Two Big Wins; What Does It Mean?

Two big wins this week, over Georgetown and UConn; but instead of reassuring me, these two games have only reinforced my concerns. The Georgetown game was so frustrating, in fact, that I gave up watching at the end of regulation. I rarely second guess the coaching staff; after all Boeheim is now approaching 900 wins. How can you argue with that? However, the slowdown game the Orange played at the end of Georgetown regulation, with Deon holding the ball way outside until only 10 or 12 seconds remained on the shot clock, and then driving the lane, looking for a foul, but in the end failing to get off a decent shot – that offensive set is a disaster. I’m convinced that if a statistician looked at those possessions, he or she would discovery that Cuse is generating, on average, fewer than .5 points per possession. Matt tells me that we lead the nation in points per possession; but that can’t possibly be true of that slowdown set. And so if I’m right, their reguar offense is even better than tops in the nation. And if that’s true, why do that slowdown business? Do you understand what I’m saying? Why not just run the offense more patiently, more deliberately, running the clock down, but continuing to play our game?

The other problem here is that the slowdown set exposes the absence of a dependable go-to guy on the Orange. There is no one who can take control of the game, even for just a couple possessions. There’s no one who can take the ball down low and work for one shot. Everyone talks about how the depth and balance are assets for this team, and they are right. And over time, Cuse can succeed because it does not need the same guy to be on each night. Against Georgetown it was Kris Joseph who supplied the offense, scoring almost half of the Orange points. Yesterday against UConn, it was Jardine who took the game over in the final six minutes. Some nights it’s been Deon, and even Triche had a game or two when he led the O. But come tournament time, one bad game and the season is over. It doesn’t matter how teams did over the course of the season. When it’s one and done, there is only a single meaningful statistic: number of wins. So on the night when the outside shots won’t drop, who will step up and shoulder the burden of scoring? Could be Joseph, Jardine or Waiters. But it could also be no one.

Rebounding was much better against UConn, mainly due to the hustle of CJ Fair. He was all over the boards, all day long. Of course, there weren’t a lot of rebounds yesterday, primarily because so many shots were falling. Everyone now knows rebounding is a problem; and unfortunately, they also know it wasn’t simply a matter of getting Fab Melo back in the lineup. Because he played against Georgetown, and the Orange still got clobbered on the boards. I’m hoping yesterday was a sign that the entire team is aware of this shortcoming, and working hard to overcome it.

Yesterday may have been the best the team looked all year long. Defense was very good; they kept UConn in check, even though their guards, and Lamb, were shooting very well from beyond the arc. UConn as a team shot 42 percent from three-point range. However, that was twenty points lower than the Orange, who shot an amazing 62 percent from three point range, almost sixty percent overall. Clearly, if this team can hit fifty percent of its three-pointers, in fact anywhere close to fifty percent, they’re going to be hard to beat. But I’m not worried about the nights when they shoot well; I’m worried about the nights when they can’t buy a three. Then what happens? You know, after thirty-three minutes yesterday, with the Orange shooting great all game, they still led by only two points.

I spoke with John after the Georgetown game, and he chided me for being so critical of the team after they had just beaten a ranked Georgetown team. Why not just enjoy the win? And I guess my answer to that is to ask, who had a better season: the Packers or the Giants? The Packers were unstoppable for much of the season; Aaron Rodgers was on fire. And the Giants were struggling, on the verge of missing the playoffs. Yet today the Giants are Super Bowl champs, and the Packers are reminding themselves and their fans to ‘wait ‘till next year’. I recall too many great seasons ending prematurely, and I just don’t care whether they enter the tournament with a one seed, or a three seed, or whatever. If this team does not make the Final Four, I’ll be disappointed. It will be no consolation that they beat Georgetown and UConn in successive games. (In 2003, UConn beat the Orange twice, but who cares?) And the weak rebounding, and the absence of a go-to guy, make me nervous about their ability to perform consistently in the NCAAs. So yes, it was nice to see them run away from UConn yesterday, especially as it happened in front of a national TV audience, not to mention 33,430 in the Dome, some of them sitting halfway to Nedrow, apparently watching the game on their cell phones. But the wins I want to see are the wins in March. Those are the wins one can talk about years from now.

