Let's Hope I Never Have to Put Up With That Kind of Shit Again

I was excited to come home from work yesterday and watch Syracuse in the NIT. The team was playing well, having beaten Maryland last week to put them in the NIT quarterfinals against UMass. Syracuse lost at home to UMass earlier this year, and it was considered a "bad" loss because UMass hasn't made noise in the A-10 for a long time. That loss was one of the reasons they didn't make the NCAA tournament.

I don't want to dwell into too much detail and get too worked up over an NIT game, but the Orange had a 22 point lead with a little over 14 minutes left - and lost. I got home just as the second half was starting. I called my dad to make sure he was watching the game, and thought I would enjoy a nice little blowout before making dinner. Oh how wrong I was.

Syracuse has had a tough year, losing their top player with a knee injury during the season, and their best shooter to a knee injury before the season even started. They started two freshman, two first year starters, and a juco transfer. I guess I should be happy that they were able to throw together such a team and get into the playoffs, but getting blown out like that sucks. As the game was winding down, it seemed like the Orange players wanted to throw an alley oop after every possession. That will happen with any young team, but they forgot to play defense and UMass remembered how to shoot threes at about the same time, and that was all she wrote.

I do think Syracuse will be a very good team next year. They had a good recruiting class, should return all of their players except perhaps Donte Green, and will get their injured players back. That means the team will have depth. Since so many of the young players had to play this year, it means we'll have experience. Hopefully everybody will remember how it feels to be embarrassed in your own house, and use that as motivation to kick ass next year.