I call a do-over on myself

After that last, hurried, and somewhat negative post, I am calling a DO.  I've decided to do this because I have had time to collect myself and think about what happened.  You know how when at the end of almost each tourney game, the major contributers of the losing team are on the bench, having just received the worst stomach punch--their season is over.  Here's the thing with college basketball, especially if you make the tournament, you don't expect to lose.  It's an accomplishment just to be in the final 64/65, and once there, you believe that your team can go all the way.  

However, the one-and-done format is that brutal stomach punch.  40 minutes.  That's all you have.  This isn't a multiple game series.  YOU CANNOT PLAY POORLY FOR OVER 3 TO 4 MINUTES AT A TIME and expect to win.  You truly have no tomorrow.  Imagine being a senior.  You make the tourney as a 7 seed or higher.  Realistically you feel good about your team's chances.  Heck, if you upset the 2 seed in the second round, who knows how far you can go (WVU was up 20 in the Elite Eight in 05 before they blew it, but they were damn close to going to the FF).  

But you and your teammates come out flat.  Maybe you were the better team in general, but you didn't match up well. The shots you normally hit just won't fall.  The bounces go the other way, and suddenly you are down 15 with 3 minutes left.  For all intensive purposes, the game is over.  Your coach, sensing this, understands how much you've meant to the team, the fans, the program.  He wants to honor you, and in basketball, that means you get subbed out.  The fans understand that this is it.  Your four years are done.  Yeah you meant a lot to the program, but now you're one of those former players, the one's that the fans will always talk about.  You sit on the bench and the manager hands you a towel.  Suddenly, it hits you: you're done.  The place you gave your all, the teammates that helped you through the good times and the bad will be gone, and soon you move on with your life, whether it is to the NBA, NBDL, CBA, Europe, China, So. America, whatever.  The best 4 years of your life are done, so what do you do? you cry.  It all hits you at once and there you are, sitting there sobbing.  

By now you are probably confused as to what this long "rabbit trail" (waayyy off topic thing being talked about, or in this case, blogged) means.  It is why I was negative before, because I was sucker punched.  I guess I'll somewhat give off some information about myself.  I have yet to attend Syracuse, but I will in the fall (I guess now you know I'm a senior in high school, and hopefully that doesn't stop you from reading the rest of this post).  Although I've always wanted to attend Syracuse, I've never truly followed the team.  I was at the heart breaking overtime loss to Pitt in the 2001 BET Semifinals, and I remember in 2003 watching the national championship, going crazy, specifically when Hak had that monster block.  In fact, and I am embarrassed to say this, but I thought Paul Harris and Jonny Flynn were each other.  However, starting with the Kansas game this year I have watched nearly every game.  Furthermore, my acceptance to the University made me into an even bigger fan, and I was fully sucked in at the right time: right as they became 16-0.  

Finally having a true team to root for (my parents went to schools without popular basketball teams, so I have been somewhat of a floater, but more of just a college basketball fan in general), I was sucked in to the hype.  I believed this team could be good, and I started to live and die with them.  I missed the first half of the first Georgetown game, and was stunned to find 'Cuse behind by double digits at the end of the first half.  I watched as this team, once ranked 8, lost two players to injury, became unranked, nearly blew a 16 point lead at home to the Hoyas, and didn't show up to play some games.  However, I saw the transformation of this team, and was proud to have been there for most of the games.  I was at the St. John's game, and I finally saw a team that new how to finish a game.  They went out to a huge lead, and never let St. John's get anywhere close to being back in to the game.  The Marquette game though was the one that really started the whirlwind finish.  Flynn's and-one at the end of regulation was phenomenal, and the fact that this team survived another nearly blown game was great.  I finally believed this team had a chance to be special, to do what we thought they were capable of.

