To say that the players and coaches on the Syracuse and Stephen F. Austin basketball teams are not aware of each other would be something of an understatement. For example, take Eric Devendorf:
"I never heard of Stephen F. Austin, to tell you the truth," Devendorf said. "I'm sure they're pretty good, but I've never heard of them."
"Who? Josef Goebbels? Never heard of him, but I'm sure he's a nice guy."
To be fair though, the Lumberjacks didn't exactly have a TIVO season pass for Syracuse games either:
"We can't give them any easy looks. That's going to be hard with Jonny Flynn," [Lumberjacks coach Danny] Kasper said. "And the other kid, Devenbaugh? Defenbaugh? We can't give him easy looks either."
Honestly, I'd rather Kasper thinks his name is Devenbaugh at this point. Better than having him Google Devendorf and finding articles like this. (I really hope Mama Devendorf's internet went down this week.)
One thing Kasper is aware of is the need of his players to come up huge if they want any chance of bearing the Orange:
"I personally think we have more of a chance of beating Syracuse, a 3 seed, on a neutral floor with four days to prepare than you do beating UMass with 45 hours to prepare," Kaspar said. "We know the cards are stacked against us. We'll need one of those classic shots at the end of the game, a buzzer-beater to win. They know that."
We know a guy who can do that. Eric Defenbaugh. You heard of him?