Anyway, now the Orange are off to Louisville. One thing I do like is the schedule. The level of competition has, in general, been increasing all year long. The end of the conference season is, for the most part, one tough game after another. Good preparation for March. And although I want to see them win in Louisville, I’d also like to see the rebounding effort continue, and I’d like to see the three-point shots stay on target. I want to see those things more then a win over Louisville, because I think those things give us a better chance of looking back fondly on this season.

Go Orange.

Back on Track?

For the first time in almost three weeks, the Orange looked like a top ranked team yesterday. Of course, they were playing a young, much smaller St. John’s team, and playing in the Garden, where they always seem to shine, and they had Fab Memo back anchoring the zone, but beyond that, there were a few very encouraging signs.

First of all was the rebounding. Without Melo, the team had been getting pounded on the boards. Cuse outrebounded the Johnnies 42-31, a reversal of the past couple weeks stats. Funny thing was, though, that Melo only grabbed three boards. It was other guys who seemed to be working much harder than they had in recent games. Joseph had six offensive rebounds; the guards collectively grabbed a dozen boards. So it really wasn’t Melo so much as it was a team effort.

Second, the outside shooting touch seemed to return. They hit a third of their three point shots, and although that’s not great, it was better than we saw against Notre Dame or West Virginia, where they shot dismally. But midrange jumpers were falling as well. Fair was hitting that little baseline jumper he has. Guys didn’t seem to be missing lay-ups, as they had in the recent past. The offense was really productive, scoring 95, more than in any other conference game, and breaking the 90 mark for the first time since November. Most of the season they have not needed to score a lot, as their defense has held the opponents in check, and even generated offense, when the zone led to steals. Yesterday, the zone was effective – St. John’s hit almost fifty percent of their threes, yet still managed only 70 points – but there were not a lot of turnovers. The Orange don’t need to score ninety in most games, but they do need to be able to score ninety, as there will be games, especially in the tournament, when the opposition shoots well, or has a big man who can score inside against our centers, and the Cuse will need to put up points.

Third, I really liked what we saw of Michael Carter-Williams. He has not been getting a lot of minutes since the Big East season began. But yesterday, he hit some threes, had some nifty assists, and electrified the crowd with one monster jam. He’s also the tallest guard, and gets up on opponents trying to shoot over the zone. He reminds me in that way of Kueth Duany, who had that long wingspan and made it tough on anyone trying to shoot threes over the zone. I’d like to see coach give him more minutes as the season wears on. Remember, in 2003, our best tournament players were the three freshmen, Melo, G-Mac and Billy Edelin, who led the team in scoring in the first two tournament games, even though he did not start.

Still, St. John’s was not much of a test for the Orange; we’ll know better a week from now, after Cuse plays both Georgetown and UConn. If they look good against those two teams, then maybe the mid-season slump is a thing of the past. Let’s hope so. Go Orange.

A New Old Fashioned

Of late, everyone in the family seems to be drinking the classic of all classic cocktails -- the Old Fashioned. The guys at Drink told us that the Old Fashioned was the original cocktail. Hence the name: “I don’t want one of those other cocktails; I want the old-fashioned cocktail." Sugar, bitters, and whisky are the essential ingredients, but then there are a million variations with fruit. Or no fruit.

John prefers the original recipe: muddle a sugar cube with bitters, and a little water, to put the sugar in solution. Then add ice, and two ounces of whisky, and stir. Which whisky, you ask. John prefers rye (as do I); Mike and Don Draper are partial to bourbon. You can even go with Irish whisky.

Mike found a video on the nola.com website -- some guy at the New Orleans Ritz Carlton teaching everyone how to make cocktails. He adds one wrinkle to the classic recipe. In addition to the sugar, bitters and water, he adds a shaving of orange peel to be muddled with the other ingredients. Not the fruit -- just the rind, to release some of the oils that then flavor the drink, mixing well with the sweet and the bitter flavors.

