Tuesday's GOI's

(13) Marquette 91, OKST 61. Marquette came back strong in round two in Maui. Jerel McNeal scored 20 and Ousmane Barro had 10 rebounds. During the first half the Golden Eagles were putting on a defensive clinic. This was one of the strongest games I've watched so far of any of the ranked teams.

Connecticut 89, Gardner-Webb 72. This was the second meeting between the two in about a week. UCONN got the best of GW in both games. UCONN got out to a strong lead in both games and cruised to victories in both games.

Seton Hall 94, Loyola 80. The Pirates finally get an easy win after two double overtime victories against Robert Morris and Monmouth. No matter how they are winning, the Pirates are off to a 3-0 start. They play a relatively weak non-conference schedule, so there is very likely Seton Hall could go into conference play with at most two losses.

Rutgers 55, Dartmouth 50. The Scarlet Knights win an ugly one. They needed a second half comeback after trailing 27-21 at half. JR Inman had another 10 rebounds to lead Rutgers to a 4-1 start with their loss to Florida.

St. John's 76, Sacred Heart 49. St. John's easily handles winless Sacred Heart. Really not much to say about this one.

Virginia 72, Drexel 58. Virginia controls this game from the beginning practically. Sean Singletary drops another 24 on the Dragons. Virginia beat probably the best team in an early season tournament based in Philadelphia which leaves the Cavaliers as the hands down favorite to win the tournament.

Women's Basketball

The men's team brought in arguably one of the best, if not the best recruiting class in the nation, but we cannot forget the ladies.

Coach Quentin Hillsman has spent the last several years recruiting the nation's best women's basketball players. His work has resulted in the incoming class that was ranked 11th. It included standouts Erica Morrow, Tasha Harris, Chandrea Jones, Vionca Murray. This year's class announced this week is ranked 13th in the country. The class includes four top 60 players and the 30th best Junior college transfer. The seniors, rank, and highschool: Tyler Ash, 24th, Liverpool in Syracuse. Shakeya Leary, 54th, New York City. Lynnae Lampkins, 58th, Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Troya Berry, 59th, Flint. The Junior college transfer is Lynnise Nixon from Philadelphia.

I personally am very exciting for the future of Syracuse women's basketball. This program is clearly on the rise. Coach Q has this team headed in the right direction. It clearly showed at Midnight Madness. They showed a great ability to shoot and score.

The team started off the season by squeaking out a win over Coppin State, but in their second game, they were beaten pretty badly by 6th ranked UNC 97-72. The Orange can take many things out of that game. First, they hit free-throws, draining 25 of 29 shots. I had live stats up the entire game from collegesportstv and noticed the 'Cuse was outrebounding UNC the majority of the game. The Orange finished down 8 in rebounds, but showed great poise on the boards hauling in 24 offensive rebounds. The ladies also forced 27 UNC turnovers. The Orange shot just 29% for the game and 20% in the first half which was the major difference. If they shoot even 30% in the first half and 35% for the game, this is easily just a 10-15 game. To me, that is making great strides for a program that historically has rarely ever been able to complete with top notch programs.

The ladies are back in action Sunday against my hometown college of Bethlehem: Lehigh Mountain Hawks. Last year Syracuse went to Stabler Arena and lost a close game. Expect this year to be much different in Manley Field House.

Monday's Games of Interest

Today's GOI:

(13) Marquette 74, Chaminade 63. This game was within a few points late in the second half. Chaminade is a Division II team for anyone who doesn't know. That is just inexcusable on Marquette's part. Poor shooting performances and a scrappy Chaminade team kept the Silverswords in this til almost the very end.

Georgia Tech Ramblin' Wreck 70, Notre Dame 69. Notre Dame loses again, yesterday to Baylor, today to the Yellow Jackets. South Bend we have a problem. Those are two teams the Irish cannot afford to lose to early on if they want to be seriously considered a tournament team. They are going to have to really play well the rest of the non-conference schedule and put together a solid 11-7 or 12-6 in the Big East to have any chance of dancing with those two loses.

Belmont 85, Alabama 83. Belmont now has two wins over BCS schools: Alabama and Cincy. Go Atlantic Sun early in the year.

