Unranked at the beginning of the season, the Orangemen have won 29 of their last 33 games. Was that Oklahoma? Was that Texas? Could you tell that Hollis Price and T.J. Ford were first-team All-Americans? Not against 'Cuse, and that's no coincidence.
In bowling and golf, athletes choke. In basketball, however, performance on both sides can be the result of one team's actions. Playing in front of 54,432 people Saturday night, Syracuse did the dictating. Again.
Syracuse vs. Big 12
Jan. 13: Syracuse 76, Missouri 69
March 23: Syracuse 68, Oklahoma State 56
March 30: Syracuse 63, Oklahoma 47
April 5: Syracuse 95, Texas 84
I liken this run to Arizona's in 1997 and New England's Super Bowl dash in 2002. Each win was a fluke until the lights went out. And then you'd shake your head and think, "Hey, that team was pretty good."
Will they beat Kansas? Folks, if I knew the answer to questions like that, I'd live in Vegas. But you can't tell me we can't.
Previous PK.com Syracuse Hoops Posts:
March 30: Make No Mistake, Syracuse Made Oklahoma Play Like Shit
March 19: Last Call to Get on Syracuse's Bandwagon
Feb.15: I Don't Care What Grades My School's Athletes Get
Feb. 2: The 'Cuse Is in the House, Oh My God
Final Four Links:
• Celebration Pictures From Marshall Street to Bourbon Street
• Syracuse Post-Standard Coverage
• Grading the Final Fours — Hate Duke all you want. They make for some interesting basketball. Can't say the same for Wisconsin.
• Lawrence Journal-World Coverage — I'm guessing this is the Kansas authority. I've been to Lawrence, Kansas. If you go to The Eldridge, that old hotel at the end of the main street, check the guestbook. I stayed there just before the 1996 NCAA Tournament, after Iowa State beat Kansas for the then-Big Eight championship, and I wrote something like, "Go Orange!" Wouldn't you know it, Syracuse beat Kansas for a trip to the Final Four just two weeks later. (I've also been to Columbus, Ohio. Both places are tied for the frightening amount of attention given to college sports. I'm not kidding. It's scary.)
Too Good to Deny KU's Great Title Chances — ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski says that the Final Four is already over. Apparently, he has never seen N.C. State or Villanova or Sarah Hughes or the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team of the 1969 Mets or the Jets from the same year or Buster Douglas or ... People, this is a stupid, stupid column written by someone who should know better, perhaps under orders from an editor to write an inflammatory piece to garner attention. Congratulations, asshole. Would he put his career on the line for this game? I mean, should we hold him accountable if Syracuse wins? Nah, it's just a bullshit piece written by a guy who really isn't writing with his heart, because no professional sports writer would ever profess to know the outcome of any game. I like to call these people phonies.
ESPN.com is over-rated, I think. Their new site redesign sucks -- more flash, less actual meaningful content -- and a lot of their stories lean toward TV tabloid style, with over-stated prose and melodrama. Please keep the human interest stories off the sports pages or all sports coverage will read like NBC's coverage of the Olympics! The only writer worth reading on a regular basis is Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy. Unfortunately, he doesn't write nearly often enough for ESPN.com now that he's a writer on Jimmy Kimmel's new show.
Posted by bhw at April 7, 2003 12:43 AM