Road Trip

Cuse traveled to Kansas City this week, where all the nay-sayers expected disaster to strike. The team had won three early games, against less than stellar competition. Lemoyne? So what? Oakland? Big Deal! And against Richmond, which didn't exactly make it to the Final Four last year, the Orange survived thanks largely to Eric Devo's hot hand; and even with that, they managed only a narrow victory. Still, there were enough encouraging signs that the team had promise, potential. And as always, I remain unable to understand how anyone talks shit on Boeheim or the Orange, after all the excitement they have brought to the Dome, after all the success they have had over the years.

Anyway, as everyone now knows, Cuse went on the road and beat not just two ranked teams, but the NCAA champs for the past three years -- Florida and Kansas.  Perhaps more significantly, they beat Kansas in Kansas City, which apparently hadn't happened in more than two decades. And they accomplished this feat on consecutive nights, before a national TV audience, far away from home, and with Dickie V blabbing incessantly in the background. (That's enough to drive anyone to distraction.) I couldn't hear the end of the game last night, because my computer video link shut off after two hours, but I'm hoping that maybe the two wins either shut him up, or at least got him blabbing about how great Flynn and Harris looked. 

I'm expecting that the tournament win will vault the Orange up into the rankings, perhaps into the top twenty. Not that I minded the fact that the team was previously unranked, and had a chip on its shoulder. This team needs to feel that it has something to prove. It needs to play hard for forty minutes (something we haven't seen the past few years); and it needs to stop making mental mistakes. I don't want to draw unwarranted comparisons too early in the season, but remember how many times the 03 team had to come from behind that year? I recall several games where they were a dozen or so points behind, sometimes deep in the second half. So it's a good thing to see the team struggle, but then come out on top.

 And as long we're drafting our wish list here, they also need to hit threes. Onuaku was a beast during this tournament, but Big East teams will collapse around him; besides which, there will be other beasts on the court. And even though AO played strong inside, he needed the threes to open things up. Hit threes, drive the lane, dish for easy inside baskets. That's the recipe for success. If we miss threes, the land gets clogged, and there won't be any spacing inside.

Meanwhile, we've got one more tough game on Friday, against Virginia, before we get a break with Colgate and Cornell. Win or lose against Virginia, beating the Gators and the Jayhawks will help later on, when the tournament selection guys are sitting in some hotel room, and sorting through the at large teams. Big East will be tough this year; it will be a chore to finish above 500 in the conference. So every so-called quality win is important. Go Orange.