http://insider.espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog?name=conference_voices&id=5787740

This season, Insider will feature the writing of six current NCAA basketball players, contributing their thoughts on issues facing their conferences. Syracuse Orange guard Scoop Jardine continues the series with a look at the Big East.

 One of the strengths of our league this year is the level of guard play. There are a lot of guys I wouldn't want to leave out, but I can pick out five of the guys I think are the toughest to face. They're all a little bit different.

 Villanova's Corey Fisher. He's crafty, a really crafty player. He's physical, and he can do a lot off the dribble. He's creative with his moves. You can't keep him out of the lane, really. He finds a way to maneuver around you. Good players make one move to get by you; great players can make more than one. If you stop one move, he's got another one. You stop that one, and he's got another one after the other two. He keeps coming. He makes guys better with that craftiness, getting in the lane and drawing defenses in, only to kick it out. I think he helped Scottie Reynolds out, when he was there, by being so creative with the basketball. His steadiness is what I take from watching him. He doesn't panic.

 I was with Villanova coach Jay Wright this summer with USA Basketball, and he told us that he teaches his guards to use their dribble to get out of situations. A lot of other coaches say pass the ball if you get stopped. By Wright allowing his guards to do that, Fisher has the freedom to dribble the ball. When Nova's guards get trapped or when the defenders hedge out, the guards are taught to get around defenders using the dribble. You see that in their play, but it was interesting to hear Wright talk about it, because it's something I wondered when I watched them.

Kemba Walker at UConn is one of the fastest guards in the Big East, with and without the basketball. His competitive drive, I've never seen anyone match it. I roomed with him this summer at USA Basketball. His will to win is high. It was great to go against him everyday in practice because we wouldn't want to let each other win. We've got the same drive. The thing about Walker is he uses his speed on offense and defense. He's always putting pressure on defenses, and his speed allows him to be good with the basketball. He stays at the line because he puts so much pressure on the defense. When you play him, you have to slack off and give him the jumpshot because he's so fast.

The thing I like about Georgetown's Chris Wright is that I've seen him outside of the offense that Georgetown runs and he's really good. I'm not saying that Georgetown's offense is holding him back, but seeing him outside of it, I got to see him do some different things than he normally does. He's got a good game. He can score, he's athletic, he's one of the strongest guards I've ever played against and he can shoot the ball. He had a couple of games last year in which he went for almost 30 points in that offense (he had 27 points against Syracuse in the Big East Tournament), so that shows you a lot about his ability.

I'm a student of the game, so I like to scout people. I got to see him in a pick-and-roll offense at Chris Paul's camp. In the pick-and-roll, he read everything perfectly. No matter how you guarded him, he responded with the right basketball play. If the big guy was open, he got him the basketball. If he went behind, Chris hit the open 3. In the pick-and-roll series you really have to make reads, and I think he did a great job of that, even though he doesn't normally play a pick-and-roll offense a lot.

AP Photo/Al BehrmanJeremy Hazell will fire up shots whether he's on or off.

Seton Hall's Jeremy Hazell is just, wow. I could go on and on about Hazell. He's a sniper. It's never an off night for him, even when he's off. He's going to keep firing. That's the thing that makes him so good -- he's so confident. He has a no-conscience style of play. No matter what he's shooting, 2 of 10 or 10 of 10, you have to play him the same way. You face guard him; don't let him shoot. Try to make him a passer; that's the best thing you can do. He's one of those players who in the last three minutes can hit four or five straight 3s, after he's missed 3s the whole game. There's nowhere on the court that you're trying to push him out to. You don't even want him to shoot further out, because I'm telling you he has no conscience. He hit one against us last year that was at least 35 feet. We were in the zone defense. I looked at him like, "He's not shooting that." And he did. No conscience.

Ashton Gibbs at Pitt is another one. He lit us up for 24 points last year because of his ability to shoot. He's one of the smartest players in the Big East. He knows how to get his shot off. He knows when and when not to score and when to be aggressive for his team. Last year he got hot against us, and he willed them to a victory.

 They came into our place and gave us our first loss. He can shoot but, he knows when to take good shots, and he never forces the issue. He plays within himself. People are calling Pitt one of the top teams, and I think what they mean is that Pitt has a lot of weapons. They've been together for a minute now. Gibbs is one of their top players, but you would never know it because he's not popping his chest or pointing at the TV cameras. He's just one of those guys that gets it done every night and does what coach Jamie Dixon asks him to do. He has one of those ugly shots, but it works.

 Scoop Jardine is a junior guard for the Syracuse Orange. He contributes every month to the Conference Voices blog.