So here is a variation on that variation. First of all, I use simple syrup, not because it’s better, but because it’s easier. Make the simple syrup 2 to 1. Two parts sugar to one part water. The syrup is more viscous, and more flavorful. About a teaspoonful. And a shaving of orange rind, about the size of a postage stamp. And instead of Angustora, I use Fee Brothers Orange bitters. The bitters picks up the orange flavor, but retains the essential characteristic of bitters. Plus, Fee Brothers is a Rochester business, and it’s a good idea to support the local economy. Muddle all that, not so much that you distintegrate the orange peel, but just enough to release the oils. Then the rest of the mix is pretty much the same -- two ounces of rye, ice, stirred, served on the rocks.

So what do we call the new old fashioned? John suggested something along the lines of the Orange Fashioned, and maybe if we were a bar on Marshall Street, that would catch on. But I’d like something more elliptical, less obvious. And before settling on a name, I want other suggestions. The winner gets a free cocktail of his choice, whipped up right here on my new bar, and made with whatever whisky he or she prefers. Let’s settle on a name before March, because it strikes me that the new old fashioned will be the perfect drink for this year’s tournament.

The Defense

Neither Seton Hall nor Depaul is expected to finish toward the top of the Big East this year. But both came into their SU games with winning streaks, the Hall sporting an 11-1 record. And in totally stifling both teams, while winning easily, the Orange looked like they might actually deserve the number one ranking they currently hold. I recently posted about their bench, and in both of these games the bench played a big role, particularly in the closing minutes of the first half, when Cuse pulled away as they other teams tired. Waiters, Fair and Southerland continue to make big contributions on the offensive end, all of them coming off the bench.

But as important a role as the bench has played, the real reason the team has dominated so far this season is the defense. This year the zone looks as strong as it has ever looked in Boeheim’s long tenure. And the big difference this year is that the D is generating turnovers, both from
steals, and from blocks. The numbers tell the story: Cuse leads the country in total steals, and steals per game. In the GW game I saw a few weeks ago, Waiters alone had six steals. Right now they are averaging over eleven per game. And they are third in the country in blocked shots per game, the big reason being the emergence of Fab Melo as a force inside. (This is such a dramatic change from last year, it deserves its own posting.) In the last two games alone, Fab has sixteen blocks. It’s tough for the opponents to score when they can’t even get a shot off.

And while we’re talking numbers, we’ll add one that is not just a defensive number, but it’s the turnover margin. Not only is the zone generating lots of turnovers, but the Orange guards are protecting the ball pretty well, and the result is a plus eight per game advantage in the turnover
department. And related to that number is their assist-to-turnover ratio, which is number eight in the country. This is really new territory for the Orange, because as good as their D has been in recent years, they weren’t always great at protecting the ball. But playing great defense, and not turning the ball over is a recipe for success. No doubt.

The other good thing about playing great defense is that it’s easier to be consistent. The Orange are going to have games this year when no one shoots well. In fact, they had that kind of game against Seton Hall. Against the Hall they shot under fifty percent, and only 15 percent from three-point range: they went 2 for 13 from outside the arc. But that hardly mattered when they held Seton Hall to fifteen first half points, and generated twenty-three turnovers on the night. Many of those turnovers led to easy scoring opportunities – layups or open jumpers. And in the end, no one cared that the outside shooting was so cold; the game was a blow-out. So on nights when there are guys hitting their threes, and the offense is clicking, they are going to be very tough. But even on nights when the shooters go cold, the defense can keep them in the game, and even generate the offense that the team needs.

So just like two years ago, there are high expectations for this team. Let’s hope everyone stays healthy, and that no more scandalous revelations pop up to distract the team and the coaches from the rest of the season. Go Orange.

Whisky Loving in the Berkshires

Whisky lovers have gathered in Great Barrington for New Years. And G-Man has brought us a couple bottles for tasting. These are latest imports courtesy of his friends, the Careys, who continue to bring him exceptional malts from their visits to Scotland. The latest offerings are Ardbeg Alligator, and a 13-year-old Highland Park, bottled by Adephi.

