Syracuse headed to Louisville today, hoping to finally add a strong win to their resume and again vault to upper echelon of the Big East.  Yet again, in what is becoming a trend in this season, the Orange showed they are unable to win a big game against a strong conference foe, as they dropped this game to lose their sixth game in their past eight.  Again, they were plagued by lapses in defense, poor offense, and too little, too late, to pull off a victory.

After a strong start to the game, Syracuse appeared to be rolling.  However, a 7 point lead evaporated in a matter of minutes to a 9 point deficit, and that was before Terrence Jennings hit an absurd 3 point shot at the half-court buzzer that effectively took the life out of Syracuse.  Before long, the Cardinals were up 20 in the second half, and Syracuse was playing so listlessly I had to walk away from the TV for a few minutes, something I very rarely will do.  The defense was non-existent, there was no ball movement, Rick Jackson was shut down, and Louisville was absolutely killing Syracuse with their three point shooting, courtesy Preston Knowles and the Orange killer, Kyle Kuric, who always seems to have his finest game of the season against us.

And yet, somehow, with about 12 minutes left in the game, Syracuse decided they wanted to win the game.  Whether this came from within, or Louisville backed off its pressure a little bit remains to be seen, but somehow, the Orange came thisclose to actually winning the game.  They were down three with about a minute to play before the referees decided they didn’t want the game to extend to overtime, and called an absolutely awful foul on Jackson reaching in with three seconds left on the shot clock.  The shot clock was reset, and the game was essentially sealed from there.  The Cardinals hit their threes, and Syracuse just couldn’t get enough time back on the clock to win the game.

What now?  Syracuse sits at 7-6, in the middle of the pack in the Big East.  They’re assured of making the NCAA tournament, but continue to see their seed drop.  They need to win their final three home games, and a road win at Villanova or Georgetown would go a long way, in both seeding and for their confidence.  We can only hope that all these battles in the Big East are strengthening the Orange, yet with a team so young, and seemingly still unable to find a lineup that meshes well together, its hard to imagine this team making a deep run in March at this point.

After what feels like an eternity, Syracuse finally is back on the winning track, after taking down UConn last night 66-58 in a hostile environment on the road.  After losing four games in a row in the Big East, this was a game they absolutely needed to win.  There’s nothing quite like restoring a team’s confidence like a win away from home against one of their biggest rivals.  At long last, the defense of Syracuse came together, they got big plays when they needed them, they crashed the boards, and made few enough mistakes to escape with a win.

This game was won on defense.  Syracuse held UConn to 36% shooting, absolutely shut down Kemba Walker, who had a season low eight points, and actually out-rebounded the Huskies by 10, a stunning statistic.  They committed only nine turnovers, and forced 14 by Connecticut.  The biggest play of the game, in my opinion, was the play to end the first half.  Syracuse got the ball on their end with just about two seconds left in the half, down one.  They threw the ball in down low to their beast, Rick Jackson, who flipped a short hook shot into the basket as time expired to give Syracuse their first lead (sans a 2-0 lead over Villanova, which barely counts), since they last won a game.

More importantly, the team finally responded during the second half of the game.  Each run by Connecticut was met with an equally inspired charge by Syracuse, whether it was the disruptive defense, timely shots of Brandon Triche, or the big guys down low, Jackson and Baye Moussa-Keita, who had probably his most effective game of his young career.  It was refreshing to see the team finally come to life, in a game where if they didn’t, they may not have the rest of the year.

With this losing streak finally behind them, let’s hope Syracuse gets back to their winning ways and can again make a run to the top of the Big East.  It’ll take a few more games to truly see if they’re back on the same track that saw them get out to an 18-0 start on the season, but, for now, I’m simply going to sit back and enjoy this victory, one even Jim Boeheim admitted that his team “had to have.”  And on a more personal note, as an avid Orange fan living in Connecticut, I’m just happy I don’t have to listen to all the UConn fans tear into me for the next month.

Last night in the Carrier Dome, Syracuse put on one of the more pathetic showings I’ve ever witnessed in front of a home crowd.  They got blown out by Seton Hall, a team currently sitting near the bottom of the Big East, and a team they had already defeated earlier in the year (sans Jeremy Hazell).  The defense was atrocious (again), there was no urgency on offense, as well as a total lack of chemistry between teammates.  Everything the team accomplished in the first couple months seems to be unraveling.

