It’s not often that I have anything positive to say about Syracuse basketball thanks to the fact that before I get a chance to speak, RJ states something so outlandish about the ‘Cuse that I am forced to shake my head and walk away. This year, however, I have to give credit where credit is due. This edition of the Orange is playing some of the best defense that I have seen in college basketball in a long time. I would dare to say I haven’t seen zone defense this smothering since—can I even say it? Gulp–Amoeba. I know that is a statement, but I think I can stand behind it.

For a long time I looked at the 2-3 as a cop-out form of defense; the proverbial form of a timeout on the defensive side of the ball. So many coaches jump into a zone to rest  bigs before they make the final push in a game by jumping back into a pressure man defense. Au contraire. Syracuse has proven to me that you can use the 2-3 to pressure the ball, as well as protect the defensive boards.

The keys, from my vantage point, is the use of athletic 3’s and 4’s to create a whirlwind of help side rotation. In my prior experience of playing and coaching the 2-3, I have been hoodwinked in thinking that the defense allows 3’s and 4’s to rest. I would literally slump on a block , wink at cheerleaders, and lust for the concession stand while my coach and team would literally dare the opposing team to hit a jumper. That may be true of many other versions of the 2-3 but for Syracuse nothing could be further from the truth. There are three common misconceptions of the 2-3 that coach Jim Boeheim helps shatter in his version of the 2-3:

1. The 2-3 gives up the jumpshot–Wrong. Instead of getting caught in that “no-man’s-land” of figuring out who is to get out on wing shooters, the Orange make it the responsibility of 3’s and 4’s, who get out on the wing tenaciously and force the ball down on the block and forces a shooter and a big man to play proper 2-man basketball against 3 players on the ball side.  While many teams are able to swing the ball to the open man on the help side of the ball, Boeheim wisely raises his help side defender to the elbow to get out on the swing. Advantage Orange.
2. The 2-3 is a good option for non-athletic teams–Wrong. Your 3’s and 4’s have to be horses. They are the first option to ball side rotation in Boeheim’s 2-3. I don’t know how many times I have seen Kris Joseph or Wesley Johnson rotate from off a wing player and clean the glass with what seemed like a sure lay-up. For example, ball comes down on the right wing, then swings to the opposite wing. The ball is then dropped down on the block for a turn-and-shoot opportunity. Nope, the opposite side wing defender is  rotating all the way to the ball side to challenge the ball while the 5 can stand his ground and position for a rebound thus reducing the instances of shooting fouls. Nobody in the nation is better at this menacing style of covering the floor than Johnson and Joseph. Long, athletic and aware–a deadly combination. Advantage Orange.
3. You are supposed to play behind the post–One of the best things I have seen in the Orange 2′3 is not only the 3 or 4 getting out on the wing, but the 5 man also fronting the post. It’s not that this tactic is some sort of genius tweak, it just postures towards aggression. I think that energy is one of the things that gets the whole team dialed in on defense. Many teams play behind the post in order to control the boards, but the Orange seem to compete regardless. Advantage Orange.

And thats our take on the Orange 2-3. Its aggressive and rotates really well this year. I hadn’t seen this kind of tenacity from them and I think the athleticism on the wing is the key. Paul Harris was a step in the right direction defensively but Wesley Johnson is the flat-out answer. Boeheim has found a blueprint of the future. The rest of the Big East should be very afraid.

To commemorate the opening of the new Foot Locker House of Hoops location in Dallas, TX, Nike hooked up with Los Angeles-based illustrator/graphic artist Alex Fuentes to design these pieces featuring the two biggest names in the game (LeBron and Kobe), Dallas natives Chris Bosh and Deron Williams and Mavericks forward Shawn Marion.

Wouldn’t even begin to think how much an original of one of these would set a brotha back, but would love to have one framed for the game room. Peep the rest after the jump.

via Sneaker News

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“Man, I’m a fry Reggie’s ass when I see him on Monday (laughter) … he said Scheyer was a pro (tears) … man, please.”

Thanks to a typical the-game-is-over-but-since-you’re-Duke-you-have-to-be-pressed seven-point spurt in the final minute, the final score was 89-77, but that in no way tells the uninitiated how much of a beating Georgetown gave Duke Saturday afternoon before a capacity crowd at the Verizon Center. With the POTUS, Joey Beans and other notable dignitaries in attendance, the Hoyas put on a display that at times bordered on cruelty, with the Hoyas literally taking – not stealing, there’s a difference – the ball from Blue Devil players and converting on the other end with ease and upping their lead to as much as 23 points before JTIII called off the dogs and allowed Duke to escape with a small semblance of dignity.

