#8 Syracuse falls to #11 Georgetown

The Hoyas came into Syracuse and did not do anything too special, they just played some quality basketball. It was a very defensive game in the first half. Neither team was able to really have an edge on the other in any category. At the end of the first half Syracuse had a two point lead. In the second half it was all Georgetown. They came out of the locker room fired up and shots were falling for them. The score of the second half was 36-23. Syracuse and Georgetown were both very close in rebounds, assists and field goal percentage. The determining factor in the game was the solid defense by the Hoyas wile Syracuse lagged in the second half. Due to the poor defense in the second half by Syracuse they lost by a final score of 57-46. It was a one man show by Otto Porter Jr. for Georgetown. He finished the game with 33 points and 8 rebounds. C.J Fair and James Southerland made solid efforts to keep the Orangemen in the game scoring 13 points and 8 rebounds a piece. Brandon Triche scored 10 points, but everyone knows that is sub par for him. Michael Carter-Williams had an off game too only scoring 7 points and 5 assists which is extremely odd for him. Although I am upset about this tough loss for Syracuse, I am also a Georgetown fan and have a lot of respect for their program. The Hoyas are an excellent team and have a lot of potential to go far in the tournament. Syracuse has a tough road ahead to end the season with games against #17 Marquette, a rematch with #10 Louisville who will be looking for revenge and they end the season with none other than the Georgetown Hoyas. If they beat all of those teams expect Syracuse to have a very nice seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Otto Porter Jr. forward for Georgetown.

#6 Syracuse Bounces Back Against Seton Hall

After being completely outplayed by the Uconn Huskies, Syracuse was very hungry for a win and it was evident. Coming off of a poor shooting night they came out firing. It was Brandon Triche, C.J Fair and Michael Carter-Williams carrying the scoring load through the majority of the first half. Seton Hall is not a joke team and actually stayed with Syracuse throughout the first half only down 36-30 heading into the locker room. The Orangemen played just as well in the second half as the first. They nearly doubled their lead and ended up shooting a remarkable 40% from beyond the three point arc. The Pirates dug deep to come back but it was mostly a one man show by Fuquan Edwin with 21 points as the rest of their team did not perform too well. As for the Orangemen they had many great individual efforts which lead to a great team effort. Brandon Triche lead the way in scoring with and amazing 29 points he also snatched 6 rebounds and 5 assists. My boy C.J Fair had another sensational game with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Michael Carter-Williams had a solid scoring day with 14 points but he had a field day on the glass with 9 rebounds. He only dished out 3 assists which is not going to cut it if he wants to retake his title as the best passer in college basketball. James Sotuherland is finding his way back into the Syracuse offense after scoring a very impressive 11 points against Seton Hall. Nothing too special in this game just some solid Ornagemen basketball. If Syracuse plays well they can compete with any team in the country. This win was a nice bounce back that they needed after being embarrassed by the arch rival, Uconn.

#9 Syracuse Mops the Floor with St. Johns

Sunday February 10th was one of the most impressive games that Syracuse played all year. They were firing on all cylinders and never let up the entire game. With James Southerland back after his academic problems, they looked like a whole different team. The Orangemen were hitting their outside jump shots all game especially the beginning of the game jumpstarted by threes from C.J Fair and Michael Carter-Williams. They ended the game shooting 45% from behind the arc. Syracuse also shot over 50% from the field overall. Anyone who watches basketball knows that any team in the nation is difficult to beat when shooting 50% from the field. Going into halftime the Orange had a commanding 13 point lead and were not looking to give any of it up. In the second half they were able to build on their lead beating St. Johns by 6 in the second half. There was not too much more to the game it was just a solid performance by Syracuse and St. Johns could not compete. The final score of the game was 77-58. There were many notable performance such as C.J Fair and Michael Carter-Williams scoring 18 points a piece. Fair ended up with 9 rebounds s well and Carter Williams had 8 assists with 6 steals. Brandon Triche did his usual thing scoring 16 points but he recorded 7 assists and 5 rebounds. He is proving to his team that he is not all about the scoring. A solid return for James Southerland scoring 13 points. D'Angelo Harrison is an excellent point guard for St. Johns but did not stack up to Michael Carter-Williams and that was the big difference. It was not supposed to be a very close game, but it was not supposed to be that large of a blowout.

Brandon Triche, guard for Syracuse.

