One in the books!

Alright guys, it may have only been LeMoyne, but at the present, we're 1-0 and looked pretty damn good out there. Flynn finished with 17pts, 6 assists (3:1 Assist To TO Ratio), 4 steals... big deal right, that's what we've come to expect from our resident Wooden Award Candidate. What surprised the hell out of me was the play of everyone's formerly skinny white kid.

Knee #1 - Rautins looked great out there last night. His court vision has definitively improved, his stroke still looks good and his man D didn't look too shabby. He finished with a line of 12pt, 3reb, 9 Assists (career high) and 4 steals. Numbers that I didn't think we'd see out of him. I'd say all questions regarding his knee are shored up, he was playing tight man, running well with the break and looked solid all around.

Knee #2 - Devo apparently missed the memo that he was supposed to be tenative coming off of a major knee surgery. He was back to slashing at will, and in general looked solid. His passing has improved as well. I distinctly remember him threading the needle to Paul on a break and he looked confident with the ball. That said he did have 5 TO in 22 minutes of work. Two of these from travels, 1 from a double dribble.

Harris - Back to form, Harris still flails wildly over stupid fouls, though its slightly more civil than in the past. He was running solid with the break, scrapping over boards and got his points as well. He's most likely starting another double-double streak, going for 12 and 10 last night. Definitely a different Paul than we saw in the preseason games.

Joseph looked good, and in all honestly could be a real solid contributor of minutes by years' end. Mookie still looks a little raw, but you can tell he's close.

More to come...

John Wallace vs. Marcus Camby?

Sorry I've been slacking, but I'm back again.

Well, UMass started out 4-5 from three and haven't been able to score since. Devo and Greene both have their touch, Jonny is seeing the court well, and go figure... Harris is crashing the boards as always.

Luke Bonner for UMass, brother of former Gator and current Spur Matt Bonner, is 7'1" and can stroke like Greene.

UMass is on another run, we need to get back on D better. I think any team that makes or lets us run this year will be in for a rough time. Transition ball has been huge this game.

10:30 in the half. We need to limit turnovers from sloppy passes still. It's amazing how one pass will look like a highlight reel worthy play, and the next will be out of bound by 20 feet. I don't know what we're doing about that. Defense is still in my opinion the main liability on this team. We just fell asleep on an inbounds and let their point run the floor for an easy layup.

Devo seems to have all facets of his game working. He's been solid driving, good in transition and hitting his threes. He's also not been looking bad on D. Of course he misses a good look three as I'm typing this.

Flynn is making things happen. He's dishing well and driving well, while still looking inside out to pass. Overall our D is still looking sloppy, we need to get back and get out on shooters. On a good note, the rebounding is definitely there.
GREENE THROWS IT HOME!!! Of course its off a dish from Flynn.

Harris hit a three... I think Hell hath frozen over!

Flynn with 6 dishes so far, Harris with 12 pts, Greene with 12, this is a fun team to watch.

Come out at the half with some solid D, and were up by 12.

Flynn is seeing everything tonight. The D is looking solid as hell. We have only seen minimal minutes from the bench with Scoop, KO and Ricky getting about 3 minutes each.

AO just gets tackled, UMass is still hitting threes. Scoop's floater reminds me of Josh Pace, that little floater around the rim, so pretty. D definitely looks a lot better this half, has allowed us to open up a bit of a cushion

So it's 76-71 Cuse right now. We're on pace for over 100, problem is they almost are too. We need to get out on shooters, stop playing so loose and buckle down on defense. If you can't tell, its a recurring theme here tonight.

Scratch what I said about defense, we're getting tired out there. You can tell...

So it's a one point game out there. Mass has the ball. These last few posessions our O has settled down. Onuaku is a beast. I'll have more about him tomorrow. I don't know what the deal is, the D has looked better, and now Mass is hitting everything even with the world in their face. This Brower kid can shoot.

Gametime at the Garden

Sorry I've been slacking off lately, but a few other things have required my time. Now to the issue at hand. Tonight, Weds. November 21st, the 'Cuse heads to NYC to take on Ohio State at Madison Square Garden.


The Syracuse Orangemen vs. The Ohio State University Buckeyes

It looks to be another rumble, and a good test for our young kids. Seeing some top competition this early in the season can only be a good thing and I'm sure we'll learn from it win or lose.

