PopsNson

Without Pops and I there live to cheer on the Cuse they played their worst game of the year and had a pre-mature ending to their season. Pops and I spoke at half time and both thought the Cuse would come out strong and get their swagger back in the 2nd half and win a close game. We couldn’t believe how badly they were playing after how great they looked against Gonzaga.

I also spoke to Mikey who was a bit nervous that Butler stood a chance and could give the Cuse a hard time. I really didn’t think the Cuse would struggle like they did and was more than shocked that they lost. Immediately after the game Mikey and I spoke and both couldn’t believe that such a great season was now over. When in our lifetime would we see the Cuse be a number 1 seed again, have such an outstanding regular season and be a legit championship contender. It had been 20 years since they had a number 1 ranking during the regular season and even longer since being a #1 seed in the tournament.

Now that Butler has made it all the way to the Final I am not sure if this makes the loss harder or easier to take. Either way this felt like a special year and was tons of fun for Pops and I to follow. Our trip to Buffalo has made a 1st round tournamnt trip a mandatory father son trip every year now. Just hope we can plan it around seeing the Cuse. We should really thank our significant others for dealing with us and our mood swings during the entire basketball season, thank you thank you!!!!

Pops Was Ready But The Cuse Weren't

It’s been just about 76 hours since the Cuse loss to Butler in the sweet sixteen. I’ve finally brought myself to write about the game and Pops and my thoughts. Really I still don’t want to even think about it but what good is the blog if all we do is focus on the positive and not report the full story.

To think about the full story we should first realize the Syracuse had an outstanding season going 30-5 and winning the Big East regular season championship with a 15-3 conference record. No one can argue that the Big East was agreed upon by all experts as the toughest conference in the country. Jim Boeheim won Big East and National coach of the year and Wes Johnson won Big East player of the year, this was after sitting out an entire season when transferring from Iowa State. Sure he got to practice with the team but that still doesn’t qualify as Big East competition for the entire season.

It’s only fair to say that their regular season was a spectacular one and greater than anyone expected. That they provided all Cuse fans with entertaining basketball from their dominating performances at Madison Square Garden in the 2k Sports Coaches vs. Cancer Classic to senior night for Andy Rautins and Arinze Onuaku. Don’t forget they were also ranked #1 for 7 days before losing their last game of the year at Louisville.

The Post Season:

We’ve established that the Cuse had a great regular season. They gave all their fans a chance to dream about a Final Four berth and possible national championship. This is what a college hoops fan hopes for each season and the Cuse gave us an entire season full of dreams of dancing into the Final Four. This hope and belief is why the loss to Butler is so hard to take. For almost 5 months Pops, me and all Cuse fans bleed orange and lived to see the smile of Wes Johnson playing at The Garden, Scoop and Kris Joseph igniting the team off the bench and seeing our seniors AO and Andy look destined to bring another title to Syracuse.

When they lost to Georgetown in the Big East Tournament it wasn’t all that disappointing except for the major fact that we lost AO in that game. That eventually contributed a bit to the Butler loss but wasn’t the main reason for the loss.

When Pops and I watched them in Buffalo dominate Vermont and Gonzaga this showed they were playing well without AO and capable of still making the Final Four. Pops and I were feeling great about their chances against Butler and thought this Cuse team had the talent and mental make-up to handle a tough defensive minded Butler team.

What we didn’t think would happen was a complete lack of attention to detail and the carelessness of 18 turnovers. We could go into a multitude of reasons of why the Cuse lost but I’ll just say check out the Syracuse Standard for that instead.

What I would like to talk about in my next blog post is the conversations that Pops, my best buddy Mikey (also a lifelong Cuse fan) and I had. Check back to read about a fans reaction and how the loss has affected our lives over the last few days.