VAGUE SPACE

Southerland Scores Big in Syracuse Win

James Southerland -- aka J-South, aka Dirty South, aka J-Smooth, aka we need to settle on a nickname he's a senior for crying out loud -- exploded for 35 points on a record-tying nine 3-pointers in a 91-82 Syracuse win Friday night at Arkansas.  Jim Boeheim likely didn't want to play this game -- he doesn't exactly relish non-conference road games -- but the Cuse didn't have much of a choice in this last season in the Big East, so they headed down to Fayetteville, Arkansas, as part of the Big East / SEC challenge that the Big East has been winning handily.  The Orange were 4-0 and winning games easily against strong mid-majors (SDSU, Wagner, and Princeton all made the tournament last year) but playing an away game in a tough place to play against an SEC team would prove a stronger challenge than Wagner, for sure.  And Arkansas was tough.  They couldn't shoot well but their frenetic pace led to scores of Syracuse turnovers and even more fouls.  While the Orange had an 8 to 15 point lead for pretty much the entire game, it never felt like they had the game in hand because with the way the Razorbacks play, pressing all the time, running at every opportunity, an 8-0 run to get them back into the game seemed imminent.  They did cut it 3 at one point in the second half and then Southerland banged home another couple threes and they never got that close again.  Great win for the team and a coming out party for who will clearly be the team's third straight Big East Sixth Man of the Year (following Kris Joseph and Dion Waiters the past two seasons).

Vague Space Flashback

I'd like to say I'm ahead of my time but perusing this article I wrote over 7 years ago doesn't mention any performance enhancing drugs (other than in association with the Festina scandal of 1998).  Even so, I still think the title is appropriate in the wake of the 1000 pages of evidence released by the USADA last week. 

• Why I Hate Lance Armstrong

 

Robert Gesink when he still had a team to ride for

On a more serious note, I am fearful that Mr. Armstrong's wrongdoings could have a strongly negative long-term effect on the sport of cycling, even if his crimes were committed a long time ago.  One of the sport's long time and strongest sponsors, Dutch bank Rabobank, announced Friday that they were pulling out of the sport effective immediately as a result of this latest doping controversy.  They no longer believe that cycling has the ability to police itself.  Now, they don't mention how they turned a blind eye to Michael Rasmussen or Denis Menchov's doping issues and apparently some guy on some other team was the straw that broke the camel's back but whatever the reason, it's not good for the immediate future of the sport.  And as long as the UCI ineffectively remains in charge, I tend to agree with them that the sport will not be clean.  This has been going on for decades and has been public since the Festina scandal of 1998 which was followed by Operation Puerto and then the Rasmussen and Floyd Landis mess and then Contador and now Lance.  I don't think anyone who got on the podium during the Lance 7 year reign of terror hasn't also been implicated at some point.  So yeah, I don't know what's going to happen.  Personally I wish they would just all turn a blind eye and get doped to the gills again because all this press is ruining the sport and riders are still not riding clean.  But maybe someone will come up with some way to better convince riders to ride clean.  I don't know.  F Lance.

 

Syracuse Season Preview

With some serious shades of 1991, the Richmond Spiders came into the Carrier Dome tonight and took a 7-point lead into halftime.  But led by an 11 point run by a resurgent Eric Devendorf and a dominating second half by sophomore Jonny Flynn, the Cuse held off the Spiders, 76-71, winning fairly easily at the end against a non-conference opponent.  While I'll take the win, I must admit the Orange looked bad for most of the first half and looked outhustled for parts of the second half until Flynn took over -- and Devo made a hugely important three from the corner with about 6 minutes to play.  Richmond was only 16-15 last season and while they played well (and were red-hot from 3 in the first half... where have we seen that before?), this is a game the Cuse should have won, and by a more comfortable margin.  Of course, we've lost in early season games to midpack A-10 schools the last couple of years, helping to keep us out of the NCAA tournament.  So I'll take the win.

And it's sad to say, but at first glance, this team doesn't look much better than our last two teams and is arguably worse.  Flynn and Devo were supported by 17 mostly first half points by Arinze Onuaku, but that was it.  They might as well have played with three guys on the court.  The rest of the team?  Disastrous.  Paul Harris scored 8 points and the rest of his teammates scored 3 points, combined.  Andy Rautins went 0 for 6 in his 2nd game back from knee surgery, Rick Jackson and Kristof Ongenaet were invisible on the court, especially on defense, and freshman Kris Joseph did little with extended 2nd half minutes.  I don't think fellow freshman Mookie Jones got on the court -- he didn't in the 2nd half, when Boeheim buried his bench in a close game and rode Devo and Flynn to victory.  That will not be enough to win in the Big East.  We're 2-0 to start the season, but there is a ton of work to do.