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.

Let the Games Begin!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Children of all ages...
Syracuse University
proudly presents, the 2007 'Cuse Hoops season!!

Overdone? Yes. Corny? Yes. Am I still pumped about tonight? Hell Yes. Jordoo on the RealCuseFans forum summed it up best. Today was like Christmas Eve, and tonight we get to open the presents and see what we've got...

Tonight we take on the Siena Saints, another young team, well coached, and are preseason favorites to win the MAAC. Granted they lost on Friday to James Madison, 100-88.

Starting Line-ups:
Syracuse Orange vs. Siena Saints
J. Wright/J. Flynn - PG - Ronald Moore 6'0" 149
Eric Devendorf 6'4" 178 - SG - Kenny Hasbrouck 6'3" 192
Paul Harris 6'5" 228 - SF - Edwin Ubiles 6'6" 197
Donte Greene 6'11" 226 - PF - Cory Magee 6'7" 223
Arinze Onuaku 6'9" 258 - C - Josh Duell 6'7" 259

Except I'm more excited about tonight than I am during the Yuletide season.

Some questions I'm looking to answer tonight:

• Will Wright be back in the starting lineup after his ankle injury, or did Flynn secure his spot?
• Will the young guns get the jitters in their first actual game?
• Is Devo going to show the poise and knowledge of the flow of the game that he did in the preseason?
• Does Arinze not foul out after the first 3 minutes?

All this and more coming up in my postgame wrap-up, cause you know I couldn't pass up being twenty minutes walk away from the Dome, and not show up.

Otto Award #9: Best Non-Boeheim Syracuse Orange Quote of the Year

Well friends, we all know that our favorite Hall of Fame coach has had numerous quotable quotes throughout the years. In this section of our awards presentation, it's time to look beyond the shroud of Jimmy B's sarcastic wit, and deeper into the minds of our players.


The SOBA for Best Non-Boeheim Syracuse Orange Quote of the Year:

And the winner is.... No Consensus...

The finalists for this award covered a very narrow area of topics, and all occurred over a two week span, from the Georgetown win, to the San Diego State win. Lets do this chronologically.

"(This win) is going to shut Doug Gottlieb up and that's all I'm worried about.”
-Eric Devendorf, Feb. 26th, on the Georgetown win

Submitted by Sean at TNIAAM, supported by myself.
This one seems to show that we fans aren't the only ones who hate Doug Gottleib. He is despised by the players as well. It seems like Devo wants to join in on the ongoing feud between Mr. Credit Card and our fearless leader. Also leading into the stretch run, the fire from the team that was fanned by people like Gottleib helped contribute to a great win in SU Hoops this year.

"Syracuse is in."

-Various TV and Online College Hoops analysts, Doug Gottleib included, leading up to March 11th.

Submitted by Josh at Cuse Country
Well, I think this quick and to the point quote says it all. All the talking heads in the country declared Cuse in, 29/30 "expert" polls had us in, and somehow we were snubbed. The world works in mysterious ways my friends.

"I think Syracuse should have been in the tournament. They play well in the tournament. They’re like Louisville. They know what to do, and they’re very well coached. They’re just too good to leave out of this tournament. I was glad that Arkansas got in. But I didn’t understand why Syracuse and Florida State couldn’t get in."
-President Bill Clinton, March 15th, on "The Snub"

Submitted by Matt at Orange44.
When our own former President supports the Cuse to get into the tournament, we need to recall the selection committee. I mean, its Bill... come on, take some of what he has to say to heart...

"We can't guarantee that we're going to win the tournament, we CAN guarantee that we'll be ready for every game."
-Demetris Nichols, March 15th, South Alabama Post-game

Submitted by Ray from OrangeHoops.
After the snub, and the initial comeback win, Demetris came back with this quote. The Cuse truly rallied around the snub, when others could have laid down to it. In the S. Alabama game they showed a great deal of heart and were helped along by 16,000+ screaming fans in the Dome.

"During the Notre Dame game, we didn't play up to our ability. They ended up booing us. Today they came back cheering us. We know the reason why we got booed so we didn't want that to happen again. We've been playing up to our ability and playing hard every minute of every game."
-Darryl (Mookie) Watkins, March 20th, San Diego State Post-game

Submitted by Howie at SNWHM.
Mookie's reaction to the SDSU record setting attendance crowd, and how much the Orange faithful were behind them. I like to see that, as you can kind of take it to heart that we as fans DO have an impact on the players, whether with them or behind them (Though I don't condone the booing of our own team).

Well without a clear winner, I guess you readers can pick your own. I find that this run of quotes tends to sum up the SU season in a nutshell, from disappointment to determination and everything in between.

Don't forget to stop by Cuse Country around 3 to catch the next installment of the SOBA's, awarding the Otto for Favorite Game of the Year.

NIT Challenge

In the First Annual and Hopefully Last Cuse Country NIT Pick-em, It seems like the DutchHart bracket is making a push. Sitting in second after sweeping Wednesday nights games at a total of 13 points (16 possible), I've found that the NIT isn't as bad as it seems. I'm actually getting excited for the Orange to make a run in this.

As for last night. The game against S. Alabama, to me seemed like a culmination of every Cuse game played in the last two years.

Recipe for Syracuse hoops:
1. Come out flat.
2 Get down on yourselves and down middle of the first half.
3. Make a solid push towards the half.
4. Screw the pooch right before the half.
5. Come out decent at the start of the second half.
6. Mid way through, someone (read: GMac, DNic, Devo) decides to turn it on and carry the team.
7. Heres where theres two options:
A) Player from step 6 carries team to victory (Devo last night, Gerry every night)
B) Player from 6 plays well but rest of the team is so god awful that game it doesn't matter (DNic vs St. Johns)


Devendorf was absolutely incredible last night with 34pts and 6 dishes. Nichols finished with 15 on an off day shooting, and Mookie had another solid day of 8pts, 11rbds, and 3 swats. He was showed up by Ernest Little of USA though, grabbing an impressive 17 pts, 18 rbds, and 5 blocks in the game of his career/life. Respect goes out to him for bringing his "A" game when some people could have been intimidated in the Dome. The Cuse is on deck against San Diego State on Monday at the Dome at 7pm. Hopefully we'll show up with the 17k fans that broke an NIT attendance record last night.

Guess Who's Dancing!!

March Madness here we come. The Orangemen have upset #10 Georgetown at the Carrier Dome last night, and are seemingly gelling at the right time to make some noise next month. As of right now, the Cuse is 21-8 (10-5) and got that quality win that they needed to push them over the bubble and into the dance. Following a gutsy performance from TRob, and some sharp shooting from Nichols, Devo and Rautins, not to mention the presence of Mookie to shut down the interior and get Hibbert in foul trouble early. I will have more as the day progresses, but as of now, I need to actually work...