Jim Boeheim might have implied that Brandon Triche is the next coming (or did he?) and most folks (including yours truly) have it settled that freshman Triche will be the main rock-handler for the Orange this upcoming season. That said, incumbent point guard Scoop Jardine refuses to go down with a fight.
The cheesesteak-ed one sat down with the one person who would listen to his plight...Donna Ditota, and we get to know He Who Would Possibly Be Point Guard a little better.
"My first year here, I think I was talented, but I didn't make the sacrifices to play."
With age comes wisdom and Jardine seems to have come a long way from the careless days of his freshman season, mentally at least. Jardine is down to a much leaner fighting weight of 190 from his formerly-pudgy 205 pound frame. The change has appeased Coach Beoehim, long unhappy with Scoop's off-the-court habits.
These days you're more likely to find Scoop working out at 6:30am than stuffing (illegally-obtained) cheesesteaks down his throat in his dorm room. And it should pay off for Jardine, who will play at the point and shooting guard position this year, according to Boeheim.
I suppose you could read between the lines there and say that means Scoop will be the first guard off the bench for Triche and Rautins, but that's only if you wanted to read between the lines. Do as you please.
Make sure you check out the whole article, a great read and great news about Scoop.
Speaking of Syracuse point guards, I would be remiss if I didn't pass along a bit about Brandon Triche as well. I dropped the ball on the King of Kings League and how things ended up. When we last left our Prestige Elite, they were fading down the stretch. The team lost their last two games of the season but still finished 6-2 and in a tie for first place. They entered the playoffs as the #2 seed...and promptly lost their semifinal matchup. Noticeably absent from the final game was Triche, who instead spent the day at the Fulton Family YMCA for a basketball clinic along with Wes Johnson, Dashonte Riley, James Southerland and Kris Joseph. Alright...fair enough.
Congrats in order to the league champs Da Bombers, who were led by a certain player by the name of Josh Wright. Wright averaged 24 PPG in the playoffs. You can check out the full league stats here, where you'll see Triche finished 9th overall, averaging 20 PPG.
H/T: Voteprime & Eric J.