First off a recap of our season stats:

Player	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	TO	FG %	3PT %	A:TO Ratio
Donte Greene	19.0	8.3	1.3	1.0	3.3	0.553	0.421	0.4
Eric Devendorf	16.0	3.0	4.0	1.7	3.3	0.500	0.385	1.2
Arinze Onuaku	13.7	5.3	0.0	0.3	1.0	0.667	0.000	0.0
Jonny Flynn	13.0	3.3	7.7	1.0	2.0	0.538	0.700	3.8
Paul Harris	12.7	11.7	4.3	1.7	4.3	0.444	1.000	1.0
Rick Jackson	6.3	2.0	0.0	0.0	0.3	0.750	0.000	0.0
Scoop Jardine	1.7	0.7	1.3	1.0	1.7	0.250	0.000	0.8
Kristof Ongenaet	0.7	1.0	0.3	0.3	1.0	0.250	0.000	0.3

Overall, we distribute points fairly evenly over the five starters. All five are in double figures. Its also good to have some low post guys who can score in Onuaku and Jackson. If we can maintain the scoring diversity we should be able to go a ways this year. Also, the A:T ratio shows that Flynn after his one bad 5TO game seems to alleviating that issue and is now at a 4:1 clip almost. People wonder why I have so much confidence with the ball in his hand (Sorry Josh)...

Now OSU's Season Stats. I'm going 3 deep on the bench based on playing time for comparison's sake.

Player	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	TO	FG %	3PT %	A:TO Ratio
Kosta Koufos	18.5	7.5	1.0	0.5	1.0	0.619	0.667	1.0
Jamar Butler	17.5	5.0	6.5	1.5	1.0	0.550	0.500	6.5
David Lighty	17.0	6.0	4.0	1.5	1.5	0.625	0.333	2.7
Othello Hunter	12.0	8.0	1.0	0.0	1.0	0.579	0.000	1.0
Evan Turner	3.5	2.5	3.0	0.5	0.0	0.250	0.333	3.0
Kon Diebler	3.0	2.0	2.0	0.5	2.0	0.100	0.111	1.0
PJ Hill	2.5	0.5	0.0	0.0	0.5	0.250	0.500	0.0
Matt Terwillinger	2.5	3.0	0.0	0.0	2.0	0.500	0.500	0.0

As you can see, Koufos, this years version of Greg Oden for them, is their leading scorer. Contrary to the Cuse though, they rely primarily on Koufos, Butler and Lighty to make their buckets. Butler is their shooter, at 9-18 from behind the arc. Hopefully the zone stretches to him, and AO, Rick and Greene don't get out of position down low on Koufos.

Lighty is the slasher/scorer/midrange guy (Think Devo, but more apt to pull up).

Koufos is my major concern though. Rick and Arinze give up 3 inches to this guy, though both weigh as much as he does. If one of them can stay bodied up on him at all times, and use the physical game on both ends of the court that I have seen out of them so far, I think we may be able to get him in foul trouble early. Jackson and Onuaku have not shyed away from the physical game yet, and if they bang hard down low on Offense, they will both be getting to the stripe, as Koufos will have to go over them to defend anything.

Overall the post will be the key to this game, along with the obvious limiting of turnovers. If we can handle Koufos down low, while getting production out of our two big men, we come away victorious.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

Ok, so I lied about the preview, but I will have a definitive one up before the regular season starts. Things other than blogging have been taking up my time. But to the issue at hand...

Sunday kicks off the Syracuse Basketball season in game form... sort of. The first scrimmage of the year, against the College for the Blind, wait, College of Saint Rose, tips of at 2pm on Sunday. We finally get to see what JB feels like doing with this team.

Will Wright start over Flynn?
Has Greene filled out a but since he arrived on campus?
What does Kristof Onganet look like?
Has Harris signed up for a linebacker spot on our glorious gridiron squad yet?
Will Onuaku shatter any backboards?

All of these questions and more, including real ones like how JB will run this squad, and will they get out of the zone and run more given the immense team speed we have this year, will be answered. It's almost upon us. We can forget about the state of our football program (though there have been some solid points), and look to the future of SU hoops.

We shall see. I might even live-blog the scrimmage...

Send it in, Arinze!

The backboard shattered.


Cuse basketball is officially back, with a bang. In the middle of last night's "Midnight" Madness scrimmage/dunk contest, our boy AO brought down the basket in Manley. After an entry pass from Harris, Onuaku took it hard to the hoop, and brought the glass down on him.

A night that featured messages from legends (Leo, 'Melo, and Wallace), the presence of legends (Pearl) and recruits that could become legends (Kris Joseph, Assane Sene), the backboard shattering dunk took the cake.

Apparently Harris can still jump, as he cleared two of the teams managers on route to winning the dunk contest.

To the recruits...
Joseph I already did a piece about, and he only seems to be getting better. 6'7", long wingspan, perfect Boeheim swingman.

Sene is a seven footer out of South Kent (CT), who we're actively recruiting. He has some serious potential and could be a force in the middle if he chooses the Cuse. Having him attend the festivities, and seeing the absurdity that is SU Fandom, the support by the former players and being able to talk to Joseph, who has already committed, was a great move by JB.

All in all this seems to be a hell of a way to kick off the new year. It could be like Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez hitting the cover off the baseball in "The Sandlot," an omen of good things to come.


