A Quality Win

The preseason is over. The Orange bring a perfect record into conference play, and are currently ranked fifth in both of the national polls. I’ve been complaining about that for two months, ever since they barely beat William & Mary. But as it turns out, Cuse got to their number five ranking, not purely through any popularity contest, but also by virtue of their record. The omniscient RPI also ranks them number five in the nation. And while their strength of schedule is not among the leaders as yet, they already have six quality wins, and one high quality win -- that being Wednesday’s dominating victory over Drexel.

Drexel came to the Dome with an 8-1 record, and some gaudy stats. They were outrebounding their opponents by 14 boards per game. They were allowing only fifty-some points per game. They had held Louisville to 46 points. But by the time everyone went home for the Christmas break, and the pre-conference season was over, Cuse had put up 93 points, twenty more than any other team had scored against Drexel; had out rebounded them 35-24; and had run them out of the Dome and back to Philly by an impressive margin -- 93-65. The Orange offense looked like it had finally come together, and had done that against a team that was touted for having one of the toughest man defenses in the nation.

Ever since the Michigan State game, the team has looked pretty good. They’ve averaged over ninety points per game; they’re outside shooting has improved; and most importantly, they are sharing the ball well. Against Morgan State, the Orange had 34 assists on 39 baskets. And even though the number of assists declined against Drexel, I can remember a couple of occasions when the fast break ended with an extra pass, meaning that someone gave up a chance to score, to reward a teammate. That’s a good sign.

The Orange start the conference season with two home games -- Providence next Tuesday, and Notre Dame on New Year’s day. They’ll have to keep up the good play of the last couple weeks if they want to have any chance in the Big East. That means continue to improve in the 2-3; keep rebounding; hit some outside shots; and make free throws late in games. Over the last couple weeks they’ve shown they can do that against lesser teams, but will they be able to keep it up against the Big East schedule? We’ll find out soon enough.