Blogger Awards: Worst Game of 2006-2007

Five awards done today, one more to go. What was the Worst Game for the Orange in the 2006-2007 season? A season where possibly any one individual loss may have cost the Orange a bid in the NCAA tournament. And sadly, there were many games to pick from. In a season where Syracuse lost three non-conference games, none of those three made honorable mention for the worst game of the year. A loss to Wichita State and Drexel did not warrant a single vote from our panelists. That's unbelievable. So which game was the worst loss of the season?

Sports Night with Howie Mansfield went with Notre Dame: “Notre Dame loss. A shootout that Syracuse couldn't win.” Definitely a viable candidate; a Dome record for most points ever given up in a game to an opponent, where Syracuse looked totally overmatched on defense.

Getting Back to ’03 voted for the Louisville loss: “Louisville, You could just feel it seeping away…”. Yep.

And yours truly, OrangeHoops voted the same: “Unfortunately too many to choose from. The worst game for me was the Louisville game… having a 14 point lead late in the game, the game well in control, and then falling completely apart.”

Two votes for Louisville, yet blowing a 14 point lead on the road did not win this coveted award. So what was the worst loss for 2006-2007?

A January 21st loss to a forgettable St. John’s team on the road, 64-60, was the winner.

Cuse Country had two personal perspectives for the loss. Josh said “Having the St Johns MSG game ruin my up-till-then-fantastic weekend in NYC.”. Tim chipped in with “There's nothing like losing to St. John's. I have spent way too much time saying "MSG is Cuse Country" to survive that loss with my pride intact. “

Matt of Orange 44 was a little more direct: “Syracuse v. St. John's. If anyone picks a different game they are batshit insane.”. Guess, I may be insane… then again, he could be right.

Finally Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician summed it up: “St John’s loss. In a season where one more win, ONE MORE, would have changed the entire outcome of our postseason fate…this one hurts even more. Honorable mention: The Louisville collapse.”

Unfortunately in a season with two many candidates for this particular category, we have the Red Storm as the winners.

Check in tomorrow at noon with Sports Night with Howie Mansfield to find out the Most Disappointing Player for the season.

Note: apologies for a late post, but I’m out on the west coast this week on business, so not only am I three hours behind, but I’m tied up in meetings to the late hours. My appreciation to my fellow bloggers for letting me post last each day. Expect a late post for Thursday too.

Syracuse Orange Blogger Awards

Starting Wednesday, the collective of the Syracuse basketball bloggers will be presenting the Syracuse Orange Blogger Awards. Six different blogs will be participating in rolling out the awards, including yours truly, Troy Nunes is An Absolute Magician, Cuse Country, Getting Back to ’03, Orange 44, and Sports Night With Howie Mansfield.

The announcements start at noon, EDT. Check in with TNIAAM for the complete schedule.

One For The Books

Congratulations to the Orange for advancing to the next round of the NIT Tournament. And more importantly, to have the character of players that make fans want to come out and cheer you on in record numbers. 26,752 fans at the Carrier Dome for a tournament that only 10 days ago we (meaning the collective Orange Nation) wanted to boycott. It speaks volumes about the character of the community to support a team with such actions.

Orange 44 and CuseCountry have put in similar sentiments, so thanks you Orangemen for the memories.

And it makes it even sweeter that the players recognize the moment too. From Mike Waters article in the Post Standard (link):

"In the Carrier Dome's 27-year history, there has never been a more
deserved standing ovation than the one given on Monday night.

During a timeout with 3 minutes and 19 seconds left in Syracuse's
80-64 victory over San Diego State in the second round of the National
Invitation Tournament, Dome public address announcer Michael Veley gave the
game's attendance: 26,752.

The figure not only shattered the NIT's
all-time attendance record of 23,522 set in 1979 for a Kentucky-Clemson game at
Rupp Arena, it was also the third-largest crowd of the season for Syracuse.

At that point, the Syracuse players and coaches stepped out of
their huddle and applauded the fans. In the center of it all was Syracuse coach
Jim Boeheim, clapping his hands over his head."

Let’s Go Orange

Blessing in Disguise

Sometimes genuine memories get created from the least likely scenarios. I think in many ways, the Orange getting snubbed by the NCAA is going to make this post season more enjoyable, and certainly more memorable than many Syracuse post seasons.

Like many other Syracuse fans, I was both angry and confused by the NCAA’s decision not to invite the Orangemen to the tournament. I saw some handwriting on the wall that things weren’t as easy as everyone thought, but even given that, I was still shocked when the announcement was made.

However, the decision by the NCAA committee did not cost Syracuse a national title. Despite their recent improvement (and they are a much better team in their past ten games than they were in the first 2/3 of the season), the Orangemen are still a dysfunctional team, where the team total is less than the sum of the parts. The Orange could probably match up and stay close with most every team in the tournament on any given night, but even now are quite capable of losing against the Oral Roberts or Wright States in the tournament. I think they would likely have gone one and out, maybe won two, before they left.

Instead, the NCAA shipped Syracuse off to the NIT. And something wonderful happened. Something very memorable. Syracuse fans showed they weren’t just whining or complaining. Rather, they showed they truly cared. In a world where actions should speak far more than words, 16,832 Orange fans bought tickets and went to the Carrier Dome last Wednesday to cheer the Orangemen on. They gave the Orangemen a 5 minute standing ovation during their shoot-around. All of this without the students (who were on spring break) to lead them on, something that is usually a prerequisite for this type of action.

And the Orangemen responded by giving the Syracuse fans a solid played game, even if it took the seniors thirty minutes to get into the game (and who can really blame them, since the NIT really is the end for them). Eric Devendorf put on a memorable 34 point show, single handedly carrying the team until Demetris Nichols started scoring in the second half, and Darryl Watkins and Terrence Roberts started playing defense and grabbing some rebounds. The Orangemen were 17-20 from the charity stripe that night, and had only 10 turnovers, both high marks for a team that often shot itself in the foot this season. The Orange were able to overcome some amazing (and lucky) perimeter shooting by South Alabama.

It was a game to be proud of in regards to how the team responded down the stretch, how they were able to put South Alabama away, and how the fans responded. After the game ended, Syracuse fans were even more rabid for tickets, as the demand became high enough that Syracuse had to stop the on-line sales of tickets. In what could/should have been a downer post season, I now have anticipation for Monday night's game against San Diego State.

So we’re not going to win a national title this year. And quite probably, we won’t win the NIT title (though, we could). But the memory of Syracuse fans showing they truly do care for the players, and the memory of Syracuse’s players responding in like, is something to cherish. At least it is for me. And other than a miraculous run through the NCAA tournament, what could have more value than that? 10 years from now, I’ll still remember this (including the snub). I wouldn’t remember if we 1 and out in the NCAA, or 2 and out.

Another Opinion

A reader from OrangeHoops.org kindly sent me a link to an outside perspective of the Orangemen snub from the NCAA tournament: Sports Maven. I think he echoes many sentiments expressed previously in my blog, and similarly over at Cuse Country, among others. It's just good to know that there are those who don't bleed SU Orange, who have similar takes on the situation.

Twilight Time

For your consideration, take two basketball teams. I submit:

Team A has a 22-10 record, with a Hall of Fame Coach with 700+ wins. The team went 8-8, finishing 6th place in 12 team conference.

Team B has a 22-10 record, with a Hall of Fame Coach with 700+ wins. The team went 10-6, finishing 5th place in a 16 team conference.

Team A went 4-6 in its last ten games, including a first round lost in its conference tournament to a 5-11 team. Team A is 9-9 since January 3rd.

Team B went 7-3 in its last ten games, including a first round win in its conference tournament against a 6-10 team. Team B is 12-6 since January 5th.

Team A beat Georgetown at home, and St. Johns on the road. They lost to Marquette at home. Of the team’s 10 losses, 3 were double digit, 6 were by 6 or more points. They lost three games by one basket.

Team B beat Georgetown at home, and split two games with St. Johns this year. They beat Marquette on the road. Of the team’s 10 losses, 1 was a by double digits, 3 were by 6 or more points. They lost three games by one basket.

Team A has a player who was suspended for game for unsportsmanlike conduct on the court (contributing to one loss).

Team B has a player who is playing on one healthy leg for the course of the season, and missed some games earlier as a result (contributing to a couple of losses).

Team A was selected by the NCAA Committee to be a #6 seed, putting them in as one of the top 24 teams in the country.

Team B was ignored by the NCAA Committee, meaning said committee thought they were not one of the top 45 (approximately) teams in the country.

Welcome to the Twilight Zone.

Fade to black.

Team A, is of course, the Duke Blue Devils. Team B is the Syracuse Orange.

NCAA Thoughts

I forced myself to wait three days before putting any comments on the failure of the NCAA Selection Committee to include Syracuse in the tournament this season. After those days of reflection, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s nothing really new I can add that has not already been said by the media and by my fellow Syracuse bloggers.

