That was the student section at the end of Syracuse's 93-74 win over Notre Dame. The post-Georgetown-loss hangover is officially over. The biggest crowd in the nation this year, topping 30K, was on hand and you couldn't miss them.
It was a patented balanced attack for the Orange. No one scored in the 20's but six players scored double-digits including AO (19), Jonny (17) and Devo (16). Paul Harris and Rick Jackson both grabbed ten rebounds and Flynn dished out ten assists.
For the Irish it was a two-man show. Luke Harangody scored 25 and Kyle McAlarney fought through the marshmellow haze to score 24 on 7-13 shooting from three.
If you took away AO, the Orange shot free throws fantastically , 11-13. Of course, when you factor in Arinze's 1-7 performance...not as much. The game was closer than the final score indicates although the Orange withstood several Notre Dame charges better than we've seen them do all season long.
Tons more to come on this one including Doug Marrone's halftime appearance, the many faces in the crowd and whatever the hell it was Scoop Jardine was wearing. As Doug F***ing Gottlieb said after the game, Syracuse has the look and feel of a team that could go to the Final Four, if only they'd get out of their own way sometimes... Coming from Doug, that's a compliment.