Today we will find out who steps up and gets us to the Final 4. I think that Rak is the guy who is the one who will make or break today's game. If he plays well enough to hold down the 5 in the zone and keeps the Ohio St. bigs in check, we will be heading to New Orleans next week. If he plays sloppy or is ineffective, we'll be watching next week.

We all know that we probably have one of the best guard rotations in the country. However, with the absence of Fab Melo, we're kinda thin at power forward and center. Rak just needs to play smart and stay out of foul trouble while getting Sullinger in trouble and this game is ours for the taking.

This team has been so good all season because on any given day someone steps up and takes control of the team. There would be nothing better than for it to happen again. Rak doesn't need to have 20 points and 10 rebounds, but holding Sullinger to 10 points and 5 boards will suffice.

We can do this today. It's time to show the critics just how good this team is. Go Cuse!

Call me naive, call me stupid, whatever you want. I'm calling it now. This team will make the Elite 8. Now I know that might be a failure if we don't make the Final 4, but I'm confident that we can win 3 more games. This team is no worse than last year's team even without Fab. That was a team we all thought had a chance to make the Elite 8 if we hadn't had to face a Big East team in the 2nd (3rd) round.

I say bring it on. Let's get back to reality that we still have a top 20 team even without Fab in the middle. No we might not be NT contenders, but we're not losing first round either. THIS TEAM IS GOOD. Bring it on.

Beating Florida was ok, too bad you followed it up by losing to South Florida. Seriously, thanks for cheapening our victory. Now we've lost our marquee win. At least we're number 1 and they live in New Jersey.

Just like Carlin said: "Kiss her where it smells, take her to New Jersey."

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http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/6980076/big-east-members-syracuse-pitt-talks-atlantic-coast-conference

Looks like we might be moving after all.  ACC????  I guess we get Duke and UNC, and the lax conference will be BY FAR the best in the country, but would we really gain much else?  I think I'd be sad to lose the gtown rivalry and even though we'd be picking up other rivals in the ACC, it just seems weird for one of the founding members of the Big East to bounce like that.

All this talk about who the BE should go and get and it might not even matter as we could leave anyways.  And it would be interesting to go with Pitt.

Let's start coordinating efforts here as to who will be at the game on Saturday.  If you're interested in tailgaiting, we should plan for some people to meet up.  Personally I would like to start the festivities at noon.  If someone is interested in getting there before that, maybe you can get a spot and hold down things for all of us that are coming.  Frankly, I'd much rather spend the afternoon with a bunch of Cuse fans than to have to hang out with fans of the other team.  And it would be nice to be able to put some faces with some of the names that I've seen on this board for the past few years.

Someone needs to update his Wikipedia page. It talks a lot about his days as the Michigan Assistant, but there's only a small blurb about his time at Syracuse. Since it's the type of website which will let you edit to say anything, we should make sure it tells of his awesomeness. Make sure that it's at least as long as the Michigan entry, but it should be longer. Shafer deserves that since he turned our program from the outhouse to the penthouse.

So last night, I finally bought tickets for the Cuse-USC game in a few weeks.  Just wondering who else here is going to that game?  Looking to see if we can do some tailgating there.  Would also love to see Lane Kiffin lose this game for so many reasons.  Of course the biggest one being that Cuse is awesome and Doug Marrone is also awesome.

I'm sitting in Section 3 Row 56.  Does anyone know if those are ok seats at the Coliseum?

If we can get a win tonight, I'll be happy.  What would make this day even better though, would be a Georgetown loss at EXACTLY the same time.  What could make this day better?  Now we just need for it to happen.   We know that Jimmy can make half of this happen with ease.  The tough part is getting VCU to play like they want to be in the tournament instead of the "happy to be here" crap.

I'd be happier if Georgetown was playing someone that was fresher.

This may turn out to be a very polarizing post, but I think it needs to be said.  For all of Scoop's problems, he does a lot of things right.  Let's face it.  We don't beat Nova without him.  He showed us in the final 5 minutes of the game why he starts.  Yes, he does a lot of things that make us scratch our heads.  I for one was a little upset that he took a quick 3 right after he got off the bench with his 4th foul.  However, every time Nova tried to answer, Scoop came right back and had a counter for it.

