A pair of freshman guards, Syracuse’s Brandon Triche and West Virginia’s Dalton Pepper, sparked their respective programs in the first game between two top-10 teams in Morgantown, West Virginia since 1960.
Quantity nearly beat quality Saturday afternoon. Fifth-ranked Syracuse withstood a barrage of late three-pointers by No. 9 West Virginia, making just enough free throws to defeat the Mountaineers, 72-71, in Big East action.
West Virginia guard Darryl Bryant sank three free throws and an NBA three-pointer in the span of four seconds while the Orange missed three of four attempts at the charity stripe. The final attempt, a Kris Joseph clank with 2.5 seconds left, fell into the hands of All-Big East guard Da’Sean Butler who drew nothing but air on a three-quarter-court heave.
Halftime Snack is transitioning from the weekly Football Friday posts, covering Syracuse and college football nationwide, to the new “Friday Five” with analysis and insight on the Orange, the Big East and the rest of college basketball.
To get ready for the basketball weekend, readers can find Halftime Snack’s five “starters,” picked just like any college coach in the country: “1” is the point guard, “2” the shooting guard, “3” the guard/forward hybrid, “4” is usually a forward, traditionally with power but in the modern game, with more dribble. The “5” is the big man, the center, the protector of the paint, King of the Nylon, be big, be a brute, keep ‘em out!
Syracuse guard Andy Rautins scored a season-high 23 points with nine assists in the 81-65 win at Rutgers Wednesday night. Rautins is the Honda Odyssey in fifth-ranked Orange’s crowded stable of victory vehicles.
Orange head coach Jim Boeheim has a basketball vehicle for every game he drives through. The veteran Big East coach knows every contest has a different course layout, an alternate track to navigate.
Some nights the road lays straight and wide, like an expressway. Boeheim moves the score with a large mass, either his A & O dump truck or his big Rig Jackson.
In Piscataway, New Jersey, site of Rutgers University, residents drive through life, one stoplight at a time.
Orange have more variations this season than the unpredictable Onondaga County weather, which was above 50 degrees in December and is plunging to single digits this weekend.
Basketball success flows not just with the SU men this season. The Orange women are 13-1, have already achieved a national ranking and are eschewing individual accolades in favor of victories.
Syracuse post Rick Jackson hosted his own coming-out party Thursday night in Tampa, Fla., two-stepping around the basket like that famous Philadelphia high school pivot.
Orange forward Rick Jackson did his best Wilt Chamberlain impersonation, posting a career-best 21 points to go along with a team-high 13 rebounds in No. 6 Syracuse’s 85-73 win over No. 11 Florida in the SEC/Big East Challenge.
“(The Gators) were doubling Arinze (Onuaku) and they were focusing on Andy and Wes,” Jackson told Donna Ditota of The Post-Standard. “I just felt like they forgot about me. So I just had to take advantage of it.” Check out Ditota’s...
With recruits on the sideline and the parents in the stands for Senior Day, Syracuse dominated No. 25 Rutgers, 31-13.
The state of Syracuse football, and the status of the health care system in the United States, has run a similar path.
Hype and hope surrounded the hiring of Marrone (an alum and successful NFL coordinator), as well as the election of President Barack Obama (a community leader with pointed ideas and a lasting voice). Today, the products of both men move forward toward its goal after adversity, using solid footing and some timely motivation to invigorate the masses once more.
The Syracuse athletics department has caught the “winning fever” from the Orange men’s basketball team. The SU football team kept the mojo flowing Saturday afternoon, shocking No. 25 Rutgers, 31-13, before 36,759 fans at the Carrier Dome.
Halftime Snack thought many things Saturday afternoon in the Dome press box:
The Syracuse men’s basketball team joined the recent transfer trend on campus, finally unveiling talented forward Wes Johnson at Media Day on Friday.
Wes Johnson is the big-name transfer Syracuse can’t stop talking about.
On the hill, you can transfer credits, you can transfer funds, you can transfer here to play football, and you can even get a bus transfer. So how does the newest transfer feel?
“Right now I feel like a rookie, so excited,” said Johnson as he posed for pictures and met with members of the media inside the sparkling-new Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center.
Syracuse athletics is deep within Big East play, so what nuances jump out?
Five things that bother Halftime Snack about the Big East Conference, expressed as the SU teams begin league play:
1) The conference is “the nation’s largest Division I-A Conference,” according to its Web site, with 16 schools.Yet the largest school in the Northeast by population (Penn State) is soaking up big money and high-quality players in another conference.