Syracuse 89, Seton Hall 74 in BasketBrawl

The Cuse wins its first Big East tournament game in easy fashion - AFTER a near melee in the second half that saw four technical fouls and one flagrant foul called on back to back possessions.  At the time, Syracuse only led by 2 and had trailed early in the 2nd half as Seton Hall came out on fire, but the punches thrown by the Pirates at Syracuse players (I counted three) woke Eric Devendorf up after a listless, scoreless first half and he carried the team to a huge run in the aftermath of the dustup that gave them a 24-point lead before the walk-ons came on and Seton Hall made the final score closer than it actually was.  The two near brawls began when Arinze Onuaku (active and effective in the 2nd half, not as good in the 1st) blocked a shot by Pirate center John Garcia and then shouted as he often does after a good block, more in celebration than in any kind of put down of the opposition.  Garcia took offense, though, and started screaming right in Arinze's face, who responded by applauding in Garcia's face.  Garcia then took a clear swing (ok, maybe more of a push) at Arinze and double technicals were called.  Somehow, Garcia wasn't thrown out of the game.  On the next possession (I think), after a Syracuse steal, Jonny Flynn passed the ball to Kristof Ongenaet for the layup when backup center Brandon Walters (who replaced Garcia in the game) slammed Kristof to the ground with a viscious overhead karate chop/tackle.  The flagrant foul was called immediately, but while Kristof was on the ground, Devendorf and Seton Hall guard Eugene Harvey got into a shouting then shoving match which culminated with Harvey throwing a clear punch (and landing) at Devo's face.  Devo threw a wild shove backwards that simply landed on the mass of bodies and the referees and coaches managed to pull the teams apart. 

After a TV timeout, we returned to the then 2-point game to learn that Devo and Harvey each received technicals while Walters received a personal foul for the flagrant, but inexplicably neither Seton Hall player was thrown out of the game.  In fairness, the refs could have easily tossed Devo out with them and they didn't and cooler heads prevailed for the rest of the game, but I do wonder how Ongenaet's inadvertent elbow in a game earlier this season got him ejected, while three Seton Hall players making flagrant, intentional punch/shoves at the opposing players IN FRONT OF THE REFS does not end with a single ejection.  It's odd.  And I would have fucking loved if one of the Pirates took an intentional swing at Jay Bilas, who was so fucking annoying the entire game and especially after the incidents, unable to shut the fuck up about how players should just play the game and all that crap and not talk on the court and shit like this hasn't happened for decades.  As Bill Raftery put in, this game was definitely like an old school Big East tournament game -- believe me, the little shoves and jawing between Onuaku and Garcia would be laughed at by the likes of Patrick Ewing or Dikembe Mutombo (god I used to hate Georgetown).  Bilas was the only one of the three announcers not to think Walters deserved the ejection, the only one who faulted Onuaku for instigating the first fight, and the only one who spent the rest of the game attacking Devo for being a thug -- while the player was busy carrying his team to an important victory (thug or no).  Sean McDonough even took a shot at him at the end of the game (when he carped on a possible travel by Flynn on a bucket with a 20+ lead), saying "You really get punchy in these late games."  Thank you, Sean.  Fuck you, Bilas.

Anyway, back to the game -- after we returned from the lengthy sorting out, Ongenaet made one of two free throws to give us a 3 point lead and then Eric Devendorf -- who had about 3 points in the whole game at the time, hoisted a three in Harvey's face and drained it.  Hells yeah.  If that's what it took to wake him up, well done Eugene.  Because Devo was on fire from then on, scoring 19 points total, all in the 2nd half.  Andy Rautins buried a couple threes himself, and the defense, which had dominated the first 10 minutes of the game and then disappeared, reasserted itself, leading to a bunch of fast breaks and easy layups.  Jonny Flynn carried the team in the first half, but deferred to his teammates in the 2nd, and ended up with 19 points and 11 assists.   Ongenaet finished with 12 in one of the best games he's ever played in a Syracuse uniform, and Rautins had 11.  Onuaku put in 15 -- almost all in the second half, and almost all on layups and dunks during the run.  He seemed a little energized by getting hit as well.  He even made a free throw, his first after 13 straight misses, but his 1 for 5 in the game probably drops him below 30% on the season.  In total, Syracuse tied a Big East tournament record with 30 assists in the game.

Tomorrow we see UConn and I have no idea what will happen.  I think with tonight's win we should have cemented a 5 seed, although I guess theoretically the committee can pull its yearly "Let's screw Boeheim" crap and drop us to a 6.  Not sure there's a huge difference either way.  We beat UConn and we're in a "protected" seed (1 to 4), which I think means you play closer to home, maybe?  I'm not sure.  But regardless of seeding, I would love to beat UConn.  Ever since Georgetown faded in the late '90s, UConn has taken over the mantle of Syracuse's biggest rival (and my most hated team -- outside of the Yankees, of course), and this year's team -- especially Hasheem Thabeet, who makes Devo look like a model citizen -- is very easy to hate.  Tough to beat, though.  And I'll be shocked if they come up with a win.  But we're only 3 years removed from Gerry McNamara's miracle shot to beat #1 (in the country) UConn in the 2nd round of the Big East tournament in 2006, one of the greatest college basketball games I've ever witnessed.  So I'd like to see a little repeat.  Go Orange!

Comments

[Double OT]

Ummm... aren't these guys gonna get awfully tired? They gonna have anything left for tomorrow? Next week?

[Double OT]

5? really?

[Bill]

I'm actually hoping that Boeheim starts five walk-ons tomorrow. Let WVU win. Rest up for the tourney. You just can't top tonight's game.