Tonight should be oodles of fun. Syracuse is clearly a better team than we are, and I have kinda-sorta been expecting a loss to the 'Cuse/Florida winner all along. That isn't to say we won't win, in fact, given last night's performance, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see us win.
But it is nice for us to play an intense game this early on in the season, and I am legitimately excited for it. Much more excited than I usually am about college basketball in November.
No keys tonight or nothing, I really don't know too much about the Orange. However, I will say one thing: we have to make outside shots. It is near-impossible to beat a zone without knocking down threes, and we haven't really shown an ability to make outside shots thus far this season. SC can, sure, but I can't say with a straight face that anyone else definitively can. Tyrel Reed probably can, from everything I've read and some flashes I've seen, but he has yet to come out and prove it. Tonight would be a mighty fine time to break out, Tyrel. Or, really, anyone not named Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins.
With all of that said, I'll take the optimistic route. I rarely, if ever, actually predict us to lose a game on these Open Game Thread thing-a-ma-bobs, and I certainly am not going to predict a loss tonight. We start off a little shaky, but Cole keeps us in the game throughout the first half and we knock down enough shots in the second half, led by a breakout performance from my boy, Tyrel Reed, (well, Travis Releford is more of my boy, but he certainly isn't Bill Self's boy, as evidenced by his playing time) who will knock down 4 treys. Yeah, boy.
Kansas wins 72-67.
And check back in after the game, as we will breakdown the game tonight, hopefully. The rest of the week will mostly be devoted to the football team, however, as we apparently have some rivalry game on Saturday. Still, there will be some basketball content, particularly concerning Self's updated rotation and all of that fun stuff.
Oh, and I should be here ALL night tonight. At least hopefully.
Rock it. Chalk it. Talk it.