I think the true turning point though, was the Seton Hall game.  Although this game will be forgotten because of the next two games, this was the game that made it possible for us to reach the finals of the BET.  I sat behind Seton Hall's basket with about 20 other Syracuse fans, and we watched the team sleepwalk through the first 25 minutes of the game, to the point that Seton Hall had a lead in the second half.  We thought the hopes we had might be out the window, when suddenly AO blocked Garcia's shot and clapped and yelled in his face.  Although that scuffle was minor, when KO got tomahawk chopped and Devo, and of all people Rautins, got into the fray, we finally understood that this group of players was a team.  That they could stick up for each other.  And then it happened, Devo gained that swagger again and couldn't miss.  The rage that Seton Hall built up was incredible, and might start a new semi-rivalry.  

Of course we know what happened next, but I will blame ESPN and the media for what happened next.  We clearly have cocky players.  Some are good and can back up their play with their mouths, while others show flashes of brilliance and yet talk the talk before the walk the walk (corny, I know).  Suddenly becoming the national darlings inflated the players egos, and I think ultimately was a hinderance.  However, we found ourselves in the Sweet Sixteen, playing Oklahoma.  

Do I think Blake Griffin is good? Yes.  Is he special?  No.  You see, Griffin is a highlight reel player.  He does have skills, but all he cares about is making the big dunk, and of course the media loves it and will jump all over it.  Obviously this is irrelevant, but I needed to say it.

I had hopes for tonight.  I thought we could pull it out, considering how one-dimensional OU normally is.  Of course we all know what happened next, and I must admit, the infamous Doug Gottlieb's words rang in my ears, the words he first mentioned while we played ND, where we would take a huge lead only to give it back and so on and so forth:  "Syracuse has the talent to be a final four team, but they sometimes play blocks of the game as if they have A.D.D., which will ultimately prevent them from reaching their full potential."  This is the quote of our season.  If you look at almost every game we lost, we were in the game, but there would be a five minute stretch that killed us.  This happened again and again, and even happened in the first five minutes of the second half against Louisville in the conference finals.  However, tonight the boys' ADD lasted for 15 minutes in the first half, and 8 in the second half, ultimately derailing us.  The fact that we believed this team was good and special is what made this loss hard to endure.  The fact that this team could go to the final four is what I will ultimately remember.

I will leave with some parting shots:

1. While this season will and is making Flynn legendary, his second half performance should never be forgotten.  Just imagine if he doesn't take the charge (it was called a block, but come on), maybe we win the game.

2.  I feel bad for KO.  His turbulent two years comes to an end, 7 minutes of playing time.  He deserved better, but clearly either his back or achilles is not right.  However, I wish JB would have put him on the court for fifteen seconds with under 2 minutes, just so that the crowd could give one final solute to the Belgian Waffle. He didn't deserve to go out the way he did.

3.  JT...never forget.

4.  If we had a true 8th man in the rotation.

5.  If everyone stays, next year's team is loaded.  Our only hope is that Triche or Johnson brings the energy that KO brought, otherwise we might be in for some more potential big-lead loses.

And so the end has come...

The dream season, or at least the dream four months (considering we shat up the place from mid. January to mid. February), has ended.  First, I hated how popular the team got.  I loved when we were under the radar, and no one outside of the Big East knew of Jonny Flynn and Rautins.  The funny thing about this game is that it reminded me of some of our losses this year: Villanova, UConn, and Louisville version 1.0.  This team just did not have it.  Rautins couldn't hit a shot; Onuaku forgot that when a ball is passed to him, it is not going to blow up, and he can catch it; Devo decided that he should take shots from any place at any time with anyone in front of him, and once that didn't work, he decided he no longer cared about playing defense; Paul Harris went MIA for the second straight game; and quite frankly, Jonny Flynn was pretty bad for 15 minutes of the first half.

Despite all of that, we had our chances. We played well for 5 minutes of the first half, and with 2:30 left, found ourselves down by 1.  Of course, somehow that lead become 13 for Oklahoma in the blink of an eye, and then Syracuse decided not to play defense until they were down 20 2 minutes into the second half.  Flynn played admirably for the final 21 minutes, and it sucks that he was called for a blocking foul when he had the ONIONS (obligatory Bill Raferty shout out) to stand beneath Blake Griffin.  Of course, every time we could potentially get close to finding ourselves back in the game, our defense would decide to take a possession off and lose the momentum, or Devo would take the me-against-the-world stance on offense and take a quick, bad shot.

Honestly though, who thought that Tony Crocker could score 28 points?  He was the game, and you just wish the it was Blake Griffin who dominate, because that would make the loss much better.  On the Griffin subject, I honestly was not impressed.  He was not called for a few fouls that he clearly committed, and he only cares about one thing--making "cool" dunks.  THe amount of times he could've ran to the basket and stood under it waiting for a pass to score easily, he tried to time his run with the ball handler in order to have an alleyoop.  I think he is a good finisher, but I was not that impressed watching him.

The refs were awful in the first half, specifically the baseline ref by the SU bench, but all-in-all, you can't blame them for the loss.

Finally, I feel bad for KO.  This team did not have energy without him on the court (including the entire season up until this point), and it's too bad that either the achilles injury, or the back/neck just isn't right for him, and it's sad that his SU career ends this way.

In summation, it was a fun ride, I almost had about 20-25 heart attacks (10 in the UConn game and 5 in the G'Town 2.0 game), but the fact that this team easily could be in the NIT now instead of being a three seed in the NCAA tournament made it a great season.

Villanova's good, but...Duke Just Sucks

Maybe next year will be the year ESPN, CBS, and every other "knowledgeable" college basketball TV station or online group will finally pull its head out of Duke's crotch (or at least tell Paulus he's finally had enough jockage).  Honestly, as the title says, DUKE JUST SUCKS.  Think about this, this team is supposed to be year in and year out, "one of the best" teams out there, and yet their reputation lives off of wat happened 10 years ago.  I won't deny that they were probably the best team of the 90's: 5 championship games appearances, 2 NC's, and an Elite Eight appearance.  But since then, they have been good twice, TWICE!  Yes they put together good records, but that's because they play at tops 10 road games a year, and barely are above .500 in those games.  This team can't win outside of Cameron Indoor, and they play bad non-conference teams.

The best though is the actual amount of jockage the ACC refs and ESPN give them.  When Coach K decided he no longer wanted to recruit centers (either he could no longer recruit any, or Zoubek was so god awful that he never wants another one again after next year), ESPN said they had transformed basketball and that they would be able to win with wing players instead of centers on the court.  Of course, ESPN forgot that Villanova under Jay Wright has done this for years, and that they proved that you actually need a some-what big man--or someone capable of playing some basketball inside--such as Cunnigham or Sumpter before him, to win.  Furthermore, ESPN had this prediction shoved in its face when they lost to VCU (who had nothing that year outside of Maynor) and then got destroyed by WVU last year.

You see, this Duke team will never win unless Coach K teaches defense. While everyone criticizes Duke for flopping, the flopping not only helps them, but ultimately hurts them.  Think about it, Duke plays man defense, and the person who enters the lane to draw a flop is leaving his man wide open.  All teams have to do to exploit is to stop short of the charge and voila, you have an open and easy shot.  If Coach K really ever wants to be good again, he should teach his team to play real defense, as well as recruit actual athletic players and realize that in today's game, the Christian Laettner types can no longer be the truly affective player they once were (of course Coach K doesn't realize this, and that's why he loves Kyle Singler). 

Now you are probably skeptical of this and you are saying this team is actually good, just look at their record.  However, when you do that, you see that in 2006-2007, the team (whose captains where Josh McRoberts and Greg Paulus.........sorry, I had to break to laugh at how big of a joke that is) when 22-10 during the regular season and ACC tournament.  22-10.  And yet they were given a 6 seed!  If that isn't the definition of "being on-the-jock," you tell me.  Of course, that team promptly got outplayed by Maynor, and he proved to Paulus that Paulus wasn't quite that good.

