Buddy Boeheim's 30 Points Were Rather Rare

Buddy Boeheim notched his third career 30 point game the other night in the win over Wake Forest. Boeheim’s shooting effort had an anomaly as he took no free throw attempts on his way to thirty.  

Buddy Boeheim

Only four Orange basketball players have ever scored 30+ points with no free throws attempted.   The last time was 52 years ago in 1970 when Bob McDaniel scored 36 points on 18 made field goals in 23 attempts.  

Carl Vernick accomplished the feat in December 1961 against Detroit when he made 15 field goals for 30 points.  George Kirchgasser was the first Orange basketball player to accomplish the feat back on November 1904 against Jenners Prep.  Kirchgasser also had 30 points on 15 field goal attempts.  Kirchgasser also has the notable feat of being the first Orange player to score 30 in a game at all.

Five Orange players have scored 30+ points in a game with just one made free throw including Buddy himself last year, Preston Shumper, Lawrence Moten (2x), Sherman Douglas, and Dennis DuVal.

At the other extreme, we have Hakim Warrick and Allen Griffin who both had 18 made free throws on their way to 30+ points. Warrick was 18-22 from the line, and a poor 6-15 from the floor on his way to 30 points against Rhode Island in November 2003.  Griffin was also 18-22 from the line, 5-9 from the floor, and 3-5 from three point range in March 2001 on his way to 31 points.

There have been 193 times an Orange player scored 30+ points in a game.  They averaged 12.1 field goals made and 7.6 free throws made in those games.  75 of the 193 efforts were in the three point era; players averaged 3.4 three point field goals made in those 75 games.

Where to Rank Tyus Battle?

I honestly don’t know where to rank Tyus Battle in terms of all time Syracuse players.  Fortunately, there still a majority of this season to be played out.  Right now, I think he’s been a very good player on an offensively challenged team, and that has inflated some of his statistics.

Tyus Battle

Syracuse has played a lot of close games the past three years, and therefore a lot of opportunities for game winning heroics have existed.  And to Battle’s credit, he has taken advantage of most of those opportunities and succeeded.  That’s a plus for him.  

Battle is very good at isolation offense, and that has helped Syracuse when the offense has stagnated.   He is decent in the zone defense at Syracuse; not outstanding, but definitely up to the task of playing the position well and there’s not much to criticize there.   He does have only 9 steals so far this year… which is an anomaly for him, and very low for a SU guard after 10 games.  Looking back over recent history, Brandon Triche was the last guard to average that few steals, and he played about 2/3 the minutes of Battle.

He is not a solid three point shooter, he doesn’t rebound as well as you would like a 2-guard to rebound, and he has low assist totals for a guy who plays 40 minute almost every game.  He does not play well when there is poor point guard play, indicating his is dependent on his teammates to help him out. At the same time, I’ve always thought great players elevated those around them, and I’m not sure I see any of his teammates improve because of his presence on the court.  

If you compare him to a guy like Andy Rautins, the contrasts are obvious.  Battle has an NBA style of game and athleticism, so he may get a shot at the NBA, whereas Rautins was really never going to make that league.  But as collegiate players, Rautins had a better rounded game as a senior than Battle does as a junior.  Rautins made nearly 41% of this three point shots, averaged 4.9 assists per game, 3.4 rebounds per game, and had 2 steals a game.  Rautins couldn’t beat his man off the dribble and get into the lane like Battle can.  But he definitely improved the game of those around him, and he was outstanding at playing the top of the SU Zone.  

Back in 1961-1962 a sophomore guard name Carl Vernick led the Orangmen in scoring, by far, with 16.5 ppg.  He has 5.4 rebounds a game, and had a couple of games with 30+ points.  Vernick, while the best offensive player on that team, was an okay college player.  He looked much better because he had to step up compared to his teammates. That Orangemen team was 2-22 for the season, the worst in SU history.

New SU head coach Fred Lewis came aboard and started recruiting better players.  Vernick’s numbers started to drop, and by his senior year he averaged 2.6 ppg.  Players like Dave Bing, Chuck Richards, Norm Goldsmith and Jim Boeheim were simply better than him.  

