After two straight blowout wins over St. John's and Cincinnati, all the Orange men needed to do was sit back with a nice box of popcorn and watch themselves appear in the rankings once again. Paul Harris' now famous popcorn eating incident during yesterday's 87-63 win over the Bearcats was not looked at fondly by Coach Boeheim, but can now be forgiven with a # 25 ranking on both the AP and Coaches polls heading into the final two games of the season.
An aggressive and hard nosed defense over the past couple of games has been the key according to Boeheim, and has, also, coincided with an improved transition offense.
"In this league you don't win games by a lot," says Boeheim, "I don't care who you play, rarely do you. You have to play tremendous defense and good offense to do that ...and these two games we've played tremendous defense and really good offense too."
And, while Paul Harris dropped a clean 16 points yesterday, Boeheim was not impressed by his little popcorn break. While on the floor, during a stoppage in play, a fan offered him some popcorn and he took a handful and stuffed it in his mouth. The Coach immediately called him over and sat him down.
"The fan actually asked me if I wanted some," says Harris, "and I was just in the heat of the moment, just had some popcorn."
"Boeheim didn't like it very much," says Jonny Flynn, "but you know, that just keeps everything live and keeps everything fun within a team and within yourself."
All is forgiven, for now, as the Orange prepare to host unranked Rutgers tomorrow for Senior Night, followed by the regular season finale at #13 Marquette this Saturday.
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