Simply put, the Syracuse Orangemen should have been in the NCAA tournament. All of college basketball knows it, and the selection committee knows it. I think we had a situation were the selection committee wanted to prove it was smarter than everyone else, and so they went against conventional thinking in order to prove that point. The problem is that the committee isn’t smarter than everyone else; there’s a reason the consensus had Syracuse in, and now the committee has exposed themselves as fools.

I do have some comments about the NCAA Selection process, that this years’ committee did help to illuminate. Many of the following points I’ve mentioned in my blog previously, and for those of you who know me, some of these are positions I’ve had for years.

The Conference Season Should Matter: I’ve long maintained that if a team cannot finish .500 or better in their conference, they should not be allowed in the NCAA tournament, regardless of any other criteria. I don’t care if they were 7-9 in the Big East Conference, and if all sixteen teams in the Big East were better than the remaining 300 teams in college hoops. If you cannot beat half of your competitors in your own conference, you do not deserve to play for the national title. The only exception to this rule is the automatic selection for conference tournament champions.

Use Common Sense: Relating back to the conference seasons, the committee needs to pay attention to the obvious. Forget every other statistic out there and use some common sense. Syracuse finished fifth in the Big East this season, ahead of both Villanova and Marquette. Syracuse was 2-1 against these two teams. Yet you put in two teams that Syracuse had beaten head-to-head and finished ahead of? You know, if a selection looks strange, then it is strange. Don’t go looking for other statistics to justify it.

Mid Major Exclusion: I think the selection committee, heavily comprised of BCS schools, is moving along with the same agenda as the BCS in college football, and that is they want to exclude the mid majors and give more of the action to BCS conferences. They are slowly putting in tools and criteria that will eventually entice the BCS conference schools to only play other BCS conference schools. This will prevent the mid major schools from having an opportunity to prove themselves over the course of the season against quality opponents, and thus, make it easier to exclude mid majors in future selection processes because their ‘body of work’ will fail to meet the requirements of other schools.

How is the committee doing this? They are relying heavily on an RPI formula that penalizes teams for playing other teams with weak schedules. Read that again… its not that they are penalizing teams for playing weak schools; they are penalizing teams for playing other teams (weak or strong) that have weak schedules. The third component of the RPI formula is your opponents’ opponents record. So if you put a mid major on your schedule, you get saddled into your own RPI score, the combined efforts of all the schools in the mid major’s conference. So if you play Holy Cross, no matter if Holy Cross goes 28-0, you also get the net impact of the entire Patriot Conference on your RPI. That can be costly.

I’ve stated before, I think the mid majors deserve to be fairly represented in the NCAA tournament (and in the BCS in football), and it’s a travesty that anyone would try to exclude them or minimize their chances. But we all know money drives the show, and the BCS conferences want all of their schools to be included.

Balance the Selection Committee: If you’re going to have eight major conferences, and represent only six of them on the selection committee, you had better make sure that you have very clearly defined why you excluded schools from the non-represented conferences in favor of schools for those represented. It seems highly coincidental that the three most questionable teams in the tournament (Arkansas, Illinois, Stanford) were represented on the committee, and the five most controversial omissions (Syracuse, West Virginia, Kansas State, Drexel, and Air Force) were not. The selection may have been just, but is sure smells otherwise. And if you’re going to have a committee structured that way, you need to bend over backwards to make sure the end results look good.

Leave Tournament the Size It Is: I’m all for leaving the NCAA tournament at 64 teams (I’d remove the ‘play in’ game; that’s an insult and travesty to those two teams). You’re always going to have schools left out. No matter what number you choose, someone is left out. 64 works well, and it makes earning a bid to the tournament mean something. Otherwise, why not add two rounds to the tournament and go to 256 teams… then virtually everyone would be included. Though, I know this year’s committee would have found a way to exclude Syracuse (no, I’m not bitter).

Big East Is Bloated: I’ve been maintaining for several years now, ever sense the Big East originally expanded to 14 teams, and now 16, that it was too big, and it was going to hurt them long term. The larger a conference gets, the more it will have a representation of all the types of teams in college hoops… meaning very good teams, good teams, mediocre teams, and bad teams. If you have an 8 team conference, it’s quite possible you’ll have 7 or 8 great teams. With sixteen teams that’s not going to ever happen, and so there are going to be low end teams dragging down the conference RPI and SOS.

Plus, it leads to unbalanced scheduling, which is a joke itself. How can Syracuse and West Virginia be in the same basketball conference and never play each other once this season? And it absolutely hurt Syracuse that they had to play dogs UConn and St. Johns twice each, while only getting the opportunity to play Pitt, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Louisville, and Marquette once (in the regular season).

Schedule a Major School Outside the State of New York: This is a note specifically for Syracuse. They’ve become the poster child for a weak out of conference schedule, which is unjustified. Each year, you can easily show that their out of conference schedule is representative of most major college out of conference schedules. The difference is that Syracuse accomplishes a lot of that without ever leaving New York state. Now I’ve ranted and raved several times about the fact that games in Madison Square Garden being 4 ½ hours away from Syracuse, and that fact being ignored frequently by the media. I’ll give you a perspective from Pittsburgh, my current home. Columbus, Ohio is 3 hours from Pittsburgh. Does Ohio State have a huge advantage in Pittsburgh? Washington DC is 4 hours from Pittsburgh. Does Georgetown have a huge advantage in Pittsburgh? New York City is 5 ½ hours from Pittsburgh. Do the Panthers have a huge edge in Madison Square Garden? Of course not.

Does Syracuse have an advantage in Madison Square Garden? Sure… because there are a lot of Syracuse fans in New York City, and Syracuse basketball fans travel well. But you know what, Notre Dame has a very large and supportive alumni base, and they get a nice crowd everywhere they go. Duke has a large national following and they get strong support everywhere they go.

No, the issue really is that Madison Square Garden is in New York state, and it makes is so easy for the national media to constantly say ‘Syracuse doesn’t leave New York state’.

So, Syracuse should identify an area of the country they want to heavily recruit, say Maryland or Virginia, and schedule an annual road game against Maryland, Virginia, Duke, or North Carolina and play them every year. Don’t even make it a home-and-home… just make it their annual road game down south. This will forever remove the ‘Syracuse doesn’t leave New York state’ label and give Syracuse a power conference rival on their schedule. Plus it enhances the recruiting pipeline in that area.

And as we all know from NCAA selection criteria, it doesn’t matter if you beat the good teams on your schedule. You just need to have them on your schedule. If you do the math, you would see that Syracuse’s RPI would be better off if they traveled to Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles and was crushed by UCLA by 30 points, than if they stayed home, and crushed Colgate by 30 points. And don't schedule the mid majors. The committee will only penalize you if you lose to them; there's no advantage to beating them. That's wrong... but that's the reality.

Anyhow, these are the thoughts of a embittered Syracuse fan. Go Orange.

As Freshman Rebounders Go

Anyone who has watched Syracuse freshman Paul Harris play this season quickly realized that he is a terrific rebounder. Despite starting only one game this year, he is second on the team in rebounds with 229, and had a masterful 15 in the loss to Notre Dame the other night. Harris came to Syracuse with extremely high fan expectations (far too high in my opinion at the time), and it is rumored he would have gone straight to the NBA if new rules had not prohibited it.

The new rule probably is fortunate for Harris. While he shows sparks of defensive brilliance, and outstanding rebounding, he has often seemed totally lost in the offensive scheme and has demonstrated little shooting ability 10 feet and out. He has shown he is an explosive scorer near the hoop, and there is a lot of promise in this young man, and it appears we are fortunate to have him gracing the Orange uniforms. A few years in college basketball should help him adjust and develop his offensive game.

How good has Harris’ freshman year been? He hasn’t been a starter, so his stats may look askew. He has only 7.2 rebounds per game. I say only, because that’s still an impressive number as a freshman. Only five Syracuse freshman have ever exceeded that mark and they were all starters:

Carmelo Anthony 10.0 rpg
Dale Shackleford 8.8 rpg
Derrick Coleman 8.8 rpg
Roosevelt Bouie 8.1 rpg
John Wallace 7.6 rpg

In terms of total rebounds, Harris is still fifth behind the following: Anthony 349, Coleman 333, Billy Owens 263, Shackleford 256 and Bouie 242.

