Cuse NCAA Live Chat

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...

So here I sit...

So that (--->) is the view I had at 10am today... Normally promising, right? Well Here it is at 11:30 and I'm looking out the window of Baker Lab at the box office... Odds are I won't be able to make the game unless I can call a hiatus on a meeting I've got at 2. If I can push it back, I'll have live feedback of how we look. If not, I'll have to rely on boxscores and the great guys over at CuseOrange to let me piece it back together.

Also, separate rant, why did I pay $200 for a Standart parking pass I can only use when things AREN'T going on at the Dome?

Exhibition #2

Disclaimer: There will be plenty of acronyms today so watch out.


Well, we've officially seen the boys in action once this year. An exhibition against Stevie Thompson's CSLA (Cal State Los Angeles) proved that Johnny is still Johnny, Devo and Andy can use their respective ACL's and AO is a monster. Hell, AO went 6-6 on Monday. Granted his largest competition was a few inches under him, and a hell of a lot lighter.

Basically what you can take from the first scrimmage is that this year our offense will work inside out. We need to establish Arinze on the inside and feed him. Once that is established, any of our shooters looked good, Devo looked to be fearless after his injury and Andy's shot looks as smooth as ever. Paul even was converting from deep, going 2-4.

On Sunday comes the IUP Crimson Hawks (Indiana University of Pennsylania, not to be confused with IUPUI - Indiana University, Purdue University of Indianapolis or the real Indiana University in Indiana). Again, this will be more of a game to get the guys legs under them, rather than a "real" evaluation.

On the blocks, the tallest, IUP has to offer is 6'8" 220lb. Senior Chris Seaborn who didn't see much action last year. Odds are at down two inches and 55lb. from Arinze, this should not be much of a matchup issue.

What to look for on Sunday is Devo and Andy playing their game. What I mean by this is Devo fearlessly slashing the hole and making things drop, which was an issue on Monday. Andy needs to be moving well without the ball and playing solid D. AO will dominate, Flynn will be faster and pass better than their team and Harris and KO will play thier game. Those aren't issues. Its a matter of the two returnees staying healthy and looking to Rick, Mookie, Sean and Kris to see signs of improvement.

Hell hath frozen over...

Alright all, sorry for the mass 10 month hiatus. It was a blast in Alaska, a great spring with a Cuse Lax Championship, and so far a dismal fall football season...

But alas! Its hoops time again. I'll be back at it this year, as I have a little extra time on my hands. The last half of last year I couldn't spare the time to think about blogging at all. Anyway I'll be back at it, most likely in conjunction with CuseOrange.com (great set of forums if I do say so myself), and will keep updated with the usual pregame breakdowns and post game analysis. Might even fit some liveblogging in.

Anyway, I did blog a bit during my trip to the northern regions, and it can be found here: Preab San Ol! I'll be back later in the week with a full preseason breakdown and what not.

~Steve

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.