Syracuse 2007-08 Milestones

The 2006-2007 season was a fun one to follow from a milestone perspective as it was a veteran team with three senior starters, and opportunities for Syracuse milestones. This season does not have any senior starters, and with four new starters in the line up, career milestones would be very unlikely this year. However, there are several excellent opportunities for Freshman marks to be challenged.

The top 10 scoring freshman for Syracuse are:
Carmelo Anthony 778 pts
Lawrence Moten 583 pts
Billy Owens 494 pts
Gerry McNamara 467 pts
Pearl Washington 460 pts
Derrick Coleman 453 pts
Eric Devendorf 428 pts
Dale Shackleford 331 pts
Roosevelt Bouie 326 pts
John Wallace 321 pts

After the first 11 games for 2007-08, freshman Donte’ Greene has 215 points. Assuming Syracuse will play 35 games, Greene will finish the year with 684 points, 2nd all time. He would need to score at 23.5 ppg clip to break Melo’s freshman record. He would have a better shot at the freshman record if Syracuse played a few extra post season games (say 38) and he increased his points per game to 20.5.

Classmate Jonny Flynn has 157 points; at his current pace he will have 500 by seasons end, good for 4th all time. It’s possible with the shifting of the lineup due to Eric Devendorf’s injury that Scoop Jardine or Rick Jackson could increase their playing time significantly, thus impacting their season statistics dramatically.

Paul Harris had 302 points his freshman year. Lawrence Moten holds the standard after a sophomore season with 1,101 points. Harris has scored 137 points so far this season; he would need to score at a 27.5 ppg clip to set that record, so Moten seems secure there.

Twelve freshman have scored in double figures for Syracuse in the past:
Carmelo Anthony 22.2 ppg
Lawrence Moten 18.2 ppg
Pearl Washington 14.4 ppg
Gerry McNamara 13.3 ppg
Billy Owens 13.0 ppg
Eric Devendorf 12.2 ppg
Billy Gabor 12.1 ppg
Derrick Coleman 11.9 ppg
Dale Shackleford 11.4 ppg
John Wallace 11.1 ppg
Roosevelt Bouie 10.9 ppg
Erich Santifer 10.7 ppg

Two are on pace to do that this season with Greene at 19.5 ppg, and Flynn at 14.3 ppg, which would be the 2nd and 4th best freshman efforts ever, respectively. Greene would need to increase his pace to 23.4 ppg for the remaining 24 games to break Melo’s record; a feat the high scoring Greene is capable of doing.

The top 10 freshman assists are:
Pearl Washington 199
Jason Hart 184
Michael Edwards 168
Adrian Autry 164
Gerry McNamara 155
Billy Owens 119
Eric Devendorf 82
Ross Kindel 79
Carmelo Anthony 77
Greg Monroe 71

Jonny Flynn has 69 assists so far (just outside the top 10). He’s on pace to finish with 220 assists, which would break Pearl’s freshman record. Jardine and Greene both have a shot at cracking the top 10. The freshman record for assists per game is 6.2 by the Pearl; Flynn is currently on a pace of 6.3 per game.

The top 10 freshman rebounds are:
Carmelo Anthony 349
Derrick Coleman 333
Billy Owens 263
Dale Shackleford 256
Paul Harris 248
Roosevelt Bouie 242
John Wallace 221
Rony Seikaly 198
Louis Orr 194
Lawrence Moten 192

Greene currently leads the way with 90, and is on pace for 286, 3rd all time. Paul Harris had 248 rebounds after his freshman season; by the end of his sophomore season Derrick Coleman had 717 rebounds. So Harris would need 469 rebounds this season to catch DC. Right now Harris has 105 rebounds; he would need 364 more, at a 10.4 rpg pace. It is possible for Harris to catch Coleman, though the possibility of him seeing more backcourt action could hurt his numbers. The freshman record for rebounds per game is 10.0 by Anthony. Greene leads the way at 8.2 rpg, so that seems safe.

The freshman record for blocked shots is 91 by Roosevelt Bouie. Greene is currently on pace for 83 blocks.

The freshman record for free throws made is 168 by Anthony. Flynn is on pace for 118.
The freshman record for three point baskets made is 85 by Gerry McNamara. Greene is on pace for 95, which would set the record.