Look, if we're quick to jump on the kid for his bad attributes, we should learn to appreciate the kid when he does good.  Yeah, I understand, a 1:1 assist to turnover ratio is bad for your point guard, but who would really be better handling the ball?  Triche?  Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that he plays his best when he's off the ball.  Waiters?  The kid is just too young to be thrown out there full time.  As Raftery would say, the kid has some onions.  When we needed someone to step up, Scoop did so and pulled us through the rough spots tonight.

It just sucks that we ride this kid so much that we can't stop to appreciate what he actually brings to this team and when he actually does some things right.

Apparently his next move is turning the Buffalo Bills from awful into a mediocre defense.  I just received a text from the Bills text messaging service that said he's meeting with the Bills defensive staff right now.

I'm not sure whether or not I should be excited or upset.  Granted the way the Bills have been playing the past 10 years, it can't be too bad.

Continue reading this post »

So, I wanted to see if Seton Hall had anything about the Cuse game on their blog.  I clicked on their link to see what they had going on, only to find that they were playing Louisville.  At the point I saw in the game, they were losing 24-2 with 9:38 to go in the first half.  Yikes. 

If we can play our typical defense, then this game should be no contest.  Let's just hope we get our offense going early and not let a lesser team hang with us for 35 minutes.  Also, at this point in the season, if we can get our guys rested for future games, then it'll help us that much more.

Here's the first piece of the re-alignment puzzle.  In the next few weeks we will learn whether or not we will be in the Big 10, ACC, or the crumbling remains of the Big East.

I get the feeling that there's about to be three or four "Super Conferences"  In fact, if the SEC were smart, they would start raiding the Big 12 right now.  Think about how strong that conference would be if it suddenly added Texas and Oklahoma.

As sad as I was to see the Kings get bumped all the way down to the 5th pick in the NBA draft, I'm kinda excited b/c there's a very good chance that Wes could be our first round pick.  That happens and I will be buying my first NBA jersey ever.

Just too bad they couldn't have gotten the 1st or 2nd pick and taken Evan Turner.  Then, I'd really have some hope for the future here in Sac.

It's about time someone drafted Arthur Jones.  Who would've thought he'd go in the 5th round?  Or even better, who would've thought Mike Williams would have been drafted before him?  Seriously, I think that as long as he can stay healthy, he'll be a starter for them within 2 seasons.  Just goes to show you how the draft process can sometimes be a strange one.  Of course nobody had Claussen outside the first round and look at what happened to him.

It's funny listening to the "experts" talk about the NCAA tournament. On the drive into work I've been listening to Cowherd. He had Pat Forde on yesterday and Forde offered up this gem. "I watched the MVC conference tournament and told people that Northern Iowa was going to be a dangerous team in the tournament. I then of course picked Kansas anyways, but I did call Northern Iowa being dangerous." So basically he's trying to take credit for thinking. Then on the way in this morning, there was a guy on who said that "there's no way Cornell is going to beat Kentucky. Jeff Foote is going to be completely shut down." Funny, that seemed to be the attitude of the country before Saturday and another top seeded team. It's funny how some of these "experts" seem to have no clue as to what goes on in reality.

Saw the Kings-Twolves game on Sunday night.  Sadly Jonny looked completely overmatched by Tyreke Evans.  He played about 20 minutes, but barely any in the second half.  I believe he scored 12, but 5 came from the line, and most of that was within the first 5 minutes of the game.

Donte however has looked good in both games I've seen this week.  He scored 15 against the Raptors on Wednesday and 19 on Sunday.  He probably would've been over 20 on Sunday, but the Kings were winning by 30 midway through the 3rd quarter.  In fact Tyreke came up 1 rebound short of another triple double, but took most of the 2nd half off to rest up.

I guess it just means that Jonny needs some work before he becomes a star in the league.  Oh and I think that Donte is probably that perfect 6th or 7th guy, but with the Kings they don't have anyone better at the SF spot so he gets a lot of minutes.

Does anyone else think that this game isn't that big anymore?  The reality is that with Nova's recent struggles this game truly isn't any bigger than either GTown game or the West Va game.  Sure it had potential when we were ranked 2 and 3, but at this point, we're ranked 4th and they're ranked 8th.  No big deal, should be just another game pitted between two top 10 teams.

