There was guarded optimism before the season started mostly hinging on the abilities of newcomers Brandon Triche, Wesley Johnson and the return of Scoop Jardine from injury.
All of that was pretty much dashed in a season opening lose to LeMoyne. Even for Boeheim's notoriously inconsistent teams, losing to LeMoyne was more embarrassing then other losses to lesser teams (Colgate).
Integrity was then restored by soundly beating a top 20 California team. This win put the team back to respectability but not necessarily prominence. After all the Cal basketball team, much like the football, can be wildly inconsistent in their own right. Still, a trip to the finals of a preseason tournament is respectable, so the Cuse had come back from the low of the early season loss.
Then on Friday they moved the needle way, way the other way by soundly trouncing the hell out of No. 4 North Carolina. I don't recall the last time SU beat a top four team at all let alone badly unless it was against UConn. How a team can lose to LeMoyne and then beat UNC is beyond me.
Does this tournament tell us anything? Sure. Mostly that the Cuse will probably be all over the board this year, beating the UConn, Nova and ND's of the world mixed in with the occasional loss to DePaul or the Johnnies. Business as usual otherwise.
One thing is for certain though. Come tourney time, the Cuse won't have to worry about quality wins out of conference.
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