No. 1 Syracuse 73 - No. 20 Marquette 66: Absolutely Fab-ulous
by Sean Keeley on Jan 7, 2012 7:04 PM EST
in Syracuse Basketball
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PrintUsually this season, the Syracuse Orange play a close first half and then go on some kind of run right before or right after the half to break things wide open and cruise to victory.
Against the Marquette Golden Eagles, Syracuse jumped the gun, going on a 19-0 run midway through the first half to take a commanding 37-19. That led to a second half in which the Orange withstood the Great Three-Pointening while Fab Melo spent significant time on the bench with four fouls and eventually won the game, 73-66.
The big question before this game was what Syracuse would do if its frontcourt was without Fab Melo for an extended period of time. Now we know. Rebounds will be tough. However, things won't fall apart. Baye Moussa Keita stepped up when its mattered most.
Kris Joseph had 17 points and three steals. Brandon Triche added 16 points, seven rebounds and two steals for the Orange. C.J. Fair donated 13 points and eight boards for Syracuse, which got 12 points and seven assists from Dion Waiters.
C.J. Fair is fantastic. That's apropos of nothing, I just wanted to note it at this point.
Melo, who eventually fouled out, scored six and grabbed eight boards in 18 minutes of action. Baye had four points, two blocks and five rebounds in decent mop-up duty. Melo also deserves kudos for drawing four charging fouls in the first half. Dude keeps impressing.
James Southerland (2 points) and Rakeem Christmas (0 points) saw limited action while MCDubz didn't even make it onto the court in this hotly-contested Big East battle.
Darius Johnson-Odom ended with 19 points for the Golden Eagles (12-4, 1-2), who fell to 1-8 all-time versus the top-ranked squad in the country. Jae Crowder and Junior Cadougan had 15 and 10 points, respectively. Crowder also did his best to shush the crowd late (literally), but it wasn't enough.
Believe it or not, Syracuse out-rebounded Marquette 43-36. I guess I'll believe that. I was sure that the only player on SU that had any rebounds was Triche and I was pretty sure he had 47. I was off slightly.
Syracuse is now 17-0, 4-0 in the Big East. With Georgetown and Louisville losing today, they're the last-remaining team without a Big East loss. 17 wins are the third-most to start a season under Jim Boeheim and moves us that much closer to the 19-0 record.
The announced crowd of 25,412 was the biggest-yet of the season, though the UConn game should obliterate that mark. Up next, Villanova on Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The Wildcats are reeling but every game is a dogfight in the Big East. Even the ones involving cats.
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Photo: lulz
Also, when reading the post title, I picture Sean snapping his fingers in a Z formation.
Lexington Steele is a Syracuse graduate ... just like Sean Keeley.
by PJASchultz on Jan 7, 2012 7:08 PM EST via mobile reply actions
First...
Second…appreciate the signature. High praise.
Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician - The Syracuse blog that cares.
If you've got time, buy my book "How To Grow An Orange", visit SeanKeeley.com and follow me on Twitter and Facebook.
by Sean Keeley on Jan 7, 2012 7:14 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Quality work...
…digging up that video
Lexington Steele is a Syracuse graduate ... just like Sean Keeley.
by PJASchultz on Jan 8, 2012 1:34 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
Overall a very solid win. Encouraged by that last spurt to put the game away after the huge UM run
one point I disagree on – I don’t think CJ had a great game tonight. He rebounded pretty well but at times didn’t get a body on Crowder on the weakside. He also was painfully slow in rotating out to shooters on his wing of the zone. And he shot 33% for the field.
I’m still a CJ lover, but I just know he can do a lot better than that.
http://cusepulp.blogspot.com/
Spot on
His rebounding was awful. He and Keita were just tapping the ball up in the air. He still needs to get stronger.
Not a bad game, but not a great game.
Dictated, but not read.
http://atlanticcoastconfidential.wordpress.com/
Hard to be tough on a guy
Who put up 13-8. True he didn’t shoot well. He missed a lot of bunnies. As for his rotation, it’s a tough assignment. The wing is the first close out then the guard up top gets the pass, then had to release to the corner once the top zone defender slides over.
"If I ain't gonna be part of the greatest, I gotta be the greatest myself." Busta Rhymes
by FeloniousPhunk on Jan 7, 2012 7:59 PM EST up reply actions
Just know he can do better
Still think he had a solid game. Just nitpicking a bit. That’s the saying right? Nitpicking only makes one stronger?
http://cusepulp.blogspot.com/
Some of those bunnies
he was getting absolutely clobbered. Crowder could have fouled out with 15 minutes to go if they called that hacker.
Victor Cruz is the 2011 Ahmad Bradshaw. He giveth, and he taketh away. Thankfully he is giving much more now.
by bigbluethruandthru on Jan 7, 2012 10:57 PM EST up reply actions
47 points in the 2nd half
Ouch. Gonna be a rough week in practice.
yeah I was surprised needed more hustle back on D
Marquette was determined to beat them down the court before they could set up the 2-3, props to them for trying
Bubba Army
by AdirondackOrange on Jan 8, 2012 10:53 AM EST up reply actions
I think this game showed a lot
The refereeing was terrible early on, but we rode that out to take a commanding lead to the half. The second half, we could hit and they couldn’t miss, but we did enough to come away with it.
Not every game will be a blowout, especially come March. It’ll be good for the team to have this in their minds when things get tough in the tourney.
Fly, Eagles, fly...down, down the field!
