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March 13, 2006
Craziness in da 'Cuse
Cross-posted from CNY in the Pros.It started last Tuesday. The Post-Standard printed its seventh annual poll of assistant coaches around the Big East. They pick the whiniest coaches, the most overrated players -- the sorts of picks no one will give a reporter on the record.
The most overrated player this year? Syracuse's own Gerry McNamara:
Most overrated player? Sorry, Syracuse fans, but McNamara gets the nod here. He got more than twice as many votes as [UConn's Rudy] Gay and Louisville's Taquan Dean, the next-closest competitors.And then Wednesday came. The Orange were the ninth seed in the Big East Tournament, and were playing eighth-seeded Cincinnati. The teams had split a pair of games during the regular season.
Jump to the Syracuse.com editorial staff looking for a place to watch the first half and grab lunch (we'd come back and watch the game on the office TV and try to get some actual work done). Three stops later, we had a table in front of a television at Friday's.
Jump to Syracuse blowing a 14-point lead and being down two with 6.5 on the clock.
Jump to standing around the television watching the Big East's most overrated player walk up the center of the court, throw up perhaps the ugliest shot ever taken from the top of the arch, and putting the game away, 74-73 for SU.
Thursday comes, and it's going to be UConn at noon. The Syracuse.com editorial staff does the morning update, and then meets to discuss plans for the game. We decide on Tully's, which was our first choice on Wednesday. The difference? Send two people early. We take our seats at a covered-over pool table in front of a line of TVs.
Jump to Syracuse blowing a 14-point lead and being down three with little time on the clock.
Jump to standing around the television watching the Big East's most overrated player walk up the center of the court, throw up another three, and tie the game at 74 to send it into OT. And then, the game was over. The Orange had upset the No. 1 team in the country.
Friday. SU was to play No. 23 Georgetown at 7 p.m. There would be no noon break. Game day excitement hung in the air, and the day would crawl.
And I was scheduled to get off the tennis court right at tip-off. Dammit!
I made a beeline from the tennis court to Suds. Mistake. Ten minutes later, I was still standing at the bar, trying to flag down a bartender. When you're 5'3", doing this in a crowd when you don't have a stool is not an easy task.
Jump to getting the last seat at the Bull & Bear. It's halftime. SU's down big. I order wings. Good stuff, that. The wings, not the game.
Jump to the Orange's first lead of the game: 57-56, with no time left. Game over. It's mayhem. The Big East's most overrated player passed to freshman Eric Devendorf for the game winner.
Saturday comes, and it's game day in the city. Orange and blue everywhere. It's warm, and even the trees appear to be sporting #3.
Dilemma: I'm covering the game, which means I need wireless access. Plus, it's an 8:15 tip, and I have no idea where to catch it, what with the no cable at home -- and I'll be darned if I'm going to listen to it on the radio.
For you out-of-towners, Chuck's is one of the biggest and generally the most crowded bar near the SU campus. I got there two minutes after they opened, just after 6. I was able to snag just enough signal from LaTazza downstairs. Perfect.
By 7, Chuck's is packed. Everybody's filling up on $6 pitchers (my lap even got one by the end of the night, courtesy of someone not really tall enough to be reaching over my shoulder to grab a pitcher), and when the ESPN crew flashes to G-Mac outside signing autographs, the "Gerry! Gerry!" chants start up.
Jump to SU blowing another big lead, for the third time in four games.
Jump to Josh Wright hitting four free-throws at the end of the game to put the Orange over the top by four (the total of the previous three wins by).
Jump to mayhem. Jump to chaos. Jump to madness. Jump to craziness. Jump to SU repeating as Big East champions, this time becoming the first team in conference history to win a crown by taking four games in four days.
Jump to the Orange going from NIT maybes (or perhaps just see-ya-next-years) to a Number 5 seed in the NCAA tourney. Tip-off is 9:40 p.m. Thursday.
Jump to nothing at all getting done throughout the city of Syracuse on the morning of St. Patrick's day, with everybody up late Thursday watching the game.
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Posted by josh at March 13, 2006 11:21 AM
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