Orange Grabs Bulls by the Horns in 89-77 Win

Time after time, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim has said there are no easy games in the Big East this year. So the Orange tried to make it an easy game by shooting 55.9 percent in the first half en route to a 14 point advantage over South Florida at the break.

In a one point game early on, Syracuse freshman Donte' Green sparked a 7-0 run himself to extend the Orange lead to 15-7 over the Bulls. But the game's most anticipated match up was of the big men. Arinze Onuaku (6-foot-9, 258 pounds) took on South Florida's Kentrell Gransberry (6-9, 270) in a battle in the post. While Onuaku had not faced anyone with the size of his USF counterpart, Onuaku more than held his own. The Orange sophomore scored 11 points while holding Gransberry to only eight and allowed the Bulls' big man to only shoot five times from the field during the first 20 minutes of play.

The Orange continued to dominate in the opening minutes of the second half. After South Florida cut the deficit to nine points, they went cold from the field. Syracuse's defensive effort held USF scoreless for more than five minutes, holding USF to 23.1 percent shooting from beyond the arc, and helped create easy scoring opportunities. Whether it was off missed shots or steals, the Orange defense sparked a number of fast breaks where the Orange are at their best. They certainly showed that as they outscored the Bulls in transition 31-14. Syracuse stretched its lead to 19 points, the run capped off by a Donte Green rim-rocker off a no-look pass from Scoop Jardine.

Speaking of Scoop, the freshman had another outstanding game in only his fifth start. Jardine scored 14 points, dished out a team-high eight assists while only committing one turnover. After being thrown into the starters roll due to Eric Devendorf's injury (scheduled to have surgery on Monday), the Philadelphia guard has shown he's ready for the Big East. Anyone can see the confidence he has gained over the past few games, and he does not seemed phased playing under the bright lights. With Scoop playing along with Jonny Flynn, the Orange are in good hands even with a young back court. The two combined to score 26 points, recorded 14 assists, grabbed 9 rebounds, and only turned the ball over four times. Flynn has already shown he can be counted on, but the addition of Jardine is like having two point guards on the floor at the same time. Their ability to penetrate puts the defense on its heels and creates a number of chances for others.

One Orange man benefiting from this is Paul Harris. In the last three games, Harris has looked more like the player he was last year. By that, I mean he is being aggressive and taking it strong to the hoop. In the beginning of the year Harris seemed a bit lost and played out of control. He just didn't look comfortable at all and forced the jump shot too many times. Now I think we are all starting to see the real Paul Harris. "Do-it-all-Paul" scored 20 points and pulled down 13 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season. Harris will always be able to get points by driving in the lane, drawing the foul, and also off of tip-ins and rebound put-backs. But he is starting to hit that mid-range jumper consistently. He had a couple against South Florida, including one where he did a little shake-and-bake against Gransberry and drained the shot over the defenders outstretched arm. Going into the bulk of the Big East schedule, Harris must continue to be aggressive, especially on the boards. His effort on the glass was contagious as the Orange out rebounded USF 53 to 36, including 21 offensive rebounds which led to 25 second chance points for the Orange.

Onuaku brought in 12 of those caroms and recorded his second straight double-double as he put in 16 points. For much of the second half, the Bulls abandoned the post and did not give the ball to Gransberry who finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds. I think Onuaku clearly out-played Gransberry and should be considered the second best center behind only Georgetown's Roy Hibbert. There are not many people that are going to be able to hold down A.O. this year.

Someone that has yet to be stopped is Donte' Green as he finished with a team-high 21 points and was one rebound away from a double-double. At times it may seem that Green disappears, but that is due to his scoring barrages. When he gets a basket, he looks to get another one on the next possession. When he shoots, it doesn't look like he is using much effort because his shooting stroke is so smooth. There are a couple things though that I would like to see more of. Obviously Green needs to play better defensively. I agree with Boeheim that it takes time for young players to learn how to play defense because in high school, they just focus on playing offense. But I think there is no question that if Green applies himself to playing defense, he can be outstanding. On the offensive end, I would certainly like to see Donte' drive the basketball more and post up. But he may have trouble because Big East players will have a strength advantage over him. Once Green is able to build up his upper body, watch out.

Once again, the Syracuse offense puts on a show as it shoots fifty percent from the field for the eighth time this season. Also, all five Orange starters posted double figure scoring marks for the sixth time, three of them reaching that feat in the first half. Syracuse (12-3 overall, 2-0 Big East) takes on the Cincinnati Bearcats (6-8, 1-1) on Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. It is the first road game for the Orange since it defeated Virginia on December 5.

Orange Opens Big East Play With 76-70 Win Over St. John's

Heading into the Big East Conference opener, head coach Jim Boeheim said the Orange were much tougher than many of his other 31 ball clubs that he has coached in his tenure at SU. Wednesday night's victory over St. John's proved that assertion as the Orange out-muscled the Red Storm on the inside in the form of a 258 pound beast.

That beast was Arinze Onuaku who converted 11 of his 15 field goals for a career-high 23 points and added 13 rebounds for his fourth career double-double. Onuaku's 23 points are the most by an SU center since Etan Thomas recorded that same total against Florida Atlantic on November 22, 1999. The redshirt sophomore is second in the Big East in shooting percentage, converting field goals at a 67.6 percent success rate.

In the first half though, Donte Green carried the offensive load for the young Orange. Green dropped in 17 first-half points, including three 3-pointers in a run that enabled Syracuse to jump all over St. John's by a score of 19-6 in the early stage of the game. About mid-way through the first half, Syracuse extended its lead to as much as 14 points, but a three minute scoring drought allowed St. John's to pull to within a deuce, 30-28. But a three from the electric point guard Jonny Flynn gave the Orange a seven point advantage heading into the break.

The Orange would find itself in a battle for much of the second half due to foul trouble. At the 16:24 mark, Green picked up his fourth personal foul and found himself sitting on the bench for over nine minutes. Once again, the Red Storm took advantage, closing the gap to a basket (50-48) with twelve minutes remaining. From that point in the game, Onuaku muscled his way in the paint, using both hands to score 10 of his 17 second-half points. In a continuing pattern this season, the Orange outscored their opponent in the paint, SU ending up with a 34-26 advantage over St. John's.

I thought Arinze played an excellent ball game and would like to see the Orange give him the ball more. At times Onuaku was tentative, looking to give the ball up instead of taking his man one-on-one. With his size and strength, Onuaku is difficult to handle down low for many teams and is a legitimate scoring threat on the block. SU hasn't had anyone at the center position with the offensive skills of Onuaku since Otis Hill graduated in 1997. Onuaku can use both hands which makes him that much tougher to guard. The only problem of course is his free throw shooting, as he was 1-of-4 from the line tonight. But Syracuse struggled as a team from the charity stripe, shooting 54.8 percent (17-of-31) which was one reason why the Red Storm were able to hang around in the second half. Another concern was the lack of rebounding for the Orange, as they were beaten on the glass by St. John's 42 to 36. If Syracuse wants to compete with the big boys like Georgetown, Connecticut, and Pittsburgh, the Orange must rebound the basketball better.

But when you have players like Donte Green, you can get away with a few things. Before leaving the game with foul trouble, the leading scorer for the Orange looked smooth hitting turn around jumpers and connecting from long range to spark the offense. The highlight of the game came late in the second session as Green tried to take the rim off with a two-handed flush off a lob pass from Antonio "Scoop" Jardine. The dunk pushed the Orange lead to 11 with just over three minutes remaining. Green finished with 22 points on the night while fellow freshman Jonny Flynn added 14 despite a poor shooting performance (3-for-10) and added seven assists. After being named Big East Player of the Week for his 19 point, 15 rebound performance against Northeastern, Paul Harris added eight points to go along with seven assists, matching his career-high.

The game was the 2,500th contest played by the Orange basketball team. Even though there were only 17,487 people there to watch, they made ten times as much noise than the 20,000+ crowd that was at the Northeastern game. Hats off to the fans for raising some hell and the people in section 311 (311 Heaven) deserve a lot of the credit as they started a number of chants throughout the night. Syracuse improves to 11-3 on the year and takes on the South Florida Bulls (9-4) this Saturday at noon in the Carrier Dome.