a sporting word

So can anyone explain to me what just happened?

There I was at The Dome, enjoying a very easygoing sports evening with my dad, watching our team pummel a clearly inferior Big East squad, and feeling generally great about being a Cuse fan. After 12 minutes of play the Cuse were up 19 points, and my dad and I were feeling confident enough to say things like, "Cincinnati can't possibly be this bad..." and "I wonder when DiLiegro will get his minutes..." It was a fun night at the homecourt, and we were thoroughly enjoying the blowout victory.

Then, as if to reaffirm our ideas of the basketball situation, Coach Boeheim orders the players to begin working on their man-to-man defense, adding a little full-court press to keep the game interesting. It was almost as if the Orange had entered Scrimmage Mode, using the time to prepare for more difficult competition, when the press might be needed. After all, Jimmy B. didn't want to miss the opportunity to teach - he could work on his team's defense at game speed without any repercussions in the loss column. Then, as if on cue, Cincinnati reawakened and began to hit shots - five of their last eight before the buzzer, in fact, including four threeballs. Still, the Orange kept on running, and Nichols closed the half with five straight points to keep the margin at a very respectable 14.

As I read the halftime stats and listened to the new-and-improved Toshiba Dance Team's latest remix, I marveled at Syracuse's overwhelming supremacy in a game that should have been much closer. Sure, Cincinnati wasn't the best of the Big East coming into the Carrier Dome this year, but they couldn't really be as bad as their opening act had indicated. The Bearcats looked utterly confused on offense, often just tossing the ball back and forth outside the zone, perplexed as to how to move it inside to challenge Watkins and Roberts. Even when Cincy did manage to get it past the arc, the SU post men were ready for the challenge - Watkins spent most of his first half minutes amassing several of his 8 monstrous blocks.

At the other end of the floor Syracuse was confident and quick, often pushing the ball in transition to get easy hoops or running a play to the open man and knocking down practically every jumpshot they attempted (61% for the half, 6 for 11 from 3-point range). It seemed they knew exactly what they were getting from Cincinnati, and they had no problem exploiting every weakness.

This game was so out of hand before halftime that the scoreboard operator was repeatedly pleading with the fans to "Get Up" and "Make Some Noise" by the 6:00 mark, just so the players on the floor weren't distracted by Fast Eddie's Yo Momma jokes, who was sharing his "Greatest Hits" collection with the folks in Section 311 (his comedy album drops this summer).

Seriously. If you weren't there, believe me when I tell you this game was completely. over.

The win over the Bearcats was so certain that the hometown crowd didn't even realize that the visitors had fought their way back to a 67-68 deficit and Syracuse had just finished almost four minutes of zero-point basketball. Up to that point most fans were still discussing their plans for the weekend or which SU player would be most fun to date - anything but the actual action on the court. Meanwhile, the Bearcats had scored 10 straight and were looking to take the lead as soon as possible (which they eventually would, with just 1:12 to play in the game). Until that moment, when the oppostion was ready to take over the game, the Dome had been quiet enough for me to hear Boeheim shout instructions to J. Wright about passing to the correct teammate - something I can't ever recall experiencing from my usual spot in the stands, despite the Coach's impressive projection abilities.

Thankfully, the fans woke up and cheered loud enough to make it an exciting experience for everyone. In fact, it became so much more electric in The Loud House - whatever that is - that after Devendorf hit his free throws I nearly felt like celebrating on the court (he had no doubts about his shots - the kid was actually waving his arms at mid-court to pump up the crowd just seconds before stepping to the line and draining the tying bucket. Who does that? Devo. That's who).

I had gone from pleasantly bored to extremely concerned in a matter of a few minutes, and it had a strange effect on my disposition towards those Bearcats. They were suddenly tough to beat, and the Orange had just accomplished a great character-building victory. The place went nuts, and everyone went home talking about what a great game they had just seen.

# posted by eric boye @ 1:18 AM