Winning Ugly

Cuse won another close game yesterday, in Connecticut. Any road win in the conference is a good win, and I like that the Orange have had all these close games of late. Although I confess that I don’t really like that they surrendered a big lead before pulling out another close game. Still, winning these close games is good preparation for the tournament, and it’s a good thing that they have managed to keep their composure in all these close games, because come tournament time, if they fall behind, as they did in the South Florida game, or if they give up a lead, as they did against UConn, they can have the self confidence to know that they can still pull out a win. The only problem is that there is no margin for error in the post-season. If they lost one of these regular season games, so what? Might lose the number one seed that everyone seems to have reserved for them. Might even have given up the Big East regular season championship, although that seems to be locked up now. But a loss in February does not doom their season. A loss in March, on the other hand.....

One of the big reasons for their success this year has been the emergence of CJ Fair. Everyone talks about how improved Fab Melo is, and I admit that I never expected this, after seeing how poorly Melo played last year. But Fair has improved every bit as much as Melo. He’s getting as many minutes as anyone on the team, mainly because he rebounds better than anyone else on the team, and rebounding is one area where the Orange need as much help as possible. But he’s also developed into a scorer, both down low, and with that mid-range jumper. And part of the reason Cuse leads the nation in bench scoring is that Fair is really a starter, who doesn’t actually start. Christmas gets a couple minutes; then CJ comes in and plays pretty much all of the game from that point on. All his points are scored as bench points, but really he’s like a starter.

Even though Kentucky has held the number one ranking ever since the Notre Dame game, Cuse has continued to lead the nation in RPI. They had a huge lead over the number two team (Duke), but that gap closed of late, apparently because the Orange strength of schedule suffered when they played Rutgers and South Florida. Finishing with UConn and Louisville will help restore their strength of schedule, and if they win out, I think they’ll end up the overall number one seed for the tournament. Not that any of that matters. I care far more about their ranking after the tournament, than going into the tournament. (Didn’t they have a number one seed two years ago, when AO blew out his knee, and the team lost to Butler in the sweet sixteen?)

The other factor over the past couple weeks has been Jardine’s leadership. He’s been doing a great job playing the point; not turning the ball over; putting it in the hands of whoever is hot; and scoring himself when no one else seemed able to get the job done. Back in 1996, when John Wallace took the Orange to the championship game, losing to a Kentucky team loaded with future NBA stars, Lazarus Sims played as big a role as Wallace. Sims hit a couple late threes that separated the Orange from Drexel in the second round. And he brought the team back with consecutive threes against Georgia, just when it seemed that the Orange were about to become history. Once they tied the game, and especially in overtime, it was Sims who kept feeding Wallace, and who didn’t turn the ball over. That’s Jardine’s role this year: finding the hot hand, not turning the ball over, and taking the game into his own hands on occasion, when it seems that no one else can get the job done.

I want to see them beat Louisville again -- never an easy task -- and then I really don’t care what happens in the Big East tourney. Winning in the Garden will ensure the number one seed, but losing might give them an edge they can use in the NCAAs. Not to mention a bit more rest. I’ll have to pay more attention to this blog as we enter the post-season, so stay tuned. And as always, Go Orange.