That was about as dominant as Syracuse could’ve looked. I was a little worried that Syracuse would have somewhat of a let down after a tough victory over Michigan State, but it was obvious from the beginning that it wasn’t going to be much of a game.
Colgate has lost all eight of its games and is in a lot of trouble. This is the same team that lost to No. 1 Duke, 110-58, three weeks ago. Looks like they’re in for a long season.
I should just have a paragraph reserved for Rick Jackson every game. He continues to put together a great season, scoring 18 points and hauling down 10 rebounds. Tonight, he did it in just 25 minutes. Bravo, Rick.
Brandon Triche has been struggling lately, specially with his shot. Well, he finally had a good shooting night, hitting his first two from downtown. Triche finished with 13 points and went 5-for-7 from the field. If Syracuse is going to have a good year, Triche is going to need to consistently be there for SU.
The two players that gained the most from today’s game were James Southerland and Mookie Jones. Both of them are in danger of being left out of the rotation come Big East conference time. You keep hearing about how Southerland can shoot it in practice but not in games. On the season, he was shooting 4-for-20 from downtown, and tonight, he was only 1-for-4, but that one shot came from about 27 feet away from the basket. It’s clear he has some range, but he’s got to be able to do it consistently in the game if he wants to play. As for Mookie, he played 17 minutes and had nine points on 3-for-6 shooting. But to me, he really looks lost on defense.
You got to see Syracuse play a little man-to-man defense tonight. Given how good they’ve been in the zone this season, I’m not sure how many games they’ll actually use it, but they looked fairly effective in it. Granted, it’s Colgate, so I’m not sure how much you can read into that.
Not a good sign for Fab Melo. He played only six minutes and didn’t score. Apparently he’s got an Achilles tendon injury and may sit out a few games, although that obviously explains why he has been running like Patrick Ewing in the early 2000s in the past few games.
Great to see everyone play some minutes tonight – including all of the walkons. Matt Lyde-Cajuste scored the first points of his career on a nice looking jump shot from the foul-line elbow. He, and forward Matt Tomaszewski were the only walkons to score. Tomaszewski did his in dramatic fashion, draining a 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down. Tomaszewski actually ended up playing eight minutes.
Michigan State narrowly defeated Oakland by one, 77-76. Freshman C.J. Fair had an interesting take on this: “Obviously the Michigan State game is an example of playing down to your competition. They’re a better team than what they showed. Coach (Boeheim) makes sure that we do not come out and play down to the level of the other team. Instead, we want to go hard from the start.”
Wesley Cheng is the Editor in Chief for The Juice Online.
Wes has worked for Rivals.com covering the New York Knicks, as well as for Scout.com covering Syracuse athletics. Wes has also been a contributing writer for the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), for SportsNet New York (SNY) as a news desk writer covering all of New York professional sports, and reported on the NBA and MLB for the New York Sportscene. A native of Long Island, New York, Wes graduated from Syracuse University in 2005 with a degree in journalism. Contact him at wes[at]sujuiceonline.com.
