I’m not sure if ‘Cuse fans are even aware of that any longer. So much off the football field stuff. The basketball team gets humiliated. It’s hard to blame them. This has been crazy.

Mike Williams quitting was related to a pending suspension, but not academic as I speculated. It was about going to a casino Saturday night in explicit violation of what their coach had told the team. And they would have gotten away with it, if it weren’t for the meddling trucker.

According to state police, Syracuse football players Torrey Ball, Antwon Bailey, Andrew Tiller and Williams were in a Ford SUV that was rear-ended by a tractor trailer. The accident took place at mile marker 259.1 of the Thruway in the town of Lenox. That’s 6.4 miles from the Verona exit and the Turning Stone Casino.

…

The crash was entirely the fault of the tractor-trailer driver, said state police Capt. James Land. Nathan Primrose, of Clyde, was driving a tractor trailer westbound on the Thruway when he came up behind the vehicle Tiller was driving.

The tractor trailer struck the Ford, forcing it off the road.

Tiller, the driver of the SUV, was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. Everyone else was luckily unhurt.

The rest of the players on the Syracuse team are closing ranks behind the coach at this point.

Syracuse players seemed uncomfortable during their media opportunity on Tuesday trying to express their feelings over the events of the last 48 hours. All the players requested for interviews came in together. Typically, they filter in one by one over a 30-minute window.

“We’re coming together as a team, man,” said receiver Donte Davis. “That’s what we do. We’re going to stick together and stay close. You always have tests here and there. We’re OK. We’re brothers out here. We’re going to stay together.”

“It’s a team issue thing,” said Syracuse offensive lineman Ryan Bartholomew. “We all have to understand we have team rules and we all have to abide by them.”

“Coach has rules and guidelines,” said Syracuse starting quarterback Greg Paulus. “Those are the things this team is going to do. Coach always talks about doing things together, doing things as a family. He sets the standard through his example. It’s a great example for us to follow. I know we’re going get this thing going. Playing hard for him and our teammates, that’s what we’re working towards.”

“We’re focused on Pittsburgh,” said snapper Dalton Phillips. “We have four games left. We have to win three. We can’t let these distractions get to us. We need to press forward.”

Well, if they are focused on the Pitt game let’s see what else there is.

Tiller was the starting guard on the Syracuse O-line. That suspension hurts as much as Mike Williams’ quitting in my view.

DE Jared Kimmel is out for the Orange as well with knee surgery. Couple that with the suspension of Torrey Ball — a reserve DE — and the depth for a ‘Cuse team that was already very thin is inching closer to non-existent. That front four could well be  worn down to nub by the end of the game.

Syracuse’s scholarship roster was down to 66 before the injury, suspensions and quitting players (including a JUCO that never actually played). So it could well be that the number would be around 60 dressed scholarship players for the Pitt game.

The Pitt players and coaches swear they are laser-like focused on the game.

“We can’t overlook this team,” said senior tight end Dorin Dickerson, who leads the Big East with nine touchdown receptions. “They have nothing to lose. They are going to go out and hit people and try to win the game.”

Whether it’s coincidence or not, Pitt has tended to struggle the week prior to its biggest games of the year. In each of the past three seasons Pitt lost the game it played immediately before meeting rival West Virginia, falling to Connecticut in 2006, Rutgers in 2007 and Cincinnati in 2008. Pitt also lost the week before what was arguably last year’s second-biggest game (Notre Dame), losing to Rutgers.

But with Pitt off to its best start since 1982, the players understand a loss to Syracuse would diminish the importance of those same games they were tempted to look ahead to.

“We didn’t look past (any) team we played this year,” fullback Henry Hynoski said. “We focused on what we had to do at that time. If we didn’t do it all year, there’s no reason why we should do it now.”

Okay, then.

Meanwhile,  I guess I’ll peak ahead a bit.

The Pitt-Notre Dame game Nov. 14 is on the short list of games being considered for ESPN’s “College GameDay.” If chosen, the GameDay crew would do the show from Heinz Field.

Nothing like everything coming full circle.

At least Pitt won. I mean, losing to Le Moyne? That hurts worse than the average loss to a D-2 program which does happen. Michigan State and Ohio State both lost to such a couple years back. The problem for ‘Cuse is that Le Moyne is located right in Syracuse. That would be like Pitt losing to Point Park College.

So, Pitt struggled a bit with Sippery Rock as the team experimented with combinations and where to play people. This was not completely unexpected.

Dixon’s biggest concern after the game was the decision-making of the guards. Travon Woodall, who got the start at point guard, committed four turnovers. Starting small forward Brad Wanamaker had three.

“Our penetration and decision-making had been good in practice, but we really took a step back today,” Dixon said. “That was something we could have done better. Fifteen turnovers aren’t a huge number, but it seemed like a lot more. I thought we forced up some shots on our penetration. We played in a crowd too often.”

Dixon also was disappointed that his team didn’t secure the victory earlier. Pitt had an 18-point lead with 10 minutes remaining, but allowed Slippery Rock to cut the margin to seven with 1:31 remaining.

“We got it up to 18 or 20 and had an opportunity to pull away and just didn’t do what we needed to do,” he said. “That was what I addressed mostly after the game. The main thing is we’ll be a much better team our next exhibition game. We wanted to see where we’re at. We need to see where we are at next Sunday. This thing will be all about improvement.”

The game showed a solid debut by Dante Taylor who got in there and looks like when the games go, he will live up to some of the hype.

A good article explaining why faith in this team and the coaches is not misplaced.

His [Travon Woodall’s] confidence will grow the more he plays and he’ll cut down on the mistakes the more Dixon yells about them. But he’s the only one that’s going to thread the needle to Taylor and Miller when they’re running and Pitt needs them running.

Taylor will be fine. He’s very, very talented physically and he has the desire needed to maximize that talent. It will be a roller coaster, but it will be fun.

That’s where, if you’re a Pitt fan, you have to have faith in the process. The schedule is such that they might lose a game or two (or three) before they get Dixon and Brown back.

Yet the improvement in one week was remarkable (especially in Taylor). Wanamaker, Gibbs and Nas Robinson are going to be steady — if not spectacular — game in and game out. The foundation for molding a team that’s maybe 9-1 or 11-2 when they start to reintroduce Dixon and Brown should make things interesting.

Is it possible that there will be more angst over the basketball team and development than the football team this year?