The 20 Game Syracuse Win Streak Comes to an Inglorious End

Digger was happy Saturday night - but he's still an assclown

With about five minutes to go in the first half of the Syracuse - Notre Dame game Saturday my wife was changing our young son and as soon as the diaper came off, he proceeded to pee all over the brand new orange and blue outfit we had dressed him in for the game. That act, more than anything else, summed up Syracuse's first loss of the season, as the Orange fell to Notre Dame 67-58.

The fact of the matter is it isn't 1976 any more and college basketball teams lose games. Especially in conference, on the road. There's no sense in over reacting, even if that is the world we live in today. Obviously losing to a team like Notre Dame, that is an NIT team at best this year isn't ideal, but that's life.

Give credit to Fighting Irish coach Mike Brey credit for a great game plan. He knew Notre Dame couldn't run with the Orange so he slowed the game down, had his team work the shot clock and time and time again his players delivered. I lost count of the number of times an opposing player made a tough shot with only a few seconds left on the shot clock.

The game plan was bolstered by a phenomenal effort from Jack "I look like a cabbage kid kid on steroids" Cooley, who was simply wanted it more. SU's big men had no answer for the man child as Rakeem Christmas is inexperienced, Baye Keita continues to disappoint and CJ Fair was too small.

I don't care what anyone says, not having Fab Melo certainly hurt SU - both in containing Cooley and just breaking up the general rhythm of the team and the season. Here's hoping his absence is short-lived, because right now the other big men probably aren't good enough to get this team to a national title.

The good news is that the loss will stop the ridiculous flood of moronic t-shirts that are being made and SU will have a chance to prove Saturday night was a fluke when they take on Cincinnati Monday in the Queen City. SU better be focused and ready, as the Bearcats are having an excellent season - when they aren't getting into ugly-ass brawls.

Observations

* Mike Brey's commitment to the mock turtleneck borders on the absurd. Unless you started Apple, there's no reason any man should still be wearing these things. Put on a tie for the love of God. You just know Brey is the type of guy who wears a denim shirt and jean shorts for casual wear.

* After a week of drawing praise from us and virtually every one else on the planet, Scoop Jardine came out and promptly laid an egg. After five years in the program, SU simply can't have its point guard come out and put up 2 points when the team is struggling to score.

* Likewise there should be an APB put out for Kris Joseph. Look, Kris is a very good player and seems to be a fantastic person, but he's simply not a top banana from a scoring perspective. James Southerland has more of a scorers mentality than Kris does.

* I was having a conversation with a friend the other day and he correctly stated that he was concerned SU didn't have a "run stopper." Meaning someone that can get a couple of tough buckets when the other team is on a run. We certainly didn't find one Saturday.

* Like Joseph, Baye Keita seems to be a FANTASTIC person, but this hasn't been a good year for him. Like Melo, a lot of players make a big leap forward from year one to year two. Keita is a promising player, but we haven't seen any improvement from over last year. A big part of the reason is that he catches the ball like he's wearing oven mitts. Plus he played 25 minutes and had 2 rebounds. That's two more than Melo, who was 1,000 miles away.

* Prior to the start of the game, Voice of the Orange Matt Park tweeted this:

From now on I'll take the monotone Larry pregame speech instead.

* The block/charge call is ruining college basketball. The refs screw it up more times than they get it right and it takes the aggressiveness out of the game -- the flopping is worse than it is in a European soccer game. In my opinion, unless a guy is an absolute statue, the call has to be a block. If the game starts getting called that way, you'll see a lot fewer guys sliding over at the last second and taking guys out too.

* Syracuse didn't lose because of the refs, but it was a terribly officiated game. Cooley was shoving guys in the back all night and it wasn't getting called, SU was taking it to the rim hard with no calls, and the refs continually bailed ND out calling ticky tack fouls on the Orange late in the shot clock.

* The bottom line is that you're not going to win on the road shooting 30 percent from the three point line, 34 percent from the field and getting out rebounded by 13. That's what happened. Here's hoping SU puts it behind them quickly.

Go Orange