Just for another enjoyable fact, remember when McRoberts would've been a lottery pick if he went right to the NBA instead of going to Duke?  Or When everyone outside of NBA executives said that JJ Reddick wasn't worthy of a 1st round pick?  Is it sad that us fans take pleasure when a Duke player fails in the NBA?

UConn in Trouble?

Nate Mills...may he be the one?

You probably are wondering what I mean by "the one."  The one would refer to the one who finally gets rid of the annoying, grouchy, d-bag that is Jim Calhoun.  Think about it, Calhoun loses and blames his team for playing poorly, not the other team for playing well.  He bashes his team.  He shows no compassion for his players.  Just listen to his statement to the press today.  He never denies the allegations or really even references them.  In fact, he goes out of his way to say that he won't lose any wins or championships his team might win this year (because that Big East Championship they won would....oh wait, that's right, they lost in the quarterfinals and he criticized his players for playing 70 minutes of basketball).  I point this particular comment from his entire statement out because it's almost like Pleading the 5th or being OJ Simpson circa 2006-2007.  You aren't saying or confessing to being guilty, but you are saying "if I am guilty..." or "if I did it....", and thus you are pretty much saying that you expect to be guilty but look at the bright side.  

While I never would wish anything bad on a human (besides Curt Schilling, Thabeet, Jeff Adrien (anyone see his pre-game huddle throat slash on TV today?), Keith Smart, D-Gross (jk!?!?!?), Martin Brodeur, Reggie Miller, Bill Belichick, and Kevin Millar), Calhoun just seems like a bad person.  He always, even in this speech, gives off a bad vibe, and seems kind of like a mafia guy, "if you cross me..."  In fact, I am shocked that he is able to recruit that types of players he gets.  I mean seriously, who wants to play for someone that is always criticizing his players, and always seems like he is about to have an aneurysm (bad joke?)?  That's a conspiracy theory for another day (going hand in hand with who is actually running the show on Penn State's football team, because we know JoePa can't bring in the talent he gets by himself), but for now we can only hope that maybe Calhoun will go by the wayside.

NCAA Tournament Coverage

Two days into the tournament, has led to one boring-at-best day of action, and one very exciting day.  I spent the first half of Day 1 at a friend's house with 7 other people, and we all left disappointed.  Butler vs. LSU was the game in our region, and despite it going down until the final minute, it was not enticing.  In fact, we spent the whole two hours trying to get his NCAA on Demand to work so we could watch Memphis lose (at least that was our hope).  Day 2 however was awesome, especially in comparison to the first day.  I watched all of PITT vs. ETSU, hoping for the first ever 16 seed win, and Siena vs. OSU and Kansas vs. NDSU did not disappoint either.

However, while these games have been good, CBS has become a joke.  I looked forward to not watching the games on ESPN, because I thought advertising there was bad.  Now, I have lost all respect for CBS.  We know that advertising runs the tournament and college basketball as a whole.  There are 8 TV timeouts in a game, 8!!!  Players now are not conditioned to play more than 4 minutes at time because of the extensive breaks.  Plus, coaches now call a timeout just before the TV timeout mark, so that they can kill the other team's moment by playing 30 seconds in a 6 minute span (an average timeout is 2.5 minutes).  The NCAA needs to return to its old system where there were 3 TV timeouts a half (at every 5 minute interval) but if a timeout was called by a coach either right before or after the interval, that timeout became the TV timeout.  Honestly, there is no flow in a college game anymore, and it also prevents a large number of blowouts.  If you recall the 'Cuse game against Notre Dame, every time the Orange had them on the ropes, a TV timeout would fall into the Irish's lap, and that break in momentum would allow them to get back into the game.  This is college sports for god's sake.  The players don't get paid (technically), so there should not be the need for the amount of advertising that exists.

