Before the No. 3 Syracuse Orange took the court against the George Washington Colonials Saturday night, the No. 2 Ohio St. Buckeyes lost to the Kansas Jawhawks. Shortly after they began play, the No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats lost to the Indiana Hooisers. The door was officially open for the Orange to become the new No. 1 in the AP and Coaches Polls.
That will be decided on Monday. However, in the meantime, the Orange took care of their business, dropping the Colonials 85-50 in the Dome.
It was Dion Waiters' birthday and the birthday boy did not disappoint. Waiters led the Orange with 19 points, four rebounds, four assists, a bevy of breakaway dunks and enough good play to warrant hours of fawning retweets. Not that he needs much reason for that.
The Orange spread the rest of the scoring around with Kris Joseph collecting 9 points while Brandon Triche, Fab Melo and Scoop Jardine all added 8 points.
Kris Joseph led SU with 8 rebounds while Melo grabbed 7. Michael Carter-Williams had the first big game of his career, leading the Orange with eight assists and scoring five points.
While GWU made a few runs, the game was very rarely in doubt. SU shot 49% on the night, compared to 30% for the Colonials. David Pellom led the Colonials with 12 points.
With the win the Orange move to 10-0 for the third-straight season. They also put themselves in position to take over as the new No. 1 team in the nation come Monday. If that happens, it will be the first time Syracuse is No. 1 since they held the spot for a week in 2010. It's the first time Syracuse would be No. 1 this early in the year since 1990.
Given everything that's happened off the court, it's nice to see things gelling on the court so well. The Orange will now get a week to prepare as they head to their first true road game of the year against the N.C. State Wolfpack next Saturday.