In the process of moving stuff to storage I found an old Syracuse song book that I was given my freshman year.  It is a re-production from the 50's/60's of a 1926 song book that was produced by the Women's Student Government Association.

Here is a picture of the cover;

via farm5.static.flickr.com

Here's a picture of the Table of Contents;

via farm5.static.flickr.com

The songs you would expect in the book are;

-Alma Mater

-Women's Alma Mater (who knew they had their own version)

-Saltine Warrior

-Bill Orange

-Down The Field

Some of my favorites from the "Dormitory Ditties" section are;

-The Rich Girl Uses Cold Cream

-Man Without a Woman

-That's Where My Money Goes

-Lord I Am Homely

-I Want to go Back to Syracuse

-Powder My Nose

And in a bit of foreshadowing from 1926 there is a song called My Name is McNamara.

On ESPN Gottlieb, Bilas & Fraschilla listed their 'Player of the Year' to date.  Bilas had Jon Scheyer of Duke, Fraschilla had John Wall from Kentucky, but Gottlieb had our own Wes Johnson.

Here's the text since it is part of insider;

Gottlieb: Wes Johnson, F, Syracuse

In terms of overall impact on a team and the way in which it is winning, in addition to the overall success of a player, I think Wes Johnson is the player of the year thus far.

Keep in mind that Syracuse lost three starters from last year's Sweet 16 team and the expectations were not high considering Johnson had yet to play in an Orange uniform. Yet at the midway point in the year, Johnson leads SU in scoring and rebounding. In truth, though, it is not the stats that have made Johnson a lock for the NBA draft lottery, should he choose to forgo his senior year, and made the Orange a legit top-10 team. Instead, it is the some of the little things he brings like unselfishness and effort on defense.

He averages 1.8 steals a game, 2.0 blocks a game and 2.2 assists per game, and his infectious style and smile have this Syracuse team a far more focused and content bunch than any since the 2002-03 national championship team. And with only one game scoring in single digits this year (against Maine in a blowout), Johnson can fill up the basket, as well.

Johnson is essentially a 4/3, or a face-up power forward, who is learning to be a small forward. However, his length and vast skill set give the Orange tremendous versatility. Shooting 49 percent from behind the arc forces bigger defenders to come out and cover him at the 3-point line. If you go small, he can easily post up smaller guards or wings.

Most understated is his basketball IQ in the 2-3 zone defense, as he calculates each pass while timing his opportunity to get a steal. Johnson is a force at both ends -- on the boards, blocking shots, shooting 3s -- and is a very good passer. Oh and for good measure, Syracuse is winning. Based on all these factors, if I were choosing today, I would put Johnson as my player of the year.

Continue reading this post »

There was a 5+ hour rain delay in Big East Baseball Championship baseball between the UConn Huskies and the South Florida Bulls.  How did these two teams choose to fill the time, by studying scouting reports a little longer or saving their energy?  Of course not, they had a Dance Off and the Big East network caught it all on tape and put together a lovely 10 minute highlight video with a sound track.

http://www.bigeast.org/newMediaPlayer/sl/console.htm?id=411259&type=vod&oemid=19400&KEY=

Watching this video makes me happy that Cuse doesn't have a baseball team.

Last night was the beginning of the Doug Marrone barnstorming tour.  2+ hours of drinking at Fenway Park and listing to the coach speak is a good use of $20 in my opinion.

Anyway, it was a very good event and if you get the chance to go meet him in your town, I suggest you do it.  You'll come away extremely excited about the direction of the program and the hiring of this coach.  He is extremely approachable and willing to talk about anything to do with the program or football in general.

I'll try to send Sean more info later on about the event, but in the mean time I wanted to share two items that will have an effect on the upcoming season.  When asked about Greg Paulus the coach responded with "The NCAA says you can only discuss potential players by name in two ways.  Either you are recruiting them or your aren't recruiting them.  We are recruiting Greg Paulus."  Not a big surprise given some of the news leaks recently, but it was well received.  He did give everyone there one big scoop.

When he was talking about the state of the defense he referenced that they recently lost someone they converted to Corner this off season but that he felt OK about it because they should be signing someone this week or next from California who will come in and push for a starting job in 2009.  Armed with this information, I went to rivals.com and looked at the 100 CBs for 2009. 

http://syracuse.rivals.com/viewrank.asp?ra_key=2130&Year=2009

There are two players on this list from Cali who aren't signed,

Number 30 Bernard Bolden
Number 62 Marquise Cox

My bet/hope is number 30 Bolden because number 58 on the list is Dale Peterman who is already signed for next year.  And if this new guy is going to "push" for a starting gig I would think he is higher than Peterman.