Ohio State Scouting Report

Ohio State enters Wednesday's game with Syracuse with a 2-0 record with a 91-68 win over UW-Green Bay and a 68-54 win over Columbia in the first two rounds of the Preseason NIT.

BUCKEYE OFFENSE: In those two games the Buckeyes ran a highly efficient offense, with a 122 rating, which means in 100 possessions they'd be expected to score 122 points. That's 14th in the nation right now, but when their opponents defensive strength of schedule is factored in, that rating drops to 105. Ohio State has held onto the ball very well this year, turning the ball over just 14% of the time. Syracuse turns the ball over 24% of the time. Ohio State only returns one legitimate three point threat from last year. Jamar Butler is 9-18 from three this year in two games. The rest of the team is just 8-26. The 2-3 Zone should work against OSU if Syracuse can make sure that they limit Butler's attempts from three. As long as the Orange do not let Butler try to shoot them out of the zone, they should be alright. The zone should also make OSU's 7 foot freshman center Kosta Koufus a non-factor. Another weakness for OSU's offense is their foul shooting. In two games, the Buckeyes shot a mere 61% from the line.

BUCKEYE DEFENSE: Ohio State's defense struggled against Columbia and UWGB in two aspects. The three point shot and an inability to force turnovers. They forced turnovers on only 13.9% of the opponents possessions, good for 330th in the nation. The three point shot accounted for 48% of OSU's opponents field goal attempts. OSU's effective three point FG% is good, but a high number of threes means an overall less efficient offense. The Adjusted efficiency rating for this defense is just 100.2. Two things OSU does well: Block shots and prevent offensive rebounds. The Buckeyes are 19th in the nation in percentage of opponents possessions that end in block shots (19%).

Overall, S.U. can win this game by playing an active two-three zone, letting OSU hoist threes as long as it's not Jamar Butler doing the shooting. The Orange also need to hold onto the ball and get good looks from three because OSU plays strong interior defense.



Thanks to Ken Pomeroy and Ohio State Athletics for the Statistics. Ken Pomeroy's blog can be found on the right.

Sunday's Games

Sunday's Games an Orange fan might care about:

Temple 73, Marist 69 (OT). This is only relevant because Louie McCroskey scored 18 for the Red Foxes.

Seton Hall 111, Robert Morris 107 (OT). The Pirates improve to 2-0. The Big East is really coming out strong early on.

(6) Louisville 84, Jackson State 53. Jackson State went to the tournament last year, but they were still no match against the Cardinals. Earl Clark almost became the second Cardinal in two days to record a triple double. He finished with a 20-14-7 line. Louisville is coming out of the gate firing.

Rhode Island 74, UAB 69. The Carrier Dome bound Rams improve to 5-0 with a win in the Glenn Wilkes Classic at Daytona Beach.

West Virginia 106, Prairie View A&M 41. WVU dominates for Coach Huggins. Enough said, score says everything.

Villanova 70, Bucknell 64. Nova uses a 7-0 late when the game was tied at 57 to take control. The two Cory's, Fisher and Stokes don't score for Nova. The two freshmen were excepted to come in and make an immediate impact. At least for today, that did not hold true. Bucknell hit 15 three pointers in this one, good thing they aren't playing Boeheim's 2-3 zone this year.

Miami and Providence are playing right now. South Florida is at Florida State in a little bit. Baylor travels to Notre Dame at 8:30. Syracuse handily beat the Bears last year in the Dome.

Games of Interest

This is irrelevant to Otto's Army, but not to S.U. fans. Here's some scores from over the weekend of some games that S.U. fans should care about. Overall, the Big East is 30-8 through Saturday's games.


(6) Louisville 104, Hartford 69. Terrence Williams records a triple double, but turns the ball over eight times for the Cardinals season opener.

South Florida 100, Florida Atlantic 69. South Florida gets their first win of the year behind Big East Player of the Year candidate Kentrell Gransberry's 21 and 9. The big man is averaging 15 and 11 in three games.

Siena 79, (20) Stanford 67. Stanford some how got into the tournament ahead of Syracuse last year, but this year the Cardinals fall to Siena, at Siena. Siena is the team that just lost to S.U. The win for the Orange looks a little better and will be an RPI booster.

