By Justin Renck:
Today at noon, the Cards (23-5, 11-4) will take on the Syracuse Orange (22-6, 10-5) in a battle for Big East positioning. I have had people ask what I think about the game and if we are going to pull it off. My answer has consistently been that regardless, I think it will be another close game and of course we can win.
But what if we don’t? Well I have hyped up too many games saying how big they are, and then if we end up losing that game, it really isn’t a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. For me at this point, it looks like Georgetown will probably win the Big East regular season title. So for Big East tournament purposes, I just want the Cards to get that #2 or #3 seed so we can avoid the Hoyas until a possible championship matchup.
Don’t get me wrong, I would LOVE a win today at the Carrier Dome. It would be a great win on the road in a great environment of over 30,000 people, and it would look good on the resume. But in all this talk about NCAA Tournament seeding, let’s not forget what conference we are in. If we just reel off a few wins in that Big East Tournament, that usually bumps us up another seed anyways.
I know if we happen to lose this game, the social media world of Cards fans will flip out and Pitino will need to be fired, Siva will be terrible, or blah blah blah. You know the rest if you are on twitter or Facebook after a Cards loss. Maybe all this just comes back to my personality, how I don’t get too high or low about much. Like I said, I have hyped games up before and then realized “It is just a regular season game. Remember how we finished last year’s regular season???” We lost on senior night to South Florida and stumbled into the Big East tournament, not looking like we would win another game. Then we just flipped the switch and you know the rest.
In saying all of that, I do believe the Cards go up to Syracuse and come back with a big road victory. The games against the ‘Cuse are always close and great matchups. The Orange have lost 2 in a row (to Georgetown and Marquette) and are really looking to get a win. But I think the Cards still have a bad taste in their mouth from how the game ended here at home. That Syracuse loss started our 3 game losing streak. It would be nice for us to put a finishing touch on their 3 game losing streak!
So is today a big game? Yes. The biggest of the season? I still think that one is a few weeks away 🙂
Go Cards!