Who's the Best Ever? You decide.

As a casual summer project, I thought I’d run a poll on who is the greatest basketball player in Syracuse history. The focus should be on career value, not a single season, though individual season efforts should be considered.

I’ve set up a poll on Rankopedia. This poll is open to anyone. I’ve pretty much pre-populated the list with any player worth considering, plus a few additional players. If I missed someone, you can add him to the list.

A few of things to note about Rankopedia’s scoring methods:

• Voting for only one player will not count as much as if you voted for a complete list of top 10. So for example, if you thought you could give Gerry McNamara an advantage by voting him #1 and giving nobody else a vote, you are wrong. You are better off voting Gerry #1 and then also completing the voting 2 – 10. I don’t know the algorithm Rankopedia uses to weight it, but in their bylaws they make that clear.
• You can vote as many times as you want, though only one time each day for each poll.
• I can’t control who votes, so obnoxious rival fans could vote, or message board trolls, or English soccer fans. But over time, those with interest in the Orangemen will tend to comprise a larger percent of the poll.

So feel free to join in on the voting. At some future date, I’ll let you know who I think my top 10 are, and who the ultimate #1 is. But I don’t want to spoil that for now

Here's the current results:

Hopkins - Next Orange Head Coach

According to a report by Andy Katz at ESPN, Mike Hopkins has officially been named Jim Boeheim's successor at Syracuse University.

I applaud the university for making this move; it may be the first move athletic director Darryl Gross has made that I'm in favor of. I'm slightly biased because Hopkins is one of my favorite former players, but I'm also a huge fan of continuity. I think continuity helps with recruiting and with keeping a strong fan base solid. The fact that Hopkins has been an assistant at Syracuse for 12 years says a lot about his commitment to the program. I'm not at all concerned that Hopkins hasn't been a head coach before. Boeheim was new to the role (though he was the coach of the freshman squad) and Jamie Dixon stepped in with no problem at Pitt.

Kristof Ongenaet

The addition of Kristof Ongenaet to the Orangemen for the 2007-2008 season is a big plus from my personal perspective for three reasons.

First, it addresses what I thought was the biggest concern for next season, which was the lack of experience and depth at the power forward and center positions. I’m not an expert on Ongenaet; I’ve never seen him play, but Orange Fan has done his normal thorough research and analysis on Syracuse recruits, and I like what I’m reading. A big guy who plays tough defense and loves to rebound; plus he has some college basketball experience, even if it is at the Junior College level.

The second reason is Ongenaet allows me to delve into many other historical perspectives and comments. I mean, not only is he a junior college transfer, but he’s also an international player (from Belgium).

As far as I know, there have been only three junior college transfers to Syracuse during the Jim Boeheim era; two were significant contributors and one was an interesting side note. Michael Lloyd played for the Orangemen in the 1994-95 season with solid success at the point guard position, with 12.5 points and 5.2 assists per game. An irregularity in his transcript forced him to leave school after that season.

Jason Cipolla is probably the most notable junior college transfer for the Orangemen. He was a vital part of the 1995-96 team that made a run at the national championship. Cipolla brought some hard nose play and more importantly a nice three point shot. He would score 7.7 ppg that year and 13.2 ppg his senior season.

The third transfer I’m aware of is walk-on Tyrone Albright. Albright played basketball at Onondaga Community College for two years before coming to Syracuse for an opportunity to play. He would be a 26 year old senior on the 1995-96 team, providing some maturity on the team. His playing time was that typical of most walk-ons, playing in the last minutes of lopsided games.

The other aspect of Ongenaet is that he is from Belgium. As far as I can tell, he’s the first Orangemen to be born in Belgium, the sixth from Europe. There are been 14 Orangemen born overseas, and they have met with varying success at Syracuse. Leo Rautins, Rony Seikaly, Joe Schwarzer and John Barsha were college All-Americans. Kueth Duany and Marius Janulis was vital contributors to Final Four teams, and Elvir Ovcina was a decent role playing center/forward the later part of his collegiate career. Clinton Goodwin was a decent player at the turn of the century, and Marc Guley was team captain his senior year and later the head coach for the Orangemen for 12 seasons, taking the Orangement to their first NCAA tournament. Hank Piro was a football player who played a little basketball (and would go to the NFL), and Joel Katz was a walk-on.

There really have been three foreign players who did not succeed at Syracuse: David Patrick was a speedy guard who transferred after his freshman year; John Karpis and George Papadokas were Canadian big men who didn’t work out and transferred elsewhere. So the international experience, while somewhat limited, has been pretty successful for the Orangemen over time.