And the video:

In Hop We Trust

Well I know its been a while since the last update and all, but fear not, I now have something relevant to post about. For years the question has been up in the air as to who will succeed our fearless leader Jim Boehiem when he finally decides to pack in the orange sneaks after all these years. Well, the answer, as many have speculated, is officially none other than Mike Hopkins.

Hopkins played the two for the Cuse from 89-90 until 92-93, and was one of many in our line of "scrappy white guards." He has coached for the Orange for the past 12 years, after a short stint in the CBA and Europe. He seems to have gained a bit of recruiting talent from his mentor, and was instrumental in bringing in former and current players that you might have known about, namely Warrick, J. Hart, McNamara, P. Harris, and the incoming Freshman class.


While not really a surprise to any of the Orange faithful, it is good to see it in writing. Hopkins knows the system and is following the JB method of success. Boeheim played for the Orange, had a short minor-league career and came back as an assistant, only to land the head coaching position when Roy Danforth stepped aside.

Congrats to Mike Hopkins. It's good to see the program will remain in capable hands.

One Bright Spot...

Well, I'll give you this one uplifting moment from the weekend to sate the masses until I can make a real post...

Mission: Rautins

Well folks, Mission: Rautins Decision 2007 has reached a consensus on the status of the new name of "The Artist Formerly Known as 'Son of Leo.'" From a polling over on the RealCuseFans site... the new moniker shall be none other than "Homebrew Drew" (Courtesy to reafsnyder for the nick). This is the same group of hoodlums who have given Brennan-McBride the nickname "The Hyphen," which I consider an instant classic...

The kid is moving out of his Dad's shadow, and coming into his own, actually being recognized by other coaches as evidenced here by PC coach Tim Welsh:

"[Andy Rautins] is a terrific player. You know what he does very well, he's old-school, he understands how to move without the ball. He's not just a shooter who stands there and waits for the opportunity. He really moves and cuts without the ball ... We made him look like Tracy McGrady out there. He's a good player, obviously, I recruited him. I wanted him. He certainly didn't get Leo's genes on shooting the ball. He shoots the ball better than Leo ever did, that's for sure. " — Providence coach Tim Welsh told the Syracuse Post-Standard after Rautins' performance helped the Orangemen knock off Welsh's Friars.

Now, come Saturday, we've got a Tracy McGrady look alike of our own to defend against. Nova's Scottie Reynolds seems to be on an absolute tear since he was shut down at the Dome during their trip to the Great White North. We all know about the damage that Nardi and Sumpter can cause, but this freshman has been literally ungodly his last few contests. Since playing us he is scoring at a clip of 18.6ppg. In the last four games, he has ramped it up to 27ppg, in games at GTown (18pts), Marquette (25), Rutgers (25) and UConn (40).

On a good note, when the ball is in his hands, he is averaging 3TO's/contest. To me it seems like lately he either gives the ball to the opposition or puts it in the hoop. In my humble opinion, we need to throw a good dose of PH at him this Saturday and see what he can do against a truly lockdown defender. Being able to stop Reynolds is the key to victory. Nardi will shoot, Sumpter will play his game, but Reynolds is the X-Factor that we cannot allow to succeed if we look to win.

Well, You can't discount the numbers....

It seems to be official boys and girls, Andy Rautins and "Do It All Paul" Harris (I think we need a nickname for Rautins besides "Leo's Kid" as he may be coming out of that shadow) have shown up with a vengeance. Both Rautins and PH played well in extended minutes against Providence on Saturday, Rautins being the official star of the game with a career game (19pts, 7-12 (5-9 from 3), 4ast, 4steals). Harris only had 6pts, but 9 boards, and 6 assists, along with looking solid with the ball and making good decisions throughout the game.

On top of all of this, DNic seems to still be running at his PoY nomination with an 18pt, 6rbd effort, along with one of the nicest looking clutch shots we've seen this side of the McNamara era with his fadeaway three (seen in the video) in the final minute to help seal the deal. It seems his competition is mostly from Pitt's Aaron Gray and G-Town's Jeff Green.

On another solid note, this win should look good on the tourney resume, though a win on Big Monday against a Georgetown team that has been on a roll lately (read 11 straight and 1st place in the BE) would likely push us over the bubble from the NIT to the Big Dance. Pitt on Saturday showed us that GTown can be out-quicked with their big men in the game, and the way our lineup of Devo, Rautins, Nichols, Harris and Mookie could be able to do that. Add to that the fact that Josh Wright has been sick as of late, and Roberts is having major problems with his knee, which will require surgery in the offseason, and this quick lineup may be our best bet. It puts three shooters on the floor, along with two slashers who can dish to an open man. My concern is that with Roberts not at 100% Mookie will need a spell more often, especially against the large obstacle that is Roy Hibbert.

Supporting evidence from the Pitt/Georgetown game to help our case:
Georgetown shot .200 from behind the arc
Pitt played them tight with limited action from Gray (ankle)