Trailing Virginia Tech 40-37 with 14:03 left in the second half, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim perused his bench and summoned Dion Waiters to come into the game. It was a huge vote of confidence from Boeheim to Waiters. “Last year, in a situation like that, he probably wouldn’t have come to me,” Waiters said. “He has faith in me know just knowing that the hard work in the offseason is finally paying off.”
Year after year the Syracuse Orange leaves Madison Square Garden after an early season tournament and fans and experts alike usually have some indication of how the team is going to fare for the remainder of the season. This year, however, barring an unforeseen collapse, Syracuse will win and we still won’t know anything about this team.
The sequence actually came within a longer one of just over a minute, where the Orange turned the Red Raiders over six times in a row. It began at the 8:51 mark when James Southerland picked off a kickout pass to the corner from Colgate’s Mike Venezia, who found himself swarmed with nowhere to go underneath the basket. Southerland finished the fast break the other way with an open jumper at the top of the key.
Did you ever play Nintendo with the Game Genie? You’d put in Super Mario Bros. and make Mario invincible and be able to jump five times higher than normal. At first it was one of the most amazing things ever but slowly you started to miss the challenges of the normal game. Without the element of real competition it began to lose its appeal. That’s now how I feel watching Syracuse demolish its opponents.
After the game, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim took the podium amid the frenetic clicking of camera shutters, addressing the media in his first open press conference since news broke Thursday that longtime SU assistant coach Bernie Fine was under investigation for allegedly molesting two former Syracuse ball boys.
COPYRIGHT © 2010-2025 The Juice Online. All Rights Reserved. Part of the On SI Network.