Remember When......

This was posted 2/21
"…Whatever the reason, I think the Orange may be in trouble this year come tournament time. Unless..........
-Warrick and G-Mac need to drop for at least 20 pts a game each.
-McCroskey and Roberts need to realize they are playing organized hoops and take better shots.
-Edelin needs to play at least 20 minutes a game giving G-Mac and Pace the much needed rest. Saturday against UConn those two guys along with Warrick played the entire game and we all saw the result.
-Craig Forth needs to get more touches inside the paint. I can’t stress this point enough.
-Syracuse needs to get lucky and draw a weak region. Then they need to hope for upsets and play higher seeds until the elite eight. Then they need to pray.Bottom line, my prediction is a second round exit to a mid-major conference champ like Gonzaga, SIU, or Utah."

“Syracuse could possibly lose the first round matchup against Vermont and I am going to leave it at that.” – posted 3/14

I don't want to rub salt in the wound, but I saw this coming. As soon as SU drew Vermont in the opening game, I felt it. Most small conference teams when they find out they are playing a top flight team clap and cheer but understand that they are probably going to get destroyed. Watching Vermount celebrate their draw on Selection Sunday, you could tell that they believed they could beat Syracuse. And they did.

Lets look at how they did it. The physical play and the fact that the refs were allowing it to go on didn't bode well for Warrick though he had a great game putting up 21. Edelin not being there meant another 44 minute game for G-Mac who looked extremely tired late in the game, barely even getting his arms up on D. Vermount matched up well against SU, a fundamentally sound team that played tough D and could shoot the 3. I believe Cuse could have beaten any other higher seeded team in the tourney, but not Vermont, they got screwed.

Boeheim might be over-rated too, I hate to say it. He had the press going late in the game, getting steals, easy lay-ups but as soon as they got the lead, they dropped to the 2-3 zone and let the Catamounts pick it apart like they were doing for most of the game. I actually lost the game for Cuse when I called the Sorrentine half court 3 pointer. I think my exact words were "why are they not pressuring the ball, they are going to run the clock down and hit a 3", immediately followed by the shot that killed the Orange. I thought the guys watching the game with me were going to give me the ol' tar and feather job.

For the record, everytime that Spring Break, Shark Attack promo comes on I make fun of the last scene where we see approximately 1200 sharks all with their fins above the water like "Jaws". That is so over the top, it would never happen I always comment. But then last night on CNN, we see hundreds of sharks down in Florida gathering for Spring Break. It was wild, two prophetic forecasts in one day.

Enough already, every team in the tourney looks beatable except for UNC. Miss St looked tough too, I stand by my upset prediction for tomorrow over Duke.

Secound Round Picks
BC (-3) v UW-Milw , Wake (-9.5) v WVU, Cincy (+3) v Kentucy, Neveda (+11) v Illinois, Pacific (+6.5) v Wash, Arizona (-7.5) v UAB, Oklahoma (-4) v Utah, Texas Tech (+3) v Gonzaga.

UConn (-4) v NC State, Iowa St (+16.5) v UNC, Florida (+1.5) v Nova, SIU (+9.5) v Ok St. Miss St (+9) v Duke, Bucknell (+9.5) V Wisconsin, Vermont (+7.5) v Mich St, Lous (-1.5) v Ga Tech

Should be a great weekend.