Time to calm the kittys - Looking at Cuse vs. Pitt

Jamie Dixon
1. a piece of shit
2. ON THE COURT!!
Photo Cred: ESPN

If you've been a Syracuse fan for long enough you know how big of a pain in the ass Jamie Dixon and his group of kitty cats can be for the Orange.  First thing I want to do is express how much is PISSES ME OFF when Jamie coaches from like halfway out on the court and never gets called for a T! What gives?  Any who...the Pitt Panthers are the 2nd ranked team in the ACC and are no joke.  They played probably the easiest non-conference schedule in the nation but they have only lost one game to the now #19 Cincinnati Bearcats.  They also only scored a season-low 43 points in that game, and we can't assume that will happen again because they average 77.3 ppg overall.   

Through the Trees 

So we're used to people talking about Syracuse's height right? Well guess what, Pitt is really tall. Like really really tall.  This could be an issue as our big men are semi useless.  Although Rak seems to have figured out how to offensive rebound again which is nice, but we are really going to need help from Baye, DaJuan, and even Jerami.  The resident old man of the Panthers is also their best player, 6-5 senior forward Lamar Patterson.  Patterson is averaging almost 18 points per game, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists, and frankly this dude can do it all.  He can create his own shot and get the basket and could create fits for the Orange is the zone takes a day off like it did when BC shot 50% the other day.  Then there's Talib Zanna, the 6-9 senior from Nigeria that leads the team with 8 boards per game as the Panthers as a team average more than 37 boards per game.  So the key, as I see it, to this game is the get the ball in the hands of Trevor Cooney and have him have another day like he did in Boston.

Prediction

I think we go to 18-0 but this won't be easy.  Jamie Dixon's squad is 5-1 in the Dome in the past 6 years.  This year I have a good feeling that this Orange team in fairly unbeatable and this is not the team that will knock us off.  So I think we pull out a close one in the snow covered Dome, 77-71 'Cuse

Had to make sure the flat in London
gets a little bit of Orange

The Orange Juices are flowing free in the U.K.

-- your Orange foreign corespondent Ron