The defense is the most disconcerting issue of all.  Early on, the Orange stamped themselves as an elite defensive team, holding teams to 36% shooting from the floor and about 60 points per game, both of which hovered near the top of the country.  Last night, the Pirates absolutely torched the zone for 90 points, 55% shooting from the floor, and almost 60% from three-point land.  Recently, the activity on the defensive side of the ball just hasn’t been there.  Players aren’t swarming to the ball anymore, leading to more open shots for opponents, which they are knocking down.

Additionally, teams are beginning to majorly capitalize on Syracuse’s lack of size inside.  Besides Rick Jackson, Syracuse really has no size down low to defend, rebound, or score, a weakness teams are exposing.  Syracuse was out-rebounded once again, and the Pirates were constantly getting the ball to the middle of zone, finding an easy lay up, or passing to the open man behind the arc.

Finally, Syracuse just looked out of sync offensively.  Ball movement was bad, shot selection was atrocious, and the crisp passing and teammate help has all but disappeared.  A loss to Seton Hall is bad enough; a loss to the Hall by over 20 points at home is cause for major concern.  The schedule will not get any easier, and two games ahead on the road against teams who are no slouch by any means are really going to test this young Orange team.  These next games could prove to be critical to this season; whether the team can get back on track or whether they will continue this tail slide.

Wow.  I’m not even sure where to begin for the battle between Syracuse and Pittsburgh last night at the Pete.  From the agonizing first 8 minutes of the game, to the shocking next six minutes, the back and forth battle over the next twenty minutes, to the final minutes where Pittsburgh at last pulled away from a gutty Syracuse effort, it was a game unlike any I have ever watched in my life.

Coming in, it was billed as the battle between the two Big East heavyweights, with unbeaten Syracuse coming into Pittsburgh to face the once-defeated Panthers in their building, a place Syracuse has almost never seen success in.  With star forward Kris Joseph out because of a head injury sustained Saturday against Cincinnati, the outcome looked bleak for my Orange.  After the first five minutes, when Pittsburgh had raced out an 11-0 lead, I was in shock.  The Panthers were absolutely shredding the zone, and their pesky play on defense was causing havoc on the Orange.  Three minutes later, when the lead had ballooned to 19-0, I was speechless.  A team ranked number three in the country doesn’t get embarrassed like that.  I don’t care if their best player is out, and its a road game.  That just DOESN’T happen in sports, and yet there I was, reading a scoreboard that read 19-0.  Even Jim Boeheim looked like he didn’t know how it had possibly happened.

Then, something almost equally stunning happened: in a matter of minutes, Syracuse worked its way back into the game, courtesy of a SEVENTEEN TO ZERO run on the Panthers!  My feelings of revulsion had suddenly turned to cheers and incredulation.  Even more stunning was how and who brought the Orange back into the game.  It wasn’t the leaders, Rick Jackson or Scoop Jardine.  Instead, freshmen C.J. Fair and Dion Waiters put the struggling Orange on their shoulders and started attacking the Pitt defense.  They started crashing the boards and ripping the ball away from the bigger, stronger Panthers.  And just like that, it was 19-17.  Brand. New. Ballgame.

Through most of the second half, it was an outstanding game.  The teams battled back and forth, trading baskets, tough defense, and physical pounding down low.  Fair continued his outstanding play, staying in the entire second half and continuing to keep the Orange in the game.  Rick Jackson stepped up, neutralizing Nasir Robinson and Gary McGhee for parts of the second half.  Scoop Jardine knocked down a handful of three point shots, yet, Syracuse just couldn’t take the lead.  They got it down to a point a few times, but never were able to overtake the Panthers.

Eventually, Pittsburgh took a comfortable lead.  They got a few steals, Ashton Gibbs hit a couple clutch shots and with a few minutes to play, the result of the game was no longer in doubt.  However, this young team can take a lot away from this game.  A lot of teams would have undoubtedly quit after being down 19-0, missing their best player, and playing in one of the most difficult buildings in the country.  However, Syracuse did anything but quit.  They played their hearts out down to the final second, with substitute players stepping up their games in Joseph’s absence.  If nothing else, this will better prepare the team for later in the season.  If players should get into foul trouble, or find themselves down by ten at halftime, they can draw on this game and realize they are NEVER out of a game.

With more tough Big East games ahead, though, it’s time to regain the winning ways, and see if in a few weeks, we can still contend for the Big East title.  With Villanova coming up in a few days, and then Mr. Kemba Walker (oh, and the rest of the UConn team too) on the schedule in two weeks, life isn’t going to get any easier for the Orange in the meantime.