The freshman record for three point field goal percentage (minimum 50 attempts) is 37.6% (50-133) by Devendorf. Flynn is shooting a blistering 43.2% (16-37) and Greene at 39.0% (30-77) this season.

The freshman record for free throw percentage is 90.9% by Gerry McNamara (minimum 50 attempts). That record seems safe, with Flynn tops this season at 80.4%.

The freshman record for field goal percentage (minimum 100 attempts) is 56.5% by Louis Orr. Rick Jackson is on pace to shatter that at 67.6% (25-37). Note that technically, Andre Hawkins could be considered to hold the freshman field goal percentage. While he failed to meet the minimum number of attempts (60-96), if you gave him four misses, he still would have made 60% for the top mark.

Eric Devendorf started his junior season with 945 points, 227 assists, 180 rebounds, and 104 three point field goals. The Pearl had 637 assists after his junior season, and Coleman had 1,139 rebounds at that point, and McNamara 297 three point field goals; Devo was not going to threaten any of those records. Billy Owens had 1,840 points, and Devo had little chance of catching him; he would’ve had to have scored at about 25.5 ppg for the season.

As it was, Devo did reach a personal milestone by notching his 1,000th career point, before injuring his knee, becoming the 49th Orangeman to do it. With the knee injury, Devo is now stuck at 1,115 points, putting him at #43 on the all-time list, just behind Jimmy Williams with 1,119.

Ironically, the knee injury, which will definitely cast some doubt on Devendorf’s pro future, may also put him into a better position to set the Syracuse all-time scoring record. Lawrence Moten holds that distinction with 2,334 points. Prior to this season, Devo was 1,389 points short; with an estimated 70 collegiate games left, he would have had to have averaged 19.8 ppg his last two seasons. That’s not an impossible number, though it is a tough feat; there have been only 20 times an Orangeman has done that in a given season. Further making it difficult was Coach Jim Boeheim indicating that he thought Devo was going to leave early for the NBA after his junior season.

However, Devo had played 10 games this season, and scored 170 points. If he is granted a medical redshirt, he will pick up two more seasons of eligibility, thus making those 170 points ‘bonus points’. Plus with the knee injury, and the time to recuperate, he will likely need to play two years of college basketball to convince the NBA he is completely healthy. So Devo will enter his junior season (of eligibility) next year with 1,115 points (which is 14 more than Moten had entering his junior year). Devo would need 1,219 points with an estimated 70 collegiate games left. He would then need to average 17.4 ppg; he was averaging 17.0 this season, so that number is reasonable.

Now there’s a lot of “if’s” involved. He is very likely not to be up to speed come next December, which would definitely hurt his performance. If Flynn stays in college, the backcourt will be very crowded with Flynn, Jardine, Andy Rautins (who will be 5 months ahead on his rehab of his knee) and Devendorf. Devendorf’s style of play involved a lot of driving to the hoop, and that may be hampered by the injury.

There still over 2/3 of this 2007-08 season to be played. But clearly a lot of the freshman records are in a position to fall. That’s what happens when you give talented freshman a lot of playing time.

Devendorf Out

Junior Guard Eric Devendorf is now out for the season with a torn ACL in his left knee that occurred in the lopsided win over East Tennessee State on Saturday night, per a report by Donna Ditota in the Post Standard.

This means that Syracuse now has five new starters from last years team. Making things worse is the apparent loss of Josh Wright from the team, along with losing Andy Rautins last summer with his own torn ACL injury. Think how quickly things turn. Last May the Orange had three returning guards with a lot of experience, plus two extremely hyped freshman coming into the squad. Much of the talk was about who would be the starting two, and message boards had mixed results with any combination of the five being projected. Everyone acknowledged how crowded it was going to be.

Well, seven months later… and Syracuse is down to only two guards, both freshman. Syracuse has already been playing with a very thin rotation; now it is even thinner.

The knee jerk response is to now say Scoop Jardine will start at the shooting guard. And that may very well happen. Unfortunately, Jardine is not a perimeter shooter… he’s more of a drive to the hoop player. It may be possible that the coach Jim Boeheim does the following: move Paul Harris from forward to shooting guard, shift Donte Greene from the power forward to the small forward, and insert Rick Jackson into the starting five at the power forward.