Secondly is the CBS coverage itself.  If I had to give it a grade, I would give it a C-/D+.  My biggest grievance again has to do with the TV timeouts.  I was working out in the gym and on my machine I could clearly see the time ticking away.  I watched the 'Ville vs. Morehead State game go to a TV timeout, and 2.5 minutes later, when the game was set to resume, CBS decided to show the two other games on for 30 seconds each, meaning that I missed 1 minute of the action of a good game.  What I don't understand is why 1.5 minutes into the TV timeout, CBS came back early to give us game updates.  Honestly, it's not like every commercial won't be aired 50 times during the course of the tournament.  Furthermore, every time I see each commercial again (they don't change them, i.e. the same companies only have 1 commercial that they play over and over again), and each time I see that same commercial I am turned off even more from buying that product.

On a 'Cuse note, I was pissed at CBS' coverage of that game.  Where I live, the 'Cuse game was the 12:00 game.  After 10 minutes of game time, CBS already left that feed, which was understandable, and I watched the rest of the half online.  However, because the game was the first one of the day, when the second half started, every other game was between halves.  But of course, CBS had us miss the first 2.5 minutes of the half (remember, this was the scheduled game in my area) to show the same commercials over and over again. MESSAGE TO CBS: WE ARE BASKETBALL FANS, WE WATCH THE TOURNAMENT FOR BASKETBALL.  WE DO NOT WATCH FOR COMMERCIALS.  IF I DONT BUY A LEXUS THE FIRST TIME I SEE THE COMMERCIAL, I WILL SURE AS HELL NOT BUY IT THE SECOND TIME I SEE IT.  LET US WATCH BASKETBALL, OTHERWISE I, AND MANY OTHERS, HOPE THAT ESPN OUTBIDS YOU FOR THE COVERAGE RIGHTS AFTER NEXT YEAR. 

KO > Chuck Norris???

During these slow few days known as the break between conference tournaments and Selection Sunday and the start of the NCAA Tournament, I've been reading too many blogs for my own good...BUT, I have noticed something funny on the Syracuse Basketball Forum (http://www.syracuse.com/forums/orangebasketball/).  Our favorite adopted Belgian, Kristof Ongenaet at first was being compared to Chuck Norris; however, on the forum he has now surpassed Walker, the Texas Ranger (I know there is no "the" but just go with it).   Some of my favorites so far include:

KO does not consider it sex if the woman lives

When KO wants an egg, he crack's open a chicken

In the first Jurassic Park movie, the tyrannosaurus rex wasn't chasing the jeep.  KO was chasing the tyrannosaurus AND the jeep.

Wilt Chamberlain claimed to have slept with over 20,000 women in his lifetime.  KO calls this a 'slow tuesday.'

A cobra once bit Kristof's leg.  After five days of excruciating pain, the cobra died.

When the Hulk gets mad, he turns into KO.

KO has counted to infinity...twice

If you have any others, even if they are verbatim with Chuck Norris one's, put them in the comments section.

Kristof Ongenaet

We all talk about KO and his style of play, his heart, and how his reemergence coinciding with Syracuse's recent success on the court.  I think this one play on Saturday against Louisville sums everything up:

I was sitting behind the Syracuse basket when this happened (opposite side of the court) and saw him get fouled but looked away to celebrate the dunk, only to hear the raucous crowd go numbingly silent.  It looked bad, but we tried to gain hope in any way we could, beginning with us being able to see his legs move.  I then felt my legs shake when the student section began a chant that spread throughout the arena: "Kirst-of, Krist-of, Krist-of."  We all know what happened next, but the fact is that if he lands on his neck or hurts his back, this team is done.  He is the glue of this team.  When no one on the court hustles for a rebound or loose ball, JB immediately brings in KO.  KO does the little stuff, the dirty work.  He's the exact player that every coach wished he had, and wished that he had 5 of them.  The fact is that it is worrisome that KO won't be here next year.  Maybe Wes Johnson or Dashonte Riley will bring in that energy, but let's face it, KO will be missed and hopefully no one will forget the Waffle, after he leads us back to the promised land this year.