Cuse Country nailed it. The keys to success for the Orange are clear as day now: 1. Play all games at home
2. Play inferior teams that we will inevitably play down to, but;
3. have Demetris Nichols play the best game of his career
Keep this up and I think I see a 7 seed in our future!!! At 17-8 (6-5), the Orange have probably laid to rest any fears that they'd slide all the way to non-Big East Tourney purgatory but still have a long way to go before convincing anyone they're an NCAA Tourney team.
A two point win over St. Johns (14-11, 5-7) at home doesn't really help all the much. But kudos to Demetris and his career-high 37 points -- 26 in the second half -- and 10 rebounds. Is it too much to ask for 37 and 10 every night, big guy? Andy Routins continued his barnstorming tour off the bench with 14 points, 4-5 from three-point land, making himself the latter day Marius Janulis, minus the accent and adding the hair.
The Axeman is wondering if this is the best single-game performance in the history of Syracuse b-ball. Personally, I think he can throw all the stats out he wants but let's face it, 10, 20, 50 years from now every Syracuse fan will remember Gerry McNamara's Big East Tourney run but there will probably only be a handful of people who remember this game, as great as Demetris (I refuse to call him Dnic and I ask that you do the same) was. Great performances are also measured by the value of the game, and a regular season game against a mediocre St. Johns team just isn't the setting for immortality. Perhaps if the Orange get inspired, end up making the NCAAs and make a run to the Sweet 16, we'll look back at this as the turning point and assign greater value to Nichols' performance, but until then it was a great game for Demetris that'll probably be forgotten about this time next year by most people.