Flacusian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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It was only 9 days ago that I settled in to watch the team that among all of the sports world I love the most and have subjected my emotions to pretty much 365 days a year. Once the season ends I just switch gears and try to dig up every morsel of info as to which high school kids we might get, who's coming back, who's testing the NBA waters... well, those who are of similar ilk know exactly what I'm talking about.
Being a Syracuse Basketball fanatic, in my opinion, is unique in many ways when compared to fans of other programs. The things that make us unique are too numerous to completely enumerate here. But to provide some facts to substantiate my opinion, here are a few. The program's identity is wrapped around a defensive strategy that is emblematic of the team and program itself. You mention Syracuse Basketball... and in the same breath you mention the 2-3 zone and the Genius who has perfected it and stubbornly lives or dies by it... Jim Boeheim, who by the way for many is the only coach they have ever seen coaching the Orange. In fact... name another major program who has had the same coach for as many seasons as Syracuse.
Name another program which is as far north as Syracuse... that has had any modicum of success equal to Syracuse. (ok for the sake of heading off the skeptics... Storrs is 41.8 and Syracuse is 43.08 and having grown up in Ct. I can assure you Cuse gets WAY more snow) From a recruiting standpoint being the equivalent of Santa's workshop doesn't qualify Cuse an inviting climate .
So enough of that. ( you can see how hard it is for me to admit I'm wrong) Another fact is that after the loss to G. Tech. I pop into the board here and decide, like many, I can no longer tolerate watching us lose games and seem to have the complete inability ro run anything other than the pick and roll and seem to struggle to score more than 50 or 60 points. The love of the program starts to work against me at that point and I allow the "E" to take over the "I" . Emotion over intellect. Yes, I know you can argue that by allowing this to happen there isn't a lot of intellect present in the first place.
So, I'll cut to the chase. I WAS WRONG. I was very wrong. Entertaining crazy thoughts like the game has passed JB by is compete and utter insanity. All the " recent fluke final 4 appearances have masked the fact that Cuse is a program in decline" are flat out wrong. 48 hours later we were hanging loss around the necks of the #1 Blue Devils, Away, and after finding ourselves down 12 - zip... this team, this Syracuse team who many had already relegated to being careening toward an NIT type season at best, began to find itself, began to become the vision that JB has for this group of kids.
Wow... I had just been treated to what will become one of the most memorable games over the stretch of my CuseBB fandom. and I'm not a kid anymore... I've been watching this program for 45 years with uninterrupted intensity. I had been wrong about this team. Dead wrong. And wrong about JB. I had committed the greatest sin that a true die hard fan could commit.
I had begun to doubt... I had lost faith. I had let a few early season head shaking losses get me to throw in with the naysayers.
I had drawn conclusions based on limited evidence and perhaps worst of all, I had doubted that this group of kids didn't have what it takes to dig down individually and surrender themselves to the team... and never quit.
I'm glad I was wrong. I was very wrong. Tip of the hat to all of the kids on the team and to JB... who I should never doubt.
Being a Syracuse Basketball fanatic, in my opinion, is unique in many ways when compared to fans of other programs. The things that make us unique are too numerous to completely enumerate here. But to provide some facts to substantiate my opinion, here are a few. The program's identity is wrapped around a defensive strategy that is emblematic of the team and program itself. You mention Syracuse Basketball... and in the same breath you mention the 2-3 zone and the Genius who has perfected it and stubbornly lives or dies by it... Jim Boeheim, who by the way for many is the only coach they have ever seen coaching the Orange. In fact... name another major program who has had the same coach for as many seasons as Syracuse.
Name another program which is as far north as Syracuse... that has had any modicum of success equal to Syracuse. (ok for the sake of heading off the skeptics... Storrs is 41.8 and Syracuse is 43.08 and having grown up in Ct. I can assure you Cuse gets WAY more snow) From a recruiting standpoint being the equivalent of Santa's workshop doesn't qualify Cuse an inviting climate .
So enough of that. ( you can see how hard it is for me to admit I'm wrong) Another fact is that after the loss to G. Tech. I pop into the board here and decide, like many, I can no longer tolerate watching us lose games and seem to have the complete inability ro run anything other than the pick and roll and seem to struggle to score more than 50 or 60 points. The love of the program starts to work against me at that point and I allow the "E" to take over the "I" . Emotion over intellect. Yes, I know you can argue that by allowing this to happen there isn't a lot of intellect present in the first place.
So, I'll cut to the chase. I WAS WRONG. I was very wrong. Entertaining crazy thoughts like the game has passed JB by is compete and utter insanity. All the " recent fluke final 4 appearances have masked the fact that Cuse is a program in decline" are flat out wrong. 48 hours later we were hanging loss around the necks of the #1 Blue Devils, Away, and after finding ourselves down 12 - zip... this team, this Syracuse team who many had already relegated to being careening toward an NIT type season at best, began to find itself, began to become the vision that JB has for this group of kids.
Wow... I had just been treated to what will become one of the most memorable games over the stretch of my CuseBB fandom. and I'm not a kid anymore... I've been watching this program for 45 years with uninterrupted intensity. I had been wrong about this team. Dead wrong. And wrong about JB. I had committed the greatest sin that a true die hard fan could commit.
I had begun to doubt... I had lost faith. I had let a few early season head shaking losses get me to throw in with the naysayers.
I had drawn conclusions based on limited evidence and perhaps worst of all, I had doubted that this group of kids didn't have what it takes to dig down individually and surrender themselves to the team... and never quit.
I'm glad I was wrong. I was very wrong. Tip of the hat to all of the kids on the team and to JB... who I should never doubt.