First heartpounder of the year
I’ll admit to being a nervous fan. In a close game, my heart likes to threaten to beat out of my chest the last ten minutes or so. I didn’t really feel that way in the close OOC games because even though the margins were on the slim side, I never felt like the other team had control or momentum at all. Not so with Marquette. They have a rep as being one of the toughest teams in the country, and they proved it. Despite the lopsided first half, it was a true test for the Orange and they responded well. Good W. Key stats:
KJ, 17 pts, 5-6, 4-4 3pt 4 reb, 4 ast, 3stl. Just what you want from your senior leader in a big game, making his presence felt in all aspects of the game.
Triche, 16pts. Good to see him being aggressive, though 9 3PA is a little too many for my liking. But I like the confidence.
Fab, 0 blocks. Marquette did a good job of screening him off from the shooters and not letting him get his hands on shots. 4 charges taken is just as good, though. And 8 boards. Great to see Fab getting after it on the glass.
Scoop, 6 TO. This one isn’t as bad as it may seem. At least three were good passes that the receiver missed. He did his job; drive the lane, draw the D and kick. His teammates need to catch and finish. He should have had 10 ast instead of the 3 he ended up with.
4 Marquette bench points. Versus 31 for Syracuse. I know the whole “Syracuse is the deepest team in the country” thing is getting a proper flogging lately, but it can’t be underestimated in this game. When people were in foul trouble or certain lineups weren’t working, the flexibility to mix and match without a drop off in talent or production is the reason why the Orange were able to withstand multiple second half runs from Marquette and never give up the lead.
"If I ain't gonna be part of the greatest, I gotta be the greatest myself." Busta Rhymes
That's the beauty
of having 10 guys. You can mix and match until you get the right combination. The fact is, we get so many points from our bench this year that there’s not really anybody you can shut down. The fact that Scoop is averaging 8 points a game, yet seems like every other game he has under 5 just goes to show that the talent level on this team is unbelievable.
Without Gerry McNamara we wouldn't have won 10 f-- games, not 10
by PoetryInMoten on Jan 7, 2012 8:05 PM EST up reply actions
The Stanford game was much more of a heard pounder than this one.
Though this was a bit more of, “This can’t be how we lose our first game of the season! Not again to these bastards.”
I absolutely agree
Triche, 16pts. Good to see him being aggressive, though 9 3PA is a little too many for my liking. But I like the confidence.
Great to see Fab getting after it on the glass.
Seeing this is going to help us when we get into the meat of conference play and finally we’ll definably need it the most during the BE Tourney and ultimately during March Madness. I’m getting giddy just thinking about it, I’m just going to enjoy the ride
Bubba Army
by AdirondackOrange on Jan 8, 2012 11:02 AM EST up reply actions
Melo
The two stupid fouls he got himself were infuriating.
We also confirmed our fears that if he gets in foul trouble, we could be in fffffffff’ed.
yeah, for all our depth
we don’t have much inside without Fab.
Did anyone ever think they’d utter the phrase – I kinda miss DaShonte Riley?
F#&% the Big East
He looked like he physically shouldn't have been able to stand
like he is so top-heavy he should have just snapped at the waist when he tried to run.
It's the most bullshit thing I've seen in thirty years.
by Girardi Party on Jan 8, 2012 10:48 AM EST up reply actions
kevin connors(espn announcer) HAS to be a gtown fan with all the crap he spewed
up 7 with 30 seconds left he said Syracuse tries to hold on for the win…
You keep chanting one more year, I thought college was four years
by PointBlankPeriodPeriod on Jan 7, 2012 8:33 PM EST reply actions
Connors was annoying
But someone really needs to put Dickie Simpkins out to pasture. Talk about awful announcing. Yeesh…
We will not rest until we see these capitalist octopuses annihilated.
-Che Marrone
Scoop
He was pretty bad today. Too many high risk passes. He threw a good one to Fab at the end but still had 6 TOs to 3 assists. I am guessing something was bothering Brandon late because I’d rather have him in the game and consequently at the line than I would Scoop. The percentages back that up. Brandon also doesn’t turn it over as much as Scoop does. They have to be better in the halfcourt offense. Hopefully Scoop can control himself when he goes home to Philly on Wednesday. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if he can.
If we don't dominate the BE conference this year there is no excuse for it
I’m even liking our chances against L’ville this year, the press doesn’t seem to effect this team like it did other seasons. Besides who knows if Pitino has a goofy looking white lanky bench player who will be shooting lights out 40 footers?
Bubba Army
by AdirondackOrange on Jan 8, 2012 11:14 AM EST up reply actions
Kuric still plays for them
He’s a senior. He filled the role of “nondescript white guy who drops killer threes” a couple years ago. I’m pretty sure he’s their leading scorer now.
"If I ain't gonna be part of the greatest, I gotta be the greatest myself." Busta Rhymes
by FeloniousPhunk on Jan 8, 2012 5:32 PM EST up reply actions
Dion
With 7 assists is a nice surprise as well.
by tazphan23 on Jan 8, 2012 4:19 AM EST via mobile reply actions
I noticed that to
I really like this team they seem to be focused on a common goal (National Championship) and not one of them is worried about padding their stats or individual glory, Example: Triche giving Dion the ball for the lay in after after a steal.
Bubba Army
by AdirondackOrange on Jan 8, 2012 11:21 AM EST up reply actions
Or Dion making the extra pass
to KJ for the 3 at the top of the key.
"If I ain't gonna be part of the greatest, I gotta be the greatest myself." Busta Rhymes
by FeloniousPhunk on Jan 8, 2012 5:32 PM EST up reply actions
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