sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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Crowd was 33K plus. 4th biggest in the history of the Dome. Made some noise, did a good job. Students actually might have had a bigger turnout for GTown but still came out in big numbers, came close to filling 4 sections. UConn had a decent sized contingent behind the North basket in the middle of the upper deck. Maybe 50 people? Good to see them travel a little bit. The Husky fans that came were cocky, talked a lot of trash before the game, were really confident they were going to win, much to the amusement of the Syracuse fans surrounding them.
The woman who sang the NA was solid. Knew the words, hit the notes, no equipment malfunctions.
For those that track these things, Brendan Reese has taken over for Mookie as the designated greeter as the starters are introduced before the game. He does NOT do the highly involved double dare Scorpion Dance Hip Check manuever with Melo. That is good news because if he tried, he would probably be launched into the stands. JB continues his practice of leaving the space next to him empty as the NA is sung, his quiet tribute to long time assistance Bernie Fine.
I tried the philly cheesesteak sandwich that can be found on the lower concourse near the southeast corner of the Dome, not far from where you can get the chicken parm sandwiches. It was not bad...good roll, decent amount of steak, fresh peppers, onions and mushrooms. Worth a try if you are hungry and sick of the usual swag. $6.00. They serve wings there too. Still have not tried them.
nycfan sat a couple of rows above me. That is always good news because that dude spews good mojo from his essence, much like Pigpen spews dust.
Regarding the game, thought it was a strange one. Syracuse outrebounded UConn pretty badly. UConn is normally a very strong rebounding team and one would think they would batter us on the offensive boards. But no, they did poorly there. Did okay on their defensive boards, we had some offensive rebounds but nothing dominant. The tongue lashing JB gave the team after the infamously bad performance on the boards against Georgetown must have made an impact. Special props here to CJ, who was down low battling all game long and competed well for position. One of his best games rebounding ever.
Thought UConn did a good job attacking our 2-3, especially given how awful they have struggled on offense during conference play. A lot of their points were from transition,. or near transition. They still run well and convert on the fast break nicely...hurt Syracuse here quite a bit. Their half court offense struggled most of the game. No one appeared to really want to shoot the ball. They were able to get the ball in the paint and make another pass to get an easy layup, dunk or foul some in the 2nd half, when Drummond, sleep walking most of the game, came alive and did some damage. Thought the injury to him was one of the turning points of the game. Tough break for the Huskies. Lamp and Napier tried to keep UConn close and were successful for a while but they couldn't keep the wolves at bay forever. Thought it was interesting none of Drummond'steammates came out to help him get to the bench until he was past half court and almost done getting back. No one likes him on the team?
We all know SU's troubles scoring in the half court all season long. This really wasn't a problem today. Part of this was because SU was able to hit 3s pretty much all game long. That is highly unusual to have happen in conference play. This was definitely helped by a porous Husky man defense that left SU players wide open for 3s all game long. Looked like they decided to let Syracuse shoot from the outside as much as they wanted, to defend the interior at all costs.
Unfortunately, Syracuse was also able to score in half court possessions using dunks, drawing fouls inside, and getting an astonishing number of uncontested layups. UConn did an awful job providing help on defense. In terms on individual matchups, Scoop completely owned Boatwright all game long, just embarraseed him over and over, getting easy layups, wide open 3s, easy access to the paint, etc. whenever he wanted it. CJ had a field day when he was covered by Olander (sp?). a slow and awkward player whose ankles were broken over and over when he tried to stay with Fair.
It is very hard for freshmen and sophomores to hold their own with more experienced players. Napier and Boatwright are just not ready to cover Dion and Scoop. Lamp got beaten by KJ a lot...though he at least won a few battles.
JB was in rare form today, screaming like a maniac at players from the start of the game to the final whistle. He and MCW had a very spirited exchange after MCW was quickly pulled after being inserted in the first half. JB sat next to him and appeared to reconcile with him later but not the kind of thing you want to see during a timeout.
Not thrilled with the dramatic changes in playing time continuing for the second game in a row. Would like to see more than 6 players play in the 2nd half of the game, even if only to give players brief rests. JB has 881 more wins than me so I am sure he has reasons why he is doing this. But I worry it is going to backfire. That being said, I thought Dion did a good job in the 2nd half and Scoop had one of his finest games as an Orangeman, again especially in the 2nd half. He abused Boatwright as badly as Edelin used to do with ND PG Chris Thomas.
Noel and Ennis were very non demonstrative. Didn't look like they talked much, Ennis talked with DCII a few times. Noel appeared to have a very intimate relationship with his cellphone. Looked like he was barely paying attention to the game. Maybe we should have put a pretty cooed next to him instead of a guy who weighed 450 pounds. Or anyone, except someone who weighs 450 pounds. Just a thought.
I don't know what is going to happen with UConn. If they play like they did today, they will win out the rest of the season. They seem close to being good. Seemed every time they got close, they would melt down again and the game would get out of hand. Given that, I never thought the game was in danger. I suspect they will continue to struggle and that this was their last real gasp. I could be wrong... I certainly was last year, when they were similarly disfunctional and somehow won a NC anyway.
I hope this is not the last time UConn plays at the Dome. They have a great program, and competing with them has helped the Syracuse program (I like to think them competing against us helped them too). The best programs in the Northeast should play on a regular or at least fairly regularly basis. I haven't heard anyone talk about this and suspect it is not going to happen. If we play the Huskies at all in the regular season post the Big East, I suspect it will be at MSG in an ACC/Big East doubleheader. Another situation like football and Penn State would be unfortunate.