Depaul 54, Northwestern 53. Depaul gets their first win of the year. They lost their opener to a MVC team for the second straight year.

Florida 88, Rutgers 53. Only thing of note here is JR Inman for the Scarlet Knights is good. The Junior Forward is averaging 20 and 8 this year and is the reason the Knights are 3-1 early.

St. Joseph's 57, Boston 48. Keep winning St. Joe's, they make Syracuse's win look better the more they win.

UMASS 93, UWGB 83. UMASS looks like they score at will early on here. They have jumped out to a 4-1 start averaging closer to 90 points a game. Their ability to score could give S.U. fits.

Rhode Island 80, Stetson 65. Rhode Island is undefeated so far at 4-0. The Rams square of with the Orange December 8th. They have a deep rotation with 8 players seeing 20 minutes a game so far.

Division II Alaska Fairbanks 62, Oregon State 60. Are you serious Oregon State? Everyone knew they were going to be bad, but that bad?

Virginia 75, (17) Arizona 72. S.U. goes to Virginia in December for probably their biggest game in the non-conference schedule. Sean Singletary is a great player, he led the Cavaliers with 24 points. UVA is also undefeated so far at 3-0. Something interesting to note, UVA has played 13 players in three games so far that have averaged at least 4 minutes a game. No player on that team is averaging more than 5 rebounds per game because of this depth.

Sunday's games will be up when those games are over.

Game Day

I am not afraid to post when I GOT THERE to the game. I have no problem if people beat me there anymore. For Fordham's game, I purposely left out when other groups got there, but made note that others were there. The point of this blog is to tell people about what goes on in Otto's Army and about our waits outside the Dome. The amount of time we spend there is very important to the story.

On a side note, if you have an issue with anything on this blog, please contact me in person or through phone call.

Thank you,
Jameson

Fordham Wait

I got to the Dome at 8:30 or so and there were already three groups ahead of me. As of 11 o'clock, there are 6 groups there which means the front row is already taken up.

Good and Bads of Preseason NIT

Good: No Carrier Dome Ads, pure college basketball at its best. Two games involving solid teams each day.

Bad: 30 member band, one person can be Otto (he musta been deadtied by the end), smaller dance team and cheerleading squad, opposing fans in our student section, no running of the flags, and most of all that damn St. Joesph's Hawk that doesn't stop flapping his arms. He's got to be the most pathetic mascot ever, he literally doesn't do anything but flap his fake wings.

Overall, I'll pass on the Preseason NIT in the future when it comes to having it in the Dome. It was a home game with some strings attached. I'll take just normal home games down the road, we can schedule good opponents down the road if we want to instead of facing Ohio State, and the winner of most likely Washington and Texas A&M. Of course with the upsets already that matchup isn't guaranteed.

Syracuse 72 St. Joesph's 69

It looks like we could be in for some long waits outside the Carrier Dome if the team keeps playing like this. The seniors got there at 9:30, followed by the new freshman group, and then us at 10:30.

The game was amazing again. The student section is getting really loud really early in the year. It's great. We opened the Go Orange chant to the entire crowd with the student section pointing around the Dome to the rest of the crowd yelling GO! hoping the rest of the crowd responses with Orange. It worked alrite, the enthusiastic people out there do it but not too many other people.

My simple breakdown of the game, again we don't have the greatest vantage point, is that we need to cut down the turnovers. The really bad ones that aren't going to lead to baskets even if the pass goes through need to stop. I don't mind the occasional Alley-Oop when the game is tight because it sucks the crowd back into the game. I don't like the fact that Boeheim isn't using his bench. Scoop should be seeing 10 minutes or so and Rick should see around the same, probably more towards 15. Kristof should get probably 5. After that I don't care if anyone steps out there. It definitely showed in the last 10 minutes, the guys were getting tired. They were as efficient on offense. They also were getting a little lazy in the 2-3 zone. The forwards were not stepping up as quickly on the wings, leaving the guards hung out to dry. That right there in my mind was the fatigue.

We will be back friday. A good friend of mine Jordan "Shut Up"malis (inside joke) will be singing the nation anthem and she's damn good. So go to the game and listen to her...oh and watch a great team on the side.

