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Message: [QUOTE="sutomcat, post: 895225, member: 27"] Syracuse was hit by a fairly big snow storm today. Had 6 inches on the ground in Liverpool by 8 AM and a couple more fell from that point forward. Made for a pretty scene but some nasty driving. Props as always to the maintenance crews of CNY for clearing the roads quickly and making it fairly easy for people to get to the game. Another really good crowd. Got up to 30K thanks to a surge of late arriving students (I guess the 4 PM start time was a little too early for many of them). But they eventually got there and they made some noise. Even made a couple of signs and big heads. Good to see them do something other than show up for the games (and they are doing that; I believe this is the best the students have done for attendance in many, many years). The crowd overall was loud and into the game most of the way. People continue to do a great job wearing orange. Solid. Saw a handful of Pitt fans in attendance, they have never brought many here but I was hoping with SU now being a relatively close conference game for them, this would change. It didn't. There was a ceremony before the NA where around 20 people were officially sworn in as members of the US Air Force, with the members on the court and the oath carried over the loudspeakers. The kids got a big ovation and some people even started a USA, USA chant. This is a patriotic area. Good luck to them. The NA was sung by two young women (I think they were SU students). Whoever they were, they did a unique a capella rendition that was nicely arranged and sung beautifully. They also received a strong ovation, which was well deserved. I don't know who is choosing the NA singers but they continue to do a hell of a job. At some point in the 2nd half, Mr Excitement noted the presence of some members of the 10th Mountain Division from Fort Drum, a division that continues to grow ties to Syracuse University. They are apparently going to be deployed to Afganistan soon. When this was announced, they received a loud, rousing standing ovation. This is a patriotic area. Some other minutia: I don't know what is going on with male cheerleaders at SU but only one was present today, which meant 4 female cheerleaders were pressed into service when the giant S and smaller C, U, S and E flags made their traditional appearance during the pregame activities (the guy carried the S flag). When the traditional running of the flags was done at the 4 minute time out, the male cheerleader carried the C flag and three females carried U, S and E. No S flag at all. If we lost, I believe the loss could be traced back to this exact moment. Let's talk some basketball. As is it's wont, SU got off to another slow start in a big game at the Dome. Pitt did a good job getting the ball into the paint and making that great last pass to get an easy layup, dunk or foul. JB called a TO, put BMK in to stop and bleeding and he again responded. The big difference was SU stopped aggressively covering the guy with the ball in the middle of the paint, left him somewhat alone and stayed with the Pitt players on the sides of the lane down low. This confounded Pitt and made a big dent in their ability to score inside. This strategy continued once RC came back in and Pitt struggled to score the rest of the half. CJ was covered by Patterson almost all game, which should have been of interest to everyone with a vote for ACC player of the year. CJ beat him badly a few times to get SU back in the game, but Patterson adjusted and it was tough going for CJ, who wasn't shut down but was certainly restricted from that point forward. I thought Patterson was the best player on the court today. Pitt ran their offense through him, he passed the ball really well and did a nice job on the boards, He was easily Pitt's best scoring threat and only outside shooter. Doesn't have a quick release but hurt us badly in one big 2 minute stretch of uncharacteristically bad SU defense that got them back into the game. And of course, he played really good defense on CJ. Syracuse blew a chance to finish the 1st half well. CJ missed 2 FTs on a technical and Silent G made an awful turnover late, which left Pitt much closer than they should have been. But SU got off to a strong start in the 2nd half and looked to have the game in hand until the combination of Patterson exploding and Pitt's shocking move to a 2-3 zone. That move worked out great for Pitt as SU did a really bad job attacking it and stopping scoring for a long time. This frosh year for TE has been kind of legendary from day one. His brilliant play in Ottawa was a huge key in SU's rousing comeback win against Carleton. He has continued to play well all year, but always play his best when he is needed the most. It is kind of shocking to see a frosh play the role of the go to guy and to be fair to CJ, the role has certainly been shared this season (CJ has made a LOT of big plays himself). But today, TE took over the game, made two huge baskets when SU absolutely had to score and essentially iced the game with 2 big FTs. The bipolar nature of RC's season continues; he recovered from a not so great game against BC with a solid game today. His ability to finish inside with a solid, confidence power move is impressive; he has become an important part of the offense. His ability to block shots and intimidate on defense is also huge (Zanna was terrified of them and reduced to shooting jumpers from 14 feet most of the game). BMK is not a threat on offense but he does contribute with his ability to get offensive rebounds (seems like a different person rebounding on the defensive side; weird). And he played good defense as well. I also wanted to credit him for passing up a good chance to score inside to kick the ball outside to his bestest buddy TC for a 3 from the corner. I could almost feel Hop's joy at this from my seat in 310. Grant made another spectacular follow dunk, hit a couple of jumpers, made some nice drives and drew some fouls. Got a block or two again, as usual. Don't think his rebounding was as good as it has been in recent games, which was a problem as no one seemed to rebound well, at least on the defensive end, in the 2nd half, when Pitt was absolutely terrible running their half court offense but was rescued repeatedly by their prowess on the offensive boards. Patterson did a good job overplaying CJ's left hand, and Pitt doubled him every time he got the ball near the paint, which ended up slowing down CJ some, but he didn't force shots or get frustrated. Silent G didn't get a lot of PT, didn't do much, but I thought his defense was good in limited minutes. Heck, not many got PT in the 2nd half as JB went ultra conservative and didn't sub until RC got in foul trouble towards the end of the game. No play for TR or the other sons. Some kid in the student section who calls himself Orange Knight participated in a shooting contest. He had an orange cape on and an orange devil mask, which he declined to remove when he was shooting. Did well, got all the way to the half court shot. His one try narrowly missed going in off the backboard. I am not a big guy to blame refs for losses and of course, SU didn't lose this one but wow, I thought this crew was pretty inconsistent and weak. Missed a lot of calls both ways but my biggest concern is that they let both teams play most of the game...it was like the rule changes put in this year had been canceled. That was not a good development for SU and really helped Pitt, who wasn't nearly as clutchy and grabby as in prior years, but still did a lot of contact, discrete shoves, etc. Hope the crews in the ACC uphold the rules and stop Pitt from contining their long term campaign, with the aid of Butler and UL, to ruin the game of college basketball with their defensive tactics. I also thought this was one of those days when every bounce and call seemed to go Pitt's way, much like every break in the UNC game went our way. Some of the offensive rebounds Pitt got were well earned but a lot of them were just blind luck when a bricked shot bounced in a bizarre direction directly to an out of position Panther. It is a great sign when your team doesn't play really well (especially on offense), doesn't rebound, doesn't get any breaks and still finds a way to win. I submit that a lot of good SU teams in the recent past would have lost this game. The fact that this one didn't is a really good sign. Also like winning more games against Pitt, it was embarrassing that for a brief period of time they would claim that they were a better program (at least in terms of head to head matchups). The rematch in Pittsburgh is going to be something special. [/QUOTE]

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