Former Orange stars Wes Johnson and Jonny Flynn came back to the Carrier Dome for a homecoming celebration.
Wesley Johnson was all smiles after Friday night's exhibition game against the Detroit Pistons. The rookie wasn’t grinning because his team won the game, but because he was happy to be home again.
“It was a lot of fun,” Johnson said. “ I was tired and a lot of adrenaline was flowing, but I had fun. Seeing that 'S' on the court brought back a lot of good memories.”
Former Syracuse Orange Wesley Johnson goes to the Minnesota Timberwolves as the No. 4 pick, while teammate Andy Rautins heads to the New York Knicks.
Syracuse knew it had a superstar on its hands, and the rest of the country noticed. Wes Johnson was the No. 4 pick last night for the Minnesota Timberwolves, as two of Syracuse Orange's finest were drafted into the NBA, onto bigger and better careers.
The Junior forward posted on Twitter this morning "Up and ready to make moves..." and that is exactly what he is doing.
Wes Johnson will be formally announcing his plans to enter the NBA draft in a press conference today at 3 p.m. at the Carmello Anthony Basketball Center.
Syracuse (30-4) travels to Salt Lake City for its Sweet Sixteen matchup with Butler (30-4). Tip-off is 7:07 p.m. EST.
Syracuse starting forward Rick Jackson getting into foul trouble was the best thing to happen to Syracuse on Sunday afternoon.
With two hands tied behind their backs (the team's other starting forward Arinze Onuaku was inactive with a leg injury), the Orange took a bat to Gonzaga’s pumpkin chariot, and put up 87 points on the Cinderella-turned-NCAA-regular.
"This is as well as we've played all year," said Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim. "It was a tremendous performance."
Turnovers, defensive woes and a worrying injury troubled the one-seeded Syracuse Orange as they fell to eighth seed Georgetown in the Big East tournament quarterfinals, 91-84.
Two kinds of fans filled Madison Square Garden this afternoon. Half wore Orange, and stood in stunned silence. The other half wore just about anything else, and cheered as loud as they could for the top seed to fall. They got their wish.
Six minutes into the second half, Syracuse watched their lead dwindle from a game high nine points, to one point in under two minutes. And with a 2-point field goal by Vee Sanford, Georgetown took the lead and never lost it.
The match-up Orange fans have been talking is their banged-up star forward Wesley Johnson vs. Villanova’s all-NCAA point guard Scottie Reynolds.
When a record-breaking crowd of more than 34,000 fans watch the No. 4 Syracuse Orange play the No. 7 Villanova Wildcats at the Carrier Dome on Saturday, they’ll see a matchup of two of the best basketball teams heading into the NCAA tournament.
What they’ll very rarely see, however, is the match-up that Orange fans have been talking about all week: Syracuse’s banged-up star forward Wesley Johnson facing Villanova’s all-NCAA point guard Scottie Reynolds one-on-one.
It's not time for March Madness quite yet but last Thursday night in D.C., Cuse fans were definitely ready for the Big Dance. (A fan experience story)
Before leaving for the Georgetown game last Thursday, I turned to my father’s Facebook page for last minute inspiration. His profile picture was a Syracuse fan holding a sign that reads: “I’ve hated Georgetown since I was a little kid.” My dad raised me to appreciate and agree with that statement. (His new profile picture is of me holding a “YOUR MOM IS A HO-YA” sign at the game.) Ready to go, I was fully dressed in Syracuse attire, orange pom-pom in hand, and decked out in my “Go Cuse,” orange and blue Nike sneakers, which I had previously only worn to games at the Dome.
Offensive woes give Syracuse its second loss of the season in a 66-60 Valentine's Day defeat by Louisville.
For the second straight game, the Orange took an early double-digit lead, then squandered it in the final minutes. This time, they couldn’t recover.
“You can’t be in all these games and get down to the end and think you’re going to win,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. “You’ve got to play better during the game and tonight offensively we just were not good. And I think that’s the bottom line.”
After giving up a 16-point second half lead, the Orange buckled down to hang onto its lead and end with a victory against arch-rival UConn.
With the No. 2 national ranking on the line and the extra anticipation of its first meeting with Connecticut since last year's historic six overtime game at Madison Square Garden, Syracuse found a way to fend off its Big East rival yet again in Wednesday's 72-67 nail-biter win at the Carrier Dome.
Rick Jackson led Syracuse with 15 points, while Kris Joseph and Wes Johnson had 14 and 13 respectively. Joseph and Johnson combined to make six straight free throws in the final 33 seconds to help seal the win for the Orange.
This is the fourth installment of “Friday Five,” a weekly column with analysis and insight on the Orange, the Big East and the rest of college basketball. Adjust your computer monitor accordingly.
February is a month of adjustments. The number of days on the calendar is known to change, Valentine’s Day can be a disaster or heaven depending on your love life, and in 2010 the Winter Olympics interrupts the normal TV programming. Halftime Snack is on board with Adjustment Month: