Syracuse: Taking Care of Business?

[caption id="attachment_71554" align="alignnone" width="512" caption=""Uhhhh, sorry, Coach.""][/caption] The rumor mill is running rampant with whispers of Syracuse players Scoop Jardine, Dion Waiters, and James Southerland point-shaving. Its gone as far as people quoting anonymous sources who 'know for a fact' that Jardine's uncle wagered $40,000 on a Syracuse game recently. At first, it seemed as though the rumors appeared from legitimately connected individuals, but now all fingers are pointing to a random poster on poker forum as the culprit. Last night, Syracuse pulled out an 8-point victory over UConn and beat the spread, something they had failed to do many times this season. Prior to the game, however, the supposed rumor/poker-monger dropped an apology:

“I apologize to the team as well as it's fans for the level this was taken too: specifically Sccop Jardine, Dion Waiters, and James Southerland. Again, this thread was not intended to be any sort of a sports blog or direct accusation by me against anyone, it was merely a discussion thread on a poker forum and should have been treated as such.’’

As far as where the rumor started, the poster admits to hearing it at a bar. I'm not sure about you, but I find bars to be the best place to find legitimate information. A little truth-serum mixed with liquid-courage, and you will end up hearing stories that you cannot erase from your memory no matter how are you try (aka The Drew Franklin Chronicles). However, some people have gone so far as to waste entirely too much time and try to 'prove' the point-shaving scandal. While far from proof, this argument provides a few interesting statistics to think about. This attempt was incredibly biased and basically a huge waste of time since the only thing that can be proven is that sometimes Syracuse sucks, unless actual behind-the-scenes facts come to light. With that said, it would be an incredible story and devastating blow to the credibility of college basketball, casting another glaring eye towards the gambling world as the basis off all America's problem. Get me my slot machines at my horse races now, please. Point-shaving, for nearly any Kentucky fan, brings back bad memories... very bad memories about a great group of players (RIP Ralph). But, the past is the past, and we must look to the future. A future where hopefully someone else does something more stupid so that we can move our black eye back further in the line. As for me, I'll be spending the rest of the season examining VHS tapes in order to find all the point-shavers in the NCAA a la Nick Nolte in Blue Chips. Hopefully, I will not leave the video room looking like this: