big east game #6 ... #5 syracuse 84, notre dame 71 ... beaten at their own game ... notre dame makes a living on the 3 pointer ... tonite the orangemen shot 8-17/43.1% from long range, the irish only 8-29/27.6% ... andy rautins matched notre dame 3 pointer for 3 pointer early (5 of 6) and finished with 21 points ... wes johnson had 2 3's and 22 points ... kris joseph and scoop jardine once again contributed mightily off the bench ... espn's jay billis says arinze onuaku is the worst free throw shooter of the "last decade" ... tonite, he made 4 of 7 ... solid effort against very good competition ... 3 game road trip ends with 3-0 record ... reportedly there were 26 nba scouts in attendance this evening

the new week's college basketball rankings are out ... syracuse a solid #5 with villanova just ahead at #4 ... pittsburgh jumps to #9 (after wins over uconn and louisville), west virginia falls to #11 (after loss to syr), georgetown holds at #12 (after loss to villanova) and uconn drops from top 25 (after 3 straight losses) ... rpi.com's power rankings has syracuse at #2 and usa today's jeff sagarin has the orange at #4 ... espn's updated "bracketology" has syracuse as #1 seed in west ... the orangemen cannot be slotted in the east come march because the regional finals will be played under the dome

next up is marquette (11-6/2-3) at 2:00 pm on saturday from the carrier dome ... marquette's big east losses are 78-76 and 74-72 to #4 villanova and a 63-62 to #11 west virginia