The topper to a great night of November basketball. Syracuse and Kansas playing in Kansas City for the final of the O'Reilly CBE Classic. It went to overtime and Syracuse came away with a 89-81 win. Syracuse was down 51-38 with 15 minutes left in the game. At that point, Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim actually abandoned his venerable 2-3 zone defense and switched to man-to-man defense. That completely changed the game. Syracuse closed to within four points only two minutes after the switch, and tied at the 10 minute mark.
Still Kansas responded and seemed to reassert itself. Rebuilding its lead and appearing to be in control. In the final couple minutes, though, the Jayhawks could not put Syracuse away. The Orange -- especially Jonny Flynn -- came up huge. Hitting the last five points and helping to send it to overtime.
Kansas at that point was gassed. They were emotionally drained from blowing the lead and looked physically tired as well. Syracuse never trailed in the OT and completely dominated.
It was an odd sight as Kansas seemed to play the role of Syracuse for the past two seasons. A very talented, young team that just could not close out an opponent. Kansas started only one upperclassman in junior Sherron Collins. Collins was also the only player from last season to average more than 8 minutes/game. The rest were freshmen and sophomores with limited experience.
It showed as a now veteran and more experienced Syracuse team wore them down in the second half. As much as the game was about Jonny Flynn, Paul Harris and Eric Devendorf of the Orange, it really seemed like the coming out party for forward Arinze Onuaku.
The junior had 19 points on 8-9 shooting and 12 rebounds. He also had 3 blocks and was a strong presence inside. Something Syracuse has lacked the last couple years. More content to play games out on the perimeter and only attack from the wings. Seemingly conceding the paint on both ends. That appears to have changed.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Very exciting win tonight for us Orange fans. Couple thoughts - Flynn played great as usual...but concerned about Devendorf, though, as it seems like he turned the ball over almost every time he touched it. He also missed a lot of free throws. Wonder if the university investigation is getting in his head.
Want to also correct something you mentioned -- Onuaku is not a forward, he's a CENTER...one of the best in the country. And this is not a coming out party -- he's been great for a while...led the Big East in field goal percentage last year....and leads the nation right now...so not really a coming out party.
Syracuse pulled off the win tonight. Sad thing is that as a KU fan, I think the OrangeMEN would win in two months as well. Doesn't really matter since KU won the tournament last year, but for this year I am not sold. Morningstar? Reid? Self had better get his ring and start showing that puppy off.
The story waas fine but should include records and rankings for relevance as should all sports stories.
The author should remember that defensive genious Jim Boeheim must have learned a thing or two hanging around the great offensive coaches of the US Olympic Basketball Team.
Winning in college is all about preparation and a little luck. This year the team seems better prepared to make changes during the game.
Syracuse now knows how to come from behind and win. They do need more maturity (better on court decisions), much quicker passes to the front court (like the old Celtics did), and a free throw coach.
Great Darrell Arthur article
http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=11166