On Wednesday I made the pilgrimage that every basketball fan deserves to make at least once in his or her lifetime. I made that trip to Manhattan to see four college basketball teams play in the grandest arena in all the land. Of course, I'm referring to Madison Square Garden. Two games were played that night and neither came down to a last-second shot. However, both were great games to watch. Surprisingly, it wasn't that big of a crowd even though Syracuse was playing in the second game.
In the first game, the Washington Huskies and Texas A&M Aggies squared off. The latter was ranked 16th in the AP Poll. Washington jumped out to a fast start in the early going. Brockman was key in scoring his team's first 7 points. At halftime, he had already recorded a double-double. I wondered how long he could keep up his stellar play.
Well, Turgeon's crew answered that question for me. At the start of the second half the Aggies looked good. Joseph Jones (17 pts, 9 reb) was playing well and so was...DeAndre Jordan? Yes. This kid reminded me of young Dwight Howard. He scored 8 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. A couple of his points ended in thunderous dunks. Brockman, on the other hand, finished the game with 21 points and 15 rebounds. Anyways, the Aggies took their first lead since the beginning of the game four minutes into the second half.
In the next 10 minutes of the game the two teams would battle closely for the lead. Neither went ahead by more than four or five points. But then the game broke open in favor of Texas A&M right after they called a 20-second timeout. Brockman had cooled off and his opponents were clicking. Washington was outscored 22-9 in those remaining minutes. Fifteen of A&M's were scored from the foul line as they converted well when the game really mattered. It ended with a score of 77-63 but the game was a whole lot better than that.
In the final game of the night, the Syracuse Orange took on the Ohio State Buckeyes in what seemed to be just another home game for 'Cuse. The Orange were 21st in the polls and the Buckeyes were unranked but none of that seemingly mattered to one determined freshman. Kosta Koufos was the biggest surprise of the entire night. He had 24 points and 9 rebounds. Interesting enough, his shooting touch was uncanny for a 7-footer like himself.
Donte Green did his best for Syracuse by hitting two 3-pointers early on. Later in the half, Eric Devendorf got his team going with some pretty layups. Now, most would think that Ohio State would be weak without a good guard. Trust me, they have one. Jamar Butler controlled the tempo very well and asserted himself when necessary. He finished with 14 points, 5 assists, and 3 steals on only 9 shots.
Ohio State really took control of the game in the final five minutes of the first half. A three-point lead turned into a ten-point lead as the players headed for their locker rooms. After that, the closest Syracuse came was three points early on in the second half. The Buckeyes kept their lead right around ten points for most of the remaining time.
Worth mentioning was the quiet yet very good job Paul Harris did for the Orange. He had only 10 points but helped his team in other ways with 12 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block. Also worth mentioning is the horrid play of Eric Devendorf in the second half. He kept chucking up threes at the wrong time. Devendorf also earned himself a technical and the crowd was disappointed to see him give up on playing hard late in the game. OSU won 79-65.
In conclusion, I think Syracuse lost the game themselves more than the Buckeyes won it. Yes, Ohio State made a good portion of their shots down the stretch but Syracuse completely changed in the last 25 minutes of the game. To start the game Syracuse made some great interior passes to get high-percentage shots. Then the Buckeyes started packing it in and Syracuse was settling for outside shots which weren't falling (especially for Devendorf).
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