That would give Syracuse a big team on the court, and Jackson has played well as of late. Greene really is more of a small forward in a big body, much like Carmelo Anthony was in 2003. I haven’t seen Jackson play enough to comment on his defensive abilities. Harris at the guard position would be an upgrade to Devo on defense. Perhaps this injury makes the Orange a stronger defensive team.

It clearly hurts the Orange on offense. Devo provided leadership on the court, ball handling, and was able to score from the perimeter and drive to the hoop. Anytime you lose your 2nd leading scorer, that’s going to hurt. And regardless if he starts or not, Jardine is going to see significantly more playing time, so let us hope he is ready.

The thin bench does beg the question of what Boeheim is going to do about his redshirt players. Devin Brennan-McBride hasn’t played in the regular season because of a shoulder injury and the team wanted to hold Sean Williams out so he could develop. I’m not sure if Syracuse can afford to have that luxury. Mike Williams did come over from the football team, and join the squad to help give some much needed depth at guard. I don’t know if the football squad has any more former high school basketball standouts, willing to commit some time to basketball or not.

I do think that Boeheim is going to have to find some bodies somewhere, even if it is just to have enough guys to scrimmage in practice. If the team were to get in foul trouble in a game, it wouldn’t have enough guys to even put out on the court.

Syracuse will have a couple of weeks of play in its remaining out of conference schedule to put some rotations together. It will definitely be an interesting time.

Who Needs a Bench?

Wednesday’s win over Virginia was a good win for the Orange, on many levels. It really does not matter how good or how bad Virginia is, the win was a good one. The young Syracuse squad played on a hostile court in a state other than New York, the ebb and flow of the game was back and forth, and the Orange had to come back and take a lead, and then hold on to it down the stretch. Those are tremendous confidence builders and even though the Orange did make some mistakes down the stretch, it did show a lot about the young men representing Syracuse.

The Orange, who have been a week rebounding team this year, out-rebounded Virginia 39-36. This is the same Cavalier squad that out-rebounded their opponents by an average of 17 points a game this season. My only concern with SU’s rebounding would be that of the 34 live rebounds they got (5 were dead ball), 33 came from the front court. Eric Devendorf had only 1 rebound, and Jonny Flynn none, despite the fact that both played almost the entire game. And, the Orange were playing a 3 point shooting team which typically means more long rebounds. So I think the guards need to pay a little more attention to getting those loose balls.

The Orange also hit 91% of there free throws, 10 for 11. Now that’s a small sampling, but you can’t complain about those results. They also held a good three point shooting Cavalier team (44% from three for the season) to 34.4%. Of course, when the zone is played well, that’s exactly what it does… it tempts teams to take three point shots since they seem so inviting, not realizing that they are further out than normal When the zone is played poorly, those shots are taken much closer and the shooting percentage is much higher.

There is a trend this season that I have not been able to fully grasp yet, but I’ll throw it out there. Jim Boeheim is always known for his short benches, with only a few seasonal aberrations in his 32 years to indicate otherwise. His theory has always been to ride his star players as long as he can. I know I’m in the minority here, but as a fan, I’ve always liked that style.

But typically, in the early season, Boeheim starts with a longer bench, and then shrinks it come Big East time, as he sets his rotation. Much of the off season this year was how deep and young this team was, and that there were going to be a lot of guys getting minutes. Injuries have removed some of those players; Andy Rautins is out for the year and he would have had significant playing time, and Devin Brennan-McBride is battling a shoulder injury (though I doubt he would have many minutes anyways).

At this point in the season, the Syracuse starting five are averaging 174 minutes a game; Donte’ Green 37.2, Devendorf 36.9, Paul Harris 35.8, Arinze Onuaku 32.5, and Jonny Flynn 31.9. To give you some perspective how significant that is, that is the most minutes per game for an Syracuse starting unit since 1982-1983 (the first year I have minutes played for the players). And it’s not even close. The second highest on the list is the 1997-1998 Orangemen with 167 minutes a game.

