If Joe Lunardi is to be believed, the Orange are destined for a 12-seed against Virginia Tech in this bizarro world we call the 2007 NCAA men's basketball season. Well, perhaps today's 78-65 win over UConn will help us climb the mighty mountain towards single-seed-dom. Demetris Nichols poured on 28 and "Total Punk" Eric Devendorf added 19 for the runaway victory. The Orange led by as much as 19 and cruised down the homestretch after trailing at the half.
Jim Calhoun did little to disguise his frustrations with the Huskies. He kicked the scorer's table after receiving a technical and something tells me that its going to be a quiet bus ride back to Storrs tonight. I'd say good luck in the NIT to UConn but apparently they're not even a lock to make it. (Thus, answering the questions...is there an NIT version of Joe Lunardi? Yes. Yes there is.)
As for those new unis...not as trainwreckish as we all expected (and hoped?) but the one thing that really bothered me was the grey numbers. There's a part of me that wants to know why they chose grey over navy blue but then again there's a part of me that doesn't because the answer will be probably be akin to "we were inspired by the grey skies over Syracuse when it snows and we salute the fierce fandom who come out in that snow to support their Orange."
Oh, and about that running diary I promised....um...yeah...I kinda made it five minutes into the game and then forgot about it until two minutes before halftime...so...lesson learned on that one. Kudos to those who are able to keep focus about them for such things, I have new-found respect for you.
Up next, Notre Dame tomorrow at 2pm ET.