Syracuse 97 Siena 89

From the front row perspective, this team is going to be really, really exciting to watch. The players started the diamond hand gesture above their heads to signal the formation of a dynasty. It seems kind of cocky, but the student section loves it for the most part. It's something that is really connecting the student section and the players. It seems this year the players are more fan friendly. From the front row, we chant all their names at different times through the pregame, during the game, and post game, and we get a response. This team truly has the talent and attitude to be something really special.

For my game analysis, granted we have a very distorted view of the game from the front, is that we are going to try to win as many games possible 90-85 instead of 65-60 like past years. This may be fun to watch, but it doesn't mean it's better basketball. There will be many games in the Big East where we might not be able to just outscore the other team. But anyways, Jonny Flynn, wow. He wasn't suppose to be a great slasher, he wasn't suppose to be a bigtime three point threat. I know it was only one game, but man did he show off some major skills. Donte Green appeared to struggle offensively, but he was only 4-10, not terrible, but he still finished with 14 points. Paul Harris showed tenacity grabbing 15 boards, a career high for him. Rick Jackson is as an anonymous front row would say, "The steal of this Class." I agree with him. The kid has a sweet lefty baby hook. Don't see that too often for sure. It's happened almost every game so far including the exhibitions, but when Kristof and especially Scoop step on the floor, the opposing team steps up pressure with double teams. It caused two straight Scoop turnovers, and with Boeheim's quick lease, it sent him to the bench for the rest of game.

Tomorrow we'll be back out there. I'm guessing some people will be there as early as 10 A.M. in line, if not earlier.

Non-revenue events

Otto's Army is expanding to non-revenue sports. We are going to our first women's soccer game Friday night at 7:00 at Manley against Notre Dame. We are hoping for a good turn out. So come down to Manley tomorrow and support the Ladies against the Friggin Irish.

Save Syracuse Swimming and Diving

Note: This post does not reflect the opinion of any particular group.

I'll make this short. It's no secret that the large majority of the athletic department's revenues come from Men's Basketball and Football. They rely heavily on those programs and I think that the lagging Football attendance is a financial stress. I'm a huge fan and I think I missed 1 or 2 games my whole career at SU in a time that the program was in bit of a swan dive, but I think athletics built an expectation of revenues from that program and didn't prepare well enough for a down time in overall attendance, so they're making swift cuts. However, they have been quite quick to spend a LOT of money changing uniforms and logos multiple times, and on a huge NYC marketing campaign.

I think we are looking for some chance to let the Swimming and Diving team meet the goals of the athletics department through alumni and other support. As a former Student Association rep, I found it extremely disrespectful that no one from the department attended the assembly meeting they were invited to a week in advance to answer questions about the cuts. I will continue to applaud the efforts of SA in defending their fellow students on this issue. I'm guilty of never attending a S&D meet, but that doesn't mean they don't deserve fair process. And before you jump on me for not offering any idea, here's one – the university is looking to spend a lot of money to replace Archbold gym, so how about building the necessary swimming facilities into it? It could be a great collaboration effort between SU athletics and the University at large.

Menotti Minutillo, Jr. '07
Co-Founder, Otto's Army
Student Association Assembly Representative, 50th Session

FXB

Many members of Otto's Army play Focrossketball. What's focrossketball you ask? Possibly the greatest game ever invented. The inventors? Seniors Lisa Corolla and Bagel Dilks. Focrossketball is a mix of football and lacrosse. As you can see the video, someone takes a lacrosse and throws it with a lacrosse stick across a field, in our case the Women's Building field. Then the two teams chase after the ball, starting from the same fence. You proceed to then pick up the ball and run it back to the fence, but if you are tackled by the opposing team, you must throw it backwards. You score once when you get the ball back to the fence, then repeat the process until someone needs stitches or everyone is tired. I believe this is the fourth season of focrossketball.

So without further ado, here's focrossketball.

Got any questions about this wonderful game, leave a comment.

Otto's Army

Otto's Army had their first meeting of the school year tonight. For anyone that doesn't know, Otto's Army is generally a pep-club type organization mainly in charge of organizing the student section at Syracuse University sporting events. We also do charity work, organize Homecoming Activities, run the Winter Carnival, and help run Midnight Madness among other things. We are just in our second year of operation and funds are short. So alumni out there if you to help out, maybe sponser t-shirts to give out at games, or anything you think could make a difference. Either e-mail me at jsflemin@syr.edu or the president of Otto's Army Darryl Patterson at dapattes@syr.edu, or just leave a comment on here.

