The Reckoning of Scoop Jardine

Well before the final whistle of Seton Hall's 90-68 embarrassment of the Orange tonight in the dome it was clear; the 2010-11 Orange are as good as Scoop Jardine. The question is, how good is Scoop Jardine?

Back in my December 4th season preview I suggested SU had an identity crisis because it wasn't yet clear who "The Guy" was on the team. I suggested that Scoop was a big part of the problem, that he had to look to set up his teammates more and look for his own shot less. Well, it's late January and Scoop STILL has to set up his teammates more and look for his own shot less. During the Villanova game, I twittered, "Every time Scoop takes a tough shot before KJ or Ricky touch the ball a little part of me dies." He's killing me softly with his off-balance jumpers.

It's clear Boeheim agrees. Through the first five Big East games (all wins), Scoop played at least 36 minutes. In the first loss at Pitt, his minutes dropped to 31. Against Villanova he played a miserable 22. Tonight he played 24, and he sat next to Boeheim for about the final 10. His decision making is crap. Maybe we should call him POOP Jardine! (C'mon...we've all thought about that pun!)

The maddening part is Scoop still has a lot of great characteristics that make him critical to this team. I can't think of a Syracuse player who simultaneously put so much on AND took so much off of the table (apologies to the Sports Guy for borrowing that extended metaphor).

Earlier this year my buddy Chris pointed out that Scoop is a poor man's Billy Edelin. It's a good comparison. Billy was taller, but they're both stocky guards. Scoop has more of an outside shot but he's better when he feels out the interior off the dribble, just like Billy. They both have a massive pair of cojones; say what you will about Scoop's ability to score, he WANTS the ball late in the game. That's half the battle won right there. But the biggest similarity between Billy and Scoop is the way they exert their personality on the team. When Billy joined the roster in 2003 it was immediately evident that HE was the floor general. Melo was the star. Gerry had more assists. Kueth Duany was the senior and the defensive leader. But when Billy joined the team one-third of the way into the season, the entire DEMEANOR of that squad changed. Part of it was the way he clarified everyone's role, but it was more than that. His confidence, his coolness, his smoothness...it spread throughout the team. It's easy to forget because of the way Edelin left Syracuse, and because of the other names on that 2003 roster. Carmelo was The Guy, of course. But for the team's collective psychology Edelin was the Alpha Dog.

Now, I think we can ALL agree Scoop is the Alpha Dog on this year's team. I think it's also evident that this team has taken on Scoop's personality. If Scoop improves his personality can be an asset, just like Edelin's was in 2003. Right now it's a problem for a couple reasons. As Boeheim has continually pointed out and as Seton Hall firmly proved tonight, Scoop and the rest of the Orange have been TOO confident. They expected to bounce back against a team they had already beaten, a team that had just lost to Rutgers. More importantly, Edelin was the fourth or fifth best player on that 2003 team AND HE KNEW IT. Scoop seems to think he's the first or second best player on this team, but he's no better than the third best player behind KJ and Ricky. And in games when Triche or Southerland or even CJ are on, he should defer to them too.

Scoop has to change. He has to become a true point guard. Maybe playing behind Jonny Flynn hurt him a little, giving him a misguided sense of how much a point guard should try to score. Scoop has taken more shots this season than either KJ or Ricky. He's turning the ball over three times per game. He's shooting 4 and a half threes per game but only making 32% of those. All of his shooting percentages are way down from last year. He can shoot better. He MUST play better.

Syracuse has dropped three straight for several reasons. I haven't even mentioned the defense, which has been horrible. Two-three zones are susceptible to the three, but Boeheim's zone is no ordinary two-three; it should be better. Villanova and Seton Hall were hot, but with the devastating interior SU has the guards should be more active. The defense must improve too.

Offensively there is a lot of potential. KJ's newly discovered three-point shot has made him that much closer to impossible to guard. Ricky is a tough match-up for even the best big men in the conference. And C.J. Fair is doing some intriguing things inside thanks to the attention Ricky draws. Triche is consistent. Southerland has found his shot. (Well, except tonight. He missed those first two and you could tell it was going to be an off night. Hence the drop in minutes despite the start.) If...IF Scoop can adjust his game to become a more complementary player, all of these things could fall nicely into place to make the Orange a dangerous team in March.

The thing is, he has to get better right now, because it doesn't get any easier:
@ Marquette (playing UConn tough tonight)
@ #5 UConn
@ South Florida
vs #20 Georgetown
@ #19 Louisville

He may be only a junior, but Scoop Jardine is in the midst of the defining moment of his Syracuse career. We shall see what happens.


