess like a little kid's rooms is a mess; if you put everything where it belongs, the overall scene might turn out rather colorful, in a pleasing sort of way.

Identity Questions

Phil is an old friend of mine and a master of schtick. One of his schticks in high school was delivering an over the top, "Who ARE you?" whenever anyone did or said something even mildly ridiculous. So, let's say I made a bad joke to him, like "Did you know Baye Moussa Keita, properly translated, means 'Fast Break Put-Back Dunker Guy'?" he would look at me with exaggerated bafflement and reply, "Who ARE you?"

Phil had a classmate in gym class, Brian, who was particularly fun to use this line on. Brian was an odd young kid with an awkward humorlessness. Phil would say, "Who ARE you?" and Brian would reply, "I'm Brian! You know who I am!" He was sort of like a timid, teenage version of Al Cowlings. ("My name is AC! You know who I am, Goddamn it!") This happened enough that the exchange itself became a schtick for Phil and I. Whenever either of us would say, "Who ARE you?" the other would reply, "I'm Brian! You know who I am!"

I thought of this tonight as Syracuse struggled through the first half of their season opener against Cornell. In each of the past few seasons, the Orange have regularly lost several key rotation players but have reloaded with ease. That's the luxury of having Jim Boeheim and a top 10 team. I think most SU fans just assumed this year would work the same way. SU would more or less crank up to speed over the non-conference schedule and hit the ACC strong. But the Orange started so out of sync on offense and defense, they had me baffled. "Who ARE you?" I kept wondering. OK, so part of my confusion was figuring out who was who among the new guys. Ennis was easy. Gbinije quickly left his mark. (He's got the hustle, athleticism, and well-rounded skill set to quickly make him a fan favorite.) But I can't quite distinguish between the three -sons: Johnson, Roberson, Patterson. I think Roberson had a nice looking shot, but the box score says Johnson is the one who hit a three, so...I dunno.

But "Who ARE you?" was less a question about the new guys and more a question about the team as a whole. What is their identity? What is their schtick? I sensed a tentative answer, both from the team's behavior, and from the fans. The crowd's expectations were evident every time those expectations weren't met - every time Josh Pace Redux missed a shot in the paint, every time (seven times, to be exact) he turned the ball over. "Who ARE you?" "I'm CJ Fair! You know who I am!"

OK, I should probably talk about Trevor Cooney. He was fantastic. He was a dream come true for SU and its fans. The redshirt sophomore's previous best shooting night was a 5-9 performance from three-point range last December in Syracuse's 108-56 "game" against Monmouth. Tonight Cooney went 7-8 from three, and put up 27 total, almost doubling his previous career high. He also led the team with four steals. He kept SU close enough in the first half so the Orange could put Cornell away quickly in the second. He was the star. He was amazing. But he was amazing because, even if he's made a huge step foreward, even if he'll be the shooter we hope and need him to be, we all know that it won't always be THIS easy for him. This won't be the last time Cooney erupts, but he won't erupt every time.

And besides, you can't build a team around a single, sharpshooting two-guard. Well, you can if you're playing in the Missouri Valley Conference, but not if you're in the big, new ACC. "Who ARE you?" "I'm CJ Fair! You know who I am!"

Now, SU was missing Jerami Grant (suspended for a summer league violation). The sophomore sixth man is the big X-Factor for this season. He's the difference between whether SU is an elite team or just a very good team. He's got the tools and upside to be a real stud. If he makes the leap this year and turns into a matchup nightmare on offense, then the Orange might have something. Also, Tyler Ennis looks perfectly capable of running the point. But we've yet to see how he imposes his personality on this team

For now, SU's identity is CJ Fair. And I adore the guy, but I'm worried that Syracuse's ceiling is limited by that identity. CJ's final line wasn't too bad, but those seven turnovers belie the disappointing start to his senior season. This is the Syracuse star. This is the ACC player of the year candidate. This is the potential first team All-American. This is a new role for CJ.

We fell in love with Josh Pace Redux because he was a sublime role player. He complemented everyone and everything on the floor, falling perfectly into place on offense behind MCW and Southerland and Triche and Waiters and Joseph. CJ was best on offense when he was picky about his shot, when he was free to crash the offensive boards, and when he was loose to sneak into the paint for a catch and lay-up. But now the best complementary guy is also the best player on the Orange. Can that work? Cooney's outburst and Syracuse's inevitable dominance of Cornell aside, the initial results were not promising.