Last night, when unbeaten Syracuse traveled to fabled Madison Square Garden to face the resurgent Johnnies of St. John’s, the game was being billed as the first significant meeting between the two teams in years.  After a slow start to the night, Syracuse thoroughly dismantled St. John’s en route to a 76-59 victory.  St. John’s, behind the energy of the “home” crowd (almost half of the fans in the Garden were wearing Orange), and a 3-0 start to Big East play, jumped out to an early 17-9 lead before the Orange zone and shooters took over.

Syracuse held St. John’s to 36.8% shooting for the game and forced 15 turnovers, although they did commit 20 themselves.  However, in something that is becoming a trend with this team, the smart play and hot shooting of Kris Joseph and Scoop Jardine carried the Orange to the win.  Joseph scored 18 points on an array of 3 point shots, mid-range jumpers, and drives to the basket.  After a slow start to the season, Joseph has really found his rhythm and has clearly become a leader for this young Orange team.  Scoop Jardine hit a few timely shots and was the general for the Orange in busting the Red Storm’s press.  Additionally, Brandon Triche had another big night for the Orange, scoring 15 huge points, handing out four dimes, and maybe most importantly, committing no turnovers.

There were a couple areas where Syracuse was again exposed as a potential weakness; again, down low.  Rick Jackson again had his solid double-double game, but the Orange again got no offensive production from the paint besides Jackson.  Against teams like Pittsburgh, this makes me very nervous.  A coach and team as smart as Jamie Dixon and Pitt will surely notice this and work to exploit it.  The thing working for the Orange is their ability to reel off 10-0 runs in a matter of minutes, caused by swarming defense and great shooters.  If they’re able to do this, teams are likely to look for quick 3 point shots or long jumpers against the zone, an offensive strategy Syracuse is designed to beat.

After moving to 17-0 and passing every early test, the schedule really begins to heat up for the Orange.  Games against the Big East heavyweights are looming, and after spending half a season priming their team by beating up on mostly inferior opponents, it’s time to really see where this team stacks up against the rest of the best basketball conference in the country.

Last night, the Syracuse Orange survived their first true road test of the season, edging Seton Hall 61-56.  Although at a glance, this looks like an atrocious performance, I’m not going to bash them too hard for barely beating a team expected to be one of the Big East bottom feeders.  Syracuse just had one of those games-one where the ball just refused to find the bottom of the night.  Syracuse came into the game averaging over 75 points per game, and singeing the nets to the tune of nearly 50% per game.  Against the Pirates, the Orange put up the aforementioned 61 points while shooting only 44% for the game (which included 35% shooting on their threes and a vomit-inducing 47% on their free throws).

The way I see it, teams are going to have games like this.  In the end, they had just enough juice to survive, with Scoop Jardine again making clutch plays late in the game, and an unlikely hero, offensively forgotten Brandon Triche.  Triche had easily his biggest game of the season, pouring in 15 points, all in the second half, including four huge three pointers.  Triche’s outburst came at a time when the Orange offense had become stagnant, with Kris Joseph having a poor shooting night and getting zero contributions from their bench.  Triche, who has been an afterthought on offense for much of the recent schedule, regained his stroke just in time to stake Syracuse out to a lead it ultimately would never relinquish.

A couple flaws were exposed in this game, however; flaws that make me exceedingly nervous heading into the Big East schedule, and on a farther note, the NCAA tournament.  The biggest flaw, of course, was Syracuse’s inside presence, save Rick Jackson, who had his usual strong game, complete with nine points, 14 boards, four assists, a couple of blocks, and a steal.  However, Syracuse got absolutely nothing (again) from Fab Melo, who continues to look like he just picked up a basketball for the first time last week, and Baya-Moussa Keita, who has played fairly well as of late.  There is absolutely no way Syracuse will defeat a team like Pittsburgh with just Jackson controlling the paint, let alone dream of the Final Four.

I’m not sure what needs to be done with Fab Melo.  He had so much hype coming into the season, but looks completely inept on the offensive end, and lost on the defensive side.  As good as Rick Jackson has been, he can’t carry this team by himself.  Syracuse got out-rebounded by 13 boards yesterday, with Herb Pope and Jeff Robinson astonishingly combining to pull down more rebounds than the entire Syracuse team.  Games where the shots aren’t falling for the Orange make them especially vulnerable, as a lack of polished big men limit the second-chance opportunites and force them to rely on their defense, which, thankfully, has been outstanding all season.

With the schedule starting to heat up over the next couple weeks, I’m excited to see how this team will perform.  For all their early faults, they’re still 16-0, and when it comes down to it, this team has shown so far that they can overcome any multitude of problems throughout a game and still emerge with the most important statistic of a game: the big W.

