We're Kind Of A Big Deal

by Sean Keeley on Nov 24, 2008 10:24 PM EST Comment 12 comments

Syracuse 89, Florida 83. Uh oh, Doug Gottlieb. We's for reals.

Syracuse put five players in double-figures. Jonny Flynn and Paul Harris each scored 18 for the Orange. Harris added 11 rebounds. Arinze Onuaku also had a double-double with 13 points and 12 boards. Andy Rautins had 15 points; all in the first half, on 5-for-9 shooting from 3-point range. Kris Joseph scored 10 points. Eric Devendorf scored nine points.

Syracuse shot 52 percent from the field (31-for-60) and 40 percent from 3-point range despite Devendorf's 1-for-6 shooting.

Note that we won and Devo had an off night. When it mattered, the name of the game was clutch free throws and Cuse had them in spades, much to the delight of SU fans who worried that this was going to be a soft spot for the Orange this season (i.e. me). (Ed Note: Should note that while some were clutch, others were still not, so we're not out of the woods yet)

Mr. Rautins, welcome back. Weeeeeeeeee missed you. Rautins hit five 3-pointers in the first half for all of his scoring, including in both of the half's final two possessions.

The D.O. Sports Blog puts it all in perspective:

Big win for the Orange. Away from the Dome, against a formidable team that most probably didn’t expect it to beat, Syracuse prevails, and legitimately outplayed the Gators throughout.

Tomorrow night, the Orange await the winner of the Kansas-Washington game, which is going on as I write. Surely, a rematch of the 2003 National Championship is what everyone is hoping for. Especially Jayhawk fans. (Ed Note: It's Kansas. Giddy up.)

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Huge win. Huge.

This win does so much, not the least of which being shutting all the “Syracuse has no decent out of conference wins / Syracuse never plays out of the state of New York before January!” talk that always happens in March come NCAA tournament selection time.

by wildcatlh on Nov 24, 2008 10:40 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Clutch Free Throws?

Where did you see anyone besides Jonny making clutch free throws? Paul missed, AO missed, Devo hit two but overall it was pretty terrible.

by noro on Nov 24, 2008 10:41 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I agree

The four missed free throws in a row at the end of the game reeeeally had me sweating.

Overall, though, a fantastic performance. Hopefully they can play just as hard tomorrow night.

Go, fight, and win.

by Alex O on Nov 24, 2008 10:54 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

yeah

The Orange missed a ton of Ft’s down the stretch that kept the Gators in the game. Up 6 Devendorf misses a one and one, Flynn makes two, up 7, Onuaku misses two, up 4 Joseph misses two.

Those were all on consecutive possesions. They gave away 5 points which would have made this game easy. This team, outside of flynn, is scary at the line in the last two minutes. They went 19-32 from the line. Ugh. also is there anyway for the dome to get rid of the women’s line? Because yet again Rautins lights it up when there’s only one 3 point line on the floor. This team can score with anyone in the country. I love it.

by rs27 on Nov 24, 2008 10:53 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

good win, but...

i dont know if it’s just me but i wasnt impressed at all with that florida team. other than calathes they stink, and against an actual defense and not that awful zone that tyus guy wont do anything. nice win, and to tell you the truth i felt we could’ve won that game by 20, but we had a lot of insanely bad unforced turnovers that led to easy hoops the other way— i highly doubt we’ll give away that many points each game. so overall im without question pleased, but a little skeptical that florida is much closer to a bubble team than the 18th best team in the country.

by Calogero on Nov 25, 2008 12:08 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

THAAAANK GOD

Try being in SEC land for this one… the only place worse than Knoxville to be for this game would have been in Gainesville. You would think the rival wouldn’t like Florida right? EHHHH not so much… I hear claims of the SEC being the best conference in america….yikes. oh yeah by the way the city of Knoxville wants me to pass along that they say Tennessee could go undefeated in the Big East (heard that one twice down here). Not trying to hate on all the vols fans but jeeeeeze-usssss…

Anyways I had a great feeling about this one as soon as i saw AO’s presence… he is seriously an animal….

Great Win!

-KShaw

by The Saltine Warriors on Nov 25, 2008 12:11 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

i second that

having met a few tennessee fans, they are some of the dumbest people on the face of the earth. let me just say that i am heartbroken that their footbal team is so pathetic.

by Calogero on Nov 25, 2008 12:49 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Hah...

I mean, I can’t hate on the vols as I’m a student (until next semester)… but the ignorance gets on my nerves a little sometimes…

front row student section for phil fulmer day saturday though espn2 6:30 kickoff watch it!

-KShaw

by The Saltine Warriors on Nov 25, 2008 12:56 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

If this team learns to play any defense . . .

I mean any defense, it should be in the top four in the conference.

by Hoya Suxa on Nov 25, 2008 7:57 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

some interesting quotes

This article about Paul Harris and last night’s game has some interesting quotes.

“I think I was a beast on the boards,” Harris said.

I feel like we don’t get that kind of straightforwardness and positivity about himself too frequently.

But then he follows it up with this:

He explained last week that he overslept and came to the Dome on Nov. 18 with a sort of sleep hangover. He never got involved in the game, he said.

I mean, what do we have to do to make sure Harris gets a good night sleep for each game? I’m willing to chip in for a personal assistant if it means we see Beast Paul Harris every game this season. This sounds similar to the game last year, was it against Villanova, where he admitted he just didn’t play hard and was never with it?

But this might be my favorite; Boeheim actually saying something nice about Do It All Paul:

“He’s going to make the odd mistake here and there,” Boeheim said, “but he’s making plays now and that’s when he’s at his best.”

Last year “odd mistakes here and there” for Paul Harris meant an hour of screaming from Boeheim during the game, a whooping in the locker room, and, if the team was traveling, walking back to Syracuse from wherever they were. This year it’s, “You can do it, big guy! I believe in you!!” That has to mean something, coming from Jimmy B.

by voteprime on Nov 25, 2008 10:19 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

good lord watching some of these other big east games it is imperative we win as much as possible before the big east. It is going to be rough if we play defense like that last night. Like to see a little more activity in the zone. Still a good win for our resume come march

by Moiso13 on Nov 25, 2008 10:30 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

My favorite Harris

moment from this year already was Flynn trying to throw the alley oop off the backboard to Harris in the LeMoyne game. they mess it up and Boeheim, instead of pulling Flynn from the game, looks at the bench and points at Rautins and says, Get Paul out of there"

Classic.

by rs27 on Nov 25, 2008 10:36 AM EST reply actions 0 recs