Syracuse Basketball Wins Big 125-75, Loses Big

On Saturday night, the Syracuse Orangemen (7-3) crushed visiting East Tennessee State (4-5) by a score of 125-75 in front of 16,508 fans at the Carrier Dome. It was a dazzling offensive display by the ‘Cuse, whom once again demonstrated that they are as explosive offensively as any other college team in the land. Do you want to know how much of a blowout it was? Let me put it in perspective. Jim Boeheim put in a full scrub lineup and called off the dogs with 12 minutes left in the second half. The ETSU coach, who turns out to be a monumental jerkoff, decided to leave his starters in AND FULL-COURT PRESS the walk-ons and third string players for Syracuse! I just love when opposing coaches do this. Stay classy ETSU.

The game was a huge victory on the scoreboard but was a night of big losses for the Orange. First, it was announced before the game that backup point guard Josh Wright, the team’s lone senior, was a no-show all week at practice and has most likely seen his last game in a Syracuse uniform. In just about any scenario I would say, with an exclamation point: good riddance! However, Syracuse suffered a much bigger loss when junior shooting guard Eric Devendorf tore his ACL early in the second half of this laugh fest. Devendorf, SU’s second-leading scorer at 17 PPG and Sports Illustrated cover-boy, is lost for the year.

Devendorf was in tears while being helped off the court, and was taken directly to the hospital.

Syracuse fans are already aware that their best long-range shooter, junior Andy Rautins, was lost for the season during the summer. Therefore, with the losses of Devendorf, Rautins and Wright, the most experienced player on the court for Syracuse the rest of the season will be, are you ready for this, redshirt sophomore center Arinze Onuaku. Syracuse has only one junior who is still uninjured, and that would be seldom-used JUCO transfer PF Kristof Ongenaet, whose play can be described in one word: BAD.

So where does the Syracuse basketball team go from here? They are a disappointing 7-3 on the season considering their two home losses to Atlantic-10 teams, are about to enter play in the brutal Big East conference, and will play considerably short-handed the rest of the way. Judging from what I have seen, the current team is down to 9 players who can somewhat hold their own on the court in the Big East conference. Let’s break it down.
(2) Juniors: JUCO transfer Kristof Ongenaet (PF) and walk-on Justin Thomas (PG). Thomas looks lightning quick and could be a defensive specialist for SU, an area in which they clearly struggle thus far.
(3) Sophomores: Arinze Onuaku (C), Paul Harris (SF) and football walk-on Mike Williams (SG). Williams just joined the team a week ago and could be an actual replacement for Devendorf. He is long, lean and extremely athletic. Reports that I have heard from the pick-up courts on campus is that Williams can play.
(4) Freshmen: Jonny Flynn (PG), Donte Greene (PF), Rick Jackson (C) and Antonio Jardine (SG).

The bottom line is pretty simple.
1) Rick Jackson, Antonio Jardine and Mike Williams are going to see significant time the rest of the season, while Kristof Ongenaet and Justin Thomas are going to have to play in games where the Orange get into early foul trouble.
2) The loss of Devendorf puts much of SU’s outside shooting on the bench. Expect the Orange to face a steady diet of 2-3 Zone from opposing teams until Harris, Ongenaet or Williams show they can replace Devendorf’s production from beyond the arc. I would not be shocked to see opponents play matchup zone or box-and-one to neutralize Donte Greene and make the rest of the SU squad beat them.
3) Syracuse could improve defensively. Listen, there is absolutely no scenario in which Syracuse is a better team without Eric Devendorf, but putting Harris or Williams at the top of the 2-3 and Jackson on one the of wings could create a defense that, on paper, is the best SU has had in years. Against that alignment, teams will have a much tougher time getting those good looks from the outside. The only question would be, could a lineup of Flynn, Harris, Greene, Jackson and Onuaku be offensively competent enough to justify such an alignment? My first impression is yes, however moving Harris into the backcourt could create ball-handling nightmares with such a young team.
4) It does not look like Syracuse will be able to make a Final 4 push with Donte Greene. Unlike many people, I believe Greene is clearly a one-and-done. Greene may play the PF slot for the Orange, but in the NBA he is a SF, and Greene has already shown everything he needs to justify a lottery pick. The only thing remaining to be seen is whether a strong 2008 draft class convinces Greene to return another year for more money in the next draft.
5) Syracuse was already in terrific shape for the next 4 years, however, these injuries give them the opportunity to develop almost unparalleled depth. Next year, even if Greene departs, the SU squad will feature 2 seniors, 5 juniors and 3 sophomores with significant experience, who will then be joined by another stellar recruiting class. I know next year everybody will have their panties in a bunch as usual for Duke, UCLA and UNC – but if Donte Greene returns and joins this already stellar SU team, I do not see how some people can avoid voting them preseason #1. I do not even think there is a team out there now that has more talent on their roster than Syracuse. Next year, I do not see how anybody is even close. Syracuse could field two complete NCAA Tournament teams next year if they wanted to.

Team 1:
PG Jonny Flynn (So.)
SG Eric Devendorf (Jr.)
SF Paul Harris (Jr.)
PF Donte Greene (So.)
C Arinze Onuaku (Jr.)
BENCH:
PG Justin Thomas (Sr.)
SG/SF Mookie Jones (Fr.)
PF/C Devin Brennan-McBride (So.)

Team 2:
PG Antonio Jardine (So.)
SG Andy Rautins (Jr.)
SF Kris Joseph (Fr.)
PF Kristof Ongenaet (Sr.)
C Rick Jackson (So.)
BENCH:
PG/SG Mike Williams (Jr.)
SG/SF James Southerland (Fr.)
C Sean Williams (So.)

Take a good look and tell me that Team 1 is not a Final 4 candidate and Team 2 is not a #11 seed in the NCAA Tournament.