Scoop Jardine Leads Syracuse Past Georgetown

The Scoop Jardine that many of us had grown accustomed to watching last season finally reappeared in a Syracuse uniform after disappearing for much of January and February. Playing in front of 20,276 fans in the Verizon Center (the most ever for a Georgetown game), Scoop Jardine led the Orangemen to a 58-51 victory with 17 points and 7 assists, while turning the ball over just once in 34 minutes on the floor, spoiling "senior day" for the Georgetown seniors.

The Orangemen pushed their first half lead from 3 points to 10 points at the break behind unbelievable play from sophomore James Southerland. Southerland scored seven of Syracuse's final nine points of the half. James hadn't scored a single point since February 5th at South Florida, when he chipped in 2 points in one minute.

Southerland received 21 minutes, more than he's played in the last eight games combined (three of which he did not play a single minute), largely due to the fact C.J. Fair was limited to just 11 minutes of action. Fair, who has played more than 25 minutes in each of the last six games, rolled his ankle in first half action against Villanova on Monday night. Although he did return to the game and go on to play 30 minutes that night, it was very clear that Fair was still feeling the effects of that injury. C.J. Fair finished with 4 rebounds and zero points.

This was the first time this season that C.J. Fair appeared in a game and did not score a single point. Southerland, who scored 9 points in the first half, did not score in the second half.

Considering C.J. Fair's lack of availability, the Orangemen's defense looked in control much of the game, minus Georgetown's surge when they went on a 20-6 run to take their first lead of the game since 2-0. With the score 45-43 with ten minutes remaining in the game, Scoop Jardine played his best minutes down the stretch of any game in literally weeks, making clutch shots and knocking down a HUGE 3-pointer shot with 4:53 remaining to put Syracuse back up six points.

Rick Jackson, who will be playing in his final game in the Carrier Dome this coming Saturday, finished with 12 points on 5 of 7 shooting from the field and grabbed 7 rebounds. Fab Melo played his first significant minutes since missing practice prior to the Louisville game on February 12th. Melo played 7 minutes (more than his previous five games combined) and finished with 2 points and 1 rebound.

Kris Joseph was limited to just 4 points on 2 of 7 shooting in 31 minutes and pulled down only 2 rebounds. This was his lowest offensive output since scoring 2 points in 10 minutes against Cincinnati before leaving with a head injury in the first half.

The Syracuse Orangemen as a unit are peaking at exactly the right time of the year. After suffering four straight losses and losing six of eight games between January 17th and February 12th, Jim Boeheim's Orangemen have won 4 straight games. The last two victories coming in Philadelphia against #14/15 Villanova and in Washington D.C. against #11 Georgetown.

Next up on the schedule is Rick Jackson Night, the final home game of the season against the 7-21 (1-15 in Big East) DePaul Blue Demons on Saturday March 5th at 4:00PM. It's Senior Day in the Carrier Dome, and the Orangemen faithful will be paying homage to their lone upperclassman, Rick Jackson.

photo courtesy of syracuse.com

Orangemen Empty Down the Stretch, Fall to Georgetown

It all started out so promising. The Orangemen defense held Georgetown to just 29 first half points and Syracuse had the lead at the break by two points. The Cuse continued to battle defensively in the second half and clung to a 4 point lead with 6:31 left in the ball game (53-49). Syracuse seemed to have the momentum, and with the hometown fans behind them, we hoped that Syracuse would keep fighting and gut out this victory against our arch-nemisis.

From there, the Orangemen's collective basketball intelligence and talent decided to pack it in and call it a night. Syracuse would not make another shot from the field for the rest of the game. Unfortunately, Georgetown scored 15 points in that span and pulled away for a 64-56 Big East victory in front of 26,904 in the Carrier Dome. The Cuse were outscored 15-3 in the final 6 minutes and change to hand Georgetown the victory.

Rick Jackson was unfortunately victimized by Nate Lubick and Julian Vaughn, who both took two of the biggest flops in Syracuse-Georgetown history to draw fouls on Rick Jackson. To add insult to injury, with 14:40 left to play Jackson was called for an off the ball foul in the offensive zone for his 4th foul of the game and earned himself a seat on the bench for much of the remainder of the game.

Big East officials chose this game as the first game all season for Rick Jackson to be in foul trouble, with three highly questionable calls all on the offensive end of the court. Rick Jackson barely brushed up against his man to call that 4th foul while he was boxing out and establishing position in the middle of the paint. That essentially took him out for the remainder of the game and that call was an absolute DISGRACE.