The only thing that's really important about this game is deciding who's going to be #1 in the conference.  Sure that's still a big deal, but it's not the armagedden game we thought it would be.

At this point, we can and SHOULD win this game.

Is anyone else rooting hard for the Pac 10 to only get in one team this year?  It's funny how bad that conference really is.  The only team that might deserve an at-large bid would be Cal and even their profile is shaky at best.  Sadly, it's even worse than the SEC was last year.  Man, I didn't think any major conference would ever be as bad as the SEC last year.

In fact the Colonial conference might get more teams in.  Pac 10?  More like Suck 10

Please tomorrow do not spoil things for me.  I don't have cable where I live so I won't be able to watch Lost tonight.  If you plan to post anything about the show, either start a new fanpost and I'll be over there on Thursday, or give a spoiler warning.

Granted, I think a lot of this is common internet knowledge at this point, but I just don't want to find out early something like Jack and Juliette are now married with 5 kids.

In fact if you want, this can be the discussion thread.  I'm still way too excited.

 

IRVING, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys didn't take long to hire Paul Pasqualoni as their new defensive line coach. It actually took a matter of minutes.

The University of Georgia announced the hiring of Todd Grantham as its defensive coordinator Friday, and shortly thereafter, the Cowboys announced they had hired Pasqualoni to replace him.

 

Grantham will finish the season with the Cowboys, but Pasqualoni already has reported to work at the Valley Ranch facility. Pasqualoni, who was fired this week as the Miami Dolphins' defensive coordinator, was a Cowboys assistant for three seasons. He coached tight ends in 2005 and linebackers the next two seasons.

Grantham informed the Cowboys at the beginning of Thursday morning's practice that he intended to accept Georgia's offer. Owner/general manager Jerry Jones and head coach Wade Phillips agreed to attempt to replace Grantham with Pasqualoni, who went 107-59-1 with nine bowl appearances as Syracuse University's head coach from 1991 to 2004.

Jones got on the phone, and the deal was done 10 minutes later.

"We're really pleased to have Paul back," Phillips said. "He's an outstanding coach. I was lucky to have him when we came in here. He was one of the best coaches I've been around, and I think we're lucky to have him back."

Just watched a bunch of endings to college basketball games today.  Things I noticed

1. The Ole Miss and Villanova PA guys were annoying.  Like Detroit Pistons ripoffs.

2. We won't get Timmy Higgins tomorrow

3. Timmy Higgins likes to put himself in a situation to decide games (calling an intentional foul late in the Marquette- Nova game)

4. Marquette struggles in close games

5. Duke sucks.  More of a generalization than an observation.  Of course if we win tomorrow we'll def be ranked ahead of them

6. K-State seems to be a little overrated and Missouri is a little underrated.

By the way, not sure who gave out the account name and password for ESPN 360, but thank you.  I use it all the time to watch games.  If there's ever a problem with it, please let us know and we'll stop using it.

Maybe I'm overreacting about this line in Forde's newest article.  But it just seems like another chance to belittle Syracuse.  He's mentioning his coach that should "ride the bus" for the week.

Rutgers coach Greg Schiano (37). Your team did the impossible: It lost to Syracuse by 18 points. The Orange haven't beaten anybody by that many points in three years, and haven't won a Big East game by that many points in five. Bad, bad loss.

It's sad b/c now I'm reading his column more to see how he'll bash Cuse than anything else.

to hate Michael Moore.  He was on the View today wearing a Rutgers University hat.  And before you go asking me why was I watching the View, remember, I can explain, please let me explain! Oh God, why won't you let me explain!?

I was at Comcast and they had it on in the background.  In stunning HD no less!  Made him look even more like a fat piece of crap that he is.

They both looked ok for Reno tonight.  Sadly, no pictures of the game.  Pat Ewing had 30 points, but a few were scored in garbage time.

Gerry had 16 points and a couple steals.  Damone had 19.  Unfortunately I was watching a lot of Gerry so I missed some of Damone.  No Donte sighting, so maybe he was called back up or maybe he was injured.

Sadly, Gerry looked slow on D, he just doesn't seem to fit in a man to man D, and I'm thinking that's one of the things holding him back.  The kid can play on offense, but he's just a slight step too slow for D.