The Upside - Georgia Tech | Syracusefan.com

The Upside - Georgia Tech

SWC75

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- We won. That’s what we need to do. We’ve now won 6 of 7 games since we were 9-11. We are 15-12 and 9-7 in the conference. I never thought such a record would look beautiful, but it does. If we can find a way to win 2 of these last four games, we can get to 17 regular season wins and clinch the 52nd straight winning season. Then we can focus on what needs t o be done to make the NCAA tournament, (which might be to win the ACCT).

- We did it despite the fact that Buddy Boeheim, Joe Girard and Cole Swider started out 0 for 10. We wound up being out-shot 32% to 39% and out-rebounded by 9 and still won.

- A huge reason we were able to do that is that we had only 4 turnovers to 14 for Tech and 14 points off turnovers to 2, (the opposite of what happened at Virginia Tech.

- Another huge reason was that Jimmy Boeheim carried the team on his back in the first half, giving us 15 of our 33 first half points.

- You need huge reason to win a game like this and a third one was the work of Bourama Sidibe in the second half. He avoided his fourth foul precisely because he stayed aggressive. He wound up with 5 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals and a block and an assist in 16 minutes of the play. And he had the play of the game when we were facing nothing but challenged passes and shots on the perimeter and the shot clock winding down, down 66-68 in overtime. Bourama got a pass about 18 feet from the basket, looked to pass it, found no one open, turned, saw the root to the basket was open and got his rickety knees pumping, beat everyone to the basket to tie the game. Not only did that do everyone’s hear t good but it was a play that may show the way for the rest of the season. The loss of Jesse Edwards has meant that the other teams are able to extend their defenses to cover our shooters. Bourama showed that he could be used on these pick and roll plays to stab the defense in the heart when they over-commit to our shooters. I’d like to see more and more of that.

- Cole Swider shook off the slow start to score 18 points on 6 for 14 shooting, which doesn’t sound like much unless you compare it to Joe Girard’s 3 for 15, Buddy Boeheim’s 5 for 20 and Jimmy Boeheim’s 6 for 17.

- Joe only hit three shots but they were all huge threes. One took us from 10-15 to 13-15, another made it 18-18 and the third gave us a 57-53 lead.

- Buddy played his worst game of the season but still got to 15 points, 4 assists and 2 steals and made his only three pointer with 2:17 left in overtime to give us a 72-70 lead we never lost.

- Frank Anselem may have had “Zero…Zero…Zero…Zero” in the first half but in the second half he had 10 rebounds and a couple of blocks. He just needs to know the game starts at 7 O’clock, not 8

- It was a night for double-doubles with all the missed shots. Both teams had two of them. Ours were Jimmy Boeheim (20/10) and Cole Swider (18/12)

- We won the game on defense. There were some lapses, especially early, but the defensive stand awe made at the end of regulation and overtime were the best defense we’ve played all season by far.

- I watched that game visualizing a winning shot by Georgia Tech and a yellow Jackett celebration while the SU team moped off the court and the fans silently filed out, waiting to vent on their computers when they got home. It didn’t happen.

- If we struggled to beat Georgia Tech, what hope d we have against Notre Dame - or Duke, or UNC or Miami? Well, if we’d hit our normal percentage, we’d have won this game easily and wouldn’t be asking that question. So maybe we shouldn’t ask it.


15-12 with 4+ to go.

LET’S GO ORANGE!
 
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A lot of teams have been up and down this season, including Duke, but we may wear the crown. I took a friend to the game since my daughter is still out of town, and we thought we were in for a nice, relaxing game. Uh, no. The upside was that I had a friend to share the near debacle with me. And to share the excitement! In retrospect, that game was fun! At the time, it was excruciating.

Like you, I can’t help but wonder if we will win any of our last games. But that belongs on the Downside. In the meantime, we can rejoice in the coming out of Sidibe, and hope that his taste of being a hero can stay with him all the way to the end of the season.
 
ND always struggles with our length. They also don‘t pressure the ball. I think both teams will struggle guarding each other and the team that makes shots will likely win. Their talented freshmen, Wesley will probably have to guard Buddy. Joe and their point guard has had some “interesting” clashes. They don’t like each other much. He stood over Joe a couple of years ago at the Dome and Joe went off. At ND Joe tossed the ball late and ran off towards the end of the game. It was kind of funny.
 
I think UNC and Miami are our best chances to get 2 wins. I think ND is better than us.
 
I think UNC and Miami are our best chances to get 2 wins. I think ND is better than us.
ND is a better matchup for us than UNC. Though both are certainly winnable.
 
ND is a better matchup for us than UNC. Though both are certainly winnable.
to each his own - ND in my opinion is a ton more consistent than UNC, and just a better team.
 

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