December 05, 2005
we'll always have Texas Tech...
Talk about overzealous expectations... Last night the Cuse was fairly disappointing in the 75-70 loss to Florida - mostly during the second half scoring drought. There were a couple bright spots, though, as Nichols matched the Gators shot for shot all by himself during the first half, putting 18 on the board in the first 20 minutes. He finished with a career high 24, hitting 5 of 10 from beyond the arc, proving me wrong when I said he wouldn't be able to shoot the three this year. Impressive. McCroskey had a good night under the hoop as well, leading all players with 9 rebounds and demonstrating that someone will be able to fill the rebounding void left by Josh Pace. Although I'm not a huge McCroskey fan just yet, (he frequently looks wildly out of control when driving or in transistion) he still provided extra height on the glass and showed his length on defense, making the top of the zone more effective.
Otherwise, I thought one glaring deficiency stood out for these Orangemen as the game neared its end: there's no 'go-to' guy on the team. As the clock wound down last night and Florida kicked off that last 12-0 run to seal the deal, it was clear that Syracuse just didn't have a run-stopper - someone they can feed in the post or on the perimeter that will carry the team while everyone else struggles. When Terrence Roberts is chucking threes, down 10 and less than 3 minutes to go, we all know it's time to pay the tab and head home.
Last week against Cornell, Eric Devendorf played the role perfectly: the offense was breaking down and Boeheim knew he needed someone to penetrate the Big Red zone. He decided to play Devendorf, and the freshman single-handedly saved the game from disaster, dropping 6 points in under 3 minutes. It was great to see him step up under pressure and deliver when it was needed most.
In contrast, last night the Syracuse offense got so desperate for points during crunch time that instead of finding a player to stabilize the situation, they panicked. Roberts bricked the three. Nichols missed a layup and McCroskey's following tip attempt looked even worse. McNamara was pressing, bouncing shots off the back rim. Nobody was able to slow the Gator momentum and put pressure back on them to score instead.
A common complaint expressed by too many fans that bothers me most is the one that involves pining for past performances. The worst, of course, is the "If only they still had Carmelo - can you imagine how good they would be!?" which is currently followed by "I wish Hak was playing - he could carry the team whenever they needed him to." The past is the past - the Orange have adapted to big personnel losses before, even somehow managing to play for the NCAA Championship without Pearl in '87 or Moten in '96. Incredible, right? Who would have thought those teams could survive without their stars? Yes, 'Melo and Hakim would be of great service when points are at a premium, but the team must move on and find someone else to shoulder the load.
So who is it going to be? If Gerry's going to take the scoring lead, he'll need to shoot better than his current 22% from three to do it. Roberts has had a couple big games, but can he do it against a center taller than 5 foot? Can Nichols hit the big shots at the end - not just in the opening minutes? Thankfully, the team has several games to find out before opening the Big East schedule on January 8th. They can learn a lot from last night - surely they'll figure out how to put such knowledge to use.