#9 Syracuse Triumphs over #25 Notre Dame

After coming off of two straight loses to unranked opponents, the Orangemen were pretty pumped up to have the Fighting Irish coming into The Carrier Dome. Syracuse is undefeated against top 25 opponents meaning that all 3 of their loses came from unranked teams. Syracuse came out with fire starting with baskets from Rakeem Christmas and Jerami Grant. The Irish hung around for the first half ending with Syracuse leading 30-24. In the second half, Syracuse proved they were the far superior team beating them by 11 points in the second half alone. Jack Cooley of Notre Dame put up another double, double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Syracuse finished off the game knocking off the Irish 63-47. The Orangemen really stepped it up compared to their last game. They shot 49% from the feild, only having 9 turnovers. They hauled in 29 rebounds 10 of them coming from C.J Fair. Fair put in another great effort scoring 18 points, 10 rebounds, 3 steals, and a block. Michael Carter- Williams dished out 8 assists, but is struggling to find his groove scoring the ball. Rakeem Christmas played a big role filling in for James Southerland recording 4 blocked shots. Brando Triche did not score much but had 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. Notre Dame is a high quality team who has beat Cincinnati and been catching fire recently. The Orangemen just outplayed them in nearly all categories. Notre Dame went into Syracuse's house expecting to win, but the Orangemen proved that this is their house and no one is allowed in it.

Rakeem Christmas, forward for Syracuse

#6 Syracuse Gets Embarrassed by Pitt

It was a rather depressing day for the Orangemen squadron as they walked into Peterson Events Center to play one of their Big East rivals, the Pittsburgh Panthers. Syracuse was coming off of a loss to Villi nova, and figured well Pitt is un ranked so they're probably not that good. Even though Pitt really is not very good, the Orangemen made them look like a Top 25 team, turning the ball over 14 times. Syracuse may not have handled the ball very well, but they caused some havoc on the other end causing 19 turnovers for the opposing team. Well if you just look at those numbers then you would say, how could they have lost by 10 points. The bottom line was that shots were not falling for the Orangemen and they were falling for Pittsburgh. Shooting 36% from the floor was not going to cut it against a team shooting 48% from the floor. At the end of the first half it was only a 2 point game. Things became out of hand in the second half where the Panthers took over and ended up defeating Syracuse by a final score of 65-55. In the second half especially the missing presence of James Southerland was felt. The academically intelligible senior could have stopped Pittsburgh from grabbing offensive rebounds and could have shut down Pitts big man. C.J Fair really did everything he could to keep the team into the game finishing up with 20 points and 3 steals. Michael Carter-Williams had a bit of an off game, only dishing out 2 assists as opposed to the 9 that he averages. Brandon Triche scored 14, but he was the main cause for all the turnovers throwing the ball away 6 times in the game. Overall the Orangemen did not have the worst game ever, but the poor shooting  the turnovers, and the missing James Southerland, really hurt them against a fellow Big East team. 

C.J Fair, forward for Syracuse.

The Orangemen of Syracuse 2013

After losing some of their key players of 2011-2012 in Dion Waiters and Scoop Jardine, not many people thought this would be a strong Syracuse team. The Orangmen have proved all of the doubters wrong by defeating the former #1 team Louisville and once again sitting at one of the elite spots in the NCAA. They are currently 18-2 and sit at the top of the Big East division. Of course they have an excellent coach in Jim Boeheim, but a large portion of their success is due to the players on the team. First off they have Michael Carter-Williams who averages 12.6 points per game, gets 3 steals  , and leads the league in assists with nearly 9 a game. He has come up clutch in key games such as the Louisville and Cincinnati games. Williams is paired in the front court with senior superstar Brandon Triche, who is the teams leading scorer with 14 points a game. Big man James Southerland is the teams second leading scorer with 13.8 points, but for someone of his build he only grabs 5 rebounds per game. He has also proven not to be very clutch, fouling out in the game against Temple finishing with only 2 points as the Orangemen proceeded to suffer a harsh first loss. Overall he is a great talent that has helped out this team. I may be a little bias here, but C.J Fair is the center piece of this Syracuse team. He may be my favorite player in the nation, but honestly this guy can do it all. He i another one of their players that averages 13 points, but he elevates and grabs 7 boards each game. His quickness and agility are hard to match when he is out in transition. With a guy like Carter-Williams around, Fair is becoming a force when it comes to scoring the basketball. This is a team with a lot of potential and upside, but also has the chance to be upset in a few games. If this team catches fire come tournament time, it is going to be tough for anyone to stop them.

James Southerland. forward for Syracuse