UL won again today. They are playing their best ball of the season, getting healthier each game and we will get their best shot on Monday. Should be a good one. I think it is our toughest regular game remaining, and it isn't even close. Let's see what happens with UK tonight. A number of expects are picking the Commodores to pull an upset. That would be okay with me.
The woman who sang the NA was solid. Knew the words, hit the notes, no equipment malfunctions.
For those that track these things, Brendan Reese has taken over for Mookie as the designated greeter as the starters are introduced before the game. He does NOT do the highly involved double dare Scorpion Dance Hip Check manuever with Melo. That is good news because if he tried, he would probably be launched into the stands. JB continues his practice of leaving the space next to him empty as the NA is sung, his quiet tribute to long time assistance Bernie Fine.
I tried the philly cheesesteak sandwich that can be found on the lower concourse near the southeast corner of the Dome, not far from where you can get the chicken parm sandwiches. It was not bad...good roll, decent amount of steak, fresh peppers, onions and mushrooms. Worth a try if you are hungry and sick of the usual swag. $6.00. They serve wings there too. Still have not tried them.
nycfan sat a couple of rows above me. That is always good news because that dude spews good mojo from his essence, much like Pigpen spews dust.
Regarding the game, thought it was a strange one. Syracuse outrebounded UConn pretty badly. UConn is normally a very strong rebounding team and one would think they would batter us on the offensive boards. But no, they did poorly there. Did okay on their defensive boards, we had some offensive rebounds but nothing dominant. The tongue lashing JB gave the team after the infamously bad performance on the boards against Georgetown must have made an impact. Special props here to CJ, who was down low battling all game long and competed well for position. One of his best games rebounding ever.
Thought UConn did a good job attacking our 2-3, especially given how awful they have struggled on offense during conference play. A lot of their points were from transition,. or near transition. They still run well and convert on the fast break nicely...hurt Syracuse here quite a bit. Their half court offense struggled most of the game. No one appeared to really want to shoot the ball. They were able to get the ball in the paint and make another pass to get an easy layup, dunk or foul some in the 2nd half, when Drummond, sleep walking most of the game, came alive and did some damage. Thought the injury to him was one of the turning points of the game. Tough break for the Huskies. Lamp and Napier tried to keep UConn close and were successful for a while but they couldn't keep the wolves at bay forever. Thought it was interesting none of Drummond'steammates came out to help him get to the bench until he was past half court and almost done getting back. No one likes him on the team?
We all know SU's troubles scoring in the half court all season long. This really wasn't a problem today. Part of this was because SU was able to hit 3s pretty much all game long. That is highly unusual to have happen in conference play. This was definitely helped by a porous Husky man defense that left SU players wide open for 3s all game long. Looked like they decided to let Syracuse shoot from the outside as much as they wanted, to defend the interior at all costs.
Unfortunately, Syracuse was also able to score in half court possessions using dunks, drawing fouls inside, and getting an astonishing number of uncontested layups. UConn did an awful job providing help on defense. In terms on individual matchups, Scoop completely owned Boatwright all game long, just embarraseed him over and over, getting easy layups, wide open 3s, easy access to the paint, etc. whenever he wanted it. CJ had a field day when he was covered by Olander (sp?). a slow and awkward player whose ankles were broken over and over when he tried to stay with Fair.
It is very hard for freshmen and sophomores to hold their own with more experienced players. Napier and Boatwright are just not ready to cover Dion and Scoop. Lamp got beaten by KJ a lot...though he at least won a few battles.
JB was in rare form today, screaming like a maniac at players from the start of the game to the final whistle. He and MCW had a very spirited exchange after MCW was quickly pulled after being inserted in the first half. JB sat next to him and appeared to reconcile with him later but not the kind of thing you want to see during a timeout.
Not thrilled with the dramatic changes in playing time continuing for the second game in a row. Would like to see more than 6 players play in the 2nd half of the game, even if only to give players brief rests. JB has 881 more wins than me so I am sure he has reasons why he is doing this. But I worry it is going to backfire. That being said, I thought Dion did a good job in the 2nd half and Scoop had one of his finest games as an Orangeman, again especially in the 2nd half. He abused Boatwright as badly as Edelin used to do with ND PG Chris Thomas.
Noel and Ennis were very non demonstrative. Didn't look like they talked much, Ennis talked with DCII a few times. Noel appeared to have a very intimate relationship with his cellphone. Looked like he was barely paying attention to the game. Maybe we should have put a pretty cooed next to him instead of a guy who weighed 450 pounds. Or anyone, except someone who weighs 450 pounds. Just a thought.
I don't know what is going to happen with UConn. If they play like they did today, they will win out the rest of the season. They seem close to being good. Seemed every time they got close, they would melt down again and the game would get out of hand. Given that, I never thought the game was in danger. I suspect they will continue to struggle and that this was their last real gasp. I could be wrong... I certainly was last year, when they were similarly disfunctional and somehow won a NC anyway.
I hope this is not the last time UConn plays at the Dome. They have a great program, and competing with them has helped the Syracuse program (I like to think them competing against us helped them too). The best programs in the Northeast should play on a regular or at least fairly regularly basis. I haven't heard anyone talk about this and suspect it is not going to happen. If we play the Huskies at all in the regular season post the Big East, I suspect it will be at MSG in an ACC/Big East doubleheader. Another situation like football and Penn State would be unfortunate.
UL won again today. They are playing their best ball of the season, getting healthier each game and we will get their best shot on Monday. Should be a good one. I think it is our toughest regular game remaining, and it isn't even close. Let's see what happens with UK tonight. A number of expects are picking the Commodores to pull an upset. That would be okay with me.
