February 21, 2006
recovery on defense
1) I simply didn't have the heart to rip into the team following Wednesday's loss to Cincy. Being at the Dome that night felt more like a funeral than an NCAA Basketball game. The second half that night was absolutely the worst 20 minutes of Syracuse basketball I have ever witnessed, and it had nothing to do with the score. My team had given up without a fight, and it was truly disturbing to watch. For the first time ever, I actually wanted to join the mass exodus at the five minute mark (we didn't, though I don't know why). I would have gladly taken a 30 point loss over that one, as long as the Orange showed any kind of passion and drive to win. They (and the crowd) simply accepted their fate soon after that half started and waited for the seconds to tick off. Completely and utterly listless. Ugly.
2) By the time the weekend arrived, (and I had moved on to a more optimistic outlook on the season) I found myself planted in front of my Uncle Howaboutabudski's new 44" plasma screen in New Haven, having lost all use of my legs. As I look back on the past few days, I think I spent 85% of my time either watching or discussing sports in front of that wonderful technological feat of artistry and love, only taking breaks for quick runs to the cooler or catching a wink or two. Needless to say I was unable to post any sort of comments after Saturday's ESPN Gameday hack party, (59? Really!?) because it would've been unthinkable leave that monitor all by itself. Besides, we were having too much fun pausing the game to see if Fast Eddie or Ace were picking their noses in the fourth row. I could write an entire column on how HDTV is going to change the sporting world as we know it. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.
3) I was actively avoiding the task of figuring out the NIT schedule to see if Syracuse would get a home game. Thankfully, I won't have to. Why? Because the Orange beat a ranked opponent.
THE ORANGE BEAT A RANKED OPPONENT!!
A week after making the case that the Cuse would have to beat Cincinnati and Louisville because they had "proven themselves to be incapable of" outplaying a better team, I'm happily eating my words. The Orange played exceptional defense tonight, holding the 72.3 ppg Mountaineers to just 58 points with exceptional perimeter pressure and a tight zone. West Virginia shot the ball fairly well overall, (41.8% - they average 45.2% on the season) but SU just didn't allow them to get off enough shots to pull ahead. When the zone was at its best tonight, the West Virginia shooters were completely unable to get an open look. As Boeheim said after the game, the offense wasn't very good again but the defense was able to win the game anyway.
The hustle and determination shown by the Orange tonight reminded me a lot of the games from the early part of the season. When this team first started playing together, it was the defense that was producing victories. After a mostly dominating 14-2 start, the Cuse won their first three Big East games by an average score of 76-65. From January 16th to this past Wednesday, though, Syracuse went 2-6 and gave up 76.9 points per game while scoring 68.6. The average score in the two wins over Louisville and WVU? 70-62, Cusetown. It seems the Orange are going to score about 70 points per game regardless of who they play (aside from any game that takes place in Connecticut) and in order to win the must step it up on the defensive end.
Like I said, after watching that Cincinnati game I was convinced the team was going to end up 6-10 and overtake Kentucky in the race for the most disappointing season. Instead, the players took the Bearcats' unchallenged victory to heart and decided they wouldn't let it happen again. Thankfully, the Cuse managed to put their zone back together during the two days of practice and they came out ready to show that all was not lost. Yes, Gerry and Demetrius struggled again tonight - something that should be fixed before March 5th comes around - but that only shows that this team can win without their scoring.
If Syracuse can continue to play this kind of defense through the rest of the season, it won't matter where the points are coming from. My guess is that we'll start to see a better team effort in general, as the players will have realized they can only win by playing Boeheim's 2-3 in the way it is meant to be played: with intense hustle and teamwork. If we're lucky, the Orange could use their newfound cohesion to actually find what they've been looking for all season: an identity.
