Game 2-17-85: Men's Basketball vs. Syracuse (and Gameday)

This post is in two parts, the first is about College Gameday and the second is about the game.

What: College GameDay on ESPN
When: Saturday, February 25th, 10 AM
Where: Gampel Pavilion
Result: N/A

I arrived at 7:30 and worried I'd be far back on line. I wound up sitting with a friend a few rows up in the top level, but close to center. This of course, meant I would not be on TV, but I didn't mind. Anyway, this was somewhat interesting. It's kind of hard to summarize though if you didn't see the show. They had giveaways before and after, but I didn't win anything. And of course, we got to watch the show. It was awesome, but I really have nothing to say about it.

What: Men's Basketball vs. Syracuse
When: Saurday, February 25th, 9 PM
Where: Gampel Pavilion
Result: Loss, 71-69

Well, this was disappointing. We trailed by 17 points in the first half, and it looked over. Fortunately we managed to come back. You could literally feel the bleachers shaking when we hit a game-tying shot late. Alas, it was not meant to be. After the score bounced around a few times, the Orange went up 71-69. We inbounded it and called timeout. So we inbounded it again with 5.4 seconds left. But then we couldn't even get a shot off until after the buzzer went off. Truly pathetic. There is no excuse for this loss. Still, we sort of came together towards the end and just couldn't finish. Or Syracuse collapsed at the end and we almost got lucky. Take your pick. Anyway, I have a lot of family who went to SU and/or live in Syracuse, so now I'm going to have to endure them for the next year. But we'll face the Orange again next year, unless they jump to the ACC, and that won't happen yet most likely. So I'll have a couple more chances to watch the Huskies beat the Orange. For now though, I am 1-3 in UConn-Syracuse games, the one win coming in a women's basketball game on Senior Night last year. Let's look at some other teams the Huskies have struggled against when I go:

Boston University: 1-3 (Men's Soccer, Women's Ice Hockey, Softball)
Notre Dame: 1-2-2 (Women's Soccer, Men's Soccer, Women's Basketball, Men's Basketball)
Northeastern: 0-1-1 (Women's Ice Hockey)
Robert Morris: 0-2 (Men's Ice Hockey)

Of all the teams I have seen in multiple sports, the teams we have the worst winning percentage against are Syracuse and BU. We host the Orange in women's lacrosse March 24th, and I will probably be at that game. We also play three softball games against the Orange April 28-29. So there is still time for me to turn around the Orange Curse this year. But obviously, basketball is the biggest sport for 'Cuse games.