I’m not suggesting Tyus Battle is Carl Vernick.  I just wanted to use Vernick as an illustration for a basketball player’s stats being highly influenced by the context of the team he is in and the players around him.  Vernick is an extreme example.

Battle is also not a Billy Owens, Carmelo Anthony or Lawrence Moten. Those guys took teams with young or little talent, and rose them to a very successful level.  SU’s teams with Battle have been borderline NCAA teams.  Owens carried the 1990-91 Orangemen to a 26-6 overall record, a 12-4 Big East season, with 23.2 ppg, 3.5 apg, and 11.6 rpg.  That team was 26-4 going into post season play.  Dave Johnson stepped up beside Owens to help with the offense, but make no mistake about how dominating Owens was.

Battle has shown moments of being able to dominate games; the second half of the recent Georgetown game is such an example.  It was amazing how he dominated the Hoyas in the second half; it was disappointing that as a junior guard, that it required being called out by his head coach at half time in order for him to step up. 

Battle is going to end up a top 15 scorer for Syracuse by the end of this year; if he stayed around another year he would move to #2 in scoring and have a shot at #1.    I don’t think it he is one of the best 15 players ever for the Orange; at least not on what I have seen yet.

Yet, he is going to leave us with many memorable game winning plays, a career full of heroic moments.  And I’m grateful for that.  

2010 Big East All Conference Team Selections

It is that time of year again when the post season hardware is rewarded for the Big East. Earlier today the league announced its All-Conference Teams and its All Rookie Team.

Congratulations to Wes Johnson who earned All Big East First Team honors along with Villanova’s Scottie Reynolds, South Florida’s Dominique Jones, Notre Dame’s Luke Harangody, Georgetown’s Greg Monroe and West Virginia’s Da’Sean Butler. I like the fact that the Big East is now sticking with a 6 man First Team, rather than the bloated 9-10 player team it has used for a few years. It does make it difficult to make the first team in a league with 14 teams; but it also makes it quite a notable achievement to be able to make that team.

I do not have a disagreement with the first team selections with the possible selection of Harangody. Harangody missed five games, and played token minutes in the last game of the season. Harangody has always been an outstanding offensive player, but also was known for suspect defensive play. The Fighting Irish went 4-2 in those last 6 games, with the two losses being one point losses. Harangody miss 28% of the Big East season (and if you count the sixth game, 1/3 of the season). So while he put up impressive offensive numbers, I think the fact that he missed a significant portion of the season, and his team arguably played better without him, would warrant his exclusion from the first team. Would you name an NFL player to the All-Pro team who played in only 11 games, or an MLB Baseball player who played in only 108 games? If the inclusion on Big East Conference teams is supposed to include the player’s entire body of work inside and outside of the conference, then the issue changes. But, based on only his inclusion in the conference, I would be hesitant to vote for him on the first team.

Harangody did become the twelfth player to be named to the First Team 3 times. That list includes four Syracuse players: Derrick Coleman, Sherman Douglas, Lawrence Moten, and Pearl Washington. It also includes legendary college players Chris Mullin and Patrick Ewing, and legendary conference players Danya Abrams, John Pinone, Kerry Kittles, Terry Dehere and Troy Bell.

I have mixed feeling with Andy Rautins being on the second team; I very strong argument can be made that he should be the league’s Player of the Year. It is a big jump to be included in a conversation of the Player of the Year, and then to only be on the League Second Team. However, I think that with only six players on the first team, it is definitely strong recognition for Rautins to be on the second team, and it should be an accomplishment he would be very proud of. Eric Devendorf, the primary man he replaced, never earned more than Honorable Mention, and Jonny Flynn, last year’s star guard, was only Second Team.

I was surprised that Wes Johnson did not receive a unanimous selection to the First Team. His statistics are decent, and while they may not be as dominant as other players on the First Team, the following is true: (1) he is the leading scorer and rebounder on the leagues’ most dominant team, and (2) his selfless play was part of the reason the Orange were a great ‘team’ and that in part reduced his stats.

