sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Disappointing crowd size, maybe 25K actually there. 2 sections upstairs were reserved for the students; perhaps 25 students showed up there. They better watch out or they are going to lose more seats for next season.
The NA was sung by a junior VPA major who did had some weak moments but overall did a credible job. SU has ripped off an MSG promotion where two contestants compete during a timeout to make free throws. Good idea but about 10 years behind the times.
They have another promotion where a resident from University Apartments shoots 5 FTs. They get $250 off the rent for each FT made. Much to the consternation of the crowd, they let Mr Excitement do the player introductions again. Maybe the kid wanted too much money.
The big news was the return of Dirty. Big ovations when his player intro was played on the scoreboard, when he entered the game for the first time and whenever he scored. Must have made him feel good to feel the love. St Johns got a great break when Steve Lavin, their fine recruiting HC wwho struggles greatly on gameday, was not able to coach due to the death of his father. Condolences to the Lavin family
The Johnnies are normally a man defense team, but like a few BE teams, they moved to zone against the zone challenged SU half court offense. Their zone was uninspired. Looked they they tried to pack it in and take away the inside game for Syracuse but SU did a better job than normal against the 2-3 (I think part of this was the bad zone play) and got quality looks at the basket pretty much whenever they wanted. They had open 3s all game long, were able to drive and shoot mid range jumpers as needed, got some points out of the low post and had some success on the offensive boards as well.
Jamarr? Sampson, this years outstanding frosh forward, was really impressive. Had hit the mid range jumper, can drive and pull up and can rebound and finish down low as well. If there was any doubt, it is gone now He is a one and down kid.
The SU zone was clearly looking to take Harrison out of the game and it was largely effective here. He rarely got good looks from the 3 point circle, and Triche and MCW did a good job limiting his ability to get the ball into the paint. Greene hurt us a little here, but the Johnnies did not show much ability to hit 3s or finish down low (we had a bunch of blocks there).
MCW did a great job running the offense. Looks to me that the offense is a lot harder to defend when he is in pass first mode. It helped that JS was back...when he and Triche were in with MCW, the Johnnies had a devil of a time trying to cover the outside shooters and match up inside. MCW didn't have a big scoring game but hit an early 3 in both halves to help set the tone and open things up in the paint. He is sharing the ball noticeably more now and the MCW one on three show down the stretch was completely gone again today. Really encouraging stuff.
Thought Triche had another solid game offensively and defensively. He has largely eliminated the couple of baffling turnovers that plagued his game during his career and his greatly improved ability to finish in the paint and get offensive rebounds and points down low have improved his value.
CJ had a big game, scored a lot of points that were needed to end mini St Johns runs. He dominated the defensive boards early and man, he made some nice finishes around the basket to get by their big shot blocker. Pretty much everyone played well today, but I think Fair was the MVP today.
Christmas got into foul trouble again and while he had some good moments, including a nice power move early and a vicious block, he was not a major factor today. BMK played more than he has in a while and his uber aggressive defense, challenging Johnnies attacking the paint almost before they got in the lane, was effective. He still struggles for rebounds often, pinning them off his face, off the back of an opposing player, getting ricochets off his head, etc. but he found a way to get the job done and even had a couple of nice finishes on offense.
TC didn't play much, looked good on defense but had a pretty unremarkable game.
JG saw his playing time cut significantly. He played okay, might be deferring to his elders a bit more than he should but he was fine out there.
That leaves JS, who was pretty quiet in the first half but has one of his famous Dirty white hot moments in the 2nd half, when he went on a run that essentially put the game out of reach. Had to be great for him to do it against a bunch of kids he grew up playing with and against. Glad for him. Too bad this had to happen and cast such a big shadow on his final season with Syracuse.
I believe the home court winning streak is now 37 games. I believe that is a Big East record. Not so bad. The UConn game should be interesting. Might be the last time Syracuse plays in Connecticut ever. Might be the last time SU plays the Huskies in many years. I am sure they will be up for the game. It is the biggest game of their season by far.
