Gary Parrish & Jeff Goodman Meet Cuse Nation

Last night Gary Parrish and Jeff Goodman both proclaimed Kansas as the No. 1 choice in their latest polls.  Goodman is an AP voter so it confirmed what many of us thought...that the Orange still needed to fight if they wanted sole consideration for the No. 1 spot.  Naturally, Cuse fans decided to try and catch Parrish and Goodman's ears last night and this morning to find out why they did what they did and to try and make compelling arguments on SU's behalf.

Things got predictably testy, as they do, and Parrish launched an offensive of his own that was, sufficed to say, offensive.  Using his column to personally insult one specific Syracuse fan over comments that weren't even her own, Parrish unleashed a Cuse Twitterati attack the likes of which haven't been seen since the Great Peloponnesian Twitter War of 422 B.C. (@Thucydides Oh snap, it's on! RT: PrinceCyrus6969 More like Fart-ans RT @DaRealArchidamus SPARTANS!!!).

Lord knows everyone takes heat for doing/saying anything about teams, but you should be ashamed for comments about a fan.

where is your journalistic integrity? That is offensive, sexist, and harrassment. I hope she sues you for libel.

Stupid? No. Wrong? Maybe.... Bashing a fan because she criticized you is complete stupidity.

Attention Gary Parrish: I'm coming for you. You fucked with the wrong Twitterati.

I'm waiting for @GaryParrishCBS to take that comment down without issuing an apology, and trying to pretend it never happened....

@GaryParrishCBS is a master of tweeting about every issue that no one cares about, and avoiding the one that is actually important.

The correct response, @GaryParrishCBS , would have been, "Yeah it was over the line and I apologize." But then again, you're a tool.

Parrish took to Brent Axe's On The Block show to defend his pick and his comments and, well, it didn't really help matters.

He says he looks at the body of work with an emphasis on what's happened recently. Axe challenged him on this- wasn't the most recent thing the SU-Nova game and the Kansas- Oklahoma State game. Parrish then went back to talking about the resumes.

Axe then brought a comment Parrish had made on twitter that an SU fan "was a girl but looked like a man". Axe felt that was "over the line". Parrish said he didn't know what the line was or if he needed to be over it. He said that he wasn't calling anybody stupid but people are calling him stupid so he's going to "give as good as he gets."

This pissed Axe off. He says he gets mean-spirited E-mails all the time but doesn't reduce himself to their level. He feels there is a line and Parrish went under it and he shouldn't have as a professional in his field. He was so angered by this that he described Parrish's defense of his position as "moronic" and hoped Goodman would do a better job of it.

At the very least, Parrish can recognize that the person he insulted didn't actually say the comments he took offense to.  And I would think some form of apology is in order.  Considering the person he targeted is currently considering a lawsuit, we'll see just how good he can give.

Goodman, to his credit, seems to have spent the day rationally explaining his decision, you know, like a journalist.  We can disagree with his decision but as long as you present your argument lucidly and with factual basis, then that's about as fair as we can get.  Now its up to the guys actually wearing the uniforms to prove us right or wrong.

This Parrish business is far from over.  I'm sure Axe will post his interview with him and Goodman ASAP so we'll give a listen and go from there.

Axe's interview with Parrish is live.  So is the one with Goodman.