I confess, going into Tuesday night’s game against the mighty Spartans of Michigan State, preseason Final Four shoo-in, and laden with senior leadership, I was NERVOUS about my Orange.  Barely scraping by sub-par oppenents such as Georgia Tech, albeit with an unblemished record, Syracuse had not played anywhere near the makings of a top ten squad with Final Four aspirations.  Yet, by 11:30 P.M., I had on an ear-to-ear smile, feeling for the first time all season that we do indeed have a great team again.

Syracuse absolutely dominated Michigan State.  The final score showed a 16 point margin of victory, but if they had gotten a few more baskets to fall in an abysmal shooting second half, it could have been over twenty.  Tom Izzo claimed post-game that he felt like the New York Jets (probably a BIT extreme), but you get the point.  After analyzing the game, it was as though they had read my previous entry here and took my advice straight to heart.

In the first ten seconds at MSG, Kris Joseph showed that last game was an aberration.  He stole the ball, and aggressively drove straight to the hoop, despite knowing he was going to take a hard foul.  The rest of the game was marked by his attacking the rim, getting to the foul line, and being a focal point of the offense, despite a poor shooting night.  However, his 8/9 shooting from the free throw line was enough to offset this.

Additionally, Syracuse absolutely pounded the ball down low the entire night.  They dropped forty points in the paint, from Rick Jackson hooks to pounding the offensive glass, (More on him later), attacks to the basket from Joseph, Scoop Jardine, and even C.J. Fair, and transition baskets created from a stifling defense and 16 forced turnovers.

Okay, so maybe I exaggerated a bit.  I can’t take all the credit for Syracuse’s  vastly improved game plan, but it was refreshing to see.  Jackson proved that his huge start to the season against undersized opponents are no joke, torching the big and deep Spartans for a monstrous 17 points and 16 rebounds, as well as dominating the paint on both sides of the ball.

Most impressive of all, however, was the aspect of Syracuse I’m starting to think this year’s team is going to hang their hats on: defense.  I already mentioned the turnovers, but even on possessions Sparty did manage to get a shot off against the swarming, active Orange zone, they were forced into taking 24 3 point attempts, a far cry from the pound it inside ball a coach who has his players practice in football pads expects from his team on the offensive end.

So at last, Syracuse looks like a top ten team, has a quality win to its resume, and had even Jim Boeheim saying some positive things at the post-game press conference.  Maybe it was his team understanding how much this tournament means to him, playing for his very close friend for whom this tournament is named, Jim Valvano.  Or maybe, this team is finally starting to figure out how to be successful with each other.  Either way, it was one heck of a showing by a team who was filled with questions marks a day ago at this time.

As I wrote last week, the Syracuse Orange has continued to win, but just barely.  That trend, which us Orange die-hards hope would cease to continue, unfortunately has.  Last night, Cuse dodged another upset minded team in North Carolina State, squeaking by the Wolfpack 65-59.

Again, it was a tale of two teams.  Syracuse blitzed State early, behind a barrage of baskets by Scoop Jardine, dunks by Kris Joseph, and exceptional defense.  They raced out to an early 12 point advantage before once again succumbing to the trait that Syracuse basketball teams have long fallen victim to: letting the other team right back into the game.   The first ten minutes, they looked like one of the better teams in the country, yet by halftime, they were barely up four.

From what I saw, the defense wasn’t the problem.  Scott Wood was nailing threes from near halfcourt to keep the Wolfpack in the game, and there’s just nothing a team can do about that.  Syracuse turned to a full-court press once they fell behind by five midway through the second half, and within twenty seconds, had closed the gap to one on a pair of steals.  They rotated well (especially Brandon Triche), and contested shots down low.  Offensively, however, they looked like a supremely lost team.

Scoop Jardine kept the team in the game with 23 points, including an early barrage of three pointers, mid-range jumpers, and driving lay-ups.  However, the rest of the team was stagnant.  Kris Joseph settled almost completely for three point shots or long jumpers, save the two or three alley-oops he had.  The low post game was non-existent, for reasons that baffle me.  Brandon Triche was absolutely invisible on the offensive end.  Even the reserves, Baya Moussa-Keita, C.J. Fair and Dion Waiters were of almost no help.  There is no movement, no helping, no picks being set.  The majority of last night was Scoop Jardine creating shots for himself, or passing away at the last second for a weak jumper.

With as much offensive talent as this team has, I don’t know what the problem is.  Rick Jackson should be touching the ball almost every possesion, whether on the high post if they’re playing against a zone, or down on the block.  The weight he lost during the off-season has kept him as strong as ever, but has also given him a new agility that few big men will be able to slow down.   Kris Joseph should be rolling through screens and slashing to the hoop.  And Brandon Triche simply needs to touch the ball more, whether it’s to create for his teammates or get to the basket, something he does as well as anybody on the team.  None of this was evident during the game last night, and the Orange almost let another team that should have no business beating Syracuse do just that.

