Orange Win The Battle On The Midway 62-49 Over SDSU
November 11, 2012; San Diego, CA, USA; Syracuse Orange mascot poses for a photo prior to the Battle on the Midway game against the San Diego State Aztecs onboard the USS Midway. Mandatory Credit: Photo By Christopher Hanewinckel-US PRESSWIRE
"“I’m proud to be in this game and be out here. I’m glad the weather held up for us. I’m proud of my team because obviously it’s tough to make shots. I’m not sure how C.J. made that first three he took. The wind must have waited there for a second. But we had to get the ball to the basket, and C.J. and Mike and Brandon did a tremendous job of that. San Diego State’s a tremendous defensive team, and they’re about as physical as anybody. We just had to get to the basket. Our defense was good, but our foul line defense was really good.” -Jim Boeheim following his team’s win over San Diego State"
Syracuse opened the 2012-2013 season in style yesterday, defeating San Diego State on the USS Midway 62-49 in a game that was never really in doubt for Orange fans. Syracuse maintained a double digit lead throughout the evening, and once they got up San Diego State had a tough time trying to climb back in to the game. The Aztecs shot just 27% in a terrible shooting day where they took a lot of jump shots. The Syracuse interior defense forced the smaller San Diego State team in to tough jump shots which were difficult to make with the outdoor conditions.
CJ Fair’s double-double led the way for the Orange with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Michael Carter-Williams added another 17, while Brandon Triche scored 15. It was pretty clear once the game got in to the flow of things the offensive strategy was clearly to attack the basket and limit jump shots, which I believe would have been the strategy against this team regardless in venue because of the size mismatch.
November 11, 2012; San Diego, CA, USA; Syracuse Orange forward C.J. Fair (5) shoots over San Diego State Aztecs forward Deshawn Stephens (23) during the second half in the Battle on the Midway game onboard the USS Midway. Mandatory Credit: Photo By Christopher Hanewinckel-US PRESSWIRE
This was a game of really little surprise as Syracuse showed its athleticism over a solid Mountain West team. The only thing I would debate would be if the game was worth all the trouble and effort it took to finally play. I absolutely like the idea of playing games with a military theme on Veteran’s day, but personally I would rather see a game like the UConn-Michigan State game in the airplane hanger. The conditions in that game are a guarantee, and there is nothing about that game that was left to chance whatsoever. There will definitely be debate amongst both teams’ fan bases about this game, from the SDSU fan base whose team shot 27% from the field, to Syracuse’s fan base where some lost a lot of money due to the rescheduling of the game. But at the end of the day the players seemed to enjoy the game, and more importantly than that the big guy in charge liked it as well:
"“I’d play in this event again. I think it’s something that everybody should experience. I think every program should try to do this. It is difficult. I mean, but a lot of places are difficult for playing. I think you have to adjust for it.I’m glad we came. I’d play in this event again. The wind is one thing, rain is something visit our archives at you can’t play in, and we wanted to play in this event. We wanted to play on the ship. We didn’t want to play indoors. We could have come out here and gone indoors on Friday. We wanted to play here, wanted to play in this event and give the players this experience. I’m glad we did. I think it’s something people should consider doing. I’m happy we did it. I just think it’s an experience. It’s a great experience.If you play 31 games, you wouldn’t want to play seven or eight of these games. But to play one game, it’s not going to hurt you. It’s not going to affect anything. I think the toughness of this game will be good for us in the long run.When we get in a tough game or get in a game where we’re not shooting well from the outside, which can happen, and we’ll have those games where you can’t get good shots. You have to get to the basket, and this game will besomething we can fall back on. We have some of these games in our league like this.” -Jim Boeheim in his post-game press conference."