Legends of the Pen: Numbers and Letters

Dec. 23 Legends of the Pen: Bowlitis
Dec. 12 Legends of the Pen: A Bowl Awaits
Nov. 11 Legends of the Pen: Nothing Comes Easy
Oct. 20 Legends of the Pen: 1970 Squad Had Great Turnaround
Oct. 1 Legends of the Pen: The 1984 Team Was Special
Sept. 9 Legends of the Pen: College Football Time At SU

Having been involved with college or high school athletics for 40 some years, I must confess to having always been fascinated by numbers and certain letters. Numbers mostly in some form of statistics (points, TDs, field goals, rebounds, home runs, rbi's etc.), letters such as ERA (followed of course by the all-important number), and of course, the BIG One, W-L.

So for this week's column, I am going to talk basketball and football and toss around a lot of numbers in particular. As this column was written before Wedneday nights game in the Big Apple with St. John's but won't be seen until some time Thursday, there will be some major "ifs". Is SU now at 17 straight or is there now an "L" on the right side of the "W".

If the streak is still alive, directly ahead is Cincinnati at home on Saturday then comes the contest with Pittsburgh on the road Monday. Longest win steak to start the season is 19, set in 1999-2000 and ended by Seton Hall in the Dome by two points. Last night's game was the second longest string while the third was 15 back in l986-87 and snapped at Michigan by three.

And speaking of Seton Hall, last Saturday's down Jersey-way contest wasn't especially a pretty one but it was a good win because it came on what quite frankly was an off-night for both teams. The Orange was outrebounded, had more turnovers and missed 19 of 36 free throw attempts. And the two clubs combined to misfire on 24 of 25 three-point attemps in the first 20 minutes. How about those for numbers?

Senior Rick Jackson continues his climb towards membership in the rather exclusive 1000 (points)-800 (rebounds)-200 (blocked shots) club where the only members are Derrick Coleman, John Wallace, Rony Seikaly, Roosevelt Bouie and Etan Thomas. Jackson entered last night's game with 997 points, 759 reebs and 209 blocks.

We turn back to the final football game of the season to have a bit more fun with numbers.

The 36-34 victory over Kansas State marked the most wins and first winning season since 2001. Of the 70 teams that played in bowls, Syracuse had more wins (8) than 23 of them and as many as 13 others.

November had been a most ungracious month for Orange fortunes, losing three of four games and scoring only four touchdowns in those four affairs. But QB Ryan Nassib and WR Marcus Sales combined on the throw-catch attack with bombs of 52, 36 and 44 yards and the offense finished with 498 yards for the afternoon.

Prior to this outbreak, few Orange faithful probably thought the team could give up 34 points and still win. But oddly, a check back showed Syracuse had survived pretty well in the past. As recently as last year, SU took a 37-34 decision over Northwestern. In 2007, there was a 38-35 win over Louisville, a 40-34 two overtime victory over Wyoming in 2006, another double OT for a 38-31 win against Pitt in 2004, a 49-47 nod vs. North Carolina in 2003 in three OTs, and another triple ot verdict, 50-42 against Virginia Tech in 2002.

Enjoy the rest of the winter with pleasant memories of footballs flying through the dreams and the men of Jim Boeheim just getting things rolling in the Big East where seven teams are ranked in the Top 20 this week, with the Orange leading the pack at No. 4!! Ah, to enjoy being an Orange fan.

Syracuse University Athletics

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