NEW YORK — It should have been the championship game.
The magnificent game played between Syracuse and Georgetown Friday night inside an electric Madison Square Garden should have been the championship, a fitting coda to the end of the Big East as we know it.
The last one before Syracuse and Louisville and Pitt and Notre Dame are replaced in the new Big East by the Butlers, Xaviers and Creightons.
“This game was like a final game, this should’ve been the championship game,” Syracuse legend Dwayne “Pearl” Washington told SNY.tv courtside after the Orange avenged two losses to the Hoyas this season and prevailed, 58-55 in OT, in the semifinals.
Instead, Syracuse will play one more time in the Big East Tournament before heading off to the ACC.
The Orange will try to win their sixth Big East championship on Saturday night against defending champion Louisville — a 69-57 winner over Notre Dame in the second semifinal.
“We got a huge game [Saturday] night but, you know what, this was one for the ages right here, playing against Georgetown our final time in Madison Square Garden,” former Syracuse big man Derrick Coleman said after high-fiving the Syracuse players and coaches on their way off the floor.
Coleman and The Pearl, their cohorts Billy Owens and John Wallace, and the thousands of Syracuse fans who packed the Garden one last time in the Big East Tournament will get one more night of magic.
The same cannot be said of Georgetown legend Patrick Ewing, who watched his alma mater go down as the No. 1 seed from the opposite side of the arena.
“It’s a great opportunity for us,” said Coleman, who has attended numerous Syracuse games this year. “We’re trying to hit our stride and getting us ready for the NCAA Tournament.
Added Washington: “We got one more game, whether it’s Louisville or Notre Dame, we gonna win it because if we come this far, this far, we gonna win it.”
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In the post-game interview, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim was asked why Syracuse would walk away from all this, from the Big East it has been a member of since the conference’s inception.
“It’s got nothing to do with basketball, you know that,” he said. “You’re way smarter than that. This is just to do with football. You know that. It’s just where everything is going. Just wait a few more years. Everything will be gone.”
Still, Boeheim had to concede that Georgetown — from the days of John Thompson Jr. through today with JT3 — was Syracuse’s greatest rival in Big East history, more so than UConn, more so than St. John’s or anyone else.
“We’ve had other rivals, we’ve had other great games,” Boeheim said. “Connecticut’s been great in this league but there’s something about Syracuse and Georgetown, there really is. There’s something about it.”
Asked about the future of the rivalry in the non-conference, Boeheim didn’t sound optimistic.
“I think it will be a little hard to get that done,” he said. “We’re gonna try, we’ll see.
“They’ve got obligations, we’ve got obligations.”
If this was the last dance it sure lived up to the hype.
But it should have been the final.
Photo: Peter Robert Casey
