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.

1-0, Best way to start the Season...

It's gonna be brief tonight folks, as I have some non-SU things needing my attention. We beat Siena last night. Not a big surprise, but watching it, there were a few moments I thought it would roll downhill. The sharpshooting and general poise of Jonny Flynn, who dropped a Syracuse Rookie First Game Record of 28 points, kept us in it.

Overall on O we need to settle into the offense more, some things looked forced or rushed.

On D we need to get that back line in the zone to learn how to stay home. Also, the trap out of the zone looked lackadaisical at best.

Be back with more tomorrow hopefully.

SU is on ESPN2 at 7pm. against St. Joseph's tonight.

It won't be an easy game, as this is a veteran club with talented athletes, and we all know they can shoot year in and year out.

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.

Syracuse vs. St. Rose

Alright folks, the time we've been waiting for is almost upon us. The Cuse faithful can see this extremely young and talented team mesh for the first time outside of Manley (granted it's in the Dome, so not too far outside).

To sum up Saint Rose:

• Their PG, DeAugustino is the reigning Conference POY (17ppg, 4.8apg, 2.0spg) and handy defensively. This will give us a good gauge of Flynn and Jardine handling the ball and well, I guess we get to see Josh Wright against him as well...
  
• Shanty Robinson is their key post man (10 and 6 per game), granted he is only listed at 6'4," so I don't really know what to say about him. their tallest player is only 6'8."
  
• Will Monica is the shooter, and will be the one to test the zone, letting us see how well we rotate out, and cover.
  

Overall its a team with limited size. They put up a 22-10 record last year, making the NCAA's in Division II. We shouldn't be in for a Michigan State type performance, and this will give the young guns a good stepping stone in to the world of college hoops at Cuse.

Should we visit Mike Jones on the way?, Nah just leave him some tickets...

After a great win over San Diego State University, in a record setting attendance night for the NIT tournament with over 26,000 fans in the Dome last night, the Orangemen are on their way to South Carolina. I know I normally do a recap of the game, but if the fact that we rolled 80-64, with Todd Burach getting a basket in his final Dome game of his career don't sum it up, then Brian over at Orange44 had a great recap as well.

Down in the great state of South Carolina, the boys are looking to match up with a Clemson Tigers team that was the hottest thing since the Furby craze at the beginning of the year. Since that 17-0 start, against powerhouses Appalachian State, and Wofford, (and people criticize the SU non-conference schedule), the Tigers have successfully finished out of the NCAA's and into the NIT. Clemson's only notable wins came over BC (split) and Georgia Tech (also split). They basically choked more than Bobby Knight at Indiana.

Anyway, here's how we match up vs. the Tigers.

Starting Lineups:
Clemson - Pos. - Syracuse
Vernon Hamilton - 6'0" - PG - Eric Devendorf - 6'4"
Cliff Hammonds - 6'3" - SG - Andy Rautins - 6'5"
K.C. Rivers - 6'5" - SF - Demitris Nichols - 6'7"
Trevor Booker - 6'7" - PF - Terrence Roberts - 6'10"
James Mays - 6'9" - C - Mookie Watkins - 6'11"

Yet another team we should be able to out-size, though it seems we have trouble doing so this year. Our Bigs tend to play more solidly against larger teams (Mookie vs. Gray or Hibbert, as opposed to S. Alabama's Little). It looks like Nichols should have a reach advantage over Rivers, and should be able to extend his jumper over him.

Rivers is their leading scorer at 13.3ppg, also averaging 4.5 boards. All five of their starters average in double figures for points, with Rivers, Mays and Hamilton at 12.3, Hammonds at 11.7, and Booker at 10.4. They don't get much production off the bench, with the next leading scorer Sam Perry at 3.6ppg.

Hammonds is the primary distributor at 4.1apg, and Hamilton at 3.7. Mays and Booker take the boards at 6.5 a piece. On paper this seems like a very favorable match up, and I don't know how much they have seen an active zone. They are not a great shooting team from deep, but are solid, with Rivers at .391 and Hammonds at .374 on the year, and .369 as a team (opposed to our .369 and Nichols at .418, Devo and Homebrew Drew hovering around .360). They also seem to give up plenty of good looks from the field, with Opp FG% a very high .444 .

All in all it should be an interesting game. Though the fan support won't be there, neither will Clemson's. They average only 7,217 attendance per game. Maybe Mike Jones will show up and help root for the team he transferred from?