Did anyone see the end of the ND-Xavier game. It had a really controversial ending. ND was shooting free throws to potentially tie the game in the last 3 seconds, and they called... wait for it... a lane violation! On ND! It led to their loss! This is clear evidence that the refs were totally in the tank for Xavier! They didn't deserve to win! I must now rant online to defend the honor of ND against the terrible 8-on-5 matchup that they had to suffer through tonight.

So it seems that, with the changing of the calendar, the SU basketball story line that will beaten into the ground has also changed. It is no longer "Will the Coach Fine situation be a distraction?" (answer, clearly not). Now it's "SU has a really good bench." It's something we've toyed around with on here for a while now ("Who would win a game between the SU starters and SU bench?"), and now the national media is catching up. Jeff Goodman on cbssports.com just wrote an article asking that very question. And Andy Katz on espn.com just wrote a similar article touting the SU bench, although his article mentions 9 players not 10 (presumably because he wrote it based on last night's game, which Keita sat out because of his injury).

I guess I'm okay with this being talked about ad nauseum. Sportswriters have to talk constantly about something to do with the #1 ranked team, right?

But that's not why I'm posting.  I'm posting to say that this is not the end of the world.  We lost a game we had no business losing.  How did it happen?  Well, 5 turnovers, 3 missed kicks (2 of which were blocked), a bazillion penalties were the main factors.

Here's the thing - these are all correctable problems.  The season is not over.  Remember, UConn lost to Rutgers early last year and went on to win the conference title (and then got shellacked in their BCS bowl, but I digress).  So don't give up on the team.

End of line.  (yeah, thought I'd throw in an 80s movie reference - those seem to go over well around here)

In the Rutgers game thread, Cardinal&Orange said it would be funny if there was an 8-way tie for 3rd in the Big East.  I took it as a challenge.  I was able to do better than an 8-way tie for 3rd.  I came up with a 10-way tie for 2nd with a record of 10-8.  And.  Away.  We.  Go.

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The current records (as of 7pm on 2/19):

ND 10-6 (needs to go 0-4)

Nova, Lville, StJohns, Gtown 9-5 (need to go 1-3)

SU 9-6 (needs to go 1-2)

UConn, UWV 8-6 (need to go 2-2)

Cinci 7-6 (needs to go 3-2)

Marq 6-7 (needs to go 4-1)

ND loses all 4 (Prov, Hall, Nova, UConn)

Nova beats ND, loses remaining 3 (SU, StJohns, Pitt)

SU beats Nova, loses remaining 2 (Gtown, DePaul)

Gtown beats SU, loses remaining 3 (Cinci x2, USF)

StJohns beats Nova, lose remaining 3 (DePaul, Hall, USF)

Lville loses to UWV, wins 1 of remaining 3 (Rutgers, Pitt, Prov)

UWV beats UConn and Lville, loses other 2 (Pitt, Rutgers)

UConn beats ND and Marq, loses to Cinci and UWV

Cinci beats Gtown x2, Uconn, and loses to Marq and Prov

Marq loses to UConn, wins remaining 4 (Hall x2, Prov, Cinci)

10-way tie for 2nd place at 10-8

Coach Boeheim was just on the Five Good Minutes segment of PTI.  He said he likes Kansas to win the whole thing this year.  He also said he doesn't expect Onuaku to play this weekend.  They asked him about the injury, and he said he's not overly worried because Joseph already gets starter's minutes (he contrasted that by saying most teams, if a starter was out, would have to start a guy who normally only plays 15 minutes a game).  He nodded in agreement when they said SU is a contender for the title.

I was in Section 107 Row F for last night's game.  There were 4 seats to my left, and then the tunnel that the SU team comes out of.  At least 3 groups of people (other than the rightful seat owners) came up who claimed to have the seats to my left.  Apparently some of the tickets being scalped were counterfeit.  I looked at them, and I couldn't tell the difference.  Neither could the scanners at the turnstiles, so the bar codes must have been legit.  A couple of girls said they paid $100 apiece for them.  Another guy had a ticket that said Section 107 Row F Seat 16, and there are only 14 seats in the row (unless he could levitate over the SU tunnel).  I felt bad for them, I don't know where they wound up going to watch the game.

I just saw this on Sportsline.  Jackson will be suspended 4 games for abuse of the NFL substance abuse policy.  Jackson had started all 32 games in his first 2 seasons since being drafted in the 4th round 2 years ago.  The story didn't say if the substance was of the recreational or performance enhancing variety.  Jackson seems apologetic.

Interesting note at the bottom of the article is that his suspension opens the door for other SU grad Will Allen to start at free safety for the Bucs.

Okay, I'm only making this post for the pun in the title.  Still, it was a sweet victory.  Now everyone can shut the hell up about "Syracuse not being able to beat a team ahead of it in the standings."  Of course, they'll probably say it doesn't really count because James was injured.  I guess then some of our earlier losses shouldn't count either because Rautins and/or Onuaku were injured.  Game recap is here.

This win, along with Providence's loss Thursday, locks us in as the 6 seed in the BET.  It looks like we'll be playing the winner of Seton Hall-USF, because even if Georgetown beats DePaul to tie Seton Hall in the standings, the Hall has the head-to-head tiebreaker.  As the 6th seed, our first game will have an approx 9pm (read: 9:15 or so) Wednesday tip-off.