Syracuse Basketball: Orange players comment on Georgetown rivalry

The Syracuse basketball players in 2018 know how important this game is and gave some feisty comments ahead of this Georgetown matchup.

Make no mistake about it, despite not being around for the Big East Syracuse basketball vs Georgetown rivalry, these players know what’s going on in this matchup.

No player knows that better than Buddy Boeheim, son of hall of fame coach Jim Boeheim. Buddy grew up with Syracuse vs Georgetown and he knows exactly what this rivalry means to the Boeheim clan and more importantly the fans:

"“This is a game we want to win more than anything. That’s a game we had circled and growing up and watching Georgetown come here every year and all the battles, this is one of the best rivalries in all of college basketball. But there’s no doubt I hate Georgetown and I always will.”"

You can feel the fire in Buddy when he was asked about it, but it seems like those flames have dulled a bit for his hall of fame father Jim Boeheim who really put a damper on this game when he was asked about it on Tuesday night:

"“It’s different when you aren’t in the same league. But you know it’s a big game, a good game. But when you aren’t in the same league and you aren’t playing all the time it’s just a different thing.”"

Although those comments didn’t seem to affect the Canadian Oshae Brissett who had a career high 25 points vs Georgetown last year on the road:

"“Yeah there’s a lot of history here and we know what this game means to our coaches. This game isn’t just for us it’s also for the fans. I know last year I scored 25 points but every game is different. I’m going to study the tape and see what I did successfully last time and see if I can do it again on Saturday.”"

There is certainly a lot of history here and even guys like Elijah Hughes who came over from East Carolina know what this means:

"“I know all those battles that went down in the Big East. We don’t like them, they don’t like us and we just can’t wait to get going.”"

These teams may no longer be together in the Big East but the energy and fire is palpable. To add some fuel to the flames hall of fame player Patrick Ewing will be entering the Carrier Dome for the first time as the lead man for Georgetown.

Although there’s a sense of danger that perhaps this is the last time we’ll see this rivalry on Saturday afternoon. The two schools agreed to a four game agreement to battle each other but Saturday will be the last agreed game to take place and they’ll have to go back to negotiating table to keep this rivalry alive in the future. There is a sense of optimism on both sides that a deal will be consummated for the future.