15-0

The 2010-2011 version of the Syracuse Orange have entered a very elite group of Syracuse teams that started out 15-0. This year’s team is only the fifth squad to accomplish that feat in the 111 year history of Syracuse basketball.

It will be interesting to see how good this squad becomes. They were definitely an overrated team early in the year (to quote a Hall of Fame coach we all are quite familiar with!), and they managed to stay unbeaten in spite of themselves. The team started to gel, and now has impressive runaway wins over Michigan State, and Big East foes Providence and Notre Dame.

This years squad is definitely a versatile group of players, with a deeper than usual bench filling in for different roles. Now that James Southerland has the confidence in his perimeter shot and has shown some spots of inspired defense, the missing pieces of the squad are starting to get filled in. I would still like to see Scoop Jardine pass the ball more often and be a little more careful with it, despite his nine assists the last game. Better defense from Dion Waiters would be great (though he is improving), and a good 20 minute effort in some game, any game, by Fab Melo would really inspire me. The fact that Kris Joseph is hitting his 3's is very encouraging for the long term progress of this team.

But they team is playing shutdown defense like they did last year, and quickly converting to their transition game for easy baskets. And the team is crashing the board very well, something that has not always been a trademark of Syracuse teams. I think the top squads like Pitt and UConn will give the Orange a real test because they are so familiar with our zone defense and don’t typically get rattled, but I do like how this team is playing.

15-0 is very tough, as evidenced by the exclusive five member club. Last year’s team, which I think was much better than this year’s team, only went 13-0 before losing their first game. And I thought last year’s team had an excellent chance of winning the National Championship before the Arinze Onuaku injury finally came to hurt them in the Butler game.

So, how have the other four 15-0 teams finished?

The 1999-2000 squad was the last team to start 15-0, and they started off the season 19-0, a school record for most wins to start a season. This wasn’t the best team in Syracuse history, but like this year’s squad, was an outstanding defensive team. Etan Thomas, two time Big East Defensive Player of the Year, anchored the middle of the defense. Add in Jason Hart to harass the opposing guards and Ryan Blackwell to guard the post players, and it was a tough team to score on. The team would end up 26-6, winning the Big East regular season championship, and losing in the Sweet Sixteen.

1986-1987 team unexpectedly started 15-0 behind an unknown point guard named Sherman Douglas. The team had lost Pearl Washington, Rafael Addison, and Wendell Alexis from the year before, so expectations were not high. This team finished 31-7, as the Big East regular season champions. Douglas, along with Rony Seikaly, Derek Coleman, Howard Triche and Greg Monroe would make an impressive run through the NCAA tournament, only to lose to in the National Championship game to the Indiana Hoosiers.

The 1925-1926 team was led by the Three Musketeers: All-American junior Vic Hanson, and his classmates Charlie Lee and Gotch Carr would start out 15-0. They would lose their first (and only game) on February 24th at Penn State 37-31. A few weeks later they would play the Nittany Lions again, easily beating them 29-12 to revenge the victory. The squad was awarded the National Championship by the Helms Foundation for their 19-1 season.

The 1917-1918 team was the first one to start out 15-0, and they went to 16-0 behind All-Americans Joe Schwarzer and Bob Marcus. The team was a dominant defensive presence, and would enter the last game of the season undefeated. In a very physical game, Penn would beat the Orangemen 17-16. Penn would score only 2 points from the floor, the rest from the free throw line, as Penn’s Sweeney went 15-16 from the free throw line. Meanwhile, Syracuse’s Schwarzer, normally an excellent free throw shooter was only 5 of 13. The Orangemen were still awarded the National Championship by the Helms Foundation for their outstanding 16-1 record.

All five of these teams were outstanding defensive teams with strong rebounders and excellent guard play. Let’s see how far the 2010-2011 edition can go.

Ho Hum. 10-0 (again)

Syracuse is now 10-0 this season, joining an elite group of Syracuse teams that have started out 10-0 or better. This year’s team is now the 17th team to accomplish the feat. For those of us with short memories, last season’s team also started out 10-0; in fact they would go 13-0 before losing their first game, on their way to a 30-5 season.

This team has a long ways to go to equal the best start in school history. The 1999-2000 squad started out 19-0. Perfection has occurred only once on the Hill, with the 1913-1914 squad going 12-0.

This year’s team is terribly flawed with an inconsistent, if not weak, perimeter game and generally poor free throw shooting. It relies on four freshman in key roles. These factors can spell a loss when the Orange face a hot shooting opponent.

The one thing this team has is an outstanding defense, carrying over from last season. I have seen some fans mention they think this year’s team defense is the best ever for Syracuse. I think that is a very short term memory; last year’s defense was outstanding, and was ‘Shut it Down’. But, having a defense this year that you may be tempted to compare to last year’s defense is quite a lot of praise in itself. Great defense stops the opposition from scoring, and provides high percentage shots on offense, something this year’s team greatly needs.

Until the past two games, this year’s team had a very difficult time separating itself from any of its opponents, regardless of the level of competition. But they have won them all, and that is what matters. The last two games have been spectacular defensive efforts. They pulled away from a highly rated Michigan State team early in the game, and pretty much kept the Spartans down the whole game. And then they had an outstanding defensive effort against a weak Colgate team for the most lopsided win in the Boeheim era. Now the MSU game is slightly tarnished by the fact that the Spartans almost lost to Oakland a few nights later, but make no mistake that MSU is very good.

Syracuse has three more non-conference games before the Big East season begins. They could lose any of those three, but they will be favored to win each. So they have a very good chance to be 13-0. They start Big East action on December 28th versus Providence; at that point, each game will be a dog fight. To go 19-0, the Orange would have to beat Providence, #23 Notre Dame, Seton Hall, St. Johns, Cincinnati, and #8 Pitt at the Pederson Center. 20-0 would require a win against #11 Villanova.

I’m fairly certain 19-0 will not occur. But where will that first loss come?

By the way, for those of you not paying attention, Jim Boeheim is currently 45-5 for his last two seasons, including 9-2 versus top 25 teams, and 7-0 against top 10 teams. Too bad he doesn't ever play anyone.

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.