The 1997-1998 squad was two solid seniors in Todd Burgan and Marius Janulis, and three talented sophomores in Jason Hart, Ryan Blackwell and Etan Thomas. The bench had junior Elvir Ovcina and freshman Allen Griffin who got some playing time. Freshman Eric Williams was disappointing in his efforts, and sophomore LeSean Howard didn't get much time either. The team would go 26-9 and go to the Sweet Sixteen.

Anyhow, I am amazed at how much playing time the starting five are getting, even by Boeheim’s standards. I’m not sure the driving force for that decision, though I can think of a few options.

Close Games: The games have been close, and Boeheim always likes his best starting five on the court when the game is close.

Little foul trouble: These Orangemen have stayed out of foul trouble, with the exception of the most experienced player, Eric Devendorf. And Devendorf plays even when he’s in foul trouble. I had expected Onuaku, Harris and Greene to possibly have foul trouble, but that has not been the case.

Defensive struggles: I think this may be the biggest reason why Boeheim has not changed his lineup as much. The Orange have played poor defense more often than not this season, and I think that he’s trying to get them as much playing time so they can learn through experience. And I think he’s really trying to drive the zone home with them.

Boeheim loves his zone, but he does mix it up with occasional man-to-man and full court presses. Against Virginia, the Orange never pulled out of their zone the whole game. I think Boeheim is trying to send a message to the guys that they had better learn to love it, to live and breath it, because they are going to learn it, whether they like it or not.

Poor Efforts by the Rest: Boeheim has made it clear over the years, that he evaluates players on how they play in practice, and he could care less what a player’s pedigree is before they put on that Orange jersey. They need to show to him that they deserve the minutes in the game. I don’t see the practices, so I don’t know how they are performing. But if the highly taughted Scoop Jardine and Rick Jackson aren’t getting the playing minutes, then perhaps their practice efforts haven’t earned it yet.

For whatever reason, the starters are getting a lot of playing time and a lot of experience. The bench players aren’t getting that experience. The ‘experts’ will tell you that will hurt the Orange come post season; you want those bench players to be ready to play if the moment arises when a starter gets in foul trouble or has an injury. I disagree.

I think most college teams shrink their rotations in the post season, start giving more minutes to the stars, and relying less on the bench players. I recall in the 1995-96 tournament how everyone was amazed at how deep the Kentucky Wildcats were, playing 10 guys every game. Yet in the championship game against Syracuse, 3 Wildcat players had more than 35+ minutes of playing time; Rick Pitino hid his bench in that game.

The advantage the Syracuse squads have is come March, the starting five are quite used to player a significant amount of the game. They aren’t going to feel as tired, and when they get tired, they know how to play through it because they’ve been doing it all year. They know they need to stay out of foul trouble, so they learn to play with fouls.

If you have 10 All-Americans on your team, and the 9th player is as good as the 2nd player, then sure… mix them up, spread out the playing time. But if your top 4 are significantly better than your next four, why share the time? I also think you should rotate players if you have guys on the bench who have specific skills that some of your starters don't. If you have a great perimeter shooter on the bench, or a defensive specialist, that makes sense to rotate him in... change things up.

As mentioned earlier, Donte Greene is averaging 37.2 minutes a game. Which Orangemen has the highest average for a season?

It should come as no surprise. In 1990-1991 junior Billy Owens averaged 38.0 minutes a game, carrying the Orangemen through the season. The second highest is Dave Johnson, his senior year in 1991-1992 where he averaged 37.9 minutes a game. Overall, there have been 23 different times a player has averaged 35+ minutes a game (since 1982-1983); this was accomplished by 16 different players. Gerry McNamara is the only Syracuse player to ever average 35+ minutes in each of his four seasons; nobody else has ever done it more than twice. Hakim Warrick is the only player to average 37+ minutes a game for two separate seasons (his junior and senior seasons). And the 2001-2002 Orangemen had three players average 35+ minutes a game: Preston Shumpert, Damone Brown, and Allen Griffin.

We’ll see if December 2007 reduces some of the playing time for the big five this year.

Defense? We don't need no stinkin' defense.

UMass 107, Syracuse 100. At least the Orange are making it more fun to lose this year. There’s no doubt that this year’s team is running the best fast break seen on the Hill since the Sherman Douglas era, and that does bring excitement for the fans. Donte Greene and Jonny Flynn are providing some outstanding offensive efforts to please the fans.

