Post by HoyaLawya on Dec 22, 2004 13:35:56 GMT -5
Have just returned home from Syracuse where I attended a Carrier Dome game (rooting for Big Red / Cornell due to having a relative on that team). It was probably good to have that diversion and avoid most of the lamentation time about the Oral Roberts loss
Anyway, back to the frozen tundra. (Syracuse -- zero degrees.) The game on Monday night is one which tells me that the Orange can be "had" by some smart basketball and fundamentals.
Darryl Watkins out of Paterson Catholic H.S. in NJ who (I believe) we were interested in recruiting at one time (although Rutgers and SU led for his services) is one of the more interesting specimens of raw athleticism unguided by any basketball IQ that I've ever had the experience of watching in a personally-attended game. (OK, OK .... if I count my kids' CYO games then maybe there's some toss-ups. But speaking collegiately, my observation stands.)
The game was a tale of two halves. And patient, crisp ball handling, running a variety of offensive sets, was something that seemed to confuse SU throughout the first half. IIRC, the Orange struggled earlier this year against Princeton as well. Here are some links to write-ups about the game.
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www.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1103626533270885.xml
As the Cornell men’s basketball team continued to rain 3-pointers on a shocked seventh-ranked Syracuse team in front of a stunned Carrier Dome crowd on Monday, the Big Red’s confidence nearly busted through the building’s Teflon roof.
Cornell led for most of the first half and found itself with just a 1 point deficit at the break.
“You just sort of look around, you look at the score, and think, 'Hey, yeah, we can do this. We can hang with these guys',” Cornell’s Lenny Collins said. “You definitely come into the game confident and thinking you’re going to play as hard as you can, but once you get in there and you see the score and see that we’re up, it really starts to set in that we can compete with these guys at a high level.”
Unfortunately for the Ivy League underdogs, the roof came crashing down as too many second-half turnovers, especially in the first 7 1/2 minutes, thwarted its upset bid in an 82-69 loss.
"Aside from that seven-minute stretch, I really felt spectacular about everything that was going down," said senior Cody Toppert, the game's leading scorer with 23 points. "I felt great about our confidence level and our poise."
Cornell was certainly poised along the perimeter, making a school-record 15 3-pointers in the loss. That total surpasses the former record of 14 set against Pennsylvania in 1991 and Ithaca in 2001.
The 15 3's are the most a team has made in the Carrier Dome, and it ties the most against a Syracuse team (Southern Illinois hit 15 3's in the 1995 NCAA Tournament).
Cornell shot 15-of-24 from long range (62.5 percent), just below the opponent's record against Syracuse set by Notre Dame when it hit 13-of-19 (68.4 percent) in 1998.
Toppert made seven of his 10 3-pointer tries. Six other Cornell players hit 3-pointers, including reserve guard Will Scott, who shot 3-for-4 from long range in the second half.
Cornell's hot shooting against Syracuse's zone was somewhat surprising because the Orange had been holding teams to 27.2 percent from 3-point range.
"You can't let people shoot the ball," SU coach Jim Boeheim said. "Simple as that. You let people shoot the ball, they're going to make shots in college."
====================
www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20041221/localsports/1768578.html
In the same way that every kid knows his father is really mad when he's not yelling, Jim Boeheim wasn't happy Monday night.
The Syracuse University coach didn't rant or rave, but he was clearly less than pleased with his team after an 82-69 victory over Cornell at the Carrier Dome. Boeheim, his measured tone bearing a similarity to the voice on an automated messaging system, outlined his team's many shortcomings.
"We have no excuses," Boeheim said near the end of his news conference. "There's no excuse for not playing. I don't care who you play (or) when you play.”
Boeheim's main point of emphasis was the Orange's lack of defensive intensity, particularly the Orange's inability to defend the 3-point shot.
=================
Play-by-play summary.
sports.espn.go.com/ncb/playbyplay?gameId=243550183&period=0
Anyway, back to the frozen tundra. (Syracuse -- zero degrees.) The game on Monday night is one which tells me that the Orange can be "had" by some smart basketball and fundamentals.
Darryl Watkins out of Paterson Catholic H.S. in NJ who (I believe) we were interested in recruiting at one time (although Rutgers and SU led for his services) is one of the more interesting specimens of raw athleticism unguided by any basketball IQ that I've ever had the experience of watching in a personally-attended game. (OK, OK .... if I count my kids' CYO games then maybe there's some toss-ups. But speaking collegiately, my observation stands.)
The game was a tale of two halves. And patient, crisp ball handling, running a variety of offensive sets, was something that seemed to confuse SU throughout the first half. IIRC, the Orange struggled earlier this year against Princeton as well. Here are some links to write-ups about the game.
===========================
www.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1103626533270885.xml
As the Cornell men’s basketball team continued to rain 3-pointers on a shocked seventh-ranked Syracuse team in front of a stunned Carrier Dome crowd on Monday, the Big Red’s confidence nearly busted through the building’s Teflon roof.
Cornell led for most of the first half and found itself with just a 1 point deficit at the break.
“You just sort of look around, you look at the score, and think, 'Hey, yeah, we can do this. We can hang with these guys',” Cornell’s Lenny Collins said. “You definitely come into the game confident and thinking you’re going to play as hard as you can, but once you get in there and you see the score and see that we’re up, it really starts to set in that we can compete with these guys at a high level.”
Unfortunately for the Ivy League underdogs, the roof came crashing down as too many second-half turnovers, especially in the first 7 1/2 minutes, thwarted its upset bid in an 82-69 loss.
"Aside from that seven-minute stretch, I really felt spectacular about everything that was going down," said senior Cody Toppert, the game's leading scorer with 23 points. "I felt great about our confidence level and our poise."
Cornell was certainly poised along the perimeter, making a school-record 15 3-pointers in the loss. That total surpasses the former record of 14 set against Pennsylvania in 1991 and Ithaca in 2001.
The 15 3's are the most a team has made in the Carrier Dome, and it ties the most against a Syracuse team (Southern Illinois hit 15 3's in the 1995 NCAA Tournament).
Cornell shot 15-of-24 from long range (62.5 percent), just below the opponent's record against Syracuse set by Notre Dame when it hit 13-of-19 (68.4 percent) in 1998.
Toppert made seven of his 10 3-pointer tries. Six other Cornell players hit 3-pointers, including reserve guard Will Scott, who shot 3-for-4 from long range in the second half.
Cornell's hot shooting against Syracuse's zone was somewhat surprising because the Orange had been holding teams to 27.2 percent from 3-point range.
"You can't let people shoot the ball," SU coach Jim Boeheim said. "Simple as that. You let people shoot the ball, they're going to make shots in college."
====================
www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20041221/localsports/1768578.html
In the same way that every kid knows his father is really mad when he's not yelling, Jim Boeheim wasn't happy Monday night.
The Syracuse University coach didn't rant or rave, but he was clearly less than pleased with his team after an 82-69 victory over Cornell at the Carrier Dome. Boeheim, his measured tone bearing a similarity to the voice on an automated messaging system, outlined his team's many shortcomings.
"We have no excuses," Boeheim said near the end of his news conference. "There's no excuse for not playing. I don't care who you play (or) when you play.”
Boeheim's main point of emphasis was the Orange's lack of defensive intensity, particularly the Orange's inability to defend the 3-point shot.
=================
Play-by-play summary.
sports.espn.go.com/ncb/playbyplay?gameId=243550183&period=0