The third reason I like the arrival of Kristof Ongenaet is his last name. He is going to create nightmares for college hoop announcers. According to Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician, the correct pronunciation of this name is OH-Jah-Naut. And I don’t know if it’s just me or not, but everytime I see his last name, my mind transposes the letters and I see ‘Orange Net’. That’s got to be a good sign.

Kristof Ongenaet is going to join the list of Syracuse players with unusual names such as Ernest Uthgenannt, Clarence Houseknecht, Zangwill Golobe, and the legendary Wilmeth Sidat-Singh.

The Chamberlain Effect

Occasionally there is an athlete who is so superior to his competition that he puts up statistics that are overwhelming in their nature. They are in fact, so overwhelming, that fans cannot truly appreciate them and in effect start to devaluate the statistics. This is what I call the Chamberlain Effect, after the legendary Big Dipper Wilt Chamberlain.

Chamberlain’s 1961-62 season is legendary: 50.6 points per game, 25.7 rebounds per game, a total of 4029 points, including a 100 point effort against the New York Knicks. These numbers are so large, that I believe fans start to rationalize he couldn’t have been that good, and therefore they disregard the numbers entirely, or at least rationalize them away until they are trivial in their minds.

It’s one of the arguments that fans make when comparing Bill Russell to Chamberlain. The argument is that Russell was a better player because his teams won more championships; Russell ‘sacrificed’ his statistics so that his team would be better, and most would contend Russell was a better rebounder.

First of all, Russell played with a bevy of Hall of Fame teammates: Tommy Heinsom, Satch Sanders, KC Jones, John Havlicek, Sam Jones, Bob Cousy, Frank Ramsey, Clyde Lovelette and Bill Sharman. Chamberlain, in the same comparable time period, would play with a handful: Tom Gola, Paul Arizin, Nate Thurmond (1 year), Hal Greer, and Billy Cunningham. He’d later join up with Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, when all three were venerable veterans. So, it’s rather clear that Russell had a lot of talent around him on the court, and that played some part in all those championships. Russell absolutely was a key factor, if not the key factor for the Celtic dynasty, but it wasn’t a one man show. Unless one wants to argue that all those Celtics made the Hall of Fame riding on the coattails of Russell’s success (I would suggest that is hogwash).

Second, many fans will say that Russell didn’t score because he did not have to, and he could have scored comparable to Chamberlain if he wanted. Well, there’s no evidence that could ever have been true. You must assume, that if Russell were the intelligent player he is credited with being (and I do assume this to be true), that he would defer to his teammates when he was in a low percentage situation, and he would take the shot when he was in a high percentage situation. Given that, consider that Russell’s best season from the floor, he shot .467 (1959-1960). If he were to take significantly more shots, you would have to expect that number to go down, not up due to the need to take more low percentage shots, and general fatigue.

Chamberlain, on the other hand, taking all the shots, never shot below .461 from the floor in his career; and that was his rookie season. His next lowest season was .499, and he shot over 50% from the floor every other season of his career. The fact was that he could score, he could score big, and he could score with more ease than any other player on the court.

Third is the knock that Russell was a better rebounder. I guess he must have looked like a better rebounder, because somehow Chamberlain pulled down more rebounds each year, and for his career than Russell. Russell may have had better form, but the Stilt still got more. The NBA record for rebounds in a game is 55 by Wilt Chamberlain; and he did it against Bill Russell and his Celtics.

Russell was definitely a better defensive player, one of the best in league history, if not the best and an unparalled shot blocker. However, Chamberlain was a very good defender himself, and an effective shot blocker. Russell’s defensive edge over Chamberlain isn’t close to the offensive edge that Chamberlain had.

That’s not knocking Russell. Russell was a great NBA player, one of the greatest ever. He won all the championships, he was admired by the fans and the sportswriters, and an outstanding center. He was also on a team that allowed him to focus on what he did best (defense), and didn’t require him to be a strong offensive presence…which was good because it seems apparent he would never have been a dominant offensive threat.

Ask yourself this question about Chamberlain. If you put him on the Celtics, surrounded by all those Hall of Famers, coached by Red Auerbach, and you put Bill Russell on the Warriors with Paul Arizin and Tom Gola. Which team would have won the NBA titles? Chamberlain probably wouldn’t have had his 50 points per game; there wouldn’t have been the need, and Auerbach would’ve had him focused more on defense. He probably would have had a mere 35 – 38 points a game that magical 1961-62 season; he probably would’ve increased his shooting percentage from a lowly .504 to .550/.580 range.

The Chamberlain Effect occurs across sports. I believe Babe Ruth is a victim of this effect to some extent, and was Ted Williams. Perhaps 20 years from now fans will look retrospectively and apply the Chamberlain Effect to Barry Bonds (whose stretch from 2001 to 2004 was unbelievable).

Jim Brown suffers from the Chamberlain Effect from many fans (though I think he and Ted Williams both receive extreme respect from today’s athletes; it seems the athletes understand how significant these accomplishments were, more than some fans). Brown led the league in rushing 8 times in his 9 seasons, and led in scoring touchdowns 5 times. He averaged 5.2 yards per carry for his career. Again, the numbers seem too impressive, and so fans say “well, but…” or “compared to today…”.

There are times when statistics are misleading, and they must be evaluated in their correct context. All the greatest hitters in baseball didn't live in the 1930's and 1990's, and all the greatest pitchers didn't live in the 1910's and 1960's. Players in the 1960's weren't better rebounders across the board than players in the 2000's. Guys scoring 25 points for the Denver Nuggets in the 1980's weren't as impressive as guys scoring 20 points for the Detroit Pistons in the 1990's. But, sometimes (often), statistics point out the greatness they were intended to measure.

WKRP

My apologies for the lack of posts the past two weeks; work has been calling.

As an apology gift from me to you, here's a couple of classic TV comedy clips, two of my all time favorites. For you older readers (those of my age), you'll immediately remember these, I'm sure. For you younger readers, sit back and enjoy.

WKRP Thanksgiving Promotion

Reverend Jim's Driving Test

Enjoy.

RY

Roberts And The Free Throw Record

I must admit that I dropped the ball on the Terrence Roberts Free Throw shooting watch. All year long I kept you up to date on his quest for greatness, to be the worst free throw shooter at Syracuse University of all time. And he pretty much sealed the deal back in January. However, I do owe the man a final wrap up of this accomplishment.

Out of 59 players at Syracuse University who have attempted 200 or more free throws in their career, Roberts by far set the mark. His finished his career at 48.0%, 176 for 367, surpassing the legendary Stevie Thompson (52.7%) for the mark. Roberts wasn’t just satisfied with setting the career mark; he also made sure to nab the worst season performances, grabbing both the #1 and #2 positions. His junior season he was 42.1% from the line (56-133). His senior season he improved to 48.4% (62-128).

The Bottom 10 free throw shooters at Syracuse (minimum 200 attempts) are:

Terrence Roberts 48.0%
Stevie Thompson 52.7%
Darryl Watkins 54.2%
Rony Seikaly 57.6%
Jimmy Williams 58.1%
Etan Thomas 59.8%
Bill Smith 60.8%
Dale Shackleford 61.1%
Conrad McRae 64.8%
Otis Hill 65.3%

As I mentioned earlier in the year, the worst free throw shooters I ever saw on the Hill were Herman Harried and Derek Brower. And if you lowered the standard of free throw shooter to 100 attempts the Bottom 4 would be:

Herman Harried 37.8% (45-119)
Derek Brower 42.1% (67-159)
Louis McCroskey 47.2% (51-108)
Terence Roberts 48.0% (176-367)

Brower, if you recall, was responsible for an NCAA rule change regarding intentional fouling.

Some interesting notes about the bottom four. Harried, Brower and McCroskey combined for 386 attempts; Roberts had 367 attempts by himself.

McCroskey was a classmate of Robert and Darryl Watkins. We’re talking about three of the worst free throw shooters in Syracuse University history, all in the same recruiting class! Thankfully Demetris Nichols came along with his 75.2% shooting.

How bad were Harried and Brower? Brower was 67 for 159 in his career. If he had gone 41 for 41 to finish his career, that would have raised him to 108 for 200, or 54% for his career. He still would’ve qualified for #3 on the all time list with a minimum of 200 attempts!

Harried was 45 for 119 for his career. If he had finished going 81 for 81, he would’ve been 126 for 200 for his career, or 63.0%, coming in at #9 on the list. Egads.

Of special note is Hakim Warrick. He started his freshman season on pace to be the worst free throw shooter ever at Syracuse going 23 for 60 (38.3%). Yet, in his sophomore season he improved dramatically to 66.7% (124 for 186), and remained about that level for the remainder of his career. So whomever taught Hak how to shoot free throws that summer… sign him up!

