Park's Place

Park's Place Archives: Feb. 16 | Feb. 9 | Feb. 2 | Jan. 26 | Jan. 19 | Jan. 12 | Jan. 5 | Dec. 29 | Dec. 22 | Dec. 15 | Dec. 8 | Dec. 1 | Nov. 24 | Nov. 17 | Nov. 10

He received his name because of the shape of his head at birth. That name echoes, “Scooooooop” in every building the Orange visit. Very few of his plays are routine. His shoes morph to team colors on his command. Antonio Jardine is the most interesting man… on the team.

You can say what you'd like about the Orange's junior point guard, but he's not boring.

Scoop Jardine's 20-point performance Monday in his home town, helped the #17 Orange to a 69-64 win at #14 Villanova. He was 7-for-11 from the field, 2-for-3 from three-point range after shooting under 34 percent in his previous 11 games.

“It was a great experience to come home. I had a lot of people supporting me. And we knew we needed this one,” Jardine said postgame. “They came up there and punched us in our mouth and beat us up there (in January). There were no ifs, ands or buts about it. We were going to come in here and give it our all and try to get a win.”

One of Jardine's best performance's this season overcame a potentially dangerous sequence at the end of the first half.

“It was an awful ending to the half,'' head coach Jim Boeheim said. “Scoop made a horrendous play with a nine-point lead, throwing the ball crosscourt (one-handed) and fouling the guy, getting his third foul and the guy made the layup. Horrible play.”

Still, Boeheim lauded Jardine's ability to manage his foul trouble in the second half and a last-minute play where he beat a Villanova backcourt trap and hit Dion Waiters up court.

“I just try to stay patient. I don't try to panic through situations like that because at the end of the day I had my dribble and I could've tried to dribble out there. I knew we didn't have any timeouts so I just tried to make the right play,” Jardine said.

Monday, Scoop also managed to debut a new set of low-cut game shoes that seemed to look yellow from one angle and orange from another.

He told us those were the latest Kobe Bryant model. Scoop frequently breaks out new kicks and teases that he's got something new to show off soon. Of course he does.

Matt's Mailbox: (From the Final Horn call-in show Saturday) Why has Syracuse played all of its games on cable and not on free broadcast network television? – Catherine, Syracuse

Catherine, thanks for tuning in. First of all, the Orange will make an appearance on CBS this Saturday with the noon tipoff at Georgetown. I believe last season was the only one in Big East history in which SU didn't appear on CBS at least once in the regular season.

Syracuse is exposed by television as well as any program in the country. By now, the penetration of ESPN and ESPN2 are excellent and the Orange have been on those networks nine times already. That doesn't count five more appearances on ESPNU.

ESPN carries all the Big East Championship games and NCAA games have historically been on CBS, with Turner offering some on cable this year as well.

If Syracuse & Villanova or Georgetown tie, what's the next tiebreaker? – Joe, Altoona, PA

Thanks Joe. The first tiebreaker is head-to-head. The Orange split with 'Nova and would have to beat the Hoyas Saturday to do the same. The next level is record against common league opponents, working your way down from the top of the standings. That's where it gets a little complicated.

For instance, say Syracuse and Villanova wind up with the same conference record. Since the regular season meetings were a wash, you'd go to the teams' respective records against presumptive champion Pittsburgh. SU: 0-1, Villanova: either 1-1 or 0-2. If it's 0-2, SU gets the nod. If Nova wins its Mar. 5 meeting with Pitt for the split, it can't yet trump SU, who had only one opportunity against the Panthers. Then, you'd repeat the process with second-place Notre Dame. The Cuse beat the Irish. Villanova visits South Bend Feb. 28.

If more than two teams are tied for any position, you use the “mini-conference” concept and rank the teams with the winning percentage of only the games involving the teams in question.

Is your head spinning yet?

This Weekend's Broadcasts:
Tom./8:45 a.m.       TK99                       Free Parking with Gomez & Dave
Tom./5:00 p.m.       ESPN97.7               Guest spot on Disturbing the Peace
Tom./7:00 p.m.       TK99/ESPN97.7     AmeriCU Jim Boeheim Show
Sat./10:30 a.m.       TK99/ESPN97.7     #17 MBB at Georgetown

I'd be happy to field your questions on anything regarding the Orange. Shoot me an email to the Radio Mailbox.

Syracuse University Athletics

Related News

Related Videos