Well, it isn’t quite being number one but Syracuse found itself in the Top 20 already.  I guess beating Florida, Kansas and Virginia in a week can do that to you.  Both polls are out for this week and SU is #20 in the ESPN Coach’s poll and #16 in the AP Media poll – nice jump from starting the season out unranked. 

SU hosts in-state foe Colgate tonight at 7:00.

The Pirates have to be happy to be 5-1 20 percent of the way through the year’s schedule. The wins over USC and Virginia Tech weren’t expected, and the Hall has cleaned house against lesser opponents – something that hasn’t happened consistently in the Bobby Gonzalez era.

They’ve got Monmouth and the second half of their non-conference schedule coming tomorrow night, but today I want to talk about what went right and what went wrong through the first six games.

The Right:

-Jeremy Hazell has been lights out. He’s averaging 21.8 points per game, and hasn’t had a dry spell from behind the three point line yet. He’s fitting into the No. 3 spot fairly well, which is good, because he’ll be there for the duration of the Big East season when Mike Davis stops getting playing time.
-The rest of the guards – Harvey, Gause, Theodore – have come together too, and are keeping the team straight
-John Garcia is averaging a double-double a night, finally becoming the big man the team needs. Better, his knees are good enough to give him 33 minutes a game and keep him on the floor.

The Wrong:

-John Garcia is playing 33 minutes a contest. Yes, I know I’m contradicting myself, but this is both good and bad. Good because it’s helping the Pirates win now, bad because there’s no way Garcia holds up throughout the season at this rate. He’ll be done for mid-way through the Big East schedule if he doesn’t get some breaks, and that’s a bad, bad thing.
-Brandon Walters and Mike Davis still look lost. This is the problem that keys Garcia’s 33 minutes. Walters and Davis have not stepped up, and are only getting more playing time because the bench is so short. It’s not good, and they’ll have to turn things around fast.

I’m still undecided on Robert Mitchell, though he has boosted the offense.

Again, the team goes for 6-1 when they play Monmouth tomorrow night. I’ll be back in the morning for a breakdown of that.

-Skip

It was one of those games where it seemed one team didn’t want to be there, and the other team wanted to prove it deserved to be on the same court as that team.

Every year there are upsets early in the college basketball season, but I never really realized how much they can get under a fan’s skin until this past weekend when it happened to my school.

Losing to in-state WKU is unacceptable. No disrespect to the Hilltoppers, but this is a team that we should beat 100% of the time when focused. However, the body language and shot selection by the Cards showed that they believed they won the game as soon as they got on I-65 South towards Nashville.

The loss drops the Cards eight spots in the polls to No. 11, which perhaps is a positive. Surely if the players have any pride at all, they will rebound from this loss and unleash holy hell on whoever they play next. A team with this much experience and young talent shouldn’t have to worry about a team from the Sun Belt Conference putting a blemish on their record.

I will say that I think Coach Rick Pitino needs to do a better job with the early season schedule. The Cards have played less games than most other top 25 teams, and opened the season last among them as well. Taking a week off between games this early in the season definitely hinders the ability of the team to get into solid rhythm. Given that Freedom Hall wasn’t available during the week, I still think Pitino could have gotten more than one game in over the time period.

I’m definitely not throwing the Cards under the bus. Better shot selection shouldn’t be a problem, but hopefully they realize you can’t win a game without playing it first.

So, did you hear?  Yeah, the SU football season ended this weekend without any fanfare.  The Greg Robinson era is officially over and the search now really kicks in to find a new head coach.  We’ve already see Contestant #1 is Mike Locksley.  He interviewed last week, according to Rivals.com.  Now for Candidates two and three.

—BEGIN DRAMATIZATION—

Welcome back to the SU Football Dating Game.  Today Syracuse will try and gauge Contestants No. 2 and 3.  Lets start with you contestant No. 2…

Contestant No. 2, what ties do you have to Syracuse…

Well, I worked with the Athletic Director, Daryl Gross, while I was an assistant at USC…but….

Great, Contestant No. 2, why do you want to be the next SU coach?

Well, actually, I already took a job coaching at Tennessee. 

Oh.  Well, Contestant No. 2, you must be Lane Kiffin and I obviously cannot choose you.  Sorry.

—–

So, Candidate No. 2 is out, how about No. 3?

Candidate No. 3, what is your coaching experience?

Well, I’ve spent the last two years as the offensive coordinator at Oregon.  My offense is ranked in the top 15 in the nation and also in scoring.  My quarterback last year, Dennis Dixon, almost led Oregon to a national title game before going down with an ACL injury.  He was also a Heisman candidate.  Last year’s club was also the best producing offense in Oregon History (Joey Harrington went here too – and he was good then).

Candidate No. 3, what is your East Coast tie?

I am a graduate of the University of New Hampshire.  I have also been an assistant and quarterbacks coach for the Wildcats.  My coaching resume also includes work at Columbia. 

How about your recruiting background?

Well in just the past year, I gained five commitments to Oregon.  Three of those commitments were 4-star recruits and the other two were three stars.  Two of those freshman have made impacts this year.  Chris Harper is the team’s 5th leading receiver with 122 yards and two TD.  Quarterback Darron Thomas has seen some time under center.  Thomas has thrown for 268 yards with 3TD and 1INT in 5 games.

—END DRAMATIZATION—

So we’ve got Mike Locksley and now Chip Kelly in the running for SU’s next head coach (Kelly is Candidate No. 3).  We’ll continue building SU’s list of choices before the finale, when the Orange makes its decision on its next head coach.