I apologize for the slow day - it seems that the job I get paid to do gets in the way of thing I do for free, I hate it when that happens.
The Syracuse win over Tulane wasn't pretty, but it was effective. Mike Waters notes on his blog today that three players had at least 10 rebounds which is obviously a good thing......to a point. How could this be bad in any way shape or form you may ask? Simple, the bench played a grand total of 15 minutes, including logging zero minutes in the second half. Rick Jackson was the only forward or center to play besides the starters, and he only logged 5 minutes. So, by virtue of being on the floor for the entire game, Harris, Arinze and Greene were going to get a lot of opportunities to rebound the basketball.
So - is it a good thing that they defended and hit the glass? You're damn right it is. The 20 offensive rebounds Waters mentioned were also huge and a great sign that they are attacking the rim. However, if your big guys are logging 40, 38 and 37 minutes respectively, they better be hitting the glass - and we better hope that the team doesn't suffer any injuries, suspensions or foul trouble.
That being said, I'm still high on this team's potential - and I believe Boeheim can get them to play at least passable defense and I think there is potential for contributions from the bench. For whatever reason I believe Kris Ongenaet (whom I will be calling the Belgian or the Belgian Waffle for the rest of the year because it's easier to spell than his name) can contribute if he does get meaningful minutes and you have to love the potential of Jackson and Jardine - here's hoping they all continue to mature and get some more PT. They will be needed at some point, whether they are ready or not.
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