Orange Hoops Hall of Fame 2017

In 2007, OrangeHoops inducted its charter class into the OrangeHoops Hall of Fame: Dave Bing, Derrick Coleman, Sherman Douglas, Vic Hanson, and Pearl Washington. The next ten years saw the addition of Billy Owens (2008), Billy Gabor (2009), Lawrence Moten (2010), Louis Orr (2011), Roosevelt Bouie (2011)  John Wallace (2012),  Rony Seikaly (2013), Vinnie Cohen (2014), Etan Thomas (2015) and Joe Schwarzer (2016).  So the list now stands at 15. Another year has passed, and now it is time for the 2017 inductee.

I established my rules for the OrangeHoops Hall of Fame back in 2007 and you can catch up on them here. 2017 does have seven new eligible candidates (using the fifteen year rule): DeShaun Williams, Preston Shumpert, James Thues, Billy Celuck, Ethan Cole, Mark Konecny and Greg Davis.

DeShaun Williams was a controversial guard for the Orangemen.  He was definitely talented, with court quickness and the ability to get to the hoop.  He was a starter his sophomore and junior seasons, and was named to the Big East Third team his junior year.  He was also noted for being a selfish player, and had personal problems with his teammates, on and off the court.  He was academically ineligible after his junior season, and would transfer to Iona. Williams would score 1,136 points at Syracuse.

Preston Shumpert was one of the best three point shooters in Syracuse history, with terrific range.  He was a streaky shooter and carried the Orangemen to many victories, seven times in his career scoring 30+ points in a game.  He would be named to the Big East First Team both his junior and senior seasons, averaging 20.7 points per game his senior year.  He was not a strong defensive player, and there were questions about his temperament, particularly related to issues with DeShaun Williams.  Shumpert is currently the 8^th all time leading scorer at SU.

James Thues was a short stocky point guard with excellent ball handling and passing skills.  He was also quite adept at stealing the ball from the opponents. A true point guard, Thues was not much of a shooter and rarely scored. He would share time starting at the point his sophomore season with DeShaun Williams.  Thues would leave Syracuse after his sophomore year, transferring to Detroit-Mercy.

Billy Celuck was a 7’ center who saw limited playing time his first two seasons at Syracuse, totaling 132 minutes.  He would split time at center his junior year with Jeremy McNeil, averaging 4.3 points per game.  His senior year he would see diminished playing time as McNeil improved and freshman Craig Forth arrived.

Ethan Cole transferred to Syracuse from the University of New Hampshire, and played two seasons.  Cole would have limited playing time his junior season at Syracuse. He was expected to play more in senior year, and started a couple of games. However, he lost his starting position to Hakim Warrick, and then an injury ended his season, and career, after 8 games that year.

Greg Davis was a forward for one season.  He saw limited playing time his freshman year with only 27 minutes, and redshirted his sophomore season. He did not like his prospects for playing time after his sophomore year, and transferred to North Carolina A&T.

Mark Konecny was a reserve forward for one season.  He would play only two games for the Orangemen before leaving for personal reasons.

  

Of this year’s candidates, Preston Shumpert would make my top 10 list of candidates.

I think this year’s viable top 10 candidates come down to the following, listed chronologically: Lew Castle, Lew Andreas, Jon Cincebox, Jimmy Lee, Rudy Hackett, Leo Rautins, Rafael Addison, Stephen Thompson, Jason Hart and Preston Shumpert.

Castle was a two time All-American at Syracuse, and was captain and leading scorer of Syracuse’s only undefeated team, the 1913-1914 squad that went 12-0.

Andreas coached Syracuse basketball for 27 seasons, including the 19-1 1925-1926 squad that was awarded the Helms Foundation National Championship. He had a career record of 358-134, and he was the Syracuse Athletic Director for 28 years (1937-1964).

Cincebox was on the best rebounders in Syracuse history (in an era when rebounding numbers were admittedly high).  He helped Syracuse to the NCAA Elite Eight in 1956-1957, as the dominant big man for the Orangemen.

Lee was a clutch shooter with terrific perimeter range, and outstanding free throw shooting ability. He was able to use his shooting ability to set himself up as a solid passer. Lee's 18 foot jumper with five seconds remaining led the Orangemen to beat heavily favored North Carolina, as the Orangemen eventually moved on to their first NCAA Final Four. Lee would end up making the All-Tournament team for his outstanding performances.

