The Downside

[SWC75]

- I had hopes the fans might stay to give our heroes some big cheers when the Big East trophy was presented after the game. An appreciation for an amazing regular season and a big send-off for the post season. Instead people started filing out before the game was over and the spot game celebration took place almost exclusively on the court as the stands became increasingly empty. A small thing maybe but disappointing nonetheless. I don’t think that would happen in Lexington. Or Lawrence. Or Chapel Hill. Or Durham. But this is Syracuse.

- The game had reached the blow-out stage at 50-31 when we had a drought of our own, going from 8:39 to 2:32 stuck at 50 while the Cardinals scored 9 points in a row. Slowing it down way too early was a factor. Scoop Jardine was another. We had 8 consecutive empty trips: a turnover by Scoop, a turnover by Kris, a missed trey by CJ, a turnover by Dion, Scoop missing the front end of a one and one, another turnover by Kris, a turnover charged to Melo on a pass Scoop should never have made and a miss by Scoop on the most wide-open 10 foot jumper in the history of the game.

- Chane Behannan will live in our dreams. In the two games against us, he’s 12 for 15 from the field and has 26 points and 16 rebounds. And he’s just a freshman.

- Scoop had an awful game, going scoreless in 18 minutes on 0 for 4 shooting and having as many turnovers as assists, (3-3). I think he’s a happy guy, though.

- Rakeem Christmas’s night consisted of failing to cover Wayne Blackshear on the three that opened the game and then attempting a jumper from the top of the key that missed the rim, the backboard and even the paint. He was credited with a minute of play but it was actually 36 seconds, pretty sad for a starter. Of course Jim did the same thing- starting the kid but yanking him early- with Melo last year but by this time of the season, Melo was starting to contribute and getting more playing time. Rak is going in the other direction.

- Baye Moussa Keita is a “billionaire”. His only stat was 5 minutes of playing time. He literally did nothing else that appears in the box score. Those are our back-up centers, folks, Baye and Rakeem. They had no points, no rebounds and no blocks tonight. Fab had to play 34 minutes tonight. Can he do that three times in three nights next week?

- We still haven’t played really well for an entire 40 minutes. I guess we are saving that for the Wildcats. But you’ve gotta get there first.

 

[Oakland]

Surprised about people not sticking around for the trophy presentation.

 

[Flacusian]

Have to agree that it is really sad that people didn't stick around for the trophy presentation.

 

[priestp]

I was at the game and left at the buzzer.
I completely forgot about the trophy ceremony!!! damn.

 

[pfister1]

-

- Chane Behannan will live in our dreams. In the two games against us, he’s 12 for 15 from the field and has 26 points and 16 rebounds. And he’s just a freshman.


- Rakeem Christmas’s night consisted of failing to cover Wayne Blackshear on the three that opened the game and then attempting a jumper from the top of the key that missed the rim, the backboard and even the paint. He was credited with a minute of play but it was actually 36 seconds, pretty sad for a starter. Of course Jim did the same thing- starting the kid but yanking him early- with Melo last year but by this time of the season, Melo was starting to contribute and getting more playing time. Rak is going in the other direction.

- Baye Moussa Keita is a “billionaire”. His only stat was 5 minutes of playing time. He literally did nothing else that appears in the box score. Those are our back-up centers, folks, Baye and Rakeem. They had no points, no rebounds and no blocks tonight. Fab had to play 34 minutes tonight. Can he do that three times in three nights next week?

If the Big East weren't imploding Behannan would have become one of those guys like Kuric or Krauser who seemed to have been in school sticking it to us for 10 years. But, alas, that won't happen because either next year or the year after our series with Louisville will be over.

I thought there were several points in the game last night where Melo appeared gassed and needed to come out. It takes a whole of energy to get a 7'0" - 270 lbs body up and down the court. I think that Christmas and Keita will get more run in the BET out of necessity (i) Melo will need a replacement simply because he is gassed or in foul trouble and (ii) JB must recognize that we will need some minutes out of these guys come NCAAT time.

I know this is the cloudy skies version of your two posts, but on the bright side, I was really really encouraged by Brandon and Dirty's contributions yesterday. Getting those two back to a level where they are contributing at a higher level could be the two most likely critical improvements this team could make going into the NCAAT.

 

[City of Cuse]

It really is amazing the amount of people that leave early, way to support your team. People act like Syracuse is a high volume traffic area, just ridiculous.

 

[Cusefan95]

I would bet that many fans in Lawrence, Durham, Chapel Hill, etc would leave early as well. And then someone would post on their message board that it wouldn't happen in a place like Syracuse.

Fans everywhere are pretty much the same - once you come to terms with that, you'll stop being disappointed in our fans.