But the Orange sure don’t know how to play defense. According to the Post Standard’s Mike Waters (via Donte Greene), Jim Boeheim believes this team to be “The worst defensive team in Syracuse history”. I’m not sure I would go that far (yet), but clearly it’s not a good defensive team. The only sign of strong defense I’ve seen was a few stretches in the Washington game where Syracuse forced several turnovers. Even in that game, they were inconsistent.

Boeheim does know a little bit about defense. And I hope the players are listening.

"It's been obvious all year to me that we cannot guard whether we're in
man-to-man or zone,'' Boeheim said. "We just cannot defend people. We couldn't
defend St. Joe's or Siena. We couldn't defend Ohio State. We couldn't defend
Washington and we can't defend UMass.'' (Post Standard)

I’m not going to get too focused on Syracuse giving up 77 points a game, as an indicator of how ‘bad’ the defense is. When you play an up tempo offense, you are going to score more points and have more shooting opportunities. The same will be true for your opponent; they will have more shooting opportunities than if you played a slow down deliberate offensive style. I would be concerned on the opposing field goal percentage. Allowing UMass to make 52% of its field goal attempts is not good.

Also, keep in mind the offensive talent of the team is going to be somewhat inflated statistically. If you’re taking more shots a game, you’re going to score more points, regardless of how talented you are. If you average 100 points a game, instead of 80 points a game, your stats are inflated 25%. A player with a 16 ppg average suddenly becomes a 20 ppg player. So let’s try not to get too enamored by the offensive output of our freshmen (yet).

So it’s going to be a disappointing season for the Orange if they don’t solve this problem. They’ll definitely win their share of games. They’ll be able to run some teams right off the court; probably enough of them to get 20+ wins and finish in the top 6-7 in the Big East. But it’ll be a short post season if you can’t stop your opposition.

The UMass game featured four Syracuse players scoring 20 or more points: Eric Devendorf with 23, Arinze Onuaku with a career high 20, Flynn with 20, and Greene with 20. I do not have complete records of all the box scores of games Syracuse has ever played, but I do not think they’ve ever had four players scored 20+ points in one game. That is an impressive feat. The 1965-1966 Syracuse team, led by Dave Bing, averaged almost 100 ppg, and they never accomplished that feat. The Bouie & Louie show never did, even though they had a 144 point effort versus Siena. The group most likely to accomplish that feat would have been Sherman Douglas, Stephen Thompson, Derrick Coleman and Rony Seikaly, and they did not either. The closest I found was the foursome of Tony Bruin, Erich Santifer, Leo Rautins, and Gene Waldron who all scored 19 points in a 91-85 win over Ohio State on 12/14/1982.

Added bonus last night was a 12 assist effort by Flynn, 10 rebound effort by Onuaku, and 11 rebounds by Paul Harris.

It’s going to be a fun team to watch this year, no doubt about it. Hopefully success will join in with the fun.

Defending Boeheim's Legacy

Apparently some journalists decide its never important to have an original thought, and would rather jump on the bandwagon and state what they believe is the obvious, without actually doing any real research or paying attention to the facts. Then again, why pay attention to the facts when they get in the way of your story, right?

Fellow Orange blogger Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician found a blog called the 'Meaningfull Collateral'. Apparently these guys are just the types of guys I referred to in the first paragraph. And they are taking the wrath of the 'Cuse blog collective. Good work by Cuse Country, Orange44, and State of the Orange in their respective responsives.

I've defended Syracuse's scheduling in the past and I'm not going to go into detail on that again. Though, as a reminder to those of you not familiar with the geography of New York State, Syracuse is 4 1/2 hours from New York City. Most of the teams in the original Big East are closer than the Orange to Madison Square Garden.

Rather, I'd like to focus on Boeheim's record, which was ripped by those who did not due their homework at Meaningful Collateral. They make a statement that Boeheim's tradition has been

"Win all these games at home against mediocre squads, go .500 in your
conference, be on the bubble every season".