Hackett was a powerful forward who could run the court well. He was a great rebounder and terrific scorer near the hoop.  He led the Orangemen in scoring his senior year and helped lead Syracuse to its first Final Four in 1975.

Rautins was a terrific ball-handling forward with a nice shooting touch, solid rebounding and scoring skills. He is most well-known for his game winning tip in basket to win the Big East Championship in triple overtime against Villanova in 1981.  Rautins also recorded two triple-doubles in Big East action.

Addison was a gangly small forward who earned a reputation for being one of the most underrated players in the country.  He possessed an excellent mid range jump shot, was decent passing the ball, and was a solid free throw shooter. He led the team in scoring his sophomore and junior seasons.  He moved to shooting guard his senior year, and his 6’7” height helped with the mismatches. Unfortunately a leg injury impacted his effectiveness the second half of the season.

Thompson was an explosive swingman, with incredible quickness and vertical leap, and excellent defensive skills. He was extremely adept at playing above the basket though he was only about 6'2". He teamed with Sherman Douglas to perfect the alley-oop basket.  Thompson was an extremely proficient scorer, despite the fact he was a terrible perimeter shooter. 

Hart was a speedy defensive point guard, and a four year starter.  He was a decent ball handler, and finished his career as the number two assist man all time at Syracuse. He was much better on the defensive end, and would finish as SU's all-time leader in steals.  Hart would have a 9 year career in the NBA, mostly as a backup guard.

All are worthy players, and tough selections to make.  I designed my selection rules to make it tough; the Hall of Fame should be the 'best of the best', and I would rather have a line of worthy players outside the Hall of Fame, than cheapen it by having lessor players included.

Ten very good candidates, and a couple of those players are among my all-time personal favorites.  My 2017 inductee is Lew Andreas.

Andreas was SU’s winningnest basketball coach before Jim Boeheim arrived.  He coached 26 seasons at Syracuse, and had several outstanding seasons. His 1926 squad, led by Hall of Famer Vic Hanson, went 19-1 and was recognized by the Helms Foundation as the National Champions. In the 1930s, his Reindeer Five squad ran opposing teams off the

court, and he helped transition the team (and game) to a faster pace game. Andreas led SU to its first post season action in 1946 going to the NIT, and again in 1950. 

Andreas was a proponent of playing multiple players, and shuffling his starting lineups game to game.  Against Fordham in 1939, Andreas played 21 different players in the game.

He was the Syracuse Director of Physical Education and Athletics from 1937 to 1964.  During that time, he saw the basketball program develop into an NCAA power, the football program reach elite status with a national championship in 1959, and the lacrosse program became one of the pre-eminent programs in America.

18-0!!

Syracuse is now 18-0, the second best start in school history. The record is 19-0, set by the 1999-2000 squad.

The 1999-2000 squad finished the year 26-6, going 13-3 in the Big East and winning the Big East regular season title. Like this year’s squad, that squad was a fantastic defensive team led by the Big East Defensive player of the year Etan Thomas and point guard Jason Hart. Offensively, it was a well balanced team with five players averaging 10-13 points a game. The team had a couple of snipers who came off the bench in Preston Shumpert and DeShaun Williams that made up for a relatively weak perimeter shooting starting five.

This year’s squad is running deeper than most Syracuse teams, going nine players deep routinely. Part of that is somewhat misleading in that Fab Melo really has not been playing much, putting the team into a eight man rotation shortly after tip off. However, if his effort in the Cincinnati game last night is a sign of things to come in the near future, that would be a blessing for the Orange.

I hope Syracuse fans are really appreciating the coaching job that Jim Boeheim has done the past few years and the tremendous effort the Orange have had on the court. They have been a top 10 team since November 24th, 2009. The Orange are 11-2 versus top 25 teams the past two seasons; that is outstanding and should quiet those who say Syracuse never plays anyone.

Over the past two seasons the Orange are 48-5. That is an outstanding run by any school’s in today’s NCAA basketball. Going back to February 24th, 2009 (almost two years ago), Syracuse is 58-7, and 14-5 versus top 25 teams.

