Syracuse Looks to Snap Two Game Skid Against Seton Hall

Syracuse is struggling. That's a given. The Orangemen, who won their first 18 games of the season, have now dropped two consecutive Big East games against two top tier teams in the nation (then #4 Pittsburgh and #7 Villanova).

Seemingly the poster child for the past two defeats is Scoop Jardine. Scoop has combined to make 5 of his last 21 shot attempts (23.8%) from the floor in the past two games, and watched the final 6 minutes of the Villanova game on the bench. He has pulled down zero rebounds in the same stretch and scored a mere 2 points in 22 minutes against Villanova (1-8 from the field).

It's clear Syracuse is going to need to get their mojo back. If a person was faced with a long dry-spell or felt as if they were lacking in mojo, they would head out and try to track down a slump breaker. Thankfully for Syracuse, they won't have to look too far. And thankfully, we're looking at the Seton Hall Pirates.

Like an ugly girl at a party, The Pirates enter the Carrier Dome tonight at 7PM with an overall record of 8-12, and a very poor 2-6 mark in Big East play. Since Syracuse defeated Seton Hall in Newark, NJ on January 8th 61-56, the Pirates have gone 1-3, and have lost three games in a row (at Pittsburgh and two home games against Georgetown and Rutgers). Seton Hall may very well be our slump breaker.

The Orangemen need to treat this game as a springboard. Use it as an opportunity to get their legs back under them, get their confidence back, and get back some swagger that the team hasn't had since watching Kris Joseph go down with a concussion in the game against Cincinnati.

Since the tangling with Syracuse, the Pirates have gotten their leading scorer Jeremy Hazell (6'5" 188 pounds) back from a hand injury and a gun shot wound. Although Seton Hall is 1-3 since his return, Hazell is averaging 15.5 points per contest. Hazell is averaging 19.1 points per game on the season (he missed 13 games), and had he been in action against Syracuse 17 days ago, the outcome might have been very different. In the seven games Hazell has played, he has failed to score in double digits just once, January 15th in Pittsburgh, when he was held to 9 points on 3 of 13 shooting.

When we last saw the Pirates Herb Pope (6'8" 236 pounds) pulled down 20 rebounds and scored 14 points. It seems as if that game kicked some life in Pope, as he's averaged 15.25 points and 10.25 rebounds since January 8th. The 20 rebounds against Cuse was Pope's season high, as were the 16 points he dropped on Georgetown on January 18th.

In the last meeting between the two squads Pope and Jeff Robinson (6'6" 230 pounds) combined to out-rebound the entire Syracuse Orangemen basketball team. Robinson pulled down 14 boards and added 17 points to help keep the Pirates in the ball game. Although Robinson hasn't been pulling down rebounds at nearly the same pace, he has been scoring the ball, averaging 12.8 points per game over his last four.

For Syracuse, they absolutely and desperately need to get their guards going. Syracuse can not afford another stinker from the guards, not just on offense but defensively as well. They must help out rebounding the basketball. It can not be all Rick Jackson underneath. And the same goes for James Southerland.

Southerland had an impressive 8 rebounds against Cincinnati, however in the following two games (both losses) James has grabbed only 1 rebound in a combined 54 minutes of action. With Southerland standing 6'8" I'm not even sure how that's possible. He has to get involved in rebounding the basketball otherwise he's going to see his minutes dwindle in favor of a player who can rebound the ball, a player like C.J. Fair.

C.J. had a season high 9 rebounds in the loss to Pittsburgh while helping fill the void left by an injured Kris Joseph. Fair also scored a season high 16 points in 36 minutes. However, on Saturday Fair played just 10 minutes and had 1 rebound. Not great numbers, but he should have seen more time off the bench, especially with Syracuse getting beat on so many rebounds late in the 2nd half.

Kris Joseph returned from his concussion to score a team high 23 points on 8 of 15 shooting Saturday against Nova. He made his first 4 three-point attempts before missing his final 3 tries of the game from long distance. While he had just 3 rebounds in 34 minutes, expect to see that number increase as he is averaging over 5 boards per game.