First of all, Syracuse's record in the Big East (which is all under the tenure of Jim Boeheim) is a win/loss of 64.7%. The best in conference history... no where near .500. In 28 years of the conference's history, Syracuse has played .500 basketball only twice (1996-97, and 1981-1982). Only two other times did the Orange have a winning percentage less than .500; 1980-1981 and 2005-06. So in 28 years of league action, only 4 times (or 14% of the time) have the Orangemen played .500 ball. From that the writers at Meaningful Collateral determine a 'tradition'? Egads.

Second, Syracuse rarely is on the bubble to go to the NCAA. If anything, they have a reputation (whether or not it is true... that's a discussion for another time) of being a higher seed that does not deliver. I doubt most casual fans in the country would ever consider Syracuse a perennial bubble sitter.

Third, 25 times in Boeheim's 31 years the Orangemen have made the NCAA tournament. Once they were banned by the NCAA. So that leaves five seasons where they did not make the tournament. That's 1/6 times the Orange don't make the dance, not the 1/4 the authors at Meaningful Collateral suggest. Of those five seasons, Boeheim complained in three of them: 1981 (where Syracuse won the Big East Title but the conference had no automatic bid), 1996 (where Syracuse with 19 wins became the first Big East School with 18+ wins not to make the tournament) and last season where everyone in the country already knows the details.

Meaningful Collateral... you are entitled to your opinion. Freedom of speech is a right and privilege in this great country of ours. With that freedom comes some responsibility, and that responsibility is to tell the truth. Your version of the truth can differ from mine, because we can interpret the facts differently. But it does nobody any good if you misrepresent the facts.

2007 Orange Debut

The youthful Syracuse basketball team is off to a solid start, going 3-0. The wins against Siena, St. Joseph, and Fordham probably aren’t going to be impressive come March Madness selection time (though Siena did just beat #20 Stanford), but these are the games you must win so you 1) don’t have those bad losses come March, and 2) advance into the NIT semi-finals where you can meet higher quality opponents and improve your schedule. I don’t want to but too much weight into what I’ve seen so far this season, but it is always a good sign when the statistical indicators are positive, regardless who you are playing.

The Orange offense looks to be clicking well behind freshman star Jonny Flynn, who is averaging 7.7 assists a game. Flynn made me nervous after his first game with five turnovers. But he seems to have tightened up his game with fourteen assists and 1 turnover in the last two games; those are impressive numbers regardless of whom you are playing.

Donte' Greene has clearly established himself as a big time scorer early in the season, averaging 19.0 ppg, along with 8.0 rpg. While he had a high school reputation for shooting three point shots, I thought coach Jim Boeheim would want to keep Greene near the hoop to get the rebounds and inside points. So far, it appears I was wrong, as Greene has taken 19 three point shots, making 8 of them. With Eric Devendorf, Greene, and Flynn (7 of 10 from three) shooting well from perimeter, perhaps my concern for perimeter shooting will be non-existent.

Devo has been ‘quiet’ so far, putting up a very solid 16.0 ppg, with 3 rpg and 4 apg. It looks like he is fitting in well into this new group of players. He’s a proven player, and its comforting to know that he’s not having to carry the team early in the season.

Paul Harris, as we all knew, is showing the rest of the world that he is a rebounding monster, with 11.7 per game, including 15 and 14 in his first two games. His ball handling as been sloppy with 13 turnovers, and his shooting off at 44.4%.

I had been concerned that Arinze Onuaku was going to get himself into foul trouble often, but so far that has not been the case. He’s been positioning himself well in the low post, making 2/3 of his shots, and scoring 13.7 ppg. His rebounding totals are a little low, but then again, if Greene and Harris are getting a lot of them, there is not a lot left to pick up.

The Orange do need to focus on cutting down the team turnovers. Flynn has protected the ball well two out of the three games, which is very positive from your top ball handler. The team, however, had high turnover counts in the first two games, and that almost cost them against St. Josephs. For all the spectacular plays Greene has made so far, he needs to cut down on his 10 turnovers (too high of a number for a power forward), and as mentioned before Harris has been sloppy too.

The Orange have had breakdowns on defense, and appear to have some difficulty adjusting to Boeheim’s schemes. Fortunately, that one of the benefits of the out-of-conference schedule, where you can work out the kinks in your game.