Ardbeg Alligator is one of the most recent intense bottlings from the distillery responsible for the smokiest and peatiest whiskies known to man. According to the packaging, the alligator thing refers to the fact that Ardbeg chars the barrels until they have the appearance of an alligator’s hide. It could also be because the whisky has an aggressive reptilian character. It virtually attacks you right from the glass. Alligator is 51.2%, but like other Ardbegs, it really doesn’t want to be watered. So this is definitely not a whisky for the faint of heart. Along with the peat, one can detect vanilla and pepper. But there are lots of flavors here that one doesn’t ordinarily associate with food. Like leather. And the combination of all this leaves one with the sensation of moccasins smoked over a campfire, and then soaked in maple syrup. And that makes for a long sweet finish. All of the elements of tangy barbeque foods -- sweet, spicy, smoky, big flavor – are present in this whisky, which in the end, is sort of like alcoholic barbeque. And even though the intense peat is what we’ve come to associate with Ardbeg, in this whisky, the combination of peat and sweetness is most unusual and what makes this malt so interesting.

Highland Park 13, cask strength, 58.0%, Adelphi selection. We all love HP, so it’s no surprise that we love this bottling of the best all-around malt one can find. But we were knocked out to find such huge flavor in a thirteen-year old whisky. The nose is very sweet, vanilla or chocolate or maybe caramel. And tasting it at full strength, one hundred and sixteen proof, when one would expect the alcohol to overpower everything else, the malt has a distinctly sweet character. And buttery. It has a rich luxurious mouth feel that magnifies the sweetness of this malt. After the initial sweetness, there is a deep, rich malt flavor typical of much older whiskies, 18 and 21 year old scotch. Same for the finish. The finish goes on and on, and it’s hard to believe that this malt has spent only thirteen years in the barrel. We then drank it with a little water, which took the heat out of the glass, and thinned out the texture, although the rich flavor, and the long finish remained. It would be fun to figure out the perfect mixture of whisky and water, if for no reason other than the chance to sample glass after glass of this HP, until we had the ratios down. How much fun would that be? This is really a special whisky.

2011 is drawing to a close. So from Great Barrington, to all whisky lovers everywhere, all the best for a happy and healthy New Year.

The Bench

Last night, in their first real road game of the season, and their first game since rising to the top of the rankings, Cuse beat a decent NC State team decisively. The big difference was the bench, or more accurately, Syracuse’s depth. According to the box score, the bench scored 46 of their 88 points, more than fifty percent of the offensive output. That’s not really true, however, because Christmas is purportedly a starter, but rarely gets more than a few token minutes. I’m assuming the coaches promised him that he could have Jackson’s place in the starting lineup, as a way to recruit him. (He’s another kid from Philly.) But either CJ Fair or Southerland should be starting, so really, the starters contributed more than half the points.

Still, the exact count hardly matters. What matters is that Waiters, Southerland, and Fair, all of whom come off the bench, have been making major contributions all season long. Last night, Waiters led the team with 22 points. Five guys were in double figures, and three of them were not starters. So that means that, when one of the starters is off his game, as Triche was last night, there is someone to pick up the slack, as Dion did. That’s really big this year, because although the team has depth and balance, they don’t really have a go-to guy. Kris Joseph may be the most consistent offensive contributor, but he can’t really create offense on his own. So they need to have a number of potential contributors, increasing the statistical likelihood that someone will be hitting from the outside if all else fails.

Their depth also allows them to outlast other teams. In both halves last night, NC State started hot. They led for more than two-thirds of the first half; but with about eight minutes to go, Cuse went on a monster run (23-0 before it was over), and took a big lead into half-time. Same thing in the second half. NC State was on fire coming out of the half, and erased the Orange lead. But then they tired once again, and Cuse ran away with the last ten minutes of the game.

That’s especially important because defense is the key for this year’s team – and not just at the defensive end. It’s the D that leads to fast break opportunities, and their offense is most effective when they are running. So the strength of this year’s team will be to harass the hell out of everybody in the zone; to chase down rebounds and loose balls; to get in the other guys’ passing lanes; and then to run as soon as they turn the ball over. So everyone needs to be fresh for forty minutes, and that’s the real reason they need the depth, or as ESPN kept talking about, their bench. What they need is a lot of guys with fresh legs, especially when other teams get tired.

