No Valentines for the Orange

Yawn.
Dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble ...
Doink.

Those were the sounds in the "Loud House" today.

The Orange yawning on the defensives boards.
Jardine turning into a dribbling black hole running/ruining the offense.
The SU offensive doinking shots from all over the floor.

Indeed, the Orange were both ranked and "rank".

Bob Matthews of the Rochester D&C wrote a column positing that Wes Johnson's unselfish play might cost him the Big East POTY award. He was far from unselfish today hoisting up 20 shots, shooting an anemic 25% in an ugly loss to a very un-elite Louisville team.

The SU's lead guard weakness was exposed and thoroughly exploited. Brandon Triche got another early seat but Scoop "Whose Meal Ticket is This?" Jardine only made a bad situation worse. Soft full court pressure took SU out of any semblance of an offensive and, once in the front court, the ball stayed in Jardine's hands far too long. Throw in Mookie Jones' 3 minutes of confusion and you might worry just a little bit more about G'Town away and Villanova on the 27th.

On the plus side - With spring training just days away I'm looking forward to seeing the pinstriper's revamped outfield. Never has Bret Gardner looked so good as a possible starter.

NASCAR got off to a shaky start in Daytona. The heralded debut of Danica Patrick ended in a crash on JV Saturday and fans had to endure 6 hours of caution and red flag racing to see a truly exciting green-white-checkered finish. NASCAR might want to reconsider its track maintenance contract with the Florida Highway Dept. But you have to love race fans. They'll talk about the McMurray - Earnhardt finish for years without remembering the painful 6 hours it took to get there.