Showing posts with label James Thues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label James Thues. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 03, 2017

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 8th 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.

Friday, December 11, 2009

A Win over Florida

The Orange are now 9-0, having knocked off their third top 15 team of the season. The Orange should go to 12-0 before the start of the Big East season on December 29th, but of course, upsets do happen. It was only a year ago that a 9-0 Syracuse team did lose to Cleveland State, at home.

I had mentioned three years ago that there were fifteen teams in Syracuse history to start a season 10-0. A win over St. Francis will make this year’s squad the 16th to accomplish that feat. Brandon Triche’s cousin Jason Hart was the starting point guard on the last Syracuse squad to win its first ten games, the 1999-2000 squad. That team would eventually go 19-0 before losing its first game.

Brandon Triche’s uncle, Howard, would help the Orangemen start out 15-0 in the 1986-1987 season. Only a jump shot by Keith Smart in the final seconds prevented the Orangemen from winning the National Championship that year. And Andy Rautins' father, Leo, help lead the 1982-1983 Orangemen to an 11-0 start.

Speaking of Andy Rautins, he is simply putting up some amazing statistics early in this season, despite playing only about 24 minutes a game. Rautins now has 49 assists and 19 turnovers after the first nine games of the season. Now keep in mind that Andy Rautins is a shooting guard, a guy who many thought was too slow and too weak to play major Division I basketball. He is on pace for roughly 200 assists for the season, with 80 turnovers, a 2.6 assist to turnover ratio. If Rautins were playing 39-40 minutes a game, he would be averaging about 9 assists a game. Jonny Flynn last season, playing 39-40 minutes a game, had 6.7 assists per game, and a turnover/assist ratio around 2.0.

Rautins is shooting 48% from three point range, 25-52, after having an off-night going 2-7 against Florida. He had no steals, which was unusual for this season for him; Rautins has 30 steals for the season. Jonny Flynn led the Orange last season with 54 steals, for the entire 38 game season. Rautins current pace puts him at around 120 steals for the year. The Syracuse record is 101 by James Thues in 2001-02. And keep in mind, that Rautins is only playing 24 minutes a game right now.

I don’t anticipate those numbers to hold up all season, but it really points out how well Rautins has been doing.

Rick Jackson had an outstanding first half last night. I love the fact that Syracuse is feeding the ball inside to Jackson and Onuaku this year. Good things happen when you offensively get the ball near the hoop. Offensive rebounds happen (Syracuse had 16 last night), opposing defensive players get in foul trouble, and the perimeter shooters get open looks. I like how Kris Joseph is defining his own role as the fast wing player who plays when the Orange need speed over size (Onuaku, sit down). Another stellar night by Wes Johnson (17 pts, 10 rebounds).

The Orange are fun to watch this year. They are playing a good brand of team basketball right now, and I hope that attitude stays with the squad all season long.

By the way, the Florida game is a neutral court game as it was part of the SEC/Big East Challenge, and was played on neither school’s home court. It’s not like the University of Florida is anywhere near Tampa; it’s a massive 132 miles away, a 2 hour 6 minute drive. Syracuse is 1144 miles away (an 18 hour 30 minute drive). Then again, I’m sure Dick Vitale and company would point out that Florida had to drive the whole 132 miles, while Syracuse simply had to drive about 12 minutes to the Hancock Airport, then fly to Tampa, and then drive a few miles to the Tampa arena. Definitely no home court advantage for Florida in this one, unlike Syracuse which has Madison Square Garden in its back yard (it’s very big back yard). All sarcasm aside, I don't mind this game being a neutral court game; it was on a 'neutral' court. Just remember to give Syracuse the same respect about its other two 'neutral' court games at Madison Square Garden.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

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.