I wasn’t happy when they ended up with the number one ranking, but I was pissed off when I read an ESPN column about when they would lose their first game, and a couple guys picked last night. I certainly don’t expect them to go all through the conference without losing, but suggesting they would lose their very first game as number one was way disrespectful. I’m tired of all these ESPN assholes talking shit on the Cuse this year.

The hell with ESPN; and Go Orange.

Single Malts Direct

Exactly how did that Rosebank 21 find its way to my home in Rochester, New York? Think of all the trouble we’ve gone to over the past several years to find great whisky shops. We stop along the highway, driving north from Boston, on our way to see G-man in Portland, and pick up a few bargains at the New Hampshire state store. Or when we’re in Boston, we make a point of visiting Joe at Federal. That’s always a treat, because Joe ends up sharing some of his favorite malts, spreading the whisky gospel if you will. Couple years back we made a pilgrimage to some shop in NJ, where they sold Ballechin. It’s always fun to find someplace new, a shop with an interesting inventory, with some hard to find malts, with bargains on great whiskies. But then there’s always the difficulty of getting the whisky home. And in the end, there’s a limit on what we might find. After all, there just wasn’t any Rosebank to be found anywhere, in any of these shops on American soil.

So last weekend, while reading my current issue of Whisky magazine, I saw an add for singlemaltsdirect.com. And to my amazement, when I looked through their on-line catalogue, I found, not only the Classic Malts bottling of Rosebank, about which I have already posted, but two more Rosebanks. Are you kidding me? Three Rosebanks in one catalogue? I flipped out, and wanted to order. However, I was concerned. Single Malts Direct is located somewhere in Scotland (where else?), but was I going to be able to import whisky on my own? The website has a detailed chart for calculating shipping to almost anywhere on the globe, but then there is further information about customs, and duties, and importing, and some scary sounding disclaimers. So in my mind, I pictured myself ordering the Rosebank, but then the order would get stuck at the port of entry, and I’d have to drive four hundred miles to some bonded warehouse and pay a ton of duty, and then have to schlep the whisky home myself. Was it really worth it?

But before abandoning this idea, I sent an email off to singlemaltsdirect.com, and asked a bunch of questions about customs and duty and insurance and the like. And then, a day later, I got an email back from Sheila@singlemaltsdirect.com, who put to rest all my fears. The prices listed in the catalogue included duty; they took care of all the paperwork, including the customs declaration; my only responsibility was insurance against breakage, and although the website didn’t yet have a link for that, Sheila said they would take care of insuring my first order, free of charge. So I figured, what the hell? Let’s give it a try, and I ordered five bottles (yes, I know; that sounds excessive, but who knows whether they’ll have any of these Rosebanks a year from now, when I want to reorder. In fact, as it turned out, I got the very last bottle of one of the offerings.) On Tuesday, I received an email saying that my order had shipped, and then Friday afternoon, when I came home from work, there it was – a big box sitting on my kitchen counter with, you guessed it, five Rosebanks all wrapped up in bubble wrap, or Styrofoam boxes. So there’s two things to point out: 1) This was a turnkey order; I just placed the order, and the whisky came to my house; and 2) it took only three days for a box of whisky to get from the UK to my kitchen in holiday season, when all shipping seems to slow down. Three days --It takes the postal service longer than that to deliver a letter to Manhattan.

Just for the hell of it, take a look at their online catalogue. You’ll find an unbelievable inventory of hard to find malts, independent bottlings, and old age statements. Plus, the prices aren’t bad. I checked out the numbers on a couple whiskies that have gone up in price over the past few years – for example HP 18, or Bunnahabhain 18 – and found their prices to be very competitive. I’m a fan of local shopping; I like to know my purveyor; I like the experience of handling the product; I like the personal attention; and I like to support our local merchants. But for hard-to-find stuff, for malts that just cannot be located in the U.S., I recommend singlemaltsdirect.com. They were as attentive and responsive as any on-line merchant with whom I’ve ever dealt.