They have beaten a #3 ranked UConn in the Big East Tournament in the epic 6 overtime game. They beat California and North Carolina in November 2009 to get national recognition despite having no top 50 recruits on the squad. They beat Georgetown twice last season in epic battles that just added to the Orange/Hoya legacy. The team reached #1 in the rankings in March 2010, and they earned a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

These are good times to be a Syracuse fan. For those who continuously bash Jim Boeheim, just shut up. It is the right of a fan to second guess a coach on some decisions he makes. I don't agree with every decision Boeheim makes. Coaches are not perfect, just like none of us are, but they highly successful ones like Boeheim don’t make too many of them. He knows his players better than we do, he knows what they are capable of in practice, and how well the team plays together in different configurations. It is the mindless bashing of Boeheim that is just borderline idiotic. And frankly, I should just remove the word borderline.

For his career, Boeheim is 119-125 versus teams ranked in the top 25 (48.8% winning). In games where he has played a team ranked higher than the Orangemen, he is 66-78. He wins 46% of his games against teams that the informed voters think are a better team. That is downright impressive, and yet people think he has a career of beating up on weaker teams. Eventually this season he will lose to a lower ranked team; it’s inevitable because being ranked #4, there just isn’t going to any opportunities to lose to anyone ranked higher than them. I’m sure some yahoo will criticize Coach Boeheim at that time. Not me.

I’m going to soak up the joyous ride this team is on right now, a historic run for the Orange.

Who'll Start At the Point?

Lot’s of discussion among the Syracuse faithful this year on who will play point guard for Syracuse. Candidates range from Josh Wright to Eric Devendorf to Paul Harris. Practices haven’t started, so who knows how well anyone is going to play or fit in with their teammates. Maybe Wright has improved over the summer. Or Devendorf has worked on his ball handling. Or Harris is so multi-talented he can handle the point. I don’t really know.

I do know the following however.

While I think Jim Boeheim prefers to have a strong point guard on the court, he has more than a couple of precedents over his career where he's tried playing with no true point guard, in favor of putting more overall talent on the court. He’s always been a big fan of putting the best five players on the court, whenever possible. That doesn't mean it always works out, but it has been tried.

In 1989-90, he tried starting the season with Stephen Thompson at the point so he could get Dave Johnson into the starting lineup. That did not work out well; Thompson was far more suited to playing above the rim, then 20 feet away, and by mid season, Johnson had to be benched so that Michael Edwards (a pure freshman with significantly less overeall talent than DJ) could start.

In 2001-02, DeShaun Williams was the starting point guard at the season’s beginning, so that Boeheim could insert Hakim Warrick at the power forward, and also play Preston Shumpert, Kueth Duany and Craig Forth. By mid season, he inserted James Thues at the point, shifting Williams over to the shooting guard, Duany to the small forward, and Shumpert to power forward (hard to believe!). Warrick, who would eventually end up being an all-time Syracuse great, ended out of the starting lineup; and the 2001-02 team ended up being so fractured, that I don't know if any move would've salvaged the team.

Last season (2005-2006), he continued to start Gerry McNamara at the point and had Eric Devendorf as the two guard, benching Josh Wright, clearly because he wanted the overall skills of Devendorf over Wright. Boeheim never made a switch there, either because he was happy enough with GMac at the point or unhappy with Wright's development and ability to take over at the point. As much as the team struggled at times late in the season, I’ve got to believe it was more of the latter than the former.

In 1978-79, he started Hal Cohen and Marty Headd at guards in order to get more perimeter shooting, while having Eddie Moss, a better defender and ball handler come off the bench. Late in the season, he swapped Moss for Cohen. Not a big change there as Cohen/Moss/Headd where splitting time fairly evenly regardless of who started

So looking at past seasons, it’s clear that Coach Boeheim could well start both Harris and Devendorf (I imagine it really doesn't matter which is the point). If it gels, he’ll stay with it... if not, he'll put one on the bench and start Wright. If he benched a young Hakim Warrick and a young Dave Johnson (both eventually drafted in the first round of the NBA), it's not unfathomable that Devendorf or Harris could be benched. Or that Harris would move to small forward and Terrence Roberts or Demetris Nichols would be benched.

Of course, the bigger point is which five finish the game, not who starts it. Starting is for pride, but finishing is for victory.