However the Orangemen would keep chopping at Georgetown and did not quit once Jackson took his 4th foul. Syracuse managed to build a four point lead after being down 3 points when Rick Jackson exited the game with great effort from C.J. Fair, Baye Moussa Keita and Kris Joseph. But when the game mattered down the stretch, the Orangemen would come up empty on nearly every possession.

Rick Jackson finished the night with 4 points on 1 of 6 shooting and 8 rebounds (7 in the first half). He also blocked 3 shots and had 1 steal in addition to his 4 fouls. There were a few times in the first half Rick Jackson streaked through the paint with a step on his man, although the guards failed to find him.

At one point with under 4 minutes to go in the 1st half Jackson ran alone through the paint and Dion Waiters instead threw the ball around the perimeter to Kris Joseph who ended up taking a charge. Jackson turned to Waiters and emphatically informed him of his availability down low.

Freshman C.J. Fair had another tremendous outing, shooting 6 of 9 from the floor for 12 points and finishing with 5 rebounds and 2 blocks. Baye Moussa Keita pitched in a season high 5 blocks and notched 4 points and 4 rebounds for the Cuse.

Kris Joseph had a seemingly good game, scoring a team high 14 points, but a closer look at his numbers paints a very different picture. Joseph was 4 of 10 from the field overall, and 2 of 7 from 3-point range. Joseph made his first two 3-pointers of the game, so he missed his final 5 shots in a row from beyond the arc.

Furthermore, since he only took 10 shots from the floor, that means he only took 3 shots that weren't 3's in the 40 minutes he played. Two out of three is much better statistics than two out of seven. Perhaps Kris Joseph can stop throwing the ball up from 3 and create some shots for himself that don't result in an offensive charge call (he was called for three charges)? That is what we are missing from Kris Joseph! At least his free throw shooting was acceptable, 4 of 5 from the charity stripe, however his 1 rebound in 40 minutes simply will not get it done for the Orangemen.

The loss drops the #12/13 Syracuse Orangemen to 20-5 on the year, a very respectable mark, and 7-5 in the Big East, not as good. As of right now, Syracuse has lost five of their last seven Big East games and face a match up against Rick Pitino's Louisville Cardinals on Saturday at 12:00. Georgetown's win improves their record to 19-5 on the year, and 8-4 in Big East play. This is Georgetown's first win in the Carrier Dome since the 2001-02 season.

photo courtesy of syracuse.com

BEAT GEORGETOWN!

If you watched SportsCenter this morning you would have been well aware that #5 Duke are playing #20/21 UNC tonight and that it is the #1 game of the year. There are no other games today. Duke. North Carolina. That's it. 9PM on ESPN. College basketball at it's finest on display.

But there's another game on tonight. Against two higher ranked teams. Between two bitter, bitter rivals in the best basketball conference in the country. No, not the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Big East.

Tonight on ESPN, before the watered down ACC tips off the Big Boys will be taking the court at the Carrier Dome. #12/13 Syracuse Orangemen against the hated #11 Georgetown Hoyas.

College basketball at it's finest.

Syracuse returns home after knocking off the #6/7 Connecticut Huskies and blowing out the South Florida Bulls on the road on the heels of a four game losing streak. Georgetown travels to Upstate New York with a six game winning streak in the Big East after starting 1-4 in Conference play.

Syracuse has seven games remaining on their regular season schedule, five of them against ranked opponents. What better way to kick off the home stretch than kicking the crap out of some Hoyas in front of the hometown crowd?

Leading the Hoyas into Cuse is Austin Freeman (6'3" 227 pounds), a senior out of Mitchellville, MD. Freeman is averaging 18.7 points per game and shoots 45.7% from 3-point range. Freeman has been on fire lately, averaging 22.2 points in his last six contests. If Syracuse's 2-3 zone can slow him down like they did against Kemba Walker, than the Orangemen will greatly increase their chances of victory. When Georgetown lost 3 straight games in early January Freeman was held to 6, 11 and 12 points in those contests.

Also averaging in double figures is Chris Wright (6'1" 208 pounds), another senior who hails from Bowie, MD. Wright is averaging 12.8 points and 5.4 assists per game. After being held scoreless in the January 29th win at Villanova despite playing 32 minutes, Wright bounced back with a 24 point performance against Louisville two days later.

