Syracuse 71 - Pitt 63: Best. Start. Ever.

was crazy. Haven’t been apart of an atmosphere like that in a long time. The rest of the game was what I thought it would be vs Pitt, edge of your seat and wondering most of the game. The refs were beyond horrible, and I can’t wait to see how they’re treated in the ACC.

Were starting to look complacent. scoop looked more like the Scoop of old tonight than he has all year, and it’s been building. We were 5-18 from 3 point range, and three of those (while clutch) came in the last six minutes of the game. There’s been so much talk about “respect” that we’re starting to look like we’re losing focus.

If they come out and crush ND, then maybe they’ll prove me wrong, but they should be pissed off every game about the lack of respect they’re getting…even if it is from that douch knuckle down in whatever version of Carolina he lives in. This should have been a blowout tonight. National television, 20 win season on the line, no senior with a win against Pitt. But they played sloppy…down to Pitt’s level.

Yeah they won. And maybe I expect too much. But being number 1 means earning it every night.

’Nuff preaching. Go ’Cuse!!

because this is already one of the four most exciting seasons that I can remember. But poor Keita has badly regressed. I love his spirit and hustle, but damn dude, you can’t let a pass go through your freaking legs when you have an uncontested dunk lined up. His rebounding is terrible, and I was yelling the same thing Bilas was saying “Stay on your f***ing feet”! I hope he can recover, because right now I kind of want him to tape his hand back up.

Melo made some nice passes but tried to do a bit too much in the first half. They were playing well enough to overcome it and he settled down, but it is worth noting.

Scoop may have had a few overaggressive minutes in the middle of the second half but I don’t know how anyone who has watched the last 4 years of Scoop Jardine can complain about a line like 12 points, 10 assists, 2 turnovers.

Nice that Triche was knocking down free throws even coming in relatively cold at the end of the game. Only 19 minutes tonight. I guess he was just the coldest of the three guards tonight.

Is it just me or can you tell within 2 minutes whether or not Southerland is going to have a productive game? And it’s not just if he makes his first shot—is he active on defense, in position to rebound, etc…

this team is very good, but they better be careful. I see almost no way we get through the BE undefeated. We’ll slip up somewhere. That being said, we just keep finding ways to win. The blueprint is out there for beating us, too bad we’re too good for anyone to use it against us for an entire game.

Gotta work on the rebounding though. There aren’t too many games that you can be outrebounded by that many and win easily. This could have been a 20 point win if they rebound. In the Big East you need as many cruise victories as possible b/c you’re going to hit the gauntlet sooner or later. We’re almost to that point. However, almost everyone on our schedule looks beatable.

was really good, especially in the second half, and they beat us time and again with this little double-cut move. (I’m not much of a basketball X’s and O’s guy.) It was discouraging because those little entry bounce passes are the kinds of things we have been feasting on—or just straight up preventing from even being attempted—all season. Yet Pitt went back to it again and again and only turned the ball over twice in the second half.

Anyone else notice this? Anything we could have done to mitigate this?

Sporadic game.

It was, however, vs Pitt, who could be 0-12 in BE and still play us tough.

I’ll take it.

And my Syracuse-fan Grandmother joined in.

Facebook: bringing families together.

“Clean the chandeliers, young man!”

That’s t-shirt worthy!

We beat Pittsburgh. I don’t care if Pitt were 0-19, beating them means something. They are a team that knows precisely how to beat the zone, are quite good at the one thing we are not (rebounding) and know how to foul every play without getting whistled (during BE play anyway). Beating them to tie Rupp and get the best start in school history? I’ll take it. I don’t look at Pitt games like any other game because Pitt just has our number and knows how to get away with ugly play during the BE season. This was a monkey-off-the-back kind of win and I’ll look to ND to see just how real some of our perceived problems are.

And I don’t understand the complacency complaint. I don’t see complacency at all. If anything I see the opposite as a problem: over-enthusiasm. I see players that believe they can steal every pass or block every shot. This could prove detrimental down the line, but for the time being I’m willing to chalk it up to the specific pressure this particular game brought with it.

Tough win against a tough opponent. Exorcised some demons about not being able to beat Pitt, which will hopefully carry over to the Louisville game.

This team proved they can beat any type of team now. You can tell they believe, and that’s huge for a college team.

AND WVU and St. Johns at home and the Garden.

The hard part of the BE schedule this year is all loaded in February. Lville twice, UConn twice, and Gtown. Those are 5 games that could yield some losses and probably will.

I hope we can slog through the next 4 games with some W’s (back to back road games are hella tough in the BE)

These games will be more of a true road test than what we have gotten up to this point even. I think they are going to play us harder than Prov/Depaul/Nova did, so this will be a real test of this teams already impressive mettle.

Why in the hydrofracking motherloving spatula would you want to just have ONE go-to guy? What if he is hurt? What if he fouls out?

See: Ohio State. You lose the game.

One big stick is weaker than 10 small sticks bound together.

One big stick is weaker than 10 small sticks bound together.

…has been impressive this year, especially the last few games. We force turnovers and generally make the other team uncomfortable, resulting in some additional points for us.

It’s good to know we have the press as a weapon when we need it to push a team back when they’ve gotten too close or when we need to break out of a scoring drought.

Congrats to SU for starting 20-0.