Harris’ stats are deflated because he has not been a starter nor played starter minutes. I figured I would check all Syracuse freshman since 1982-83 (the first season I have minutes played information), and see which freshman had the best rebound per minute. I multiplied the number by 35, since a start player would play about that many minutes per game if given the opportunity, and that makes the numbers more intuitive I think (it doesn’t change the results). I also restricted the list to freshman who played at least 300 minutes. Harris has 229 rebounds in 693 minutes of playing time. That works out to 11.57 rebounds per 35 minutes played, which is by far the best number any Syracuse freshman has had (at least since 82-83, and freshman couldn’t play prior to 73-74 anyhow). The top seven Syracuse freshman rebounders per 35 minutes played is as follows:

Paul Harris 11.57 (229 total rebounds)
Derrick Coleman 10.02 (333)
Hakim Warrick 9.66 (168)
Wendell Alexis 9.61 (134)
Carmelo Anthony 9.60 (349)
Etan Thomas 9.01 (105)
John Wallace 8.96 (221)
Rony Seikaly 8.94 (198)

Coleman was always a terrific rebounder, and if you remember had 19 rebounds in the national championship game against Indiana. Alexis was somewhat of a surprise to me, though I do remember how often he and Rafael Addison used to come into games their freshman year and help out the Orangemen. Alexis sat behind Tony Bruin and Andy Rautins’ dad Leo, so it was tough getting his playing time. Carmelo didn’t have any upperclassmen in his way, so he got all the playing time he needed.

In fact, if you look at the top five Orangemen in terms of rebounds per 35 minutes played, regardless of class, Harris would be #4 on this list. Mr. Derrick Coleman, the NCAA’s all time leading rebounder, holds the top three positions with 12.04, 11.95, 11.86. Harris would be fourth with his 11.57, and then Rony Seikaly comes in fifth at 10.81, and Owens sixth at 10.69.

Of course, it is important to remember that when you extrapolate statistics, you are making assumptions that may not hold true. Averaging 21.7 minutes per game, Harris can expended a lot of energy in short bursts, and that could help to inflate his rebounds per minute. If he were to play 35 minutes per game, he could likely tire and be less effective per minute, though still getting more total rebounds.

Just to look into the ‘what if’ scenario a little further, I figured out what Harris’ scoring would be if he played 35 minutes a game (same caution holds as mentioned above). He would have 14.2 points per 35 minutes played, which would be good for 8th on the all time Syracuse freshman list. The top five freshman in scoring per 35 minutes played are:

Carmelo Anthony 21.4
Lawrence Moten 18.9
Sherman Douglas 16.6
Rafael Addison 16.0
Eric Devendorf 15.8

The surprise on that list was Douglas. For those of us old enough to remember the General, he came out of no where his sophomore season to lead the Orangemen to the national championship game. Yet, if we had looked at the numbers the year before, you could see was quite productive in his minutes played, limited because of the great Pearl Washington ahead of him.

I will be curious to see how Paul Harris develops and grows the next couple of years, especially with the graduation of Syracuse’s front line: Demetris Nichols, Darryl Watkins and Terrence Roberts. He’ll have ample opportunity to get his playing time next year and show what he can really do on a regular basis.

For now, we can just sit back and watch him provide his rebounding spark against the opposition in the upcoming NCAA tournament.

All Big East

The Big East just keeps getting worse and worse each year with the number of guys it puts on its first team. 11 players named to the first team. The Big East has always been bad on their math. Even in the early 80s they used to traditionally name six guys to the All Big East first team, usually with the distinction that Player of the Year was in addition to the five other guys. Then it grew to seven. Now eleven. It sure does take away from the honor doesn’t it?

Ten more guys made the Big East Second team. So, if you’re one of the top 21 players in the Big East, you’re on the first team or second team.

Thankfully the Big East has dropped having a Big East Third team. Guess they decided it might be a little too obvious is they started putting guys like Matt Gorman on an All Big East team.

They also put eleven guys on the all Rookie team. So I’m wondering what the qualification is to be on that squad? My guess is you were either a starter, or one of the top two reserves on your team. It seems to me they’ve honored every freshman they could have. I guess it’s a real slight if you are not on this team.

Congratulations to Demetris Nichols who made the first team. I’m pretty sure he would have made the first team even if it was five or six guys. If fact, there were five guys who were unanimous: Nichols, Herbert Hill, Roy Hibbert, Jeff Green, and Aaron Gray. Sounds like a great five… they should’ve stopped right there. I realize they wouldn’t be recognizing any guards, but the Big East has precedent for leaving a position off the first team. When Etan Thomas was a sophomore and junior, there were no centers on the Big East First Team; so he was voted the best center in the league, but did not make first team.

Nichols is the 15th different Orangeman to be named to the Big East First Team (overall they’ve had 25 recognitions).

Also congratulations to Eric Devendorf for getting honorable mention, and Paul Harris for making the All Rookie Team.

I also thought it was interesting that several players on the First Team are on their first All Big East selection. Demetris Nichols made his first selection, along with Russell Carter, Colin Falls, Herbert Hill, and Frank Young. That doesn’t happen too often. It also means it will be interesting who wins the Most Improved Player award… you have five guys who never were even honorable mention, and now are first team. That’s quite an improvement.

Regarding the new Syracuse Uniforms… they are hideous. Why couldn't Nike have picked Georgetown, UConn or Duke instead. Then I could mock them and tease their fans. Uggggh.

Nova Loss

I’m not sure if there is ever a good loss, but I was not disappointed in the loss the Orange had to Villanova. I thought the team showed it had grown over the course of the season, and showed some poise down the stretch. In the last few weeks, they seemed to finally have grasped the concept of working the ball inside out, looking for the open shooters and mixing that with strong moves to the hoop. They seemed to have improved their overall zone defense. Sooner or later it was inevitable that Andy Rautins would cool down, and it was good to see Eric Devendorf snap out of his shooting slump to carry the team.

Yesterday we saw one of the most impressive dunks I’ve seen in a while, when Paul Harris brought it home to end the first half. I’m not sure if a replay does it justice. And we almost saw one of the most miraculous come backs in basketball history. Syracuse was down by 6 points with five seconds to go, and no time outs… and they had a chance to win the game.

A few observations:

I’ve been saying for a while now that I think the Orange had to finish the regular season 6-0 to lock an NCAA berth. I think I still believe that; finishing 5-1 isn’t locking us into the tournament. I think 5-1 with the win over Georgetown is very helpful… but not a lock. Yes, we are 21-9, and 10-6 in the Big East. And if they did the selection right now, I’m fairly certain that we would be in. However, I believe a first round loss in the Big East Tournament would put us on the bubble.

It’s not that we need to add to our resume. It’s that a loss to St. John’s or UConn would damage that resume. Neither of those two teams are quality opponents, so a loss would be a bad loss. If I were on the committee, I’d want to know Syracuse is going to take care of business, and a loss there would not be an indicator to me. It would also leave the Orange at 6-4 over their last 10 games; that’s not bad, but it’s not a plus. The number of quality wins on the Syracuse resume is low: Marquette, Villanova and Georgetown. Especially when compared to the poor losses: Wichita State, Drexel, St. Johns, UConn.

We could still make the NCAA with a first round loss, but I think it would be from the bubble position. A first round win moves us to at least 22-10, with no worse than 7-3 in our last ten games, and a loss at that point would be to a quality team (in all likelihood). So, winning the first round should lock it in for us.

Demetris Nichols had a good chance at being the Big East Player of the Year, but I think he lost it with the end of the game yesterday. It’s a tight race this year, with none of the top five players really separating themselves from the pack. If Nichols had made both of the technical free throw shots, and then made the three point shot to win the game… that would have clinched the award for him. It would’ve been a great player pulling off the miracle ending to a big game. He’s made many big shots this year, but I think he needed that moment to do it. The fact he failed to deliver, as harsh as that may be, will likely be held against him, and I think that puts the ball back in the court of a front runner for Pitt or Georgetown.

Eric Devendorf looked great on the court yesterday, playing mostly in control. It was good to see him actually succeed when he put the team on his back; he’s tried that a few times this season but with little success. He still had his five turnovers, and he did miss ten shots, but it was a great effort for Devo. It was the first time since the 2003-04 season that two different Orangemen have scored 30+ points in a game in one season (Hakim Warrick and Gerry McNamara did it that season). It’s also the first time an Orangemen has scored 30+ points in a road game since Warrick did it against Nova in February 2005.

Terrence Roberts is playing extremely inspirational basketball. I’ve questioned his toughness before, but its amazing the toughness and grit he’s shown the past couple of games. Playing on one knee, and only 24 minutes of playing time he pulled down 8 rebounds (four offensive), and showed some solid defense. Now he did go 0-2 from the free throw line ( that’s 54-108 50% for this season, 167-347, 48.4% for his career ), and he took another three point shot and missed (Why does he even try? For his career he’s now 5-25, 20%). But Roberts is going out on a positive note… and that’s how a lot of people will remember him.

Andy Rautins finally had his hot streak snapped, and was 2-11 from three point range. However, for those who think he offers little else on the court, he still played tremendous zone defense, and had four assists with only one turnover.

Did I mention Paul Harris’ dunk? Wow. If anyone has been paying attention, Harris is only 10 rebounds off the team lead. Not too bad for a guy who hasn’t had nearly the minutes many thought he should.

Nova shot 29-32 from the free throw line. You’re not going to win too many games when the opponent shots that many free throws and makes 91% of them.

I’m trying to keep an open mind about Syracuse having new uniforms. I’m not optimistic on what I’ll think. And if any color but Orange is the dominant color, I’ll be extremely disappointed. I am getting tired about everything always being about money. I’d like to see a college actually do something for another reason. Perhaps, maybe for educational purposes, pride, history, tradition, etc. I can think of a lot of reasons… the monetary focus needs to be toned down several notches.

Don’t think it can be done? Hey, this blog is written for free, and I hope you find it has some quality to it. And there are several other blogs out there regarding Syracuse basketball, all of them with quality, and most of them done by fans who have a passion for the game and for the team. So money does not need to drive everything.

Go Orange!

RY

When You're Hot You're Hot

When you’re hot your hot. Over the last four games, Andy Rautins has been on fire from three point range. The lanky sophomore is 17 of 28 from three point range (60.7%). That’s an amazing four game clip. And he’s been consistent… it’s not like one or two big games in that four game stretch. Rautins has gone 4-5, 5-8, 3-6 and 5-9 from outside the arc in that stretch.

It does beg the question, though, what is going to happen to the Orange when Rautins has an average night? It’s unreasonable to expect him to continue at a 60% clip (though I’m sure his few remaining critics will bash him next time he goes 1-4). During this four game losing stretch the Orange would likely have lost to St. Johns and Providence if Rautins had made one less three in each game, and both the South Florida and UConn games were close until about 3 minutes to go. In both those cases, if Rautins hadn’t been hot, Syracuse could have been trailing with about 3 minutes to go, and that changes the entire complexion of the team.

Over the same four game period, Eric Devendorf has shot a horrendous 14 of 50 from the floor (28% !!). Demetris Nichols has made some big shots, but he’s mired in a 16 for 48 slump (33%). I guess hope is there is Rautins starts to shoot more human, that Devo and Nichols might both pick up their scoring.

Cuse Country points out that the current configuration of Devondorf, Rautins, Nichols, Harris and Watkins is likely the best Syracuse combination on the court. I agree with that, and I do think it has the best chemistry. Boeheim has struggled all year with how to get Harris on the court, and the key really is that the 6’3” Harris (there’s no way he’s his listed 6’5”) is a much better power forward than any other position, and the loss of Roberts is opening opportunities for Harris, in many ways.

First of all, Harris is only effective if he can drive to the hoop. With Harris, Roberts and Watkins all on the court at the same time, that’s three Syracuse players and three defenders all hovering around the hoop. Far too much congestion. So if you take Roberts off the court, there’s some space beneath the hoop for Harris.

Second, when you have three shooters on the court like Rautins, Devo, and Nichols, the defense has to spread to cover them. That opens up the interior even more for Harris to operate. It also allows players like Rautins to make a nice cut to the hoop through a clear lane (and he made a beautiful move today that Harris promptly rewarded him for). So Harris as a ‘point forward’ seems to work well.

Third, with three perimeter players already on the floor, you need to have some inside guys, which means Josh Wright is off the court, allowing Harris to play 'point forward' and handle the ball more, something he is comfortable with.

As Orange fans we’ll have to be very concerned about the six man rotation Syracuse currently has, especially since Harris and Rautins aren’t used to playing more than 25 minutes a game. But it is an exciting unit, and right now, I’d rather watch them lose with this unit, then win ugly games with the old configuration (well… maybe I won't go that far).

Single Season Leaps

Demetris Nichols is having a great season, and his scoring is up significantly from last season. He’s scored 511 points this year, as opposed to 466 points last season. If the Orangemen play about 8 more games, he’ll get to 662 points, which would be a 196 point increase from last season. It begged the question to me, what is the record at Syracuse for the biggest point increase from one season to another?

There have been fifteen players in Syracuse history to have increased their scoring by 300 or more points from one season to another. Five of those were guys in their senior seasons:

Ernie Austin 348 point increase (445 senior year, 97 points junior year)
Greg Monroe 344 (490, 146)
John Wallace 341 (845, 504)
Danny Schayes 318 (496, 178)
Bob Kouwe 302 (349, 47)

Of that fivesome, John Wallace stands out as very impressive. Think about it: he scored 16.8 ppg as a junior, was a possible first round NBA draft choice, and came back to school and increased his scoring by 341 points (not to mention taking the team to the brink of a national championship). His increased scoring (5.4 ppg) and 8 additional games (that’s what you get for making a deep tournament run) accounted for the difference. Austin and Kouwe both had injuries their junior year, and Monroe and Schayes were on the bench behind seniors.

Four guys made huge scoring transitions from their sophomore year to their junior year:

Greg Kohls 536 point increase (574 points junior year, 38 points sophomore year)
Dave Johnson 418 (621, 203)
Demetris Nichols 360 (466, 106)
Preston Shumpert 333 (662, 329)
Otis Hill (482, 195)

Kohls has the record for the biggest single season increase; 536 points would be a great season by itself, and he increased his scoring by that amount.

Six guys made the big jump their freshman to sophomore seasons:

Sherman Douglas 513 point increase (659 points sophomore year, 146 points freshman year)
Marty Byrnes 359 (377, 18)
Todd Burgan 350 (459, 109)
Rafael Addison 304 (565, 261)
Hakim Warrick 304 (518, 214)
Stephen Thompson 300 (492, 192)

As much as all these Orangemen made huge strides, no player in Syracuse history made as big a leap as Nick Paul. Paul increased his scoring by 209 points from his junior season to his senior season. That doesn’t seem so amazing does it?

Consider that Nick Paul played from 1918-1920. The typical scoring leader averaged 150 points in a season in about 15 games or so. Paul scored 216 points his senior season (1919-20) to lead the team in scoring; he had scored only 7 points his junior season. He had scored only 1 point his sophomore season. Paul scored 216 points his senior season, after scoring a total of 8 points in his college career up to that point. And while I haven’t been able to confirm it yet, I believe 216 points was a Syracuse single season scoring mark at that point in time. That is an amazing transformation.

That would be about as remarkable as Matt Gorman suddenly scoring 28 points a game his senior season.

Debunking the Myth

I see many references on the message boards that coach Jim Boeheim hates to play freshman. Well, quite simply, I’d like to quickly debunk that myth.

Coach Boeheim has consistently played the best players on the court, regardless of their class. Keep in mind, by “best”, I mean the player who is the most talented and positive impact on the team today. Many fans get that confused with “potential”, meaning how good the player could be. One thing Boeheim has not done much with, is the “would of, could of, should of” scenarios.

Boeheim has been the head coach at Syracuse for 31 years. During that time, he has started 22 freshman. Sixteen of them were starters for virtually their entire freshman seasons, and six split time with other teammates.

Roosevelt Bouie
Erich Santifer (16 gs)
Andre Hawkins
Pearl Washington
Michael Brown
Rony Seikaly
Derrick Coleman
Billy Owens
Michael Edwards (18 gs)
Adrian Autry
Lawrence Moten
John Wallace
Otis Hill
Jason Hart
Etan Thomas (12 gs)
Jeremy McNeil (21 gs)
Hakim Warrick (19 gs)
Craig Forth
Gerry McNamara
Carmelo Anthony
Demetris Nichols (15 gs)
Eric Devendorf

That was the list of the starters. That does not even account for the freshman who has significant playing time from the bench, which would include players such as:

Stephen Thompson
Dave Johnson
Gene Waldron
Tony Bland
Rafael Addison
Wendell Alexis
DeShaun Williams
Louie Orr
Eddie Moss
Billy Edelin
Ron Payton
Richie Manning

Does Jim Boeheim start seniors and juniors over freshman more often? Sure he does. It would be foolish to think he would do otherwise. Seniors are more experienced, typically bigger and stronger, smarter on the court, and therefore, you would hope, better players. Do you think Derrick Coleman as a freshman was equal to Derrick Coleman as a senior? If you had Derrick Coleman (senior) on your team, would you take him out of the starting lineup so Derrick Coleman (freshman) could start? Of course not.

Historically speaking, when the freshman is deserving of playing time over his teammates, he has received it.

RY

Guards... be the playmakers

I may have more to write tomorrow on the Syracuse / South Florida game. Here's my quick observation. With 9 minutes left in the game, Demetris Nichols has taken only 6 shots in the game. He scored 57 points the past two games combined, and he's only taken six shots this game. Yes, he is cold... but let me repeat he's taken only 6 six shots this game.

Eric Devondorf and Josh Wright, who've been cold for a month or so (or so it seems), have taken upon themselves to heave up 18 shots so far (making only six). Only four assists between them.

All I know is if a guy has been carrying you lately, ride him. Rautins was 4-7 early in the second half from three point range. Hasn't taken a shot in the last 10 minutes. Devo and Wright... you've got to make an smart effort to get the ball to Rautins, or to get Demetris free... or get the ball to Watkins down low.

Again, guards... make the play. Get the rest of the guys into the game.

We may very well win this game... we've been leading most of it, though close. Our guards aren't playing it smart though.

Nichols Nets 37

Syracuse held of a last minute surge from St. Johns to win 76-74 in a “must win” scenario for the Orange. Having gone 1-3 the four games prior to today’s game, I think they need to finish the regular season 6-0 (short of having to run the Big East tournament… again!). That would make the Orange 7-3 in their last 10 regular season games. They dug themselves a deep hole, and need to climb out of it.

Demetris Nichols was the hero of the day, putting up a career high 37 points on some outstanding shooting. 14 of 24 from the floor, and 7 of 13 from three point range. Probably more impressive for Nichols was that he pulled down 10 rebounds.

Nichols effort was the best for an Orangemen since Gerry McNamara torched Davidson for 38 in December of 2005. It was the most points ever for an Orangeman in a Big East game, breaking the previous team record held by Hakim Warrick. And the 37 point effort is tied (with many) for 17th place on the all-time Syracuse single game scoring list.

An interesting side note was that Nichols only made two free throws. The last Syracuse player to score 37+ points with two or less free throws was Dennis DuVal, who scored 37 against Bucknell on January 23, 1974 on 18-30 shooting, with 1 free throw.

Andy Rautins had a big day too, scoring 14 points on 4-5 shooting from three point range (5-7 from the field overall).

This years team has been one of the better Syracuse free throw shooting squads. Yet today, they went cold, 12-23, missing 11 free throws. The culprits? It was not the usual suspects. Darryl Watkins and Terrence Roberts shot a combined 7 of 11 from the free throw line.

Nope, the culprits were the free throw sharpshooters. Rautins, Eric Devendorf, and Josh Wright shot a combined 3 of 10 from the free throw line. Ouch. I do not think we will see that often.

Devo had a poor shooting day, but kept his finger off the trigger, going one for four, and a total of four points. I was concerned that he was shooting poorly and had four turnovers at the half… but he turned it around in the second half, played solid with his ball handling and ended up with 9 assists.

St. John’s is a team Syracuse should have buried. But it was good to see that they were able to come back from being down in the second half, and then hold off a late Red Storm charge. It’s also good to see that Nichols kept shooting down the stretch, and that Devo and Wright recognized that Nichols was the man to give the ball to.

It’s a win. A big one at this point.

RY

Stats Updated - Milestones revisited

The season is well into fold, so I thought I'd do a brief recap of where the players are in terms of career milestones.

Demetris Nichols has 1,127 career points, putting him #41 on the all-time Syracuse scoring list. Next in his sights is DeShaun Williams at 1,136, and the Martys (Headd and Byrnes) at 1,159. Terrence Roberts is at 898 career points, putting him at #56. He should make 1,000 by season end, unless he underperforms and the team tanks terribly in the post season.

Nichols is up to #7 on the all time three point shooting list with 167. For his career he is 167-473, for 35.3%. Next on his list is DeShaun Williams (again) at 175, and Todd Burgan at 178.

Eric Devendorf is climbing the three point shooting chart rapidly. He is now 90-233 for his career, 38.7%, putting him tied at #15 with Michael Edwards. Next on this list for Devo is Kueth Duany and Luke Jackson, both at 98.

Andy Rautins is 49-152 from the three point range for his career, or 32.2%. He is #23 on the all-time list, one behind Billy Owens and current assistant coach Mike Hopkins.

Darryl Watkins has 226 career blocks, putting him 6th all-time. Jeremy McNeil is next on the list at 260. Watkins recently passed Craig Forth who had 215.

Nichols has 912 points scored his junior and senior seasons. 22 previous Orangemen have scored 1,000 points their junior and senior season combined. The record is 1,406 points. You may be surprised who holds that record… I’ll save the answer for a little bit.

Devo has 752 points scored so far in his freshman and sophomore seasons; the Syracuse record is 1,101 by Lawrence Moten. Only two other Orangemen had 1,000 points by the end of their sophomore season; Billy Owens with 1,096 and Gerry McNamara with 1,001. Devo’s 752 points makes him the 11th most prolific player by the end of his sophomore season; John Wallace is at #10 with 770 pts, and Carmelo Anthony at #9 with 778 pts (course, he did it in one season).

Devo’s 90 three point shots are the third most for a player after his first two seasons; Williams is next with 104. GMac is well ahead at 190.

The answer to the most prolific scoring player at Syracuse during his junior and senior seasons? Mr. Preston Shumpert. He average 20.5 ppg to get to his 1,406 points.

Super Bowl XLI - Orangeman Style

Five former Syracuse Orangemen are part of this years Super Bowl Championship Indianapolis Colts. Marvin Harrison and Dwight Freeney are both starters, while Josh Thomas and Ryan Lacasse were reserves, and James Mungro was on the team, but on the IR all season. This is the most Syracuse football players in one Super Bowl, and bring the total to 27 former Orangemen on Super Bowl teams, 17 of which have won a Super Bowl Championship.

The list includes (alphabetically; asterisks indicate Super Bowl wins):

Dave Bavaro
Rob Burnett*
Mike Charles
Ken Clarke
Larry Csonka**
Paul Frase
Dwight Freeney*
Marvin Harrison*
Qadry Ismail*
Darryl Johnston***
Tebucky Jones*
Pat Kelly
Ryan Lacasse*
Dave Lapham
John Mackey*
Donavan McNabb
Kevin Mitchell*
Art Monk***
Keith Moody*
Joe Morris*
James Mungro*
Josh Thomas*
Stan Walters
Roland Williams*
Otis Williams*
Blaise Winters
Dave Wohlabaugh

Two of these players also played basketball for Syracuse university: Donavan McNabb and John Mackey. Also of note, the legendary Jim Brown played in three NFL Championship games (before the Super Bowl), winning one. And Brown also starred in basketball at Syracuse (along with several other sports).

As a side note, 19 former Syracuse basketball players have played in the NFL. Mike Waters had brought this up on his blog today, so I felt obliged to follow up on it.

Congratulations to all the Indianapolis Colts for their championship. Special note to Tony Dungy who was a class act in his post game interview, and to Peyton Manning for chasing away that terrible monkey that would’ve (unfairly) sat on his back.

RY

Dr. Jeckle Shows Up

The Orange snapped their three game losing streak with a big win against DePaul, bringing their good brand of basketball instead of their poor. The heartening fact was they did it despite poor offensive nights from Demetris Nichols and Terrence Roberts. The disappointing fact was that they once again couldn’t finish out a game, this time nearly blowing a 20 point second half lead before winning down the stretch. I’m sure antacid sales have been very high in central New York this year, and it appears that the need will continue.

Eric Devendorf had his career best effort for the Orange, and Andy Rautins had his first big game for Syracuse.

Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician made a good point the other day about Syracuse struggling when the big guns (Devo, DNic, and TRob) aren’t making their points; nobody does appear to be stepping up in those down nights. Well last night, Rautins showed he may be part of the solution. I had meant to put together some numbers showing the impact of the lack of scoring from the big three, but haven’t quite finished it yet; not really sure if it really stands out statistically as well as we all can intuit.

Coach Jim Boeheim’s post game press conference had some comments relevant to the big nights for Devo and Rautins. When asked about starting Devendorf, Boeheim replied:

"I just though he had given us a lift coming off the bench and just thought it would help him. It helped him and it helped Andy (Rautins). They had something like 27 points in the first part of the game. Both guys adjusted well to it and I thought Eric and Andy just had big games. It was a huge game for them and us. (Demetris Nichols) struggled today. When we have a game like that and Demetris struggles, it’s a heck of a good sign. Terrence (Roberts) and Mookie (Daryl Watkins) struggled. It’s a pretty big win when those struggle and we win.”

When asked about Rautins shooting performance he replied:

“Well we have to work the ball and help get him open. I thought we did that today. Our patience was better and we didn’t turn the ball over and we passed the ball better. We had 18 assists. I thought all that was good. Andy needs help, he needs screens. I thought one thing we didn’t do was when they started switching late in the game, we should have tried to get the ball inside more and that’s something we’re going to have to do.”

I’ll be curious which Orange team shows up Monday versus UConn. This is a game Syracuse should take, and should be able to win big. But will it be Jeckle or Hyde that shows up?

RY

It's Raining Threes (and that's not good)

I have no idea what to think of this team at this point after the lopsided loss to Notre Dame. I think Jim Boeheim may have been right in his 2006 'GMac Underrated' tirade; this team may not have won 10 games without Gerry McNamara last year. Consider that it's basically the same team this year with the addition of Paul Harris, and all the returning players are at the least marginally better than last year (some significantly better). Yet this year's squad has struggled to 15 wins.

Many fans have been clamoring for Boeheim to drop the zone defense in favor of man-to-man; last night he played extensive man-to-man from the start of the game, and it got shredded by a three point shooting barrage never seen before at the Carrier Dome. At one point the Fighting Irish went 8-11 from three point range. Go figure. The 103 points was the most the Orange has ever given up in the dome.

According to the halftime boxscore, Syracuse had only 4 fouls at the break, and Notre Dame only 2 turnovers. Any wonder why the Orange gave up 61 points? In the natural course of playing solid defense you're going to have fouls and generate some turnovers. Was anyone playing defense?

Andy Rautins’ defensive specialty is obviously the zone, which he is good at. Foot speed is not one of his strengths. He had to be removed because of the focus on man-to-man for most the evening, thus only 11 minutes of playing time, despite the fact he hit 2-3 three point shots.

Because of the man-to-man focus, Paul Harris got significant playing time, and got his 11 rebounds; he is absolutely a rebound machine. Lot's of turnovers (4), but at least he learned not to take the three pointers outside his range. 4-10 from the floor isn't good, but heck, if he makes one more shot, he's 5-10 and that's good. He plays with so much energy, so much hustle, that I think he's the rare player who actually has to turn down his aggressiveness to be effective.

Darryl Watkins got eaten up having to play man-to-man defense... it cost him five fouls and limited him to only 21 minutes of playing time. Even then, Watkins needed to play more aggressive.

Devo was just plain out awful from the floor. 0 for 11? Egad. I don't know what else could be said about that.

I've tried to be supportive of Josh Wright this year. I really have. But another 4 turnover effort. He has got to learn to take care of the ball, and to run the plays.

Demetris Nichols had 29 points. I've seen some message board posts where fans think that proves he's a big time scorer because he helped bring the team back. I would argue the reverse; because of the terribly lopsided score, there was no pressure, and he was able to get into a rhythm. I really like DNic, but his history has shown that the bigger the game, the less we'll hear from him.

Terrence Roberts played solid, though the Orange could have used more rebounding from him. He did go 4-5 from the free throw line, raising his season above 50% (he's now 44-87, 50.6%), and his career is now at 158-326, or 48.5%.

Isn't it ironic that this year's team is one of the better free throw shooting teams in recent memory (71%)? The one thing that has always haunted the Orange in the past is not an issue this year. Can you imagine what it would be like if they could not make their free throws?

The season is not over; there's still a lot to be played. I'm less concerned about the wins and losses, though that will come back to haunt them. I would like to see better overall play. Teams should be improving over the course of the season, and this team is still where it was in December.

Jim Boeheim Coaches #1000

Tonight, Jim Boeheim will coach his 1000th game for Syracuse University. Congratulations Mr. Boeheim on the milestone, and more importantly for 31 seasons of leadership that the Orange fans have been privileged to watch.

Fittingly the game is against Louisville, coached by Boeheim's first assistant coach back in 1976-1977, Rick Pitino. And of course, Bernie Fine will be by Boeheim's side tonight... his 1000th game as a Syracuse assistant coach. No small feat in deed.

Let's take a look at the numbers, as you know I am prone to do.

Boeheim's career record is 741-258 going into tonight, with a 285-155 Big East Conference record. He's the all time winningest coach in Big East history, and with no signs of retiring, and nobody else even close, that record will likely stand a long long time.

He has coached 31 seasons, winning 20+ games in 27 of those campaigns (surely to make 20 again this year), making the NCAA tournament 25 times, the NIT 4. He has reached the Final Four three times, and in 2003 showed the third time is the charm by winning the National Championship. He is already a Hall of Famer, inducted in 2005, and has the Syracuse court named after him. He has won 5 Big East Tournament Championships, been to the Big East Finals 13 times, and has been named the Big East Coach of the Year 3 times.

Stevie Thompson has the fortune (or misfortune, some may say) of playing more games for Boeheim than any other player, at 144. Derrick Coleman started more, with 142 to his credit. And Gerry McNamara logged more court time sith 4,801 minutes (averaging 35.6 per game for his career).

31 different players scored 1,000+ points on Boeheim's watch, six of those scoring 2,000+, and Lawrence Moten leading the way with 2,334. Before anyone writes me, yes, Dale Shackleford, Jimmy Williams and Marty Byrnes scored 1000+ points and played under Boeheim, but they did not score 1,000 while playing for Boeheim (Roy Danforth had some of those points).

168 different players had the opportunity to play for Jim Boeheim. 56 of them played 4+ seasons; Jeremy McNeil played 5 seasons (with the benefit of a medical redshirt).

21 of Boeheim's players have played in the NBA, 30 have been drafted by the NBA. Three were named Big East Players of the Year (Derrick Coleman, Billy Owens and Hakim Warrick), and four were named Big East Rookie of the Year (Pearl Washington, Derrick Coleman, Lawrence Moten and Carmelo Anthony).

Two Boeheim players have scored 40+ points in a game (Gene Waldron and Gerry McNamara), and five have recorded a classic triple double (Leo Rautins twice, Allen Griffin, Lazarus Sims, Derrick Coleman).

As mentioned previously, Lawrence Moten is the all-time leading scorer under Boeheim. Derrick Coleman is the leading rebounder with 1,537 (also a NCAA record). Sherman Douglas the all-time assist man with 960. Jason Hart leads the way with 329 steals, Etan Thomas with 424 blocked shots. Gerry McNamara had an even 400 three point field goals for Boeheim.

Boeheim is reaching is 1000th game as the head coach of Syracuse, but its not his 1000th in connection. He played for 76 games for Syracuse, and was an assistant coach for another 230 games. For those of you who are sticklers, that means tonight is his 1,306 game with Syracuse University; if my calculations are right, his 1000th game in association with the university occurred on January 21, 1998, on the road vs Notre Dame, in a game the Orangemen lost 83.63.

Congratulations to Coach Boeheim on this 1000th game. I hope the second 1000 are as wonderful as the first.

RY

Hall of Fame

Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician made a great argument earlier this month about Hall of Fames being watered down, and I've been meaing to compliment him on it. I don't want to rehash all his arguments, he made them well; please check it out yourself. I'm right on board with his perspective.

I think Hall of Famers should be the best of the best, no brainers. If there can be a lengthy debate with valid points on both sides of the argument, then the guy is not a Hall of Famer. That's not a slight to those who are not in the Hall of Fame. It just should be about greatness, immortality. It's not all about the numbers, though they play into it. It's about how great they were at the time.

When I was growing up, Steve Garvey and Nolan Ryan were my absolute favorite players. Ryan went on to absolute greatness; he was larger than life, mythical, with an over powering fastball, seven no-hitters. Clearly a Hall of Famer.

Garvey was a multiple year all-Star, one of the most popular players of his era, among the league leaders every year in hits and rbi's. One of the cornerstones of a tremendous Dodger team of the 70's and arly 80's. He's not in the Hall of Fame... and I don't think he belongs there. He's definitely better than many guys who are there, but I think being one of the best guys every year for many years isn't quite the same as being the best.

Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Henry Aaron, Willie Mays, Roger Clemens, Tom Seaver, Steve Carlton: guys you talk about with reverence and awe. Don Sutton was a very good pitcher, winning 300+ games, but does anyone ever say "I remember that day I saw Sutton pitch...".

Sandy Koufax, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Lefty Grove. Again, no contest. Phil Rizzuto? A nice guy, integral part of many Yankee championships, but again, no Hall of Famer.

I'm also against retiring numbers. Hey, if they guy is memorable enough, the number will speak for itself. Seeing #44 on the basketball court was always a great reminder to me of Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, and Derrick Coleman. Allowing the # to be something coveted by active players, now to me, that is the real honor. I know Syracuse doesn't actually retire the numbers; the ceremony is really more about hanging a jersey with a name on it. I hope they let the numbers be used again in basketball; I know its no longer going to be available in football, and that's a shame.

RY

Manning & Brady

A little divergence from Syracuse basketball for the next day or so.

Congratulations to Peyton Manning and the Syracuse Four (Marvin Harrison, Dwight Freeney, Josh Thomas and Ryan LaCasse) for making the Super Bowl. I had meant to write this article prior to the Colts beating the Pats, but the content is still relevant.

From my perspective, there is a difference between the statement “which player had a greater career” and “which was the greater player”? The former focuses on what was accomplished, and latter on who was the best. They could be the same, but just as often, it could be different answers.

There is no doubt that at this point, Tom Brady has had a greater career than Peyton Manning. Brady has won three Super Bowls, and Manning none. They play the game to win, and Brady clearly accomplished more. However, the Super Bowl Championships does not mean that Brady is the better quarterback, they guy that you want leading your team over all others. Sure it's evidence to support that position, strong evidence, but it’s not the definitive evidence that many fans issue.

I'll start this by saying I think Tom Brady is a great quarterback. Possibly the best of our era; definitely one of the best. Amazing under pressure; an outstanding leader and an uncanny knack to make the big play at the right time. Like most fans out there, I also think that Bill Belicheck is a great coach, one of the best defensive minds out there. And I think Adam Vinatieri is a great kicker.

And that’s where I have an issue with pointing at championships as the definitive measure of how great a player is. Team sports are won by teams, not by individuals. It is a collective triumph, a collective failure. If all the players don’t work together, the big stars aren’t in a position to win the game when it matters. The big stars have to come through when it matters, but they also have to be given that opportunity.

Let’s follow the assumption that Belicheck is as great a defensive coach as we credit him to be. When the Patriots beat the Colts in past seasons in the playoffs, wasn’t it more of an issue of Belicheck vs Manning, not Brady vs Manning? I’ve never seen Tom Brady intercept a Manning pass, or sack Manning, or force Manning into a rushed pass. So Manning struggled against the greatest defensive minded coach of our era; and he looked bad doing it. How many times in his career has Tom Brady faced a Bill Belicheck defense? Zero. How would Mr. Brady do against a Bill Belicheck defense? I doubt we’ll ever know the answer to that question. For you devout Patriot fans, what would the answer be? I’m curious.

Adam Vinatieri is considered the greatest clutch kicker of our generation, if not of all time. He earned the reputation by repeatedly proving himself in clutch situations in January games. It begs the question then: if the Patriots had such a great defensive team, lead by the greatest defensive minded coach of our era, and the best quarterback of our era, how come they often had to find themselves in a position for their field goal kicker to win them games?

If they had a lesser kicker, the assumption is they would have lost those games (because the implication is that Vinatieri is a great kicker because he made the clutch kicks that most other kickers wouldn’t have made… otherwise, what was so great about it?) Would Brady have been any lesser of a quarterback because a lesser kicker had missed the field goal, and thus cost the Pats the titles? That would seem absurd, right? Yet, isn’t that really the argument people are making?

I think back to the great Miami / Boston College football game where Doug Flutie won the shootout with the Hail Mary at the end. Was Bernie Kosar any less of a quarterback because Flutie made that pass, forcing Kosar to lose? Would Flutie have been any less of a quarterback if Phelan dropped the ball in the endzone?

It is fair to say that Brady succeeded in the opportunities he was given, where historically Manning came up short. Very relevant arguments that need to brought into the discussion; but not the definitive answer. It is a team game. It takes 53 guys to win. 53 to lose.

My intent here is not to choose one of these quarterbacks over the other. I'm not trying to make an argument for one or for the other. I just want to challenge the thinking of many of you out there; I think falling back on who won more is the easy way out, and leads to biased results. But I think it would be gutless of me to write an article, and not state some conclusion.

I would take either guy to quarterback my team, and be very happy with it. I just have a sense that Peyton Manning does more to help a team win, that he is more important to the success of the Colts than Brady is to the success of the Patriots. I also think Manning is more instrumental in the Colt losses than Brady is in the Patriot losses. In my opinion, the Colts have been more dependent on Manning playing well than the Pats on Brady.

For that reason, I’ll take Mr. Manning. But Mr. Brady can still play for me any day!

Welcome Back Terrence

Welcome back to earth Terrence Roberts. After shooting like Gerry McNamara, Richie Cornwall, and Greg Kohls from the free throw line over the previous six games (14 of 17), TRob came back to his roots and shot an abyssmal 1-9 from the free throw line in Syracuse's 64-60 loss to St. Johns. That drops Roberts to 34-74 for the season (45.9%) and 148-313 for his career (47.3%).

What was really amazing was the Roberts' form looked solid during his stretch when he was making the shots. Agains the Red Storm he looked horrendous. Absolutely terrible.

He did keep up with his solid play for the first ten minutes of the game, almost single handedly carrying the team. Unfortunately the big guy disappeared after that, though he did get his double-double.

He's now taken 4 three point shots this year, and of course has missed them all. Terrence, there's a reason you're open at the arc; you're 5-23 for your career from that range. Egads. Only thing worse than seeing TRob square up for a three is seeing Paul Harris do the same.

Anyhow the Orange played great against Villanova, perhaps the best team effort I've seen in a couple of years. They struggled against Cincinnati but showed a lot of poise when it mattered. The whole team looked terrible against St. Johns. The Red Storm simply looked awful, and yet the Orange seemed determined to play worse than the Johnnies.

I have hope the team can achieve some success on this season, but Sunday was not one of those times.

Syracuse 75, Villanova 64

Jim Boeheim’s been saying for a couple of seasons that the Orangemen will only be as good as this year’s senior class takes them. Well, perhaps for the first time, the seniors put together an outstanding effort against a quality team in a Big East game, beating Villanova 75-64 on Rony Seikaly Day at the Dome.

Demetris Nichols had an outstanding first half of the game. His confidence seemed high, and for at least one game, he shook his career long struggle in Big East play to look like a legit star player. Nichols had one of those games where he seemed to make every shot, and even when he took a couple ill-advised shots, he still made the basket. Five of six from three point range is a very nice day. Special congrats to Nichols who joined the Syracuse 1000 point club today (always nice to get a personal accolade on a day your team wins).

Nichols was somewhat quiet the second half, but there really was no need for more heroic efforts from him as the Orangemen were pretty comfortable in the lead most the time. It seemed they solved their season long problem of starting the second half slow, as they came out firing, and quickly put Nova away to start the half. I hope that’s a trend we see continue.

Darryl Watkins had a silent but outstanding game, basically doing everything required of him. Some outstanding defense, and making every basket he tried (four for four). He could have rebounded more, but his teammates picked that up.

The big man on the day was Terrence Roberts, and what a game he had. 17 points and 14 rebounds for the big man. And that only tells part of the story. For the first time in a long while he seemed to do a lot of the little things right. He was handling the ball relatively well, made some nice interior passes and kick outs, and generally making the right play (he took an ill advised three point shot with plenty of time left on the clock; that’s a shot TRob should not ever take, the Rutgers game from last year the rare exception).

The most amazing thing about Roberts has been his free throw shooting transformation the past few weeks. Roberts, as I’ve well documented before, is statistically the worst free throw shooter in Syracuse history. He went 5-5 this afternoon, and 1-1 against Marquette the other night. He’s now gone 11-12 from the line in the last five games he’s played. Roberts is now 30-60 from the free throw line this year, up to 50%, and he’s raised his career record to 144-299, or 48.1%. How does a player who is so bad at the free throw line for 3 ½ years suddenly turn into Gerry McNamara at the line? Hypnosis? Has his knee injury affected his stroke in a positive way? Pure luck?

Eric Devendorf did not do much scoring today, but his playmaking was nice. He broke down Nova’s defense well, and didn’t seem to force too many bad plays, and ended up with seven assists. Down the stretch he did force some shots, but I think having him run the clock down and drive to the hoop when we have a lead is a smart play for Syracuse, and one where the result is a forced shot is an acceptible risk. More often than not Devo will get fouled or make the basket, and the key at that point of the game is to eat clock.

Andy Rautins filled his role nicely on the three point play, making three of six, and scoring 11 points in 21 minutes. Overall, if the Orange play this way on a regular basis, their going to win a lot of big games. I think the lack of size from Villanova helped Syracuse, especially on the interior passing, and that may not be an advantage the Orange will always have. But you can’t criticize the Orange for taking advantage of a mismatch situation; if the passes are there, take them!

Syracuse ran the fast break well today, and go the outlet passes to the right players quickly. The switch to man-to-man seemed to make a difference today. I think Villanova’s personnel had a lot to do with that. Watkins didn’t need to worry too much about the play down low, and that helped everyone rotate well.

I only have a few negative observations for the game. 20 turnovers is far too many; this team just seems to have a set number of sloppy plays in them, regardless of who they are playing. Nova had only 12 turnovers; it would be nice to see the Orange have forced more out of the Wildcats. Then again, when you have a large lead, at home, you’re going to play more conservative on defense, and make the other team force the action.

Josh Wright seemed to break the press well, and I think the Wildcats probably should have abandoned it. It’s likely a staple of their game, so that would be unlikely, but it seemed ineffective against the Orange. Wright did make some poor decisions in the second half, and Boeheim pulled him for most of the stretch play. I’m not sure if Boeheim was unhappy with Wright’s play and wanted to send him a message, or if it simply was giving Wright an extended rest.

I know a lot of fans love Paul Harris. He hustles on every play, and has some amazing physical talents. But he looked very spastic on the court today, like he was totally lost on the court. Offensively he doesn’t seem to be adding anything at all to the team, and on defense when they were in the man-to-man defense, he seemed to stray from his man a few too many times (I don’t know if that was by design or not). I do love watching him grab a defensive rebound; he takes off down the court immediately and pushes the action. Hopefully Harris is a coachable player and the coaching staff is able to harness and mold that talent.

Overall, great job Orange! These are the types of games that are very enjoyable to watch.

RY

An Undeniable Pattern

Demetris Nichols has been an enigma to me for the past three years. He physically looks like an NBA caliber player, has the athletic grace and a 6’8” frame. He’s reported to be an excellent perimeter shooter, which I’ve seen glimpses of. Each fall he gives us a sneak peak of how good I think he should be.

As teams shift from non-conference games to their conference schedule, you can expect to see some drop in a player’s individual performance. Tougher games are played on a regular basis during conference play, and there’s more wear and tear on the players. Nichols, however, seems to take that to the extreme.

Over his combined sophomore and junior seasons, in 34 non-conference games, Nichols has averaged 10.5 points per game, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.1 assists. During the same time period in 28 Big East games, Nichols averaged 7.7 points per game, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.0 assists. Over a 27% decrease in total points, and a 25% decrease in rebounds are somewhat larger than what you might expect to see. But its probably not too much outside the norm in drop off.

However, it is the disappearance of his shooting touch in Big East play that is absolutely mind boggling. Over his sophomore and junior seasons, in non-conference games, Nichols shot 45.3% from the floor, 38.5% from the 3 point range and 54.2% from the two point range. Those are pretty good numbers.

In Big East play over the same time period, Nichols shot 37.2% from the floor, 26.7% from three point range and 47.3% from two point range. The first two numbers are terrible. More amazing though, is that his three point shooting drops 11.8 percentage points. That his a huge difference. To give you some perspective on the three point field goal shooting change, in 2005-06 Gerry McNamara shot 33.9% in non-conference and 32.8% in Big East play, Eric Devendorf shot 38.7% in non-conference and 36.6% in Big East play.

So what to attribute Nichols drop in shooting each year? Fatigue? A style of play that does not suit him? More aggressive defenses? Psychology? Winter blues?

More surprisingly is the undefended shot, the free throw. Over the last two seasons, Nichols shot 71.0% from the free throw line in non-conference games. In Big East play, that plummeted to 61.9%. A drop of almost 10 percentage points on uncontested shots!

It had looked like 2006-07 was going to be different. Nichols was playing so well in the non-conference games. He averaged 19.8 points a game, shot a blistering 48.8% from three point range, and a McNamara like 89.4% from the free throw line. In December, he was peaking with 6 straight games with 20+ points, averaging 25.8 ppg during that stretch, including an impressive 31 points against Drexel on December 19th.

Nichols looked extremely confident in play, was making all the right moves. I wasn’t even concerned after the first Big East game against the Pitt Panthers. Pitt has outstanding defense, and while Nichols shot wasn’t falling, he still showed a lot of solid play on the court, including those special nuances you like to see your superstars make.

But now we’re three games into the Big East season. Yes, there’s still a long ways to go, but after three games, Nichols Big East stats are looking awfully familiar. He’s shooting 33.3% from the floor, 25.0% from three point range, and his free throw shooting once again dropped to 62.5%. Those are huge drops.

It’s only three games; statistically speaking that means nothing. I keep telling myself that. Yet, it’s following the Nichols career trend. And when you keep seeing a pattern repeat itself, you’re foolish to ignore it. I can’t explain why Nichols struggles in Big East play. I know its not all about the defense, because a large drop in free throw shooting isn’t caused by defense (fatigue plays into that, and strong defense can lead to fatigue, but not to that extreme).

Demetris, I haven’t given up on you yet. I still think you can be a star for Syracuse. Prove your historical numbers wrong, prove this analysis wrong, and show us you’re the play I had always hoped you would be. It was nice to get another glimpse in autumn, but while being Mr. October is great for baseball, its not what we want in basketball.

RY

Roberts Free Throw Quest

Terrence Roberts missed the St. Bonaventure and Hofstra games with his knee injury, and then didn’t get an opportunity at the line versus Pitt, so he’s been on hold with his quest for free throw shooting history.

An ironic twist occurred along the way against Marquette. The Orange as a team had a bad night at the charity stripe. The team was 0-6 from the line in the first half, on their way to a 21-35 night from the line. The game entered the final minute with the Orange having a slight lead. Marquette did the smart thing and fouled Roberts rather than let him score. And what did Roberts do? Well, the owner of a career 46.7% free throw shooting percent, calmly made both of his free throw shooting to basically seal the win for Syracuse.

And while I don’t expect the trend to last, Roberts has gone 5-6, 83% from the line in the last three games he’s played. Not quite Gerry McNamara numbers, but that would put him in the Eric Devendorf class. Of course six free throw attempts statistically means nothing… but Roberts easily could have been 0-6.

So for the season, TRob is up to 24-54 from the free throw line (44.4%), and his career percentage is skyrocketing (well, not quite) to 138 of 293, or 47.1%.

As a side note, the rapid improvement of Darryl Watkins at the free throw line has simply been amazing this year. Watkins was a career 48.2% free throw shooter entering this season. Yet, he has managed to go 35 of 50 for 70% for this season, and even improved to 8 of 12 for 75% in his first two Big East games. Mookie, my hat is off to you, and may you continue shooting it well from the free zone.

RY

BCS - No Time for Playoffs

I looked at my calendar this morning and saw that today is January 8th, 2007. A full seven days after New Years day, the day traditionally the major bowl games were played on. And what is so significant about today's date? Well, the BCS is playing its mythical national championship game tonight.

One full week after major bowl games were historically played. One of the biggest arguments that the NCAA and respective member universities used to make was that they couldn't have a playoff system because it would disrupt the studies of the student athletes with games running into the next semester.

Interestingly enough, they could have played semi-final games on New Years Day, giving a traditional 7 day gap between games, tonight's national championship game would still have been on the same date, with the same impact on the student's academic schedule.

That still would have left Boise State out in the cold; they weren't on anyone's top 4 list. Those four by consensus would've been Ohio State, Michigan, Florida and USC. I had mentioned my own solution a few weeks back, and my solution wouldn't have had a game playing on January 8th. And Boise State would've had a shot in that scenario.

If Ohio State wins tonight, I would concede them the national championship... two undefeated teams, one a tougher schedule. However, if OSU were to lose this game... I'm not conceding it to a one loss Florida team that struggled against FSU down the stretch.

Pre-Conference Schedule Records

The pre-conference schedule is done for Syracuse this year, with the Big East season starting Thursday night for the Orange. I’m sure a lot of Orange fans such as myself are glad it’s done; it has not been a start to a season that we’re accustomed to from Jim Boeheim’s squads.

I went back to determine how Boeheim’s teams have done in previous seasons in the “pre-conference” games; I’ve defined a pre-conference game as any non-conference game that occurs before the start of the Big East season plus any non-conference games that occurred in the first week of the Big East season; I excluded the first year of Big East play where there were only 6 Big East games for the Orangemen. Including this year, Syracuse is 260-27 over 27 seasons in pre-conference games. That’s a winning percentage of 90.6%.

Here’s the breakdown by year.

A few things to note. From the 1984-85 season to the 1993-94 season, Syracuse was an amazing 94-2 in the preseason games. I don’t care who you’re playing; that’s great. During that time frame they played in the Big East / ACC Challenge, along with some other tournaments, so not all the games were “creampuffs”. The only two losses during that time frame where to North Carolina and Arizona, both in the 1987 Great Alaska Shootout.

Even more amazing, from the 1988-89 season to 1993-94, the Orangemen didn’t lose a single pre-conference game, going 57-0. That includes memorable win over Indiana in 1988, Missouri in 1988, Duke in the 1989 ACC/Big East Challenge, Indiana & Iowa State in the 1990 Maui Classic, NC State in the 1990 ACC/Big East Challenge, Florida State in 1991, Tennessee in 1992 and 1993, and Arizona in 1994. So for those critics of Jim Boeheim, please review that list again.

In the 27 seasons of Big East play, Syracuse has only twice lost more than 2 games in the pre-conference schedule. In 1996-97, they went 8-4. That team would end up 19-13 overall, 9-9 in the Big East, and would lose in the first round of the NIT. Not one of the better Boeheim teams.

The other team is this year’s squad, at 11-3 as previously mentioned. I don’t know what that means, but not a good sign. The pre-conference schedule this year has had several setbacks to slow down the team’s progress. Darryl Watkins broke his nose, Terrence Roberts hurt his knee, several players missed games due to viral illness, and Eric Devondorf struggled through some off the court personal tragedies. So the team really hasn’t had too much time to be focused and cohesive. Unfortunately, the Big East season is now here, so they’ll have to put it all together in the big games.

Speaking of the “big games”; detractors of Coach Boeheim like to point out to his ‘cream puff’ schedule for all his wins. As pointed out, he is 260-27 in his pre-conference games, however as I’ve also mentioned, some of those were against some very good squads. Boeheim’s teams were 366-208 in all remaining games during that 27 year period: those would be Big East games, non-conference games in mid-season (typically a solid major conference team), Big East tournament games, and NCAA & NIT games. Boeheim’s squads win 64% of those games too. That’s a pretty good winning percentage against quality teams, almost 2/3rds.

Boeheim has a pretty good recipe: basically win all the games he’s supposed to win, and then win 2/3 of the tough games. There are always bumps in the road; nobody wins them all. But he wins most of them.

RY