Thanks!
GOOOOOO ORANGE!!!!!

Capital One Mascot Challenge

Otto is trailing by 100 votes early. Orange fans unite, go to the link on the right and vote for Otto.

Vote for Otto

The Capitolone Bowl Mascot Challenge is up and running again. You can vote for Otto here starting September10th. Last year Otto didn't do too well, but that needs to change.

Let's GOOOOOO ORANGE!!!

Huskie Hell

So we've been very quiet over here at Cuseline for awhile now mainly because we have no reason to camp out for lacrosse and really football for that matter. However, we were at the Washington game, bright and early. Amy and I got to the Dome at 11 in the morning and were the first ones there. A giddy freshman by the name of Trevor, joined us at 11:45. As the day went on the crowd kept coming. The early afternoon was filled with some tossing around of a nerf football followed by some booing of Washington faithful passerbys. By 5:00 the line to get into the student section was almost out to the quad, and by gates open the line was apparently at the quad if not further. Bravo students on that one. The atmosphere in the Dome once gates opened was electric, the best i've ever seen it in my one plus year on the hill. The football team came in shortly after to greet the students and get everyone fired up. It seemed the student section might finally be back and rowdy. It was while we were still in the game, but by the second quarter, very few people past the first couple rows were cheering nonstop anymore. By the time it was 21-6, most of the students decided it was game over and left. At the end of the game I doubt there was more than about 200-300 students left. Shame on the student section. When it was 21-6 the game was clearly not over, weirding things have happened in football. (See 58-42 Louisville over Middle Tenn. State. Who saw that score coming). Overall it was a dissapointing game, hopefully down the road the students won't give up so easily. I know it has been a tough couple years, but for all the students who got to the game hours in advance, why would you leave so early in the third quarter?


And for the helluva it, because you can't get enough of the Final Countdown video.

And when it was played at the Dome

GOOOOOOOOOO ORANGE!
-Jameson

Through the dark...

Menotti put it pretty much perfect... but I wanted to add something on the more optimistic side of this shitty situation. This is from the Axeman Blog on Syracuse.com: Give the Fans an Assist

Can't stand these pundits

I've been quiet about this for a while, but I guess it's time to weigh in our NCAA tournament selection snub.

First, I'm going to ignore the numbers and talk about something that's really getting under my skin. I'm getting sick and tired of these talking heads making predictions and determinations and then saying "I told you so" when something different from their prediction turns out.

Take Doug Gottlieb. First, he said we needed the Georgetown win to be in the tournament. We got it - handily. What does Doug do? Change his mind. He states we need to beat UCONN in the Big East Tournament to be in. So, we go down to MSG and beat UCONN.

Finally, Doug is satisfied and says we're in during a segment on SportsCenter (or was it ESPN Bracketology? I can't remember)

So, what happens on Selection Sunday? He says we deserved not to be in the field of 65 after we're left out. What gives?

Well, maybe this will (not) answer your question:
Doug Gottlieb on ESPN Radio

So, what does he say on this show when talks to maybe the only other mouth that agrees with him in the country? That he believed that SU was in because the committee wouldn't have the guts to leave us out. It seems that the only one without guts is Doug when he retroactively formed the intent of a previously made statement.

What a coward.

Now, a look at the numbers from coach Boeheim, who in my opinion absolutely tore apart John Kincaid on ESPN radio

Let me summarize the most important point made by Jimmy B: our non-conference and overall strength of schedule is not a valid argument against our being left out of the tournament.

Here are the schools with worse OOC SOS than Syracuse:

Washington State
Notre Dame
Oregon
Texas
USC
Georgia Tech
Virginia
Indiana
Louisville
Georgetown
Kansas
Stanford

These teams had worse overall SOS than us: Nevada, Notre Dame, Old Dominion, Xavier, Butler

Without that argument, or the false argument of our weak BE schedule (1. of which we have no control over and 2. was the 4th strongest in the conference), there isn't very much of a case for us to be left out over a few of the questionable inclusions.