Orange Social

Breaking news from the Post Standard. At least nobody was injured during the break-in. A little strange that a picture of his 1 year old daughter was removed from the home….Baby mama?

Syracuse University basketball player Mookie Jones’ apartment burglarized while he plays at Rutgers
By Robert A. Baker / The Post-Standard
January 14, 2010, 9:26AM

Jones’ roommates were on winter break, but none of their items appeared missing, Jones said.

The Orange begin a 3 game road trip against Rutgers this evening in Piscataway, NJ. Hopefully they can find a rhythm early and exploit Rutgers inexperienced big men. If Rutgers tries to double up down low that will leave Rautins open to drain the three ball (5 for 11 from 3-point range over his past two games). With a matchup against WVU on Saturday we are going to need all the fire power we can get! Lets consider this a warm up…I hope!

Syracuse came out slow, but was able to right the ship in the second half, finishing strong to beat Memphis by 17. Johnson put up 19 and was the Orange’s leading scorer. Both Johnson and Jackson pulled down 7 boards tonight, Arinze had 8 and Joseph led the Orange with 9. Joseph made a strong case for non-starting player of the game scoring 15 points and going 7-8 from the line.

The Orange defense stepped up in second half limiting the Tigers to just 25 points. Syracuse pulled away in the second half outscoring Memphis by 17 and never looked back.

Syracuse hosts the USF Bulls on Sunday. The games at 2pm.

by Sam Park

I got to watch the 2nd half last night on ESPN360.com since I’m a Comcast subscriber. I have to admit, I was getting a little worried about the team for a good portion of the start of the half, but overall the team’s rebounding and ability to create opportunities to fast-break was the key in pulling out the win.

It’s really hard to argue with the great efforts that Johnson (20 and 19) and Joseph (8 of 9 FTs!) put forth. They were certainly the difference in the victory. The Orange used good defensive positioning underneath to really shut down Seton Hall’s ability to grab offensive rebounds and have second chances under the hoop. The team will need to keep that defensive intensity, especially if Onuaku will be plagued with foul trouble (and I think it’s safe to say he will be, here and there during the BE schedule).

Rautins looked out of sorts last night with a bunch of turnovers. It’s certainly not solely his fault the game was as close as it was, but he was a contributing factor. Still, he’s a gamer in my book and continued to hustle on defense and made two bit FTs at the end to extend the lead and close out the game.

Hazell from Seton Hall was on fire yet again and really kept his team in the game. He hit a few NBA-range threes and was everywhere offensively. To drop 40+ on West Virginia and then almost another 40 on Syracuse is no small feat. I’d say he’d have to be a quick guy for first team all Big East after his first two league games.

Still, it was a good win on the road. Not the prettiest, but I’m sure the team will learn from this and continue to improve. If they can keep that same defensive intensity while valuing the ball a bit more offensively the team will continue to get better. Pretty scary for the rest of the Big East, right?

It would be nice if we ended with a #1 seed and played the first few rounds in Buffalo. I might have to make a trip home for that one!

Click hear to view the latest Joe Lunardi Bracketology.

by Sam (Orange Social contributing editor)

Rick was on top of his game last night. Second and third chances all around the hoop; he was a beast. He played well defensively, especially in the second half as other guys started taking over offensively. The length that the back of the zone poses is a huge asset; having personnel who can really execute on defense is key. Look at how fast they got out in transition after getting defensive rebounds. Just amazing.

Wes was around for the second half and made a few nice plays to get himself open and to the hoop. When you’re getting balanced scoring from your starters and playing great defense, the other team can still make a bunch of three-pointers and still not win. I didn’t expect to see such good basketball so early in the season, but this is great to watch.

Syracuse wins 85-73.

Question of the day (evening).   Where was Wes Johnson in the first half?

If we tear up those gators tonight in Tampa we should be bumped to #1 in the country.  Other than Kentucky’s solid win on the road at MSG last night, no other team has proven they deserve a top 5 ranking.  Who has Kansas or Texas beat this year?  A bunch of cupcakes, right?    Go ORANGE!

By Mike Waters / The Post-Standard

December 10, 2009, 6:00AM

To the point

This game looks a lot better than it did when the schedule came out and both teams were unranked. Another win against a ranked foe will show SU is a Top 5 team.

Three points

1. In the last five years, Florida has had eight players leave school early to play professionally. The defections are a big reason why Florida missed out on the NCAA Tournament each of the last two years.
2. Florida coach Billy Donovan played his college ball at Providence where he led the Friars to the 1987 Final Four. Providence lost to Syracuse in the NCAA semifinals.
3. Syracuse and Florida have played each other just three times. In the most memorable meeting between the two schools, Syracuse beat Florida 87-81 in the East Regional semifinals of the 1987 NCAA Tournament as SU’s Rony Seikaly outplayed the Gators’ Dwayne Schintzius.

Who’s hot

Kris Joseph reached double-digits in points just two times as a freshman. This season, Joseph has hit double-figures five times in SU’s first eight games. He scored a career-high 14 against Maine.

It feels like i’m back home in Upstate NY.  Snow is coming down and we’re expecting 3-5 inches in Washington DC!

Here’s a scouting report from the Post Standard.  Go ORANGE.

By Mike Waters / The Post-Standard

To the point

This is Syracuse’s final tuneup before another big game next week against Florida. The Orange should be able to get plenty of minutes for the backups in the second half.

Three points

1. Syracuse is 3-0 against Maine in the all-time series. The two last met on Nov. 29, 1996, in the Great Alaska Shootout with Syracuse coming away with an 85-65 win.
2. Maine junior Jerrell Boswell made 15 3-pointers in a game last year while playing for Snead State Community College. That’s the second-highest total in NJCAA history.
3. Maine freshmen Mike Allison and Murphy Burnatowski both played on the U-19 Canadian National Team, which won the Mondial Junior Tournament in France last April.

Who’s hot

In SU’s last two games against Columbia and Colgate, Mookie Jones has averaged 11.0 points while making six out of 10 shots from 3-point range.

Really great write-up by Donna Ditota at the Post Standard Syracuse Basketball Blog:

Scoop Jardine likes to caution that his Syracuse University basketball team has played just seven games. Little, he suggests, can be categorically clarified about the new Orange edition. But even Jardine allows that unbeaten SU “is off to a pretty good start.”

The Orange leads its Big East Conference brethren in seven statistical categories this season. Thus far, SU is the league’s best scoring team (88.9 ppg) and best shooting team (54.3 percent field-goal percentage). The Orange is beating teams by a league-best average of 26.3 points per game. It is making more assists (23 per game) and getting more steals (14.6) than any other league team. It is tied for the lead in 3-point field goal percentage (.405) and assist-turnover ratio (1.5). And it trails just Connecticut and Villanova in field-goal-percentage defense (.369).
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