Junior Jason Clark (6'2" 170 pounds) out of Arlington, VA averages 12.5 points per game and shoots 38.8% from 3-point range. Clark is a very streaky player, seemly having one good game followed by one bad game and so on, and so on. Thankfully for the Orangemen, Clark scored 18 points against Providence in the last game after a 2 point effort against Louisville. This tells me that Clark should have another off game tonight.

For the Syracuse Orangemen, who else do we talk about outside of Rick Jackson? The dude is an absolute beast. A menace. He had his 16th double-double of the season on Saturday against USF and scored a season high 21 points. Jackson has improved his season average to 13.5 points per game and 11.5 rebounds per contest to lead the Cuse.

C.J. Fair has been emerging off the bench as a viable option off the bench as well. Against South Florida Fair shot 3 of 5 from the floor for 7 points and added 9 rebounds. He also matched a season high in blocks with three in 27 minutes of action. Fair should continue to play a steady amount of minutes tonight and hopefully he will be able to establish himself inside to help Rick Jackson out on the glass.

Two questions for the Orangemen: 1. Will this be the game Scoop Jardine snaps out of his shooting funk? 2. Will Fab Melo or Baye Moussa Keita make a significant contribution to the game?

Scoop Jardine's shooting troubles have been well documented here the past week or so. Playing a weak opponent like USF did not wake up his jump shot like I had hoped, perhaps playing an arch-rival will wake him up? There's only seven games left in the season, there's no better time than the present to make some shots, even layups!

As for the freshman centers, Fab Melo is averaging just 7.8 minutes and 1.7 points and 1.8 rebounds per Big East game this season. Against USF Melo played 12 minutes and made 2-3 shots from the floor for 4 points and 3 rebounds. Not exactly award winning numbers. Baye Moussa Keita had his best game of the season against Connecticut on February 2nd grabbing 11 boards and 6 steals and scoring 4 points for the Cuse before playing just 6 minutes against USF.

Will either center emerge to play major minutes against Georgetown? Odds are in Keita's favor, he's actually had major contributions this year. However, maybe this is the day Melo will break out of his shell and show the world he "gets it"? In all likelihood Rick Jackson will get a significant number of minutes at center, however there's a chance Baye Moussa Keita can catch a rhythm and play meaningful minutes for Jim Boeheim and the Orangemen.

Tip off tonight is at 7PM on ESPN. Be sure to check back with The Cuse Connection following the game for complete recap and analysis.

photo courtesy of syracuse.com

I Hate Georgetown.

From a very young age I learned two things: 1. Love the Orangemen and 2. Hate the Hoyas.

My parents both attended Syracuse University in the mid-1970s and attended games during the raucous days of the Manley Zoo. In true "How to Grow an Orange" fashion, one of my earliest memories is going to the Big East Tournament waayyyy before tip-off because my Dad wanted to watch warm ups. I learned about the way Manley Field House's last game ended and it was engrained in my brain seemingly from birth.

During the year I always say that my hate for Connecticut runs deeper. That the Georgetown rivalry was more of my parents rivalry than my generation. But then the calendar turns to game day against Georgetown and something in my brain clicks on, and my basic instincts take over.

All of a sudden my hate for UCONN, the NY Rangers, the Boston Red Sox and the National Socialist German Workers' Party recedes, and I become enraged and totally preoccupied with my disgust for all things Georgetown.

Tonight's game is no different from the games we all grew up watching. Syracuse comes in ranked #12/13 in the nation and those despicable meth cookers from Washington D.C. come to the Carrier Dome ranked 11th. It's the 34th time in Big East play that both teams have matched up with national rankings. Syracuse is boasting a 20-4 record while the other team is 18-5 and riding a six game Big East winning streak.

The Orangemen know a thing or two about ending Georgetown streaks. In 2007 the Hoyas came up to Cuse riding an 11-game Big East winning streak and a #10 national ranking. Unranked and possibly out-matched, the Syracuse Orangemen beat the crap out of the visiting team 72-58 before the student section danced on Jim Boeheim Court.

The last time Syracuse and the other guys met up was March 11th, 2010 in the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden. With 5:07 left in the game and Syracuse down by 6 points Greg Monroe and Arinze Onuaku collided under the basket and Onuaku collapsed on the floor grabbing his knee.

Arinze missed the remainder of the game, a 91-84 loss, and Syracuse lost it's starting senior center for the rest of the season. If not for that injury who knows what may have happened in that Sweet 16 match up against Butler. One thing I do know, I definitely blame that P.O.S. school for taking out Onuaku and ruining our season.

Let's get some payback tonight!