CuseAdelphia Road Trip

CSTV interview my traveling companion, Gumby. I'm in the hunting gear, he's next to me. If the video doesn't work, you can watch it here.

I went to the Villanova game and just got back to the 'Cuse about an hour ago and as you know from A.J.'s post below, Syracuse played a great game to win this one 87-73.

I don't think the score really does justice for this game. Villanova was absolutely terrible after the first eight minutes or so. They came out and hit 10 of their first 11 shots and then after that went 16-47. Syracuse didn't show up on defense for those first eight minutes. The team made some quick adjustments and from there on out, 'Nova didn't look or play like a Big East team.

'Nova is vastly undersized which is 100% their biggest problem. Paul Harris is a solid player, but there is no reason he should be scoring 28 points. He had a field day against a front court that was only a little bigger than my high school front court.

Jay Wright needs to recruit big men because if he can't get the guards that have the talent of a Allen Ray, Randy Foye, and Mike Nardi, they won't win more than about seven or eight games in the Big East.

Syracuse dominated this game on the boards and down low all game. I am loving this front line of Kristof! Arinze Onuaku, and Donte' Greene. The 2-3 zone is best when you have long arms and solid rebounders.

Kristof! is that glue guy that puts everything together and showed that today. The Badass Belgian Waffle Baller put up 12 points, five rebounds, two assists, a block, and three steals.

The defense in this game for Syracuse was absolutely phenomenal after the first eight minutes. I understand you need to play a full forty minutes of defense, but the effort this team gave after being down 24-13 with 11:11 to play is what defines teams. This team has shown they will not give up, they will not back down. People called them a bunch of "AAU" ballers earlier this year, but you don't hear that anymore. This team plays like a team on both offense and defense.

The Orange also stayed out of foul trouble for the most part. A.O. picked up his fourth foul with a lot of time left in the game, but Rick Jackson proved to be a solid replacement. At that point, it didn't matter who was playing center for the Orange as long as he was big. As said above, the Wildcats just didn't have the size to match the 'Cuse.

Scottie Reynolds is a joke on defense. People criticize Donte' Greene for being out of position and getting silly fouls, which I admit he does, but was better today, but man was Scottie Reynolds bad today. Reynolds picked up several just terrible fouls because he got out of position. It resulted in Reynolds spending extensive minutes on the bench when his team was struggling. Jonny Flynn took him to school with crossovers and just breaking the one man pressure in the back.

Villanova's press was extremely uneffective which is why they stopped pressing after about three minutes. They got one turnover on I think the first possession, but after that Syracuse got a several easy layups because of the size of Donte' Greene in the middle of the court.

A few bad things I saw with this game. First, the referees didn't let the boys play once again. 51 fouls is way too many. Villanova had 32 fouls and nine players with at least three fouls. I thought the game was called a little uneven, but Villanova was definitely more physical with hand checks and pushes and paid for it. But then maybe it was a payback for the first meeting between these two teams this year when it seemed all the calls were going against the Orange.

Syracuse needs to stop turning the ball over. 18 turnovers is about three too many for my liking in a game played at such a fast pace.

Lastly its time for me to go on a rant. It's time to call out Villanova basketball fans. I have never seen a fan base so out of a game than I saw tonight. It seemed like Villanova fans didn't care and didn't want to be at that game. The fans got on their feet two, maybe three times all game. The student section was quiet. 'Nova Nation couldn't have had less energy. They jumped up and down crazily during....the dance cam during ever break. They had more energy by far during the breaks than the game.

The arena itself was empty. The attendance apparently was 19,866, which is a sellout, but that's how many tickets were sold. If I had to take a guess there was maybe 13,000 people there. Maybe 13,000. There were almost complete rows of empty seats in the bottom deck. The student section was about two-thirds full. If it wasn't for the fact the upperdeck was probably half Syracuse half Villanova, the attendance would have been about 10,000.

Someone commented on LetsGoNova the other day complaining about teams bring caravans of fans into their stadiums and show their fans up. That was 100% the case today. Villanova was showed up by Syracuse fans. The Orange faithful came in droves and came to the Wachovia Center and made it the LoudHouse.

At the end of the game, there was maybe 4,000 people left and the majority were wearing Orange. The ESPN recap even mentions the Orange faithful:

The Wildcats also lost their second game in two Saturdays at the Wachovia Center, their off-campus where they were nearly invincible the last three years. This time, they were left to watch about 2,000 Orange fans wave, taunt and cheer in the waning moments.

As a CuseADELPHIA blog, with a the Adelphia standing for Philadelphia for anyone who hasn't realized that, I know Philadelphia fans are better than what they showed today. I know they are rowdy and love to make noise, so why doesn't that show in Villanova games?

Also, the Villanova student section flipped off my section of Syracuse fans near the end of the game. I mean like almost the entire student section turned around and gave us the bird. From what I've been told that was accidentally picked up on the ESPN broadcast. I'll have to watch that to see if ESPN picked up on it, or if someone could leave a message to confirm whether or not ESPN showed it.

One last note on Villanova basketball. Villanova is a basketball school. They are not a Division I-A football school which means the main sport at 'Nova is basketball. To see how far 'Nova has fallen in a few years is amazing. There's discussion now this team might not make the Big East tournament if teams like DePaul and Cincinnati don't drop off and play terrible like they were expected to.

Overall, Syracuse played a great game, Villanova did not. The Orange showed heart and determination, Villanova did not. The Cuse's fans showed up and cheered, Villanova's did not.