Undoubtedly, the highlight of the game for the Duke faithful was Mason Plumlee’s rim-rattling dunk (see below) with the Blue Devils down 16 with 0:26 left in regulation.

He sure can jump

Other than that, if you’re a Duke fan, I hope you didn’t decide to eat a sandwich/wrap/burrito during the game, because I’m sure it was slammed on the table/floor sometime between the 15-minute mark of the first half and 2-3 hours after the game. I watched the game with MBJ – an ardent supporter of Blue Devils basketball since the mid-80’s – at Old Dominion Brewhouse in NW D.C. and although he didn’t order a sandwich, he did order a plate of chicken fingers and waffle fries that he barely touched which could have easily been folded into a flour tortilla for a potential slamming later on Saturday or Sunday.

From a player standpoint, Kyle Singler pretty much wrapped it up by saying, “They were just able to do whatever they wanted. They were just sharper with everything, offensively and defensively,” but the fan reaction over at The Devils Den was priceless.

“GT came out on to the court, saw that they were athletically superior and physically superior and then took it from there. They were never threatened by us at any point in the game. It’s tough when your opponents are that confident that they’re just better than you.”

“Until we get athletes on the roster this will be the outcome vs talented, well coached teams.”

“the good news is I don’t have to keep hearing about how good Scheyer is any more.   Hopefully K uses the rest of the year trying to develop some of the younger players.  You could really see this coming from the Florida State game.”

“I will always pull for Duke, but watching games like Villanova last year and Georgetown today make me sad in a way, because they remind me that we’re nowhere near what we used to be, which was a team legitimately capable of winning it all.

I’ll always support our guys, and I look forward to next year with the guys we have coming in.  But right now, I hate watching us take such beat-downs.”

“Are we the Notre Dame of basketball?”

“If we played in the Big East, we would get owned. We’d be a mediocre team.”

“Are we suppose to be the best team in the ACC? I feel sorry for the ACC? Damn. We were dominated.”

I could go on and on and on, but as many of you saw the game, I don’t have too. I’m not going to hurl insults, slaps just for the sake of slapping or grandstand.

But with about three minutes left in regulation, Verne Lundquist said it best.

“If the President of the United States decides to leave, the game is officially over.”

To MBJ and the rest of Blue Devil nation, keep your head up, get one of these and a sack of these and tell Lance Thomas to bring his green hat on Senior Night.

Peep the two handed, behind the head slam from Chi-Town’s finest. Mama, there goes that man!

On Sunday, the day before Syracuse’s game against arch-rival Georgetown, Coleman, the legendary Orangeman who would be in attendance for Monday’s game with the Hoyas, offered a word of warning to the Orange.

“He said you all can lose every game this season,’’ Syracuse center Arinze Onuaku said, “but you all can’t lose to Georgetown.’’

As the Orange players broke out a timeout huddle, Coleman motioned to Rautins who hustled over to the baseline.“Stopped being so unselfish,’’ Coleman said, “and shoot the damn ball.’’

Rautins hit a pair of 3-pointers within the next three minutes. After the second trey, Rautins pointed to Coleman. “He gave me a slap on the backside and told me to get going,’’ Rautins said. “At that point, I knocked down two shots and said ‘Hey, I got you.’’

Quoted from BusterSports.com

0 points from the Georgetown bench. That’s not going to cut it. Not now…not on Feb. 18th. Do enjoy your day.

Yesterday President Obama welcomed the 2009 NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers to the White House. He even had the cojones to site Phil Jackson’s first 6 championships were with his beloved Chicago Bulls. He also threw the Magic Man himself under the bus by reenacting Jordan’s famous move, switching hands in mid-air during the Bulls 1990-91 championship run. The Prez really knows his stuff! Pretty good.

A couple of weeks back, we were all reintroduced to the boisterousness of our good friend Bob Knight as he called out Kentucky coach John Calipari for his bevy of NCAA infractions. I, for one, used to categorize these outbursts as antics. It was not until this week that I really appreciated Bob Knight as an elder statesman of college basketball.

I have watched college basketball since Johnny Dawkins, a Washington, DC native and playground legend, attended Duke University. I became a Duke fan instantly. Now you can infer that I have since adopted the stereotypical stance of a Duke fan with his nose in the air who points out every impurity in college basketball that does not favor the Blue Devils’ quest for a fourth national title.

That’s not the case.

I am a basketball purist. I like to see good basketball from an individual standpoint and player improvement over time under a particular coach, regardless of the team. I also appreciate solid basketball programs that effectively balance athletics with academics. And I have to say that I have always been skeptical that Calipari could deliver in these two areas.