Tip-off tonight is at 7PM on SNY and as usual, be sure to check back in with The Cuse Connection following the game for full recap and analysis.

photo courtesy of syracuse.com

Syracuse Overcomes Terrible Shooting to Knock Off Seton Hall 61-56

It was an ugly day inside the Prudential Center in lovely Newark, NJ. Jump shooting, foul shots and ball control were three important aspects of the game that were lost on the Orangemen. Thankfully for undefeated Syracuse, Seton Hall was even worse.

Seton Hall missed all 17 3-point shots they attempted in the 1st half. In a first half where Syracuse's defense held the Pirates to just 19 points, Orangemen fans everywhere were left in absolute disbelief about what had just transpired on the court. The Orangemen scored just 3 points in the final 5 minutes and change of the first half.

Twenty points. Twenty minutes. That was what the #4 ranked Orangemen put up on the then 7-8 Seton Hall Pirates in the opening half. Brandon Triche said it best after the game, "I'm sure it wasn't a great game for the fans." No Brandon, it wasn't.

Thankfully for Cuse fans Triche exploded in a six-minute span in the second half. About 2 minutes into the second stanza with the score tied 22-22, Brandon Triche put on an absolute clinic for the 10,862 fans in attendance, many of them rocking the orange and blue.

BTriche got things started with a 3-point basket, his first points of the game. Triche then grabbed a steal and dropped in a layup. Over the next four minutes and change Triche swished three more 3-point field goals and pushed the Orangemen to their biggest lead of the game in the process.

When Brandon's 3-point shooting clinic was over (which included a 4-point play) Syracuse was up 42-33 with 11:43 left to play. Triche finished the matinee with 15 points (which tied him for the team high), on 5 of 7 shooting from the floor, 4 of 5 from 3-point range.

If Syracuse had any luck from the charity stripe, the game never would have been so close at the final buzzer. As a team Syracuse shot 17 of 36 from the foul line (47.2%). Seton Hall only got to the foul line 13 times and made 11 of their attempts (84.6%).

Kris Joseph, who also scored 15 points to lead the Orangemen, was the biggest culprit of the day. KrisJo was a miserable 8 of 17 from the foul line. Joseph also grabbed 8 rebounds.

Speaking of rebounds, as a team, the Cuse were out-rebounded by Herb Pope and Jeff Robinson. The Orangemen had 32 rebounds. Pope had 20 boards and Robinson had 14 off the glass. Rick Jackson had 14 rebounds so we can not fault him, but out side of Joseph and Jackson Syracuse's next highest rebounder was Baye Moussa Keita, who had just 3.

Keita fouled out in 14 minutes with 2 points (2 of 4 from the foul line) and all his rebounds came on the offensive glass. His freshman center counter-part Fab Melo gave Syracuse their first two points of the ball game in the opening seconds, and did not score again the rest of the way. Melo finished with 11 minutes 2 points 1 rebound and 2 turnovers.

Outside of Syracuse's offensive problems on the floor, the Orangemen fans gathered inside the Prudential Center were a little disappointing. It was an early start (12:00) and the game was fairly boring, however I felt as if the fans inside "the rock" could have done a little more. Particularly those fans in sections 1-4 behind the hoop on the floor.

The amount of Orange in those sections compared to the amount of noise coming from them was at a level that is unacceptable in Cuse nation. If you were sitting in those sections, I'm not saying you didn't cheer. However, you could have done more to encourage those around you to stand up and be heard.

You made the trip to Newark, NJ. Many of you probably woke up early to do it. Why just sit there? Cheer! Stand up! There was a lot of sitting down and not enough "let's go orange" coming from that area of the building for my liking. Let's try and work on that for next time.

Good news for those fans and the poor shooting Orangemen. They will get a chance to redeem themselves on Wednesday, when the Orangemen travel to Madison Square Garden to take on a surprise team in the Big East, St. Johns, at 7:00PM.

More good news: none of us have to watch that game again. Burn the tape. Syracuse got the win, and remain undefeated. That's all that matters. The Orangemen improve to 16-0 on the season and 3-0 in Big East play. With the loss, Seton Hall falls to 7-9 on the year 1-3 in conference play.

Seton Hall Scouting Report - Syracuse's First True Road Test

Regardless of the number of orange t-shirts and jerseys in the stands at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ on Saturday afternoon at 12:00PM, the #4 Syracuse Orangemen will actually be playing their first true road game of the season.

