Scoop Jardine makes debut as SNY Big East basketball panelist

While the No. 7-ranked Syracuse Orange were in the middle of an impressive 24-0 second-half run that helped defeat the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, 78-53, Wednesday night, former Syracuse point guard Scoop Jardine was bickering with New York Post writer Lenn Robbins on SNY's Big East Preview show.

If you missed it, the former Syracuse floor general made his debut as a TV panelist for the network, which is used as the local hub for the Big East Network.

[Highlights can be found here]

For his first time, Jardine, who's recovering from a broken foot that he suffered last June during a workout with the Utah Jazz, seemed to do a fine job in his pseudo tryout.

There was some "ums" and silent moments when he was asked for his opinion on certain things, but as a person who has done live TV before, I will tell you, it's not easy and if you were going to grade him on his overall performance I'd give him a B+.

I failed to catch all of what Jardine had to say, as the Syracuse game was on at the same time, but SU's two-year starter did tackle a few interesting topics such as Jim Boeheim's 903rd victory and Doug Gottlieb.

When asked about this year's Syracuse team Jardine didn't hide his Orange colors.

"I am going to be bias," Jardine said. "I really believe we can be a really good team. With Brandon Triche coming to play every night be that senior leader that we need, that I was last season; I think we have a lot of great young guys like Michael Carter-Williams has been playing phenomenal basketball.

"I gotta be biased, I am a big fan. Its my alma mater."

According to a report by The Post-Standards Donna Ditota, this more than likely will not be the last time Jardine will be a part of SNY's panel of talking heads. Because of his decent performance Wednesday, Jardine should see more face time on TV throughout the season.