Now Roberts was a frustrating player to watch for four seasons. The guy appeared to have tons of potential, but never seemed to put it all together. Yet, he was a solid player. He’d get his rebounds, do some scoring, play solid defense. He’d make stupid fouls, take silly 3 point shots (5-25 for his career), and shy away from physical play inside. Yet, he showed tremendous heart and hustle. He basically played on one leg his senior season, battled through a lot of pain, and managed to pull down 20 rebounds in the Big East tournament versus Notre Dame.

Roberts would play 127 games at Syracuse, score 963 points (7.6 per game), and pull down 716 rebounds (5.6 per game).

So Terrence, thanks for the memories! It was an adventure to watch you play.

2006-07 Milestones

The 2006-2007 season has been completed for a few weeks now. The senior class is widely recognized as an underachieving class, both in terms of NCAA accomplishments and personal growth. It is true that in the three seasons they were significant contributors the team was 0-2 in the NCAA tournament, and was excluded from the third. On the other hand, they did contribute in back-to-back Big East Championships.

But the season is over, so it is time we can reflect on how the players did in personal accomplishments.

Demetris Nichols finished as the schools 28th all-time leading scorer with 1,344 points, tying him with Bullet Billy Gabor. Terrence Roberts finished at #50, with 963 points. Eric Devendorf, after two seasons, has 945 points, 53rd all time. Darryl Watkins comes in at 86th with 633 points.

If Devo keeps up his pace, he’ll finish around 9th all-time.

Roberts finished as the 18th all time rebounder with 716. Watkins is 25th with 614, and Nichols 35th with 509. Freshman Paul Harris had 248 rebounds, good enough to place him 66th on the all-time career list. Devo comes in at 79th with 180, Matt Gorman at 9th with 142.

If Harris were to play four years at 248 rebounds a year, he’d finish 6th all-time at Syracuse; the reality is that if he stayed four years, he would likely increase his average, and would finish at #2. I think Derrick Coleman is safe at 1,537 for now (Coleman had 333 rebounds his freshman year).

Devo is currently 30th on the Syracuse all-time assist list with 227. The enigmatic Josh Wright comes in at 32nd with 216. Nichols is 55th with 132, Roberts 58th with 121, Andy Rautins 80th with 60, Watkins 84th with 61, and Harris is 87th with 57. Statistics were only an official statistics as of the 1965-1966 season, so there’s not a ton of history to compare against.

There have only been 70 players to make a three point basket for Syracuse, with the shot being introduced in the 1986-87 season. Nichols finished 3rd all time with 205 3 point field goals. Devo is 13th with 104, Rautins 17th with 82 and Wright 30th with 34.Gorman is 38th with 17, Roberts 46th with 5, and Harris is 57th with 1.

How does Harris’ freshman campaign stack up? His 248 rebounds is 5th all-time for a Syracuse freshman. He was third all time in free throws made, and 14th all-time in points scored with 302.

Devo had the 6th most assists ever for a sophomore, and was 8th in points, and 5th in 3 point field goals made. Rautins had the third most three point fields goals ever for a sophomore.

Wright has the 9th most assists ever for a junior (and he did not make the top 10 in most turnovers).

Nichols finished with the 8th most points for a senior and the 2nd most three point baskets by a senior. He increased his scoring from his junior season to his senior season by 197 points; that’s only good enough for the 20th biggest increase from a junior to senior season (if you were curious).

26 times a Syracuse basketball player has had 50+ 3 point fields goals made in a season. Three occurred this season as Nichols, Rautins and Devendorf all accomplished the feat. The only other time that has occurred? 2005-2006 with Gerry McNamara, Devo and Nichols accomplished the feat.

Nichols 41.7% from three point range last season was the fourth best in Syracuse history for players with 100+ three point attempts.

Nichols 85% from the free throw line was 9th best in school history for players with 100+ free throw attempts.

Harris was a rebounding machine, almost leading the team in rebounding despite playing about 22 minutes a game. He averaged 13.08 rebounds per every 40 minutes of playing time; 4th best total in school history (though minutes played was only tracked starting in the early 80s). Derrick Coleman holds the top three: 13.77 (junior), 13.65 (senior), 13.55 (sophomore). Harris does hold the freshman record; Coleman had held it with 11.45.

Finally, Syracuse University played its 1,700 men varsity basketball game last season. Jim Boeheim coached his 1,000th game, and reached 750 career wins.