I can support Knight in his claims that Calipari “put two schools on probation.” I have never understood the anointing of Calipari as a big time coach because I have never considered him a teacher of basketball. I know this may be a poor way to support my opinion but I always go back to one example where Calipari’s shortcomings as a coach was more than evident in my eyes: Donta Bright.

Bright was a huge get for Calipari at UMass in the spring of 1992. I was a 10th grader at Wilson SHS in DC and playing in the local Urban Coalition summer league in the Junior Division. One of the main attractions of the Urban Coalition tournament were the teams that the famed Dunbar SHS of Baltimore, MD would field. Their Junior Division team, reserved for high school players, had two blue chip recruits, Bright and Keith Booth. Of the two, Bright was the diamond of that class. Size, strength, athleticism, a combination that was rare at that time, which meant you could build a program around him. I saw Bright dominate Grant Hill that summer. I also saw him go bucket-for-bucket with Penny Hardaway. Because Bright wasn’t just the star of the Dunbar Junior Division team at the Urban Coalition, he was the star of the Senior Division team as well, reserved for professional and college players. And this wasn’t just any team. The starting lineup was as follows:

G- Muggsy Bogues (Charlotte Hornets)
G- Sam Cassell (Florida State Seminoles)
G- Keith Booth (Maryland Terrapins)–HS Senior
F- Donta Bright (UMass Minutemen)–HS Senior
F- Reggie Lewis (Boston Celtics)–R.I.P.

They all deferred to Bright. They all knew he was a manchild. He was Charles Barkley. He was Domonique Wilkins. He was a freak of nature. So, with all that talent and pedigree, why was he not a fixture in the NBA?

John Calipari.

He brought those kids to UMass and depended on their talent to bring him notoriety and prestige. But in return, Coach Cal didn’t provide the instruction needed to understand the game. Subsequently, Bright left UMass and was cut from the Nets then played overseas. Now, Bright works at a group home in his native Baltimore. He was one of the best basketball players I have ever seen play in person. That’s not collegiate prep for the next level.

This is but one case against Calipari amongst a career of skepticism around ethics and ineffectiveness of teaching basketball. He has maintained his stature with the blinding glow of recruiting which distracts boosters and administrators, but turns the stomachs of basketball purists. This new breed of recruiting specialists is at the root of destroying college basketball as a function of student athletics while resurrecting it as a rest haven for NBA hopefuls. The problem that Calipari presents is that he even turns that dream into a lie. Calipari presents the families of his recruits with a pathway to the NBA paved with riches and the answers to many familial fractures. What kids actually find is a parking lot for their dreams. No specific on-the-job training. No coaching that makes kids better basketball players. And no attention to life outside of basketball. In the wake of this sham, you have people like Bright and Marcus Camby who refuse to even be identified with the UMass program.

So let’s reconsider the “Coach” part when we refer to Calipari. It’s misleading. How ironic.

Congratulations to Anthony Edwards of Washington, D.C., the winner of our ‘Caption This Photo’ contest. Mr. Edwards will receive a free subscription to NBA League Pass Mobile on his iPhone. The winning caption can be seen below. Much thanks to everyone who entered.

“Look, either run the offense or I’m giving Dave Berkowitz your address. He’s directly behind you, if you care to look.”

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry passed away this morning due to head injuries suffered when he fell from the bed of a moving pickup truck Wednesday during what police said was a domestic dispute with his fiancee, Loleini Tonga, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. He was 26 years old.

Henry was in Charlotte, where his fiancee’s family lives to continue making arrangements for their March wedding.

He was placed on season-ending injured reserve Nov. 9 after having surgery on his fractured left forearm. He finished the season with 12 receptions for 236 yards and two touchdowns.

To say that Henry had a checkered past would be an understatement, but it seemed as though he was turning his life around and was enjoying a fine season until suffering the season-ending injury to his forearm.

When I first heard the news, I immediately thought about former Redskins safety Sean Taylor. Taylor was murdered in his Miami-area home in 2007 due in part to the fact that he wasn’t with the team because of a sprained knee he suffered earlier in the season. Much like Henry, Taylor too had a checkered past, but also seemed to be maturing and turning his life around, thanks mostly to the birth of his daughter. You hate to imagine what could have happened if they hadn’t suffered season-ending injuries, but the thought is inescapable.

It also begs the question, what exactly is it about the city of Charlotte, NFL players and their significant others? First Fred Lane, then Rae Carruth and now Henry. As a friend said this morning, know your personnel, one bad turnover could cost you.

Chris Henry, gone too soon. R.I.P.