January 12th, 2011: Syracuse at St. John's

Boys? In my blog? It's more likely than you think. It's also more Orange than you think, what the hell?

Hello, Rumble in the Garden readers! I don't think we've been introduced, unless you were over in the comment thread from the explanatory post. My name's Rebecca-call-me-Becky-and-you-die, but around these parts, I'm known as Queenie. You can call me either- heck, you can call me anything so long as you don't call me late for dinner. I've answered to a wide range of nicknames, mistaken names, profanities, and the ubiquitous “Hey you!”

If I go to a basketball game, I write Game Notes of Doom. I've done this for the NBA, the WNBA, men's college basketball, women's college basketball, and a couple of international friendlies. I can usually be found over at Swish Appeal, but in honor of the doubleheader, I'm making a guest appearance here.

Be warned that I'll be approaching this game more or less like a novice. What I know about the St. John's men's team this year can be summed up as follows: they have a lot of seniors, they have a new coach, the women's team gets along with them really well, and Shiz Evans does a pretty good Ric Flair impression. There will probably be more questions in here than usual.

Today's notes will be coming from the vantage point of the endcourt seats in section 20, fairly low down. I expect to be able to see a lot of post play and three-pointers.

I was wrong about the seats. They're what we refer to as the sucker seats- deceptively low-priced low-level seats that face onto the seats. We've sat over here once before, in a memorable Maggie Dixon Classic game where Kia Vaughn puked her guts out in front of us. Fun, laughs, good times. Because the Powers-That-Be-Flaming-Idiots decided to reverse the benches for the two games, we have the distinct displeasure of being squeezed in among Syracuse fans and drunken idiots. Bonus points for those who combine both. I'm really hoping the switch is real, or I'm going to have some very pointed words for our connection in the marketing department who got us these tickets after two months of waiting. I'm also hoping a goodly number of the fans from Syracuse leave so I can see the goddamn game, because I've had to rely on the big screen far more than I like.

Things I have noticed: no one can shoot tonight, though Syracuse found their stroke in the second quarter. St. John's does not appear to actually know where their players are supposed to be. Kris Joseph's getting hot for Syracuse, which is not a good sign for the Red Storm. Burrell's got nine in the first half for St. John's, but it's on volume as far as I can tell. Megan, come and save me from this hell! (And in an exceptional moment of good timing, guess who's two sections over chatting up some more important people?)

So, remind me why the Garden is a recruiting draw for St. John's? “Come to New York! Play in front of thousands of opposing fans!” I'd say Syracuse fans outnumbered St. John's fans at least two to one. There were multiple audible chants of “Let's Go Orange!” How exactly does this work as a benefit?

C. J. Fair is the first player I can honestly say strikes me more as a point guard than he does as a forward- not even a point forward, but a straight-up point guard who's playing the forward position for reasons understood to no mortal man other than Jim Boeheim. I like his court vision- he made a couple of very pretty passes. Baye Moussa Keita was the first guy off the bench for the Orange, but I don't recall him making any plays worth remembering. James Southerland shows promise, but I might be biased because he's a Queens boy and we Queens kids have to stick together. Dion Waiters brought some canned heat off the bench.

Boy howdy can Kris Joseph shoot. He had some incredible shots in the lane, and a couple of nasty blocks on defense as well. Scoop Jardine also showed off his array of moves. And here's one of the differences between the men's and women's games- 6-2 and 190 in the women's game translates to a fairly hefty post with occasional delusions of three-shooting. I love to watch him work, though. Brandon Triche kept bringing the big shots whenever St. John's had some notion of making a run. I was also impressed with the work of Rick Jackson in the middle, setting screens and making room for his teammates to work. I like seeing a post player set things up for his teammates, doing all the little things so they can do the big things. He's the kind of guy who will have a solid game that no one will look at because someone else is always having a phenomenal game. Fab Melo has either the most ironic or most appropriate name for a Syracuse player ever. I'm honestly not sure which. I think I recall him doing some good things on the boards- I know that whatever he did, he did it in the middle.

Boeheim's zone is not nearly as much fun to watch from the endcourt corner. Since that's the only thing I like about Syracuse, this is sort of a depressing realization.

By the end of the game, Steve Lavin was throwing things at the wall to see what would stick. We saw a few rotations and bench players in the second half who didn't even think about taking off their warmups in the first. Justin Burrell had himself a very nice first half, albeit on volume. He put in a lot of work on the boards, but the man seriously has to improve his dribbling and general ballhandling skills. He lost a few boards out of bounds because he couldn't keep his hands on the ball. Paris Horne brought the blend of stylish moves and boneheaded plays that I remember bemoaning the last time I took in a men's game at Carnesecca Arena. Malik Stith didn't have a bad run near the end of the game, but it was the end of the game, and it's not always easy to tell whether a player can work under pressure when he's not under pressure.

I'm not impressed with Dwayne Polee yet. I see flashes of potential, but he's got to bulk up if he doesn't want to get broken. Dwight Hardy scored a lot, which was helpful, but he had some incredibly dumb shots and a lot of shots that he should have hit that he left short. I would have liked to see Dele Coker produce a little more than some free throws. It's a bad sign when a post player doesn't have any fouls- that sounds counter-intuitive, but if he's not banging down in the post and not using his body, then he's not helping his team. Malik Boothe did not appear to have actually shown up, other than for fouls. This is not something you want out of a guy who starts. At least Justin Brownlee had a decent game.

The Syracuse fan behind us made a couple of really good points. Why run with a team that can run? Why play a zone and leave a team open for threes that specializes in the zone on the other end of the floor and has a reputation for hitting threes against the zone? (Of course, my view of that is based on the McNamara teams, so if I'm out of date, please let me know gently.) I do wonder if Lavin's inexperience with the Big East came into play, and will continue coming into play- you don't necessarily know what these guys are going to throw at you if you haven't been going at them for years on end.

The officiating was odd. They were really letting them play, especially St. John's, as I thought the play was equally physical on both ends of the floor and Syracuse had more fouls for the bulk of the game. At the same time, there were some pretty rough plays that weren't called. Maybe that's the difference between the men's game and the women's game. I don't know. I'm not enough of a connoisseur of the men's game to judge it, and I doubt I'll ever be.

So that was disheartening. I don't like having my arena invaded by opposing fans, and the Garden is always my arena (the other team of my heart is the New York Liberty, and except when they're getting their house renovated, they play at MSG too).