Newark, NJ (located just down the road from Jim Boeheim's doorstep) is the home of the Seton Hall Pirates. The Pirates (7-8, 1-2 Big East) defeated USF in their Big East opener, however have dropped their last two Big East games by an average of 18 points. Most recently, Seton Hall got beat up by Rick Pitino's Louisville Cardinals 73-54. The Cardinals opened the game by jumping out to a 24-2 lead against the Pirates.

Seton Hall scored their first basket 6:01 into the game, and didn't make another shot until there was 9:29 left in the first half. The Pirates looked extremely lazy on defense at times, and were very careless with the ball early on. Additionally, they took a lot of bad shots. The Pirates shot 29% from the field.

On the season, Seton Hall is shooting 40.4% from the field and 31.9% from 3-point range. They are without their senior leader Jeremy Hazell (who has averaged over 20 points per game the past two seasons), after he suffered a broken bone in his left hand and then got shot in the back during a robbery attempt over Christmas break. Hazell is expected to fully recover from the gun shot wound.

Senior Jeff Robinson (6'6" 230 pounds) out of nearby Trenton, NJ is the teams leading scorer in the absence of Hazell. Robinson is averaging 12.2 points per game and shoots 32% from 3-point range. Robinson grabs 5.9 rebounds on average, and had a season high 17 points and 10 rebounds against Richmond on December 26th. More recently, Robinson scored 14 points against Louisville Wednesday night.

Next up on the Pirates scoring list is Jordan Theodore (6' 174 pounds) out of Englewood, NJ. Theodore is posting 11.7 points per game and a 36.6% shooting accuracy from 3-point range. Against Arkansas on December 8th Theodore dropped a season high 24 points, and had a season high 10 assists against NJ Tech on December 19th. He is averaging just 8.6 points per game in Big East play.

Recently freshman Fuquan Edwin (6'6" 205 pounds) from Paterson, NJ has been coming on strong for the Pirates. After a slow start, Edwin is averaging 13 points per game in Big East play, and posted a team high 18 points and 9 rebounds against Louisville Wednesday night.

Junior Herb Pope (6'8" 236 pounds) out of Aliquippa, PA rounds out the Pirates leading scorers group. Averaging 8.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, Pope is one of the team leaders for the Pirates. Pope's numbers are down slightly from last season, and has only scored in double-digits 6 times through 14 games. After averaging a double-double last season (11.5 points 10.7 rebounds) Pope has just two double-doubles this season.

For the #4 in the nation and undefeated Syracuse Orangemen (15-0, 2-0), Kris Joseph, Rick Jackson and Scoop Jardine have been lighting the lamp and leading the way. Joseph is averaging 19.2 points his last 5 games and had a season high 8 rebounds last Saturday against #15 Notre Dame.

Rick Jackson, the Orangemen's undeniable season MVP and low-post all-star, has scored in double digits in all but two games this season for the Cuse. Against Notre Dame on Saturday Jackson had a monster 6-blocks and played the majority of the second half at the center position.

Scoop Jardine is averaging 19 points his last 3 games and tied a season high 9 assists against Notre Dame this past Saturday. The junior from Philly was taking it to the Fightin' Irish playground-style. Getting into the lane, throwing up acrobatic shots and making them, and dishing the rock, Scoop was playing like a man among boys on the school yard against the over matched Irish.

James Southerland will look to continue his hot play of late, averaging 11 points per game in his last 4 outings. Southerland saw his minutes increase when C.J. Fair went down with an ankle injury. Fair is expected to be close to 100% for the Seton Hall game, and was limited to 4 minutes against Notre Dame in his first game back after sitting out the previous three with an injury. In four minutes, C.J. Fair contributed 2 points and 3 rebounds for the Cuse.

The game will be televised live on SNY, the Big East Network, at 12:00PM. The Cuse Connection will be tweeting live from the Prudential Center and lovely Newark, NJ beginning around 10:30AM. Be sure to follow @CuseConnection to stay connected as the #4 Syracuse Orangemen take on the Seton Hall Pirates.

Be sure to check back with The Cuse Connection following the game for complete recap and analysis.

photo courtesy of syracuse.com