The NA was sung by a junior VPA major who did had some weak moments but overall did a credible job. SU has ripped off an MSG promotion where two contestants compete during a timeout to make free throws. Good idea but about 10 years behind the times.
They have another promotion where a resident from University Apartments shoots 5 FTs. They get $250 off the rent for each FT made. Much to the consternation of the crowd, they let Mr Excitement do the player introductions again. Maybe the kid wanted too much money.
The big news was the return of Dirty. Big ovations when his player intro was played on the scoreboard, when he entered the game for the first time and whenever he scored. Must have made him feel good to feel the love. St Johns got a great break when Steve Lavin, their fine recruiting HC wwho struggles greatly on gameday, was not able to coach due to the death of his father. Condolences to the Lavin family
The Johnnies are normally a man defense team, but like a few BE teams, they moved to zone against the zone challenged SU half court offense. Their zone was uninspired. Looked they they tried to pack it in and take away the inside game for Syracuse but SU did a better job than normal against the 2-3 (I think part of this was the bad zone play) and got quality looks at the basket pretty much whenever they wanted. They had open 3s all game long, were able to drive and shoot mid range jumpers as needed, got some points out of the low post and had some success on the offensive boards as well.
Jamarr? Sampson, this years outstanding frosh forward, was really impressive. Had hit the mid range jumper, can drive and pull up and can rebound and finish down low as well. If there was any doubt, it is gone now He is a one and down kid.
The SU zone was clearly looking to take Harrison out of the game and it was largely effective here. He rarely got good looks from the 3 point circle, and Triche and MCW did a good job limiting his ability to get the ball into the paint. Greene hurt us a little here, but the Johnnies did not show much ability to hit 3s or finish down low (we had a bunch of blocks there).
MCW did a great job running the offense. Looks to me that the offense is a lot harder to defend when he is in pass first mode. It helped that JS was back...when he and Triche were in with MCW, the Johnnies had a devil of a time trying to cover the outside shooters and match up inside. MCW didn't have a big scoring game but hit an early 3 in both halves to help set the tone and open things up in the paint. He is sharing the ball noticeably more now and the MCW one on three show down the stretch was completely gone again today. Really encouraging stuff.
Thought Triche had another solid game offensively and defensively. He has largely eliminated the couple of baffling turnovers that plagued his game during his career and his greatly improved ability to finish in the paint and get offensive rebounds and points down low have improved his value.
CJ had a big game, scored a lot of points that were needed to end mini St Johns runs. He dominated the defensive boards early and man, he made some nice finishes around the basket to get by their big shot blocker. Pretty much everyone played well today, but I think Fair was the MVP today.
Christmas got into foul trouble again and while he had some good moments, including a nice power move early and a vicious block, he was not a major factor today. BMK played more than he has in a while and his uber aggressive defense, challenging Johnnies attacking the paint almost before they got in the lane, was effective. He still struggles for rebounds often, pinning them off his face, off the back of an opposing player, getting ricochets off his head, etc. but he found a way to get the job done and even had a couple of nice finishes on offense.
TC didn't play much, looked good on defense but had a pretty unremarkable game.
JG saw his playing time cut significantly. He played okay, might be deferring to his elders a bit more than he should but he was fine out there.
That leaves JS, who was pretty quiet in the first half but has one of his famous Dirty white hot moments in the 2nd half, when he went on a run that essentially put the game out of reach. Had to be great for him to do it against a bunch of kids he grew up playing with and against. Glad for him. Too bad this had to happen and cast such a big shadow on his final season with Syracuse.
I believe the home court winning streak is now 37 games. I believe that is a Big East record. Not so bad. The UConn game should be interesting. Might be the last time Syracuse plays in Connecticut ever. Might be the last time SU plays the Huskies in many years. I am sure they will be up for the game. It is the biggest game of their season by far.
