North Carolina State

SU's 65-59 victory over (unranked) North Carolina State, was hardly a victory. The Orange had it so close that the 5 free-throws they made in the last 2 minutes actually bought them the win. These kinds of games should *not* be happening to the "number 8/7" team in the country. Syracuse is playing, and barely winning, against teams like William and Mary, Michigan and North Carolina State which makes me wonder how Syracuse can hold up against any team in the Big East once conference play starts. The University of Connecticut (UConn) is playing extremely well, beating top ranked teams, while we struggle against teams that we should be beating by huge margins.
As we go into a very important game against Michigan State, the number 2 ranked team in the country, I can't help but wonder if we can come together as a team and play the game well enough to win against an actual opponent. Don't get me wrong, I think that William and Mary, as well as all the other opponents we've played, played a great game and should be commended for their efforts, but countless points were because of mistakes that the Orange made. That shouldn't happen against teams like William and Mary.
What I think Syracuse needs to do is begin playing as themselves. What I can see is Kris Joseph (3-12 from inside and 0-4 from outside) trying to replace Weseley Johnson, and Jardine (2-8 from outside tonight) trying to take the place of Andy Routins on the outside. What the team needs to understand is that this Syracuse team is completely different from that of the team last year, and we shouldn't try to play like we did last year, nor can we. The Orange need to tailor how they play to this team, not try and play as they did in 2009-2010. To me, it seems like they feel that they know what to do, but aren't playing instinctively. They're playing as though they're a broken machine, some parts are working fine, others can't manage to do a thing. Each game, a different part of that machine is broken. How Boeheim can make this machine work together, and begin to work well, he'll need to convince his players to play as themselves, and not try to replace Johnson or Routins.

Syracuse v. Detroit

In tonights tough 66-55 victory for the Orange over the Detroit Titans, Syracuse struggled yet again in the first half. Going in at the half down by 3, the Orange came back out in the 2nd half on a 19-6 run. Guard Scoop Jardine carried Syracuse with 27 points overall and 8 assists. Rick Jackson also pulled away with a career high 22 rebounds. Aside from Jardine and Jackson's outstanding performance, the team as a whole played terribly. The entire starting 5, excluding Jardine and Jackson, put up 12 points on the board. Foul trouble also hindered the Orange with Kris Joseph fouling out and Keita reaching 4 personal fouls. From the field, the Orange shot 36%, barely better than Detroit.

Despite the effort given by the Titans, Syracuse shouldn't have had such a struggle against such a team. The Orange barely scored more baskets, and missed drastically more. Had Scoop Jardine and Rick Jackson not had outstanding games tonight, the Orange would have fallen to the Detroit Titans. This kind of performance will yield nothing but L's for SU once Big East play begins in late December. This team needs to make sure to slow down and take smart shots rather than throwing up the ball every play hoping for it to sink.

Syracuse Basketball

The Syracuse Orangemen won their 2nd game today, 86-67 over the Canisius Golden Gryphons. Despite the 19 points they were ahead by at the end of the game, it was much more of a struggle to win this game than it should have been. The first half specifically was rough for the Orange, going in to the locker rooms with only a 3 point lead. Though as they showed against Northern Iowa on Friday, they're a second half team. In the second half, SU took over, dominating the boards as well as draining shots from outside the arc. Brandon Triche shot 50% from outside and Scoop Jardine was hitting 66%.

Fab Melo, the said to be Freshman of the year, didn't perform up to his title. Playing a total of 13 minutes and fouling out early, Keita had to step up and take his place. Keita grabbed 9 offensive rebounds and 15 all together in the 17 minutes he played. Not only did Keita perform off the bench, but freshman C.J. Fair drained 11 points and Mookie Jones sank 2 threes. This Syracuse bench looks to be deeper than ever before with Boeheim's usual 7 man rotation, he continually played 10 men for 10+ minutes today. Does this team have 10 players that can consistently put points up on the board for the 5th most wins coach? We'll see as this season progresses.