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P.S. There is an interesting recent precedent for this 3-game slide that my buddy Short Paul helped me recall.

Two years ago the Orange hit the Big East schedule 12-1. They won 5 of their first 6 in conference, the most impressive win coming at home against #13 Notre Dame.

This year the Orange hit the Big East schedule 13-0. They won their first 5 in conference, the most impressive win coming at home against #15 Notre Dame.

Two years ago the Orange got crushed by 18 at #4 Pittsburgh on Monday, Jan 19 then lost by 10 at home to #12 Louisville at noon the following Sunday.

This year the Orange were outplayed at #4 Pittsburgh on Monday, Jan 17 then lost by 11 at home to #7 Villanova at noon the following Saturday.

Two years ago, three days after losing to Louisville, in what should have been an easy bounce-back game, unranked Providence dismantled Syracuse's defense in Providence, 100-94.

This year, three days after losing to Villanova, in what should have been a VERY easy bounce-back game, unranked Seton Hall dismantled Syracuse's defense in the dome, 90-68.

So what happened to the 2009 team? They won their next game (home, West Virginia), then lost to the next 3 ranked teams they played (Nova, #1 UConn, Nova again) with an OT home win over Georgetown in the middle. After that the schedule eased up and Syracuse won its final 4 regular season games to finish 23-8, pretty safely in the tournament.

But the real proof that the team had gelled came on Thursday, March 12.

6OTs. Nuff said.

They got bounced in the Sweet 16 by Blake Griffin and Oklahoma, but you have to admit, that was a pretty memorable team in a very good way. Long story short, don't give up on this team yet.

Eddie Griffin Dead at Age 25

Oh no.

That was my reaction to the headline that just popped up on ESPN.com, "Ex-Wolves player Griffin killed in crash." Eddie Griffin drove through a railroad warning right into a moving train in the early hours of Friday morning. His body was badly burned and wasn't identified until today.

Chris and I remember Eddie well from his one season with Seton Hall, his Freshman year, and ours as well. He was an immensely gifted basketball player. In the one game he played in the Dome, we quickly agreed that he was the best player on the court. But he also had some personal problems that made him an underachiever.

In those days, Seton Hall was in the midst of its brief tenure as my most hated team in the Big East. A year before, PG Darius Lane and company had ended Syracuse's 19-0 season in the Dome. Then in 2001, they had again handed us our first Big East loss and only our second of the season down in New Jersey in January.

In February, we came into the Dome on a seven game home winning streak. Seton Hall, on the other hand, had struggled to a 3-6 mark in league play. Eddie was a microcosm of the team that year; talented, but disappointing in the end. Still, I knew that Seton Hall was going to give us a tough game. Darius Lane had it in for us.

Indeed, he matched his 20 points from the same fixture the year before. But it was Eddie who dominated the game. 18 points, 10 boards, 3 blocks, 3 steals. Jeremy McNeil was no match for his inside-outside game. Nor was Ethan Cole, for that matter.

In front of the largest crowd of the season, we found ourselves down eight with 10 and a half remaining. I can almost remember Boeheim calling a time out right around then. We might have even gone press. Maybe that was the day that Chris pointed out how good a team we were at pressing, an part of Boeheim's arsenal that has remained under-appreciated to this day. Whatever it was, we laid down a 10 point run to get our first lead of the second half.

From there it was a back-and-forth battle. The game report I'm reading says that there were only two points over the final 2:55. Classic Big East ugliness. They came on SU's final possession, when senior Allen Griffin hit the winning bucket. Our other senior, Damone Brown, blocked a shot on the other end and the game was over, 63-62. (No tacos.)

Griffin and Brown led the Orange to the second round of the NCAAs that year, a solid effort for a team that had lost a great senior class the year before. Seton Hall ended up 16-15, losing in the first round of the NIT. Eddie jumped to the NBA.

A year later, the Orange bottomed out with the DeShaun Williams fiasco of a season. We learned that good guys, like Brown and Allen Griffin, can help a team overachieve. Bad guys can ruin a season.

Eddie Griffin was always troubled. When a basketball player's troubles are so obvious that they reveal themselves in his and his team's performance, that's a bad sign. I knew very little about Eddie, besides that he had a drinking problem and had been suspended a bunch of times by the NBA. I don't know why he had those troubles or what his life was like.

I'll be honest, I enjoyed rooting against him. Seton Hall were the bad guys to me. It was natural as an Orange fan. But this is sad. I would have much preferred a story of redemption for ol' Eddie Griffin. Instead, at the same age as I am now, he's dead. I don't know what else to do or say, but tip my cap to Eddie for the one memory of the one day when our paths crossed.