With Michigan State looming on Tuesday, I’ll readily admit that I’m nervous.  They have by far the strongest and most athletic defense of any Syracuse has faced to date.  There’s still a lot of season to be played, even before the Big East starts, but each game Syracuse plays again shows how much work is left to be done with this squad.

Last night, Syracuse took down fellow New York squad Cornell for the 33rd straight time, winning 78-58.  As they moved to 7-0, and 8th in the AP Poll, all would seem to be well in the world of Orange.  However, it’s just that.  After narrow shaves over Michigan and Georgia Tech, two teams who by no means will be visitors this year in Houston, and beating Cornell in a less than impressive fashion despite what the score may indicate, I’m starting to think this team is in for a long, up and down year.

Jim Boeheim, who over the course of his decades-long tenure as Orange coach, has never been one to mince words or hide his emotions, let his team have it yet again in his post-game press conference.

“I was very disappointed with the second half after a pretty solid first half. We just can’t seem to put good efforts together on the offensive and defensive ends — we’re good defensively in the first half, and in the second half we had very little effort defensively. When you don’t have good effort, people are going to score against you. We just made ridiculous turnovers that you just can’t have — we have a lot of work to do, we can’t seem to get it together for 40 minutes.”

Boeheim’s comments, as usual, were spot on in highlighting his team’s current problems.  Rotation issues have led to inconsistent play, whether it is half to half, or five minute stretches of the game.  The guard play, expected to be a strength with two returning players, has been the most erratic position on the floor.  Brandon Triche has absolutely no rhythm, playing only half the game and ringing up almost as many turnovers (six), as points (nine.)  Scoop Jardine, after a strong start, has gone ice cold from the field.  Finally, with freshmen making up the majority of the Orange’s bench this year, it’s not like Boeheim has experienced guys to turn to when his starters struggle, as was the case last year.

The biggest problem I see is a lack of leadership on the court.  Rick Jackson, who has been by far the team’s best player, isn’t the emotional veteran that Andy Rautins was last year.  Kris Joseph, the presumptive scoring leader, is another quiet voice on the squad.  And the aforementioned guard play is too concerned with their own play to worry about directing others.

The good news?  Syracuse IS pulling out these victories.  Granted, the opposing teams aren’t impressive, but at the very least, the team isn’t folding under pressure and letting the tight ones go.  Cornell was able to battle back under the team’s poor second half play, but Syracuse still ended up winning by twenty thanks to their strong first half play.  There’s a lot of improvement to be made among the team, but for now, at least they’re still pulling out W’s.

Syracuse, fresh off a season in which they won the Big East, garnered a number one seed in the NCAA tournament, but ultimately fell short of their goals when they lost to Butler in the Sweet 16, came into this year’s campaign with an air of uncertainty.  Gone are senior leaders Andy Rautins and Arinze Onuaku, as well as first-team All-American Wes Johnson.  An improved bench was expected to step into the starting roles abandoned by those three, and a stud freshmen class was expected to keep the Orange in the top echelon of college basketball.  However, despite an early 4-0 start, questions are already arising about the state of this year’s squad.

Syracuse has padded its schedule with the usual patty-cakes, but it’s how they’re winning that has followers worried.  After it’s most recent victory, a 63-60 escape over William and Mary, the same William and Mary who went only 22-11 in the Colonial Athletic, and then lost their top scorer from last season.  We knew that the rotation, so seamless and effective last year, was going to take some time to figure out and set in, but thus far, there is little to no cohesion.

Aside from Rick Jackson, who has been an absolute beast down low, (albeit against mostly undersized opponents), and Scoop Jackson, who has stepped into his starting role very nicely, the team hasn’t bonded together very nicely.  Fab Melo, the highly touted freshmen big man from Brazil, fouls more than Dickie V can call him a diaper dandy, and Dion Waiters is still struggling to find his rhythm against the longer, more athletic college defenses.  With time, these freshmen will regain their touch and show the ability that made them some of the top recruits in the country.

In the meantime, I have the utmost confidence that Jim Boeheim will continue to tinker with his lineup until he finds a way to get this star-studded team playing like the top ten team it can be.  As the schedule begins to get more difficult, with games against Michigan, an improving N.C. State, and then a December 7th date against pre-season Final Four favorite Michigan State, I can only hope that he finds a way soon.