Players on lesser teams will often have bloated statistics as they are the only guy on the team, and therefore all the offense has to flow through them. Another reason players on lesser teams can have bloated statistics is because of selfish play, which rewards the player but hurts the team. You have to look at these on a case by case basis to really determine what is going on. Derrick Coleman averaged ‘only’ 17.9 points per game his senior year. But he shared the ball with Stephen Thompson, Sherman Douglas and Billy Owens, among others. A team is going to score a limited amount of points in a game, and the more you share the wealth, the more your statistics will be dampened. But sharing the wealth makes the team much harder to defend, and increases your probability of winning. Coleman could have scored 25 points a game if he played on a lesser squad, but he did not; he played on a powerhouse team.

An example of a player who benefited by being on a ‘poor’ team was Syracuse’s Carl Vernick. As a sophomore, Vernick was the leading scorer on Syracuse’s 1961-1962 team, twice scoring 30 or more points in a game, and averaging 16.5 points a game. Vernick was a good player, and the best player on that squad. However, the 1961-1962 team was the worst team in Syracuse basketball history going 2-22, and losing a (then) NCAA record 27 games in a row. As Syracuse got better the next couple of years, Vernick’s scoring dropped dramatically. With the arrival of a talented sophomore class that included Dave Bing and Jim Boeheim, and a junior transfer Chuck Richards, the team would improve to 17-8 and go to the NIT tournament. Vernick would average only 2.7 points a game that year.

Over the course of Big East history, there have been exclusion of Syracuse players from Big East teams that have caused some rumblings on the Hill. Gerry McNamara did not make any of the team selections his freshman year despite his season long heroics. Leo Rautins, who would be an NBA first round pick, only made the Big East Third Team. And there are other examples I could come up with. I still think it is an outrage that Georgetown’s Charles Smith was the league Player of the Year in 1989 over Sherman Douglas.

However, from a historical perspective, Syracuse has been very well represented on the All Conference selections. In fact, they have been better represented than any other team in league history with 72 selections (next on the list is Connecticut with 62). Syracuse has also had 34 first team selections, thirteen more than Georgetown, who is next on the list. Part of that is because Syracuse has had some of the truly great players in Big East history. It is the winningest program in Conference history; winning generates great players and vice versa.

Another part is that Jim Boeheim is a player’s coach, and he lets the star players lead the way. He only goes 7-8 players deep on the bench, and that means the starters are going to carry a larger burden than on the average team. It gives the primary players at Syracuse a greater chance to shine (and also a greater one to fail).

A program like Pittsburgh, which under the Howland/Dixon era has focused on team defense, going ten players deep, and eschewed having star players in the program, is going to have a tough time generating ‘star recognition’, despite the team having an impressive record. Other than last season when Dixon let DeJuan Blair and Sam Young star, there has not been much award recognition for Pitt, which has only 12 first team selections in league history (by far the lowest of the good programs in the league).

Notre Dame, which has a reputation of funneling all the action through big man stars such as Troy Murphy, Pat Garrity, and Luke Haragody, has a disproportionate high number of players on the first team (13 selections), despite having been in the league half as long as Pitt.

It will be interesting who the league Player of the Year will be. I’m guessing the award will go to Scottie Reynolds, though I would have nominated Rautins or Wes Johnson. The sixth man award should be Kris Joseph, hands down. Coach of the Year should be Jim Boeheim, with no disrespect intended towards Jamie Dixon.

Defensive player of the year will likely be Jermaine Dixon of Pitsburgh; I think a good argument could be made for Andy Rautins. Dixon is a better man-to-man player, and that is what his system calls for. Rautins is the master of the zone defense, and I think is the primary reason the Syracuse defense excels. Rautins would not be as effective in Pitts defense; Dixon would not be as effective in Syracuse’s. Given that the zone does not get much respect, Dixon will win it. But I would vote for Rautins.