Best defensive effort?

[CaptainJ]

I kept saying to myself and my friend all game that this looked like the best defensive effort from Syracuse I can remember in....???? I know my memory isnt so great, and maybe I was just caught up in the moment and the monumental timing of this defensive effort, but I wanted to come home and ask you guys where you thought it ranked, for the season, for tournaments, and otherwise. Some feedback please! I've been waiting to ask you guys this for a good while now.

I haven't bothered to look at the stats, but the steals looked sweet, and all of the tipped passes and near steals were impressive as well. Those wont show in the stats. What really got me though were all of the clean blocks. That stood out as something I couldn't remember the likes of in a long time.

 

[tbouks02]

I kept saying to myself and my friend all game that this looked like the best defensive effort from Syracuse I can remember in....???? I know my memory isnt so great, and maybe I was just caught up in the moment and the monumental timing of this defensive effort, but I wanted to come home and ask you guys where you thought it ranked, for the season, for tournaments, and otherwise. Some feedback please! I've been waiting to ask you guys this for a good while now.

Oklahoma 2003.

 

[Cowtown]

Sure the D was good, no argument there. Off ball movement (ie one pass away) was exceptional. Still, IU was flat, had little imagination on O without the ball, and less with it. Of course, the primary factor in one team's O looking bad is the other team's D looking good!

 

[jordoo]

We played great defense, but it helps when the other coach's initial plan of attack doesn't work and he doesn't ever really change it. Plus its nice to be gaured by hobbits

 

[Shermthegeneral]

This game and the Cal gave were very similar

 

[HoustonCuse]

I'd say this is a Top 10 ever defensive effort from Cuse. Say what you want about size mismatches or unimaginative coaching: IU was the #1 offensive team in the country and they have not 1, but 2 national POY finalists. Syracuse completely shut them down, 11 blocks, 19 turnovers, 20% from 3, held them 30 points below their season average (which they got in a loaded B1G of all places). That is a historic defensive performance!

 

[Col. Bleep]

Realize what we just did.

We shut down the 3rd highest scoring team in the country.
We held them to 30 points below their average.
30!!!!!
We shut down two All-Americans.
We let loose the Orange fog and made them absolutely disappear.

No one beats us when we play like this.

 

[CaptainJ]

I appreciate all the replies, I do. But those last 2 reinforced what I was thinking. We made an awesome team, the team that for much of the latter season was argued as THE #1 team in the country, look horrible. What else needs to be said?

Unless this is a new team, I think we played above our heads tonight compared to much of the season. I just hope we can stay even near this level in upcoming games. This game just seemed beyond special to me, with what *I* saw.

 

[HoustonCuse]

I don't know that we played above our heads. Our defense has been improving, but there were no miracles in what we did. On top of that, our offense was actually very pedestrian. Southerland was completely bottled up, CJ was very quiet, and we had a bunch of unforced turnovers and missed bunnies. We can play much better than this.

 

[Jasoncuse]

Oklahoma 2003.

Better than that. OU was a weak team. IU was a better offensive team that couldn't do anything against us tonight. It was a fantastic defensive performance, one that we need to see against Marquette.

 

[zhanjuzi]

Phenomenal defensive effort. In particular, I can't believe how great Baye played. He was all over Zeller, gets flipped in the air, splits his forehead, sprains his wrist and he still continued to put out 100% .. unreal performance!

Rak should look no further than Baye to learn how much intensity is required to play this game at high level.

 

[orange79]

Definitely top 10 - at least...