The team needs to pay more attention to Boeheim, who after 31 years as a head coach. Apparently at the end of the St. Joseph’s game, a couple of subtle breakdowns occurred. Boeheim had wanted Harris to miss his last free throw, so time would expire before St. Joe’s had time to get the rebound and take a shot. Instead, Harris made the shot. This may have been more of a case of poor execution instead of not listening; Harris may have accidentally made the basket. After the made free throw, Boeheim had also instructed Jonny Flynn to foul St. Joe’s so they could not get a three point shot, but that two did not occur. But these are things the players will hopefully learn and grow from.

Speaking of a debut for the freshman, Jonny Flynn and Dante Greene both had impressive efforts in the opening game versus Siena. Greene had 14 points, 7 rebounds, 5 blocked shots, while shooting 5-10 from the floor. A very solid first game for the frosh.

Jonny Flynn had the single best debut of any freshman in Syracuse history. His 28 points was a record for a freshman debut (eclipsing Carmelo Anthony’s 27 in 2002). He shot 10 of 13 from the floor, and an outstanding 6 of 7 from three point range. Oh yeah, he also added 9 assists and rebounds to the effort. The only blemish on his debut was the 5 turnovers.

Flynn’s effort was the best ever for an Orangemen in his debut. How have other Orangemen done?

Carmelo Anthony played very well in his first game, leading the Orangemen with 27 points and 11 rebounds. His shooting was off, hitting only 10 of 23 points, and making only 5 of 12 free throws, which proved to be costly in the loss to Memphis 70-63. But a strong effort none-the-less.

Gerry McNamara debuted in that same game, and he too had mixed results. He scored 14 points, but was 4 of 15 from the field, including 4-13 from three point range. He did have three assists and only one turnover in his unexpected debut as a point guard.

Preston Shumpert came off the bench and played only 15 minutes in his first game back in 1998. He made the most of it with 15 points, shooting 4-8 from the floor (2-4 from three point range), going perfect in his five free throw attempts, and getting 5 rebounds.

The much hyped Pearl Washington did not disappoint fans in 1983, when he went six of eight from the floor to score 16 points, and added 6 assists, all in only 25 minutes of play. George Papadakos, who would have a disappointing collegiate career, started out strong with 10 rebounds and five points in his debut.

Lawrence Moten came off the bench in 1991, and quietly, as he always did, put up 12 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in 17 minutes of play. His much ballyhooed classmate Anthony Harris had a strong debut with 14 points on 6-7 shooting.

Roosevelt Bouie and Louis Orr started their era off in style back in 1976 showing flashes of what would make them dominant college players. Bouie had 7 blocks and 10 points in his debut versus Harvard, while Orr pulled down 9 rebounds with 7 points (from the bench).

Derrick Coleman had a strong start in 1986, with 13 points in 26 minutes. DC shot 5-10 from the floor and had 7 rebounds. Stephen Thompson did not fair as well that game going 1-3 from the floor, and 1-6 from the free throw line (this latter stat an unfortunate indicator with how his charity shooting would be for his career). In 9 minutes of play, Matt Roe would score 9 points that day, as would fellow frosh Keith Hughes.

Billy Owens would play only 22 minutes in his debut in 1988, and had a quiet 9 points, 6 rebounds, on 4 of 5 shooting.

John Wallace made some noise in his 1992 debut, with 17 points and 10 rebounds. He would shoot 7 of 13 from the floor that day.

In 1996, the big freshman debut was LeSean Howard for scored 12 points and had 6 rebounds and 5 assists in 20 minutes from the bench. Jason Hart had mixed results that day with 7 assists and 7 points to go with his 4 turnovers. Etan Thomas played only 16 minutes that day, and had 6 rebounds, 8 points, and 3 blocked shots.

Michael Edwards came off the bench in 1989 and had 10 assists and 5 points in only 24 minutes of play. It would take until middle of that season until he would earn a starting berth. In 1990 Adrian Autry had a solid debut with 11 points and 3 assists.

Paul Harris gave us a blueprint of his early career in his 2006 debut. Harris would scored 6 points, with 11 rebounds and 4 turnovers in 22 minutes of playing time.

Erich Santifer and Tony Bruin had strong efforts in their 1979 debut. Santifer had 12 points and 3 rebounds on 6 of 10 shooting, while ‘Red’ had 15 points, also going 6-10 from the floor, plus 3 of 4 from the charity stripe.

