sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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It started one evening in late August. In Ottawa of all places. At a hockey arena, where a Canadian school took a commanding 18 point lead over Syracuse early in the 2nd half. CJ Fair did not play well, was badly hampered by a sprained ankle and after re-injuring it, didn't play at all down the stretch.
Tyler Ennis was in the midst of a miserable game, TC was off shooting, Silent G, DC2, RC and BMK were non-factors offensively. Syracuse could not score and could not stop Carleton.
Then TE mutated into an AA guard, and he and JG, who also was great down the stretch, led SU to a remarkable comeback to force OT and eventually win the game.
Cornell, St Francis, BC, St Johns, Pitt I, Duke...whenever this team gets in trouble late in a game, they have shown the ability to go on a run and win the game. It took a 10-2 run to get the win last night.
Props to Pitt for playing hard and rebounding the ball with reckless abandon. They can't shoot the ball, their offense is largely dysfunctional, and their defense, while good, is not at the level it has been at when they were a dominant program (yes, that was a dig at Pitt and a reference to the fact that the NCAA had to change the rules to stop Jaime Dixon's trademark style of clutch and grab defense).
SU played poorly on offense again, which was largely due to good defense on the part of the Panthers. There weren't many good looks for SU on offense and Pitt did a great job on the defensive boards, as Syracuse was again not very successful getting offensive rebounds, something SU has done well most of the season.
Patterson does a nice job overplaying CJ's left, stays close enough to him to discourage him from taking 3s and is quick enough to prevent him from getting many drives to the basket. Robinson does a good job staying with Cooney, face guarding him, etc. etc.
SU didn't do a good job staying with Patterson, Pitt's only decent outside shooter, for the 1st half. They made some adjustments and took that away in the 2nd half, packed the zone inside the 3 point circle and let the other Pitt players have open jumpers. That kept RC in the game and eventually led to some key stops SU needed to have a chance to win, though SU's inability to get defensive rebounds was a severe handicap. JG has been very good rebounding most of the season but he has big problems against the physical Pitt players. As does CJ and RC, at least when rebounding.
Thought the refs were again bad, missed a lot of calls both ways, anticipated fouls on a couple of clean blocks by JG, let the Pitt players hack SU players on the rare occasions when they were able to secure a rebound, let Pitt get away with a let of shoving and bodying under the boards. The play where TE got a defensive rebound late, was hit, lost the ball and no call was made, the clean strip of Zanna with 5 seconds left that was somehow called a foul, the hack on RC when he had the ball under the basket late, these were all bad calls but the charge called on TC when he had his legs taken out by a dirty Pitt player and the ref somehow decided to call him for a foul was truly special. That might have been the worst call I have ever seen made for any sport since I have been watching sporting events. Awesome. Someone needs to have their ref license suspended for a while.
Anyway, I thought Pitt played a great game, did everything in their power to win but sometimes you play well and lose, especially when you are up against something magical, something special. It is a shame someone has to lose a game like this. Thought Dixon's decision to call a TO with 4.4 seconds left, when SU had no TOs left and no chance to set up a play, was one of the worst coaching decisions I have seen. He should discipline himself by shaving his head and growing a beard. Would make him a lot more presentable to the general public as well.
If there was any doubt whether CJ was going to be the ACC POY, it should be gone now. The interesting question is, will Ennis beat out Parker for ACC ROY?
Tyler Ennis was in the midst of a miserable game, TC was off shooting, Silent G, DC2, RC and BMK were non-factors offensively. Syracuse could not score and could not stop Carleton.
Then TE mutated into an AA guard, and he and JG, who also was great down the stretch, led SU to a remarkable comeback to force OT and eventually win the game.
Cornell, St Francis, BC, St Johns, Pitt I, Duke...whenever this team gets in trouble late in a game, they have shown the ability to go on a run and win the game. It took a 10-2 run to get the win last night.
Props to Pitt for playing hard and rebounding the ball with reckless abandon. They can't shoot the ball, their offense is largely dysfunctional, and their defense, while good, is not at the level it has been at when they were a dominant program (yes, that was a dig at Pitt and a reference to the fact that the NCAA had to change the rules to stop Jaime Dixon's trademark style of clutch and grab defense).
SU played poorly on offense again, which was largely due to good defense on the part of the Panthers. There weren't many good looks for SU on offense and Pitt did a great job on the defensive boards, as Syracuse was again not very successful getting offensive rebounds, something SU has done well most of the season.
Patterson does a nice job overplaying CJ's left, stays close enough to him to discourage him from taking 3s and is quick enough to prevent him from getting many drives to the basket. Robinson does a good job staying with Cooney, face guarding him, etc. etc.
SU didn't do a good job staying with Patterson, Pitt's only decent outside shooter, for the 1st half. They made some adjustments and took that away in the 2nd half, packed the zone inside the 3 point circle and let the other Pitt players have open jumpers. That kept RC in the game and eventually led to some key stops SU needed to have a chance to win, though SU's inability to get defensive rebounds was a severe handicap. JG has been very good rebounding most of the season but he has big problems against the physical Pitt players. As does CJ and RC, at least when rebounding.
Thought the refs were again bad, missed a lot of calls both ways, anticipated fouls on a couple of clean blocks by JG, let the Pitt players hack SU players on the rare occasions when they were able to secure a rebound, let Pitt get away with a let of shoving and bodying under the boards. The play where TE got a defensive rebound late, was hit, lost the ball and no call was made, the clean strip of Zanna with 5 seconds left that was somehow called a foul, the hack on RC when he had the ball under the basket late, these were all bad calls but the charge called on TC when he had his legs taken out by a dirty Pitt player and the ref somehow decided to call him for a foul was truly special. That might have been the worst call I have ever seen made for any sport since I have been watching sporting events. Awesome. Someone needs to have their ref license suspended for a while.
Anyway, I thought Pitt played a great game, did everything in their power to win but sometimes you play well and lose, especially when you are up against something magical, something special. It is a shame someone has to lose a game like this. Thought Dixon's decision to call a TO with 4.4 seconds left, when SU had no TOs left and no chance to set up a play, was one of the worst coaching decisions I have seen. He should discipline himself by shaving his head and growing a beard. Would make him a lot more presentable to the general public as well.
If there was any doubt whether CJ was going to be the ACC POY, it should be gone now. The interesting question is, will Ennis beat out Parker for ACC ROY?
