On the Morning of Selection Sunday

My takeaway from Friday night’s loss to UConn is bad and good. Bad first: this loss once again exposed the team’s inconsistency. Take Brandon Triche for example – he led all scorers with 22 in the quarterfinal win over St. John’s, but then disappeared on Friday. Against UConn, he scored only four points, on 2 of 9 from the field. Last year, someone (Bilas? Kellogg?) described the strength of the Orange as their go-to-guy being whichever guy was open, making it harder for teams to defense them. But that worked well only because several players were consistent offensive performers. Teams could not leave Rautins or Wes open at the three-point line; if they did, those guys could hit open threes, and could do so consistently. Inside, teams could not cover AO with one guy. Against most teams, if AO could catch the ball down on the block, it was an easy two.

This year, however, even though a number of different guys have the ability to score, no one performs with predictable consistency. Even Jackson lacks a dependable finish down low. And as good as Joseph or Jardine can look on one night, they can look just as lousy in the next game. So to go deep in the post-season requires an offensive consistency that the Orange haven’t really shown all year long.

On the other hand, I was pleased to see the comeback in regulation – the fact that even down six points with under thirty seconds to play, they did not give up, and as inconsistent as they had been all night, Scoop managed to hit back to back threes to close that gap and force overtime.

And the other good news, of course, is that they will be playing in the NCAAs; and they should end up with a decent seed (As of this morning, Joe Lunardi predicts a four); and there were times this year when I questioned whether they would even make the post-season. Look at Michigan State, who lost in last year’s championship game; who came into the season ranked number two overall; but who melted down (should probably stay away from that metaphor right now), and will end up playing in the NIT. Cuse played so poorly early in the year, they were lucky to beat William & Mary. And they went into such a deep tailspin in January that I thought it possible they might never recover. Remember how dismal the Seton Hall game was?

So all things considered, especially their inconsistent nature, I’m as pleased as I could be on the morning of selection Sunday. My prefernce is that they play on Thursday and Saturday – so I won’t miss the opening game on Friday while traveling. And sometimes the committee tries to give teams who play late in this week an extra day of rest. For example, I fully expect UConn to open up on Friday, after having played on five days in a row. Pretty good tourney for them. But losing in the semis in NY has worked out for the Orange in the past. And for this year’s team, I like that they received one more dose of humility before the tourney opens. And as things worked out, they got a pinch of self-confidence in that recipe as well. So, humility, hard work, determination to play forty minutes, a touch more consistency in the outside shooting, and self-confidence if they fall behind in the second half. That’s the recipe for getting to the sweet sixteen. After that it would have to be luck. But for me, a trip to the sweet sixteen after all they’ve been through will be a successful season. Go Orange.