Cuse is On the Loose

Yea, I know what your thinking, "What, is this blog updated every three weeks."  Well, believe me that was not my intention but its harder than people think.  Anyway, looks like Syracuse is legit.  I am loving Wes Johnson, who in two months has turned himself into a potential good fit to the 2nd overall pick in the NBA Draft come June.  Andy Rautins actually plays defense now, Rick plays a little more under controlled, Arinze is still soft, Kris Joseph has suddenly emerged as a legit 6th man, and the Triche/Scoop combo has not killed us....yet.  Let me get back to Wes Johnson.  To all the people who just go by numbers (and believe me I do as well) he is beyond that.  Here is an example.  In today's game Johnson, who is 6'7, jumped OVER Marquette forward Jimmy Butler who is roughly the same height as him.  Johnson proceeded to grab the rebound, even though Butler had position, and as I said before jumped over him and put the ball in the basket.  In basketball you cant teach intangibles and athletic ability, and Johnson possess both qualities.  He is an inside/outside player, plays defense and fits exceptionally well in a 2-3 zone with his long wing span, and o, did I mention he is averaging nearly 10 boards a game?  The guy is the best player I have seen here at Cuse, and that includes Johnny Flynn.  If only Johnny stayed, (like he said he would remember) could you imagine this team?  Flynn to Johnson would be the most amazing thing to watch in college basketball this year, way over John Wall and Kentucky.  I will say this:  If Johnny was still on this team (forget the me-first Devendorf and offensivly inept Paul Harris) Cuse would be the first team to go undefeated since the 1976 Bobby Knight led Indiana Hoosiers.  The team is already 19-1, why wouldnt they be undefeated with Johnny Flynn, a guy who is putting up 14 a game in the NBA.

Lets get back to this game today.  The first half I felt Cuse was a little sloppy, and were not focused.  Acker and Odom kept draining threes, and Cuse was a little hesitent on the offensive side.  Marquette took a 34-27 lead and looked like a team ready to bounce back after an absolutly horrendous loss to DePaul.  Cuse then went on a 7-0 run to close the half, and eventually a 43-19 run to go up 70-53 with four mins left in the game.  Getting back to the first half, Wes Johnson was untouchable, scoring at will, and Rick "the brick, action" Jackson scored 8 consecutive points.  Once Cuse realized that that height-challenged Marquette Eagles were not going to challenge them inside, thats when we took off. 

In the second half more of the same, pounding the ball inside and scoring at will.  As I mentioned Cuse took a 70-53 lead with 4 mins left....and then it all came apart.  Marquette ended the game on a 18-6 run, covered the spread (of course) and left every Cuse fan wondering what the hell.  In addition, what can we expect for monday night's HUUUUUUUUUGE game vs hated Georgetown.  This is the 5th time Syracuse had blown a huge lead after the first half of a game.  Luckily, four out of the five turned into wins, Pitt being the only loss (the others were by my count, Florida, Seton Hall, West Virginia, and Marquette).  Heres the deal, if Cuse continues to do this, we are not winning a National Title.  In fact, we are not getting to the Final Four.  The two flaws I see in this team is free throw shooting and failing to close out games.  Winning a game by five points when you were up by 17 with four mins left is unacceptable.  The defense loosens up, the offense goes stale, and everything goes wrong.  I am interested to see how Cuse comes out against Georgetown on Monday. 

GAME BALLS:

Best Player:

Wes Johnson

-That was easy.  Wes totally dominated the game on offense and defense (22 pts, 15 reb, 2 stl) and continues to put his name in the POY race.  Needs to cut down on the turnovers though, 6 is a lot especially from a forward.

Best Defender:

Rick Jackson:

-Rick played a very good game (12 pts 5 reb) but his it was his blocks (7) that caused people to take notice.  Unlike Arinze who had zero blocks, Rick challenged every Marquette player who went in the paint, and swatted his shot away.  Kudos to Andy Rautins as well defensivly. Rautins actually did not even score, was COMPLETLY taken out of the game by Acker, Odom, and Butler.  In fact, Andy only took two shots today, missing both.  However, his defense in the second half was steller, grabbing three steals and breaking up several passes.  Plus, Marquette in the 2nd half was not shooting as well as they did in the first from the primeter, and you can credit Rautins for some of that.

ZERO OF THE GAME

Marquette's Interior Defense

-The reason Marquette is not going to the Tournament this year is because they have no size.  When Lazar Heyward is your center (6'7 on a good day) you have a problem.  Arinze might not be tall, or tough, (well in fact Arinze sucks) but at least he is 6'9 and close to 300 pounds in additon to Rick who is the 6'8 or 6'9.  Marquette on the other hand has nobody who is taller than 6'7, and nobody heavier than 250.  They could not stop Arinze who was 6 of 7, Rick who was 5 of 5, Johnson was 6 of 8 inside, and Kris Joseph who was 3 of 7 inside.  In additon anyone who drove to the hoop either scored or was fouled, in fact Marquette incredibly did not have a block on the day in additon to racking up 20 fouls, or 7 more than Cuse did including all three Marquette forwards having four fouls.  HONARABLE MENTION: Cuse's three point shooting.  1-8 which comes out to a nice 12.5% but again, if the inside was open as often as it was today, you dont need to be chucking threes. 

WHAT YOU LEARNED:

You learned that Marquette cannot keep up with the big boys this year.  I know they have had some decent wins this year (Xavier, Gtown) and came close with Nova twice, and lost on a last second three to West Virginia, but this game was not close in the second half, and in my opinion Syracuse is the best team they have played this season, yes, even better than Nova (Ask Joe Lunardi and his new Bracketology board).  As for Cuse, they keep rolling, 19-1 and after UConn beat Texas, will be #4 on Monday (as you might know Texas lost twice this week, and therefore drop out of the top 5 to most likly 6) in the polls.  This team keeps rolling and if they beat Gtown will have three gimmes against DePaul, Providence and Cinncy until they are home against UConn. 

- Lew