Syracuse, ranked #21 according to ESPN, lost by three to #24 Oklahoma State on Tuesday night. This comes on the heels of a loss to #17 Wichita State (who climbed to #10 in this week’s rankings).
That’s what happens when you play ranked teams in December. I’m not sure how they managed to get Jim Boeheim to agree to these games– maybe they had him sign a vague and deceptive agreement to appear, so he thought he was getting to play Sacha Baron Cohen…
This was a pretty ugly game all the way around, from the play on the court, to the call on tv. The game was part of the “Jimmy V Classic,” raising money for cancer research, and Dick Vitale did it as half basketball game, and half telethon. Well, really, it was half rambling discourse about things that may or may not have been related to the actual game, with the other half divided evenly between sob stories about people with cancer, and Jim Valvano haigography.
If this sounds like it was harder to listen to than even a normal Dick Vitale broadcast, well, you’re right.
As for the game itself… Well, really, the less said the better. Oklahoma State deserved to win by virtue of being less incompetent than Syracuse, but it wasn’t a high bar to clear. The Orange threw up bad shots, threw terrible passes, couldn’t rebound worth a damn, and just generally failed to hustle– and yet, they were in it until the final seconds. Oklahoma State hustled, but also turned the ball over approximately a million times, looking utterly baffled whenever Syracuse managed to rouse themselves to play defense.
What a mess. And Vitale to boot. Yeesh.
Are you seriously arguing against playing real games before the conference slate begins? Because you’re afraid of losing? What about RPI, which plays a role in determining seeding for the NCAA tournament? Playing good teams boosts your RPI. And what about preparing for the conference schedule?
I’d be mighty pissed if the AD and coach from my favorite school wussed out with scheduling. Sure, you play a couple of cupcakes, but don’t avoid teams because they’re good. That type of attitude is why I’ll can’t respect the SEC as a football conference.
That was intended as an ironic commentary on Jim Boeheim, not a serious suggestion of what teams ought to do. Boeheim is famous for playing a really soft schedule– they don’t leave the state of New York until early January, and only play something like three games outside of the Carrier Dome.
Of course, he’s not as bad as John Thompson of Georgetown, who used to play Div. II St. Leo’s every year…
As for the RPI, I think it’s overrated. Particularly now that the Big East has five hundred teams, the power-conference teams play each other enough times that they don’t need to play good teams before January to end up with a good RPI.
I had tickets to the OK State game but ended up missing it because of end-of-semester obligations. I think it’s safe to say I’ve never been so glad I missed an opportunity to see SU play. Although I’d obviously feel differently if they’d been able to come back in the second half…