I believe the announcer was Bucky Waters (or was it Bob Wenzel), who threw this in to the broadcast of Syracuse's 87-58 pasting of St. John's:
The jingle of car keys can be heard in the Red Storm Section...
I held back a day to get the putrid taste of yet another loss out of my mouth. It's still there. There are ghostly "Let's Go Orange" chants reverberating through St. John's home Madison Square Garden throughout the game, images of Red Storm t-shirts flying back onto the court, crowd shots of young New York kids decked out in Syracuse gear...
Then there is the image of Jonny Flynn working on his Rucker application highlight reel -
see Jonny fake Quincy Roberts a few feet away!
See Jonny make D.J. Kennedy freeze!
See Jonny completely eviscerate any remaining reputation as an on-ball defender that Malik Boothe has (more on this later).
And the image from the game, taken from the Syracuse Post-Standard - this is the starters and Rick Jackson clowning, holding each other back as their favorite walk-on scores:
Yeah.
From the pregame notes, the 5 Points:
All Off The Line? Sometimes I hate writing these pregame blurbs, because when I write things like "keep Jonny Flynn off the free throw line," I don't mean to keep him off the line by not touching him. Defending Jonny Flynn was like catching fog in your hands for the Red Storm, and the loved every minute of it, dribbling between his legs, shooting whenever he damn well felt like it... I have no idea if he'll be a great pro, but he has pro athleticism. I guess this metric would get a letter grade of C+. They did the assignment.
Bring the Pain Down Low? Rob Thomas had 1 point. Justin had 8 points (and 6 turnovers). Sean Evans got off 13 points. But none of them even slowed Onuaku and Rick Jackson, who got position wherener they felt like it, and scored from their spots. And the way the bigs got trapped, or didn't help out guards who got trapped in the zone... ugh. This gets a F.
Crash and Score. When a team misses that many shots, they're going to come up with offensive rebounds. St. John's did get some boards; and Paris Horne, in particular, was effective on the offensive glass, crashing and putting up shots. That's good since his outside shot seems to have escaped him. That said, Rob Thomas did not make a difference on the glass, and neither did the other frontcourt players. This gets a B-.
Pace Factor. The game was a clinic on how NOT to control the pace. There was bad pressure on the point guard, no ability to slow down streaking players, and St. John's just tried to get back and score on the other end. Poor poor poor job. Syracuse did whatever they wanted to do, and that is terribly alarming. F.
Disrupt. See above. There was no disruption. Flynn and Devendorf player like they do against their buddies. Or grade schoolers. It was sad, 25 assists on 37 made baskets for Syracuse, and that's partly because Jonny Flynn was showing off. F.
Postgame Media:
Official box score | Official quotes
"We were taking long shots and long shots lead to long rebounds. We just weren't getting back quickly enough. They got the long rebounds and converted them into points." - Malik Boothe from post game quotes.
NY Post: Cuse Fans Control Garden in Rout of Storm
To make matters worse, Lincoln High point guard Lance Stephenson, the No. 1 recruit in the city, was sitting baseline with his father.
"I want to go to a place where the coach is going to push me to be a better player and there are good teammates around me," Stephenson told The Post. "And I want to go to a team that doesn't care for losing but is all about winning."
St. John's coach Norm Roberts described his postgame speech to his players as "strong."
"He was just on us," said Horne. "I don't know what it was. We just didn't come out with that fire. Maybe after the Seton Hall game, we got a little happy."
Happy? What joy is there in never having been to the NCAA Tournament? That is a joy Syracuse fans know. They even saw their players cut down the nets in 2003. All of New York was Syracuse country.
NY Daily News: Humiliating night at Garden sees St. John's home cooked by Syracuse
Flynn had 13 points in the first half, including a sweet jumper after a move that put the Storm's Quincy Roberts on the seat of his pants and brought the crowd to its feet. St. John's was outshot by a whopping 66% to 27% in the first half.
"They beat us in pretty much every facet of the game," Storm coach Norm Roberts said.
Syracuse Post-Standard: Syracuse enjoys big win over St. John's
Syracuse Post-Standard/ The Axeman: SU-St. John's Recap
Syracuse Post-Standard/ The Orange Segment: Jonny dominates Johnnies, SU routs St. John's 87-59
Syracuse Post-Standard/ Bud Polinquin: The Orange bounces back against the Red Storm behind Flynn . . . of course
(seriously, how many writers are covering the men's basketball team???)
Orange 44: Syracuse - St. John's Postgame Reactions OR Damn, That's A Win
(more postgame reactions from Orange 44 in a post later this morning.)
Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician:Well That Was Nice
The Daily Orange: Syracuse defense returns to form, allows St. John's 18 1st-half points
CuseOrange: A Tasty Cupcake