Don’t mention the 1-7 Orange football team on the Hill. Nobody’s talking about it. As far as Syracuse observers are concerned, the season’s kaput. Only an off week separates them from being ritually slaughtered by Louisville and Notre Dame and a game against a tough South Florida team; a 1-10 finish is not out of the question. Greg Robinson, Pollyanna in sweatpants, is eternally optimistic; looking out at the verdant FieldTurf of the Orange’s new practice facility, he sounds like a Steinbeck Okie…before the dust storms.
But there’s a palpable buzz there, under the bubble. Something big and real is coming. If the 2004-2005 Orange were a local landmark, they would have been Destiny USA…built on the foundation of Billy Edelin (worthless and truculent), Gerry McNamara (sinking fast under the weight of expectations like a steel piling into the soft muck of Onondaga Lake), and Hakim Warrick (ultimately, like the mall’s titular carousel, a pleasant, whirling distraction from the chaos within).
But these Orange? They gleam with promise like the Clinton Square ice rink. The prospect of them playing Villanova at home in March, potentially for all the marbles, is as mouth-watering as a big plate of salt potatoes. You think there’s no urgency in the Dome this season? Tell that to Jim Boeheim, who got ejected for the first time in his 30 years as coach on Tuesday…in an exhibition game…against Saint Rose. And as their football counterparts slink off into ignominy, the near future every bit as dark as the ghoulish visage of Baron Daemon, the 2006 basketball season looks as bright as sunrise over 690.
In order, then, here’s how the new super-sized Big East will shake down:
1. Syracuse. Gerry McNamara has cemented his status as possibly the most popular Orangeman of all time. His senior season might be a victory lap…but for the fact that he has a three-point-shooting foil for the first time in Eric Devendorf, a veteran frontcourt of Darryl Watkins and Terrence Roberts, and significant backcourt depth. Without Warrick, it’ll be an Olympus-sized hill to climb, but this is Gerry’s team. And Gerry ain’t going down without a fight.
2. Connecticut. Thanks to the antics of the Geek Squad, UConn’s out a starting backcourt until December, when Marcus Williams returns from suspension. Losing Williams will hurt, but a second straight year without phenom A.J. Price will hurt more…expect freshmen Craig Austrie and Rob Garrison to log plenty of minutes against the cupcakes; Rudy Gay is the real deal, but can Josh Boone ever become a low-post scoring threat?
3. Villanova. It’ll be hard, minus Curtis Sumpter, for the Wildcats to live up to their lofty preseason ranking, but Jay Wright has the nation’s best backcourt at his disposal. Expect Nova to rain down lake-effect threes on their opponents; center Jason Fraser’s knees might as well be ceramic teacups at this point, so there won’t be too much board-crashing here.
4. Louisville. Had Francisco Garcia not turned pro, they might be the best team in the country. As it stands Taquan Dean is a dark-horse All-American, Milt Palacios is a solid big man, and seven freshmen will fill the bench with more fresh-scrubbed apple cheeks than the Junior Holstein barn at the Center of Progress Building.
5. West Virginia. You’ve been Pittsnogled! That’s what they’ll say in Morgantown when a scraggly-bearded 6’11” beanpole sprouts wings and starts launching long balls from the corner…offensive rebounding is always an issue when your big man’s your best outside shooter, but West Virginia plays tougher and harder than any other team in the Big East.
6. Georgetown. The best frontcourt in the league? Roy Hibbert, Jeff Green, and Brandon Bowman are a serious triple threat, and the Princeton-style offense means that their the Hoyas’ outside shooters will get plenty of looks. With a guy named Jon(athan) Wallace on the team, could the East be in the house again? Oh my God! Danger!
7. Cincinnati. The Big East could have used Bob Huggins, but this reporter won’t miss him at the postgame buffet…senior leadership will take them as far as they can go, but at least stringbean Armein Kirkland won’t be coming back for seconds at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que.
8. Notre Dame. Irish fans will miss Chris Thomas’ scoring, but everybody else will miss his alarming tendency to unleash 20 off-balance threes in big games. Seniors Chris Quinn (who gets carded buying a carton of milk) and Torin Francis (a complete player in the sense that Doppler the Weather Cat is a local celebrity) will make or break their team’s postseason hopes.
9. Pittsburgh. It’ll be a rebuilding year for the Panthers, who look as one-dimensional as the Dome Hotel after the loss of Chevy Troutman and Chris Taft. Despite that, Carl Krauser is a fierce leader, and a strong cast of recruits should have Pittsburgh back in the mix before you know it. Just not this year.
10. Marquette. Milwaukee’s best? They’re too young to do much damage, much less partake of the local brews, and the loss of Travis Diener leaves a hole in the middle of their lineup bigger than the ones on Hiawatha Boulevard. Steve Novak will shoot the lights out, but a quartet of inexperienced newcomers make the Golden Eagles an unknown quantity.
11. Rutgers. Seems like the Scarlet Knights are always one or two recruits away from contention. Quincy Douby and J.R. Inman will be exciting scorers on the wing, but the lack of a real point guard and little frontcourt depth will make Rutgers as paper-thin as the Saturday sports section. At the Lilliputian RAC, they’ll knock off a couple of stud teams; with the cloud of Aqua Net hanging over the court in that Jersey dive, how could they not?
12. St. John’s. Daryll (Showtime) Hill deserves better than this, but the sins of Abe Keita are visited upon, well, whatever it is that comes after Abe Keita. At least St. John’s didn’t lose anybody of note; as it stands this playground-style team couldn’t knock off the Fowler JV.
13. DePaul. Don’t be fooled by the Blue Demons’ 20-11 record in 2004-2005. New coach Jerry Wainwright will struggle to win without last year’s top three starters and facing a non-conference schedule that includes road games at Dayton, Wake Forest, Old Dominion, and Cal…If North Side fans are disgusted by the quality of the product on the court, they might be well-served to make the short drive to Hot Doug’s, where the quality of the product is never in question.
14. Providence. Minus Ryan Gomes, they might be even worse than last year’s 4-12 team…sometime scofflaw Donnie “Sweet D” McGrath might never become chief of police in this town, but he’s got namesake Dennis DuVal beat in the headband department.
15. Seton Hall. Thar she blows. The Pirates might be hard-pressed to get ten wins out of this motley crew; coach Louis Orr is in hot water, and may very well conscript Rosie Bouie and Marty Headd to give his team some much-needed depth. It’s got to come from somewhere.
16. South Florida. The Baby Bulls won’t just be bad, they might be some of the Big East’s worst-ever. They were a substandard C-USA team to begin with before three starters graduated, another went pro, and another was kicked off the team. Our new friends in the Sunshine State make their Big East debut in the Dome in January; to welcome them to our winter wonderland, let’s all take a deep breath and recite the MONY Tower Weather Star Rhyme:
Green light…weather bright.
Orange on high…overcast sky.
Orange flashing…raindrops splashing.
Flickering white…snow in sight.
See you at the Dome…if the turf’s still in place, I’ll be the one with the paper bag over my head.
Bud Poliquin is a columnist for the Syracuse Post-Standard.