Sorry For Letting You Beat Us, LeMoyne

With every win that Syracuse gets this year, you would think that it only makes it that much hard for LeMoyne.  When the Dolphins upset the mighty Orange in an exhibition game earlier this year, it seemed to mean that the Orange were in trouble.  But now that we know SU is actually the greatest team ever assembled, LeMoyne's reputation only gets bigger and teams only want to beat them more. 

And that hasn't made things easy for the Dolphins or coach Steve Evans, as Donna Ditota found out.

He said the Dolphins "walk into every game with the pressure that we’re supposed to win." Fans from opposing teams seem particularly interested in watching the Dolphins this season. Visiting gyms are noticeably fuller, Evans said. Opposing fans chant "over-rated" at the Dolphins. The Syracuse win, Evans said, "put a bullseye on our backs."

"We just played a perfect game against Syracuse," Evans said. "And that’s hard. Where do you go from there? It’s really been a tough task. The game we’re getting judged on – it was a miracle. I don’t want that to be the only thing we did this season. Our kids still got 18 more games to play."

LeMoyne is 6-4 so far this season.  Not bad, but not exactly what you expect from a team that topped the No. 5 squad in NCAA Division 1-A. That includes a 76-65 loss to St. Bonaventure, whom the Orange play Saturday.  Hopefully, transitive properties will not be in effect.

Evans does like to think that the loss was exactly what the Orange needed and has helped make them so dominant in most of their games.

"They always get up for the big games," Evans continued, "but what I think our game did for them was make them realize that in college basketball if you don’t come out ready to play you can get embarrassed. The Syracuse guys are respecting every opponent and they’re playing like a team on a mission, no matter what name is on the front of the jersey — which is a good sign."

Thanks for the reminder, LeMoyne.  Sorry about the repercussions.