Many freshman had trivial debuts, in many cases because they were unheralded reserves or had little playing time. Andre Hawkins started in 1981, but split time with Peter Wynne, and Hawk ended up with 7 points and 4 rebounds. Raf Addison had 4 points in his debut in 1982, and classmate Wendell Alexis had 6 pts.

Dale Shackleford put up 7 points in his 1975 debut, and Otis Hill 8 pts in 1993. In 1997, Eric Williams had 6 points, Damone Brown played 2 minutes and Allen Griffin played 1 minute, as both went scoreless. Eric Devendorf scored 6 points on 1-7 shooting in 2005.

In 2003, DeMetris Nichols, Darryl Watkins and Terrence Roberts all went scoreless in their debut, each with limited playing time. Roberts had a pretty poor debut: in eight minutes, he picked up 4 fouls, had 2 turnovers, shot 0 for 3 from the field, and had 3 rebounds. Syracuse would lose that game 96-92.

Hakim Warrick would score 2 points in his 2001 debut, which lasted 13 minutes and included 5 turnovers. Craig Forth would give the Orangemen 5 blocked shots, 5 rebounds, and 5 points that same day.

So there have been some big freshman debuts, and many not-so-memorable. Jonny Flynn made sure his was the best.

Veterans Day 2007

On this Veterans day, I would like to thank all those who have served our country, putting their lives on the line to do those tasks that need to be done.

The Orange basketball team has had its share of veterans over the decades. And I would like to recognize those former basketball Orangemen who did serve. I acknowledge this is not a complete list; only those I know of. I imagine more Orangemen were in the service that I am omitting; if so, please post a recognition here! Also please feel free to recognize any other veterans in the comments.

In World War I, the following served:
Albert Ackley
Ed Cronauer
John Cronauer
Charles Fasce
Russ Finsterwald
Ken Lavin
Walter ‘Dutch’ Notman
Elias Raff
Billy Rafter
Courtland Sanney

In World War II, the following served:
Jim Ackerson
John Balinsky
Dick Casey
Larry Crandall
Wilbur Crisp
Dan DiPace
Les Dye
Alton Elliott
John Emerich
Bob Felasco
Paul Ferris
Billy Gabor
Ed Glacken
Joe Glacken
Marc Guley
Lew Hayman
Bill Hennemuth
George Jarvis
Jim Konstanty
Stan Kruse (Kruszewski)
Saul Mariaschin
Tom McTiernan
Francis Miller
Andy Mogish
Roy Peters
Hank Piro
Phil Rakov
John Schroeder
Bob Shaddock
Wilmeth Sidat-Singh
Red Stanton
Mike Stark
Joe Sylvestri
Charles Taggart

In Vietnam, the following served:
Rick Dean

The following were veterans who served but were fortunate to miss a war era:
Roy Danforth
Ronnie Kilpatrick
George Koesters

Three of the aforementioned players deserve special note, as they sacrificed their lives in the line of duty.

Wilmeth Sidat-Singh was a member of the Tuskegee Airman, and was killed in a training accident when his plane crashed into Lake Michigan in 1943.

Charles Taggart was a member of the US Navy serving aboard the USS Frederick C. Davis, and was killed when his ship was torpedoed by a German U-Boat on April 24, 1945. Taggart and 115 crew members perished.

John Cronauer was killed in World War I in 1918.
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On a personal note I would like to recognize my wife’s uncle. Stanley ‘Pete’ Kocher was a Piper Cub pilot during World War II, flying recognizance and other low level air duties. He was involved in D-Day at Normandy, and would later earn a Silver Star for his efforts in stopping two allied units from firing upon one another.

Pete Kocher worked as a proof reader for the Johnstown Tribune Democrat for most of his professional life. In retirement he was a volunteer around Johnstown, including the local area hospital. He passed away this past August 3rd, as a result of injuries from a fall in his room.

We often take for granted the freedoms we have in this wonderful country. As events unfold around the world, right now with the focus in the Middle East and Iraq, we can see that we do live privileged lives with many things we take for granted. Let us not forget the efforts that these veterans, and others, have put to help bring peace and justice into this world.