Holy shit. This is what the NCAAs will be like I fear. Highly favored, coming out cold and then scratching and clawing to somehow scrape out a victory. Winning games like this is how you win an NCAA title. And Syracuse just won what was easily the most exciting (if not best played) game of the year, beating DePaul 59-57 this afternoon. Syracuse came into the game riding a 7-game winning streak, a #4 ranking in the country, and a Monday defeat of rival Georgetown (who beat Duke today) by double digits. DePaul on the other hand, had lost 20+ straight Big East games before a last second miracle win over Marquette (who beat UConn today, who beat Texas last Saturday -- yes, in college basketball, especially the Big East, any team can win on any given day -- except Rutgers), and the Demon Deacons came into the game with a lowly 1-7 mark in the conference. But they jumped out to a 16-6 lead and then extended it to an 18 point lead with some poor play from the Cuse and some great shooting by DePaul. But then Boeheim put on the press, DePaul got all kinds of frazzled and a 16-0 run late in the 1st half ended up cutting the lead to 2. DePaul went into the half with a 35-31 lead but at that point, I wasn't very fearful that the game would even end up close, let alone that we might actually lose.
Syracuse did come out strong at the start of the 2nd half and the lead was down to 1 when DePaul called its 3rd timeout (this becomes important later). Their interim coach (longtime coach Jerry Wainwright was let go in December) settled the team down and DePaul went on another strong shooting run, extending the lead to 6 then 7 then double digits again and all of the sudden, with about 10 minutes left, we were in huge fucking danger of losing the game. The DePaul crowd was going nuts, the Syracuse fans in attendance were in shock, and the Syracuse scorers just couldn't put the ball in the basket. I wouldn't say that we necessarily played all that poorly in the 2nd half, we just couldn't make shots, DePaul was making theirs, and with no margin to play with, we were in huge trouble. Boeheim put the press on again (why he ever took it off is beyond me) and DePaul struggled again, taking themselves out of their offense and then wasting their 2nd to last timeout just trying to get the ball inbounds. With about 8 1/2 minutes left, Syracuse trapped a guard who had just hit a three the previous trip, and he called the team's final timeout to preserve the ball and their then 8-point lead. But without any timeouts, this young team couldn't handle the pressure or make any adjustments and were just trying to hang on to survive for the rest of the game.
DePaul took the air out of the ball completely (they'd been playing most of the shot clock most of the game anyway) and while this took them out of their offense -- they weren't scoring much anymore -- it also ate away at the time, making every Syracuse possession crucial. Kris Joseph hit what Boeheim called his "first 3-pointer in 2 months" to close the lead to 5. Then Scoop Jardine came down and hit a 3 of his own (Andy and Wes -- our normal 3-point shooters -- were both very cold from outside today) to cut the lead to 2. After another steal, or perhaps just a rebound, the ball was advanced up to Wes Johnson who slammed home one of several highlight-reel dunks for him in the game, and we were tied! with about 4 minutes left. Again, DePaul couldn't take a timeout, and they didn't get a good look on the next possession, leading to another runout break finished off by Jardine in traffic in the lane with his patented "scoop" shot. Oh baby! We suddenly had the 54-52 lead.
DePaul would miss again and the lead stretched to 56-52 on a Joseph score and then Rick Jackson had one of his -- I don't know -- 10 blocks in the game to jar the ball loose which led to another potential fast break... but the ball bounced the wrong way and Jackson had to go retrieve the it on the sideline which led to a horribly, unbelievably bad judgment pass by Jackson back into the middle, stolen by a DePaul player who had an open lane to the basket. Luckily, Joseph got back just in time to hack the shit out of him (without, fortunately, an intentional foul call) and the kid missed both free throws. Joseph hit 1 of 2 of his own, giving us a seemingly comfortable 57-52 lead. But their best player, a shooter named Will Walker, banged home a deep three and the lead fell to 2. Wes Johnson had another highlight reel dunk to put the lead back up to 4 but DePaul managed another score with 1 minute left and the lead became 2 again. Andy Rautins took an ill-advised contested deep three with 9 seconds left on the shot clock (and immediately after a Boeheim timeout, so maybe it was set up for him?) and DePaul got the rebound and the ball with a chance to tie... or win. No timeouts left, still, so they had to go on their own, but Syracuse stopped them, knocking the ball out of bounds with 9 seconds left in the game.
The pass went out to Will Walker deep. Rautins stayed tight on him, he passed it away but got it back and Rautins was screened this time and unbelievably!!! Walker stepped forward on a dribble with a fairly wide open three to win the game... and it clanged off the back rim. DePaul got the rebound but the kid wasn't able to get the shot off with Rick Jackson's hand in his face and the game was over 59-57. Big win. Huge win. Horribly exciting win. And how the fuck Scoop and Kris didn't go help Andy cover DePaul's best player when he's about to shoot a 3 to win the fucking game is beyond me, but he missed, it missed, and we won. And Syracuse is now 21-1. I don't believe in fate or in miracles or any of that crap, but that was pretty much a miraculous victory. A game we could have and maybe even should have lost, to a team that had no right to be staying with us, but it was a win. And we'll take it. Survive and advance.
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Posted by: hotel turkei | February 03, 2010 at 03:22 AM