The Orange basketball team had high hopes for this season, returning all five starters from last year, plus adding some new recruits. The season has a long way to go, but the results from Madison Square Garden this week were disappointing.
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| Roy Danforth |
The Orange played in the 2K Empire Classic this week, and lost to former rival UConn 83-76 and #13 Oregon 80-65. This is the first time in the Jim Boeheim era that the Orange have lost two games in a preseason tournament. The last time the Orange lost two in a tournament was December 1968 at the Far West Basketball Classic in Portland, Oregon. The Orangemen would lose to Washington State 86-67 on December 27th, and they would lose to Arizona State 93-77 on December 28th. Syracuse's top returning player, Ernie Austin, was ineligible to play the first semester, and thus missed both these games. .
1968-1969 was coach Roy Danforth's first season at Syracuse. The team would finish the year 9-16, after starting out 4-14. The team did finish strong winning five of the last seven games. This is the last time the Syracuse men's basketball team had a losing season. John Suder, Gerry McFadden, Bob Kouwe, Bill Case and Bill Smith were the starters that season. Smith would lead the team in scoring with 19 ppg along with 11.6 rebounds a game.
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