Four Shovels of Dirt

Last thoughts on the 2010-11 SU season...

1. Rick Jackson will never play another game in an SU uniform.

I had been meaning to write a "Don't to Appreciate Rick Jackson Before He's Gone" blog, but I never got around to it. (Actually, I would have gotten to that this week. Ugh.) I'll just have to salute him here.

Ricky might not have been the most talented Power Forward/Center to play for Syracuse, but he will go down among the best. First and foremost, the Conference Defender of the Year was a fitting honor to go out with.

Rebounding... His 360 rebounds this year was the 9th best all time. 930 career rebounds puts him in 8th, behind Roosevelt Bouie and ahead of Billy Owens. His 22 boards against Detroit this year tied for the 6th best rebounding game ever for an Orange.

Scoring...1245 career points ties him for 35th all-time with the great George Hicker (65-68). Fittingly, that's just behind Paul Harris and just ahead of Arinze Onuaku. If we narrow that list down to a vaguely defined "Post Player" he's pushing the top 10.

Blocks...86 blocks this season was good enough for 10th best all-time. 259 for his career put him at 7th. 6th place? Jeremy McNeil! (I wouldn't have guessed that in a million years.)

Will he play in the NBA? At 6-9 he's a bit small for his skill set, but I think he can overcome that and find a role on a deep bench somewhere. His best NBA skill might actually be his rebounding. In any event, I will remember him fondly as a guy who surprised us with flashes as a Freshman and slowly improved over 4-years, culminating in a deeply satisfying (at least, individually) senior season.

2. It's a gray week in Syracuse.

The city gets such a buzz when the Orange advance to the 2nd weekend of the NCAAs, but it gets so down after the Orange crash out. Missing out on that week of buzz is the worst part of this loss, especially with the forecast predicting one last bite from winter. (Sigh...)

3. The Marquette game just... slipped away.

I've heard a million explanations already for why SU lost, all with a bit of merit. Triche's offense might have helped down the stretch when SU went cold. And everyone who said they would rather have played Xavier than Marquette was proven correct.

To my mind, it was a fantastic game (Gus Johnson was brilliant!). Marquette wasn't going to go away. Ultimately, Jae Crowder and DJO made two massive shots, while SU missed one big shot (Waiters in the corner) and made a couple late (and brutally typical) mistakes. That was the difference.

4. Coughlin's quote from Cocktail rings especially true in March.

"Everything ends badly. Otherwise it wouldn't end."

Mailbag: Brother Dan's Eyewitness Report

Dan was at the Marquette game this weekend, and shot me this email:
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I was going to try to tweet this but i didnt think i could get the appropriate wording in just 140 characters (meaning I am a blowhard).

I went to the Cuse Marquette game this weekend and had the following takeaways from the game:

1) Lot's of respect for Marquette as a team. Paul, you blogged that they were playing great and it was really crazy to think that they had lost 8 games. The combination of Syracuse having enough sloppy offensive possessions, not rebounding and playing defense a step too slow was deadly. With all that being said, if Marquette doesn't hit almost all their free throws (especially in the 1st half) then Cuse is in the driving seat after the 2nd half run.

2) The fans and stadium were phenomenal. They play in the Bucks arena and that place was going crrrrrazy when they were hot, just really an incredible atmosphere. We were literally in the last row of the corner of the arena and the seats were still fine (got them through the S.U. alumni network so we had a very small pocked of kindred spirits. Also, the players had video singing karaoke to Miley Cyrus among others and they came across as very likable. I think my favorite big east teams go 1) Syracuse 2) Villanova (my friend Jamey's influence) 3) Marquette (I love their jerseys and have always enjoyed them play)

3) Despite the greatness of the crowd as a whole we were very disappointed at the lack of creativity of the students. When we walked in (me, Elena and Mike Pro- all wearing Orange) a kid stopped us and said "Hey.....hey you guys.....hey you.....F*** YOU!!!!" and gave us the finger. After stopping us for about 10 seconds we expected something clever. We were also called "a bunch of bitches" and told to f*** off multiple times. I'm all for positive banter but they just lacked creativity.

4) I love to see people wearing Aaron Rodgers jerseys- Wisconsin is great.

If you ever get the chance i highly recommend the trip- it was an hour and 45 minutes to drive there [Paul's note: from Chicago]. We had considered spending the night and going to the Bucks/Nets game that night but that seemed crazy considering it was the Bucks and the Nets. Perhaps for a Brewers game in the summer. GREINKE!

big game on Wednesday,

Cuuuuuuuusse!

Running Diary: Marquette-Syracuse

Bill Simmons has very few rules, but one of them is whenever Syracuse is trying to end a 3-game losing streak in Milwaukee on National Marquette Day, I have to keep a running diary.

20:00 - Tip off in Milwaukee...but we can't see it because the big Norfolk St-Morgan St game is still rockin' on ESPNU!

13:50 - Norfolk St pulls off the shocker and the no-name announcers reluctantly toss it to Wisconsin where Syracuse has scraped back to within 1 after an early deficit, 14-13.

12:46 - ESPN tells us Marquette has never beaten Syracuse in 5 tries in the Big East conference. They lead 17-13, although the perimeter of the zone is looking better/more active.

11:03 - Or not. Marquette hits a three. They've scored on 11 of 15 possessions. 23-15 bad guys.

9:08 - Zone looks good for 30 seconds, then Marquette hits a tough mid-range jumper. Typical.

7:43 - 29-20 Marquette. Our game is being brought to you by 5-Hour Energy. What's the deal with their commercials? I feel like if I was trying to sell a mysterious liquid drug in a sketchy little plastic bottle, I wouldn't want my ads to feel like they were shot by a porn production company. But that's just me.

6:07 - 31-20. Marquette is out-rebounding the Orange 15-4. What the heck happened to our rebounding prowess? We've dropped from the 20s to 44th in the country. We got beat on the boards 40-33 by Seton Hall, and 41-27 by Pitt. Ugh.

3:00 - SU cuts it to 35-29 as Kris Joseph calmly knocks down a three. How is he not scoring 20 points a game? I just took out my Scoop voodoo doll. I like to regularly whisper to it, "Make sure either KJ or Ricky touches the ball every possession!"

:39.1 - CJ Fair makes a block that looks EXACTLY like Hak Warrick's block on Michael Lee in 2003! That's GOTTA be a good sign!

Half - Marquette sets a new high for points scored in the first half against Syracuse. 42-31. I could go for a 5-Hour-Energy. Maybe ten of them.

Half - Scoop has 7 assists and only 1 turnover that should have been a foul. Call me crazy but I think he's playing better. Soooo...I was totally wrong that Scoop's performance will dictate the success of this team. It's the defense.

19:35 - 42-33 off an early bucket from New Melo moments after KJ, about to inbound to start the half, gives ESPN's Fran Frascilla a nod of approval at his zone diagram analysis. Fran thinks the problem is the guards aren't defending the high paint well enough.

16:16 - 46-39 Marquette. A minute after Melo gets called for a high elbow that replays show didn't even connect, he picks up his fourth playing shoddy defense inside. But Jim leaves him in... May as well, I guess.

15:37 - Scoop hits a three... and he's reached a career high in assists with 10! Dare I say, the Orange are looking better. Still a 6-point deficit though.

12:26 - Scoop narrowly misses connecting with KJ for an alley-oop. It's been 3:30 since the Orange have scored, but they've only allowed 8 points in the half. I give up.

8:16 - Tie game! 56-all! And for the first time in four games, it actually feels like Syracuse has been the best team on the court for an extended period.

6:19 - 60-57 Marquette after Scoop dribbles right into a Golden Eagle and loses the ball. When he gets anxious...trouble.

3:41 - After a ridiculous three from Jimmy Butler with the shot clock running out, Ricky answers with a bucket and the foul. Syracuse, trailing by 1, has still never led in this game. But ESPN shows a graphic showing that Marquette has blown four leads of 7 or more in Big East games this season.

3:24 - Baye Moussa Keita fouls out. Only four points but, as usual, he brought some great energy. Coincidentally, "Baye Moussa Keita" literally translated, means "fouls out."

1:56 - 66-all. I can't remember a single player attacking the zone as well as Jae Crowder (27 points) has today. He's been fantastic and terrifying. Bobby Huggins should hire him as an assistant coach.

1:33 - 69-66 Marquette, Golden Eagles ball. Another huge three late in the shot clock from Butler. How is Marquette only 13-8?? These guys will be on the bubble at the end.

34.1 - 73-68 Marquette. Another late three from deep, this time by Johnson-Odom. Then Scoop is stuffed on a lay-up at the other end. We played better, but Marquette killed us at the foul lines, hit huge shots late, and got out to too big a lead.

FINAL - 76-70 Marquette. Syracuse did some things a lot better in the second half, but played terribly in the first and could never get control of the game. Credit the Golden Eagles for finishing strong. I don't know what else to say, except I'm glad the Orange have an easy match coming up on Wednesday at Connecticut. Geheyeheyeheyehey! (grabbing collar)