Ok, so remember when MCW was the greatest thing to touch the floor in Syracuse land like 2 years ago? Yeah, well that kid played less that 10 minutes a game as a freshman, then come out as a sophomore and let us to the Final Four. Then he left. Well, let me introduce you to SU's replacement for Mr. Carter-Williams. His name is T-Dot. And he does on the court what K-Dot does on the mic. For the laymen that would be Tyler Ennis (T-Dot) and Kendrick Lamar (K-Dot), both kings of their respective crafts. When Villanova came knocking with a 18 point lead in the early points of this game, the freshman Ennis did not wilt. No, rather he stepped up bigger than anyone else on the floor.
What did we learn
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CJ Fair played like
the preseason POY on Friday |
In SU's biggest test of the season on the court, the Orange stepped up in a huge way. The Wildcats came out firing, hitting 4 of their first 5 3-pointers and taking a 25-7 lead 9 minutes into the 1st Half. That was the largest deficit that Syracuse had faced all season. But Jim Boeheim's squad said deficit, schmeficit and went on a 20-0 run of their own to take a 27-25 lead with a little less than 5 minutes to play...and the Orange never looked back. During that stretch Trevor Cooney had 8 of the 20 and CJ Fair had 6 of his own. What the means is when all seemed lost, the leaders of the team stepped up. And once the comeback was mounted, it was the Tyler Ennis show. The freshman point guard had 20 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, and most importantly NO TURNOVERS. Am I the only one that is unbelievably impressed with the basketball IQ on this kid? Like MCW was a lottery pick and a player of the year candidate but that dude was like Mahatma Gandhi some games when it came to giving away the ball. We were so afraid that losing him at the point would mean the downfall of the Syracuse perimeter play. Uhh... that thought now seems utterly ridiculous. With Ennis and Cooney running the show outside I could not feel more comfortable. We also learned that our big men know how to rotate. There were a few times that I was in absolute awe of how fast the big men were in and out of their spots and forcing Villanova into tough outside shots. Toward the end of the game they had figured 'Nova out so well that the Wildcats had a hard time beating the shot clock.
What this means going forward
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| Bring it ACC, Bring it on |
I tell you what, before this game I did not feel very comfortable going into ACC play after the usual weak nonconference schedule. But after a game like that, that had everything that could basically go wrong (18 point deficit, early foul trouble, Karl Hess's entire existence, and 'Nova shooting the lights out from behind the arc), I feel more than comfortable. I say bring on your Roy Williamss, your Mike Krzyzewskis, and your Jim Larranagas. Let us have your worst because this team is up for it. Cooney is shooting almost 50% from 3, Ennis is wheeling and dealing from the point, and CJ Fair is living up to his preseason player of the year name. Even Baye, Rak, and DaJuan are starting to click. And don't even get me started on Jerami Grant. It always seems that the player that 'Cuse counts on the most is the 6th man, and the same sounds true this season. When everything else is going wrong, i.e. CJ and Trev aren't being CJ and Trev, the Orange have the ultimate backup plan in Jerami Grant. What this means going forward is that we can breathe easy going into ACC play and feel that yeah, we do deserve that #2 ranking on the left of our name. The 'Cuse is for real once again.
The Orange Juices are in full FLOW!!!
-- Ron
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