Hoya Saxa

After an extended abscence due to my computer having the HIV, I figured what better time to reemerge than after my attending the Syracuse-Georgetown tilt at the Verizon Center tonight. Here are some random ramblings about what actually was my first major college basketball game I've ever attended.

1. For it being a game in an off-campus, NBA arena, the Georgetown student section brought a little bit of noise. As my girlfriend and I first stepped into the arena, we literally saw the students sprinting to their seats after they had just been let in. They kept up the energy and intensity throughout, making the fact that they were a little bit further away than most on-campus spots less of an issue. Another suprise was that Syracuse either travels pretty well, or just has a good amount of fans from the DC area. There was a lot more Orange in the crowd, thereby making the heckling of one Eric Devendorf that much more fun.

(there's more)


2. I love Johnny Flynn. I'm going to call it right now, or as Dickie V says, "mark it down." Flynn is an NBA point guard whenever he decides to come out. He can dish, shoot the 3, was about the only competitive person with a pulse playing for the Cuse, and put down at least 3 or 4 retardedly disgusting dunks in warmups that someone 6'0" should not be able to do. Think Nate Robinson but a lot better.

3. Georgetown could be just as good, if not better than the Final 4 team of two years ago. I really like the mixture that the Hoyas have. Of the ten people that played tonight, all 10 scored. They have that mix of experience and freshmen that teams rely on in today's game. Granted the Hoyas shot the lights out tonight, hitting 57% from 3. They won't do that, or put up 88 points all too often. But with the leadership of Summers and Sapp, starters on that Final Four squad coupled with the youth of Monroe, Clark, Wright, and Freeman, they could be dangerous come tourney time.

4. Syracuse also could go deep in March. I already talked about Johnny Flynn, but one other suprise from Syracuse was their size. Both Arinze Onuaku, and Rich Jackson are really big. The Orange outboared Gtown 32-25, but really killed on the offensive glass, with an 18-7 advantage there. Jackson, Onuaku, and Paul Harris had 16 between the 3 of them. What this means is that they can beat you from the outside with Flynn, Eric Devendorf, and Andy Rautins, but they can also slug it out and crash with their big boys inside.

As for the game, Georgetown jumped out early and really got the crowd into it when the only white boy on the team, Nikita Mescheriakov drilled two huge 3's, then dove on the floor and controlled a loose ball where he sat on Andy Rautins' ankle, effectively taking him out of the game and responding to Andy's earlier taunts about how Gorbachov was a faggot. (Bad joke I know, I'm kind of rusty. I apologize). Another high point was Dejuan Summers dunking all over Kris Ongenaet and getting undercut, then rising up to fight and making the poor kid probably shit his pants, before being restrained by the rest of the team. The Cuse cut it as close as 53-45 early in the second half, but ended up losing 88-74. Lastly, I think outside of anybody currently playing for Duke, Eric Devendorf is easily the most hated player in the game. He got roundly booed each time he even breathed on the ball, jawed at the crowd when he hit a 3 even down like 15 pts, and generally just acted like he's waiting for the new White Rapper show on VH1. To sum it all up, I couldn't have enjoyed my first big-time College bball game more. Hopefully if enough strings are pulled and I'm able to afford it, the Big East tourney will be in my future. Until then, look for my mid-season breakdown coming up some time this weekend.