It’s raining outside right now. And it’s back to being early spring cool. The forecast is for a mostly cloudy day. It figures. The mighty have fallen and there’s no joy in Orangetown. Syracuse University’s men’s basketball team’s season ended last night in Salt Lake City, Utah, (of all places!) where they were defeated by a fifth-ranked team from the Midwest. I can’t even say the name. It hurts too much.
This was a team that started out the season ranked at mediocre at best. The “big shots” from last year had departed. There was no star on the horizon for this season. The fans in Orangetown were looking forward to a decent, but ordinary season with more interest in what new food items were going to be offered in the Backcourt of the Carrier Dome than anything else.
But it wasn’t to be that way. A surprisingly outstanding team took the court in the Fall, and…before you knew it…Mr. Commentator was searching his thesaurus for unique superlative words to characterize this amazing phenomenon. The Orange soared briefly to #1 in the nation and maintained themselves in the top 5 for the rest of the season.
Going into March Madness there was certain talk that the Orange would be in the Final Four, and some even speculated that it was going to be a repeat Championship for the boys from the hill. Wesley Johnson was being touted as Player of the Year. Arinze Onuaku’s injured quad (what the heck is a quad anyway?) ended a Senior year of glorious near-perfection. Andy Routins (yes, Mr. Commentator, the son of Leo!) demonstrated magic from beyond the three point line. And Brendon Trisch (yes, Mr. Commentator, the nephew of Howard!) turned out to be a superior recruit with a good eye and a feisty defensive mode. Overall, Jim Boeheim coached a real team which was unselfish and knew what it meant to support each other in order to win. It was a season of quality.
Last night’s display of outstanding turnovers wasn’t the quality we expected to see. Good shots dropped into the rim. The Midwest team made their shots, too, but refused to compete for the best turnovers of the night. Instead, they feasted on Orange Turnovers as if they were a baker’s dream food. In the end, the Orange dragged themselves to the locker room where tears of defeat betrayed the mighty fortitude that had shown itself for five months.
Like a B-rated mystery flick, those exiting the arena in Salt Lake City could say to the people waiting in line for the next show, “The Butler did it!”
Photo Credit: syracuse.com
