SU/Iona 1998 -- 25 years later

[sweetpea]

You always knew it was going to be a great day at school when one of those monstrosities was wheeled into your classroom

 

[sweetpea]

How about when the old reel to reel projector came rolling in the room. I was always praying for a really wide film to come out of the circular case. If we were lucky there would be two. I just retired from teaching. Most all classrooms now have 85" SmartBoards. Great thing to plug kids into busy work while the games play on the big screen. Kids would love to watch even though most didn't really know what was going on.

 

[lincolncuse]

Here is the start of the New Mexico Game

 

[HOFCeluck]

Gotta love the first two days of the tournament growing up. You knew no one in school was getting any work done. Students or Teachers.

 

[Cuse1055]

For whatever reason, this extremely exciting first-round game tends to be a bit forgotten about. Multiple lead changes in the final minute. Janulis banged a three from the top of the key with 1 second left.

I remember after this game back on the old AOL board, talk of Tim Welsh being the potential replacement for Boeheim when he retires. Nobody thought it would be another 25 years before he would retire.

 

[Scooch]

August, 1994… I was in the marching band, and we were on campus early to prepare for the season opener against Oklahoma. We would practice in the Dome all morning, and then have lunch at the Brewster-Boland dining hall.

One day my housemate Joe spots a guy eating alone and goes over to his table, thinking he was a freshman band kid needing company.

Nope.

Turns out he was a basketball player from overseas on campus early and at BB until he could get into his South Campus apartment. Marius Janulis.

Marius and Joe struck up a friendship and Marius became a regular at our house that year.

Was the coolest thing to see him hit that shot against Iona.

 

[Eric15]

I remember after this game back on the old AOL board, talk of Tim Welsh being the potential replacement for Boeheim when he retires. Nobody thought it would be another 25 years before he would retire.

My brain could hear the dial-up modem sound after reading this.

 

[Cuse1055]

My brain could hear the dial-up modem sound after reading this.

“YOU’VE GOT MAIL”

 

[rrlbees]

My brain could hear the dial-up modem sound after reading this.

 

[MSOrange]

August, 1994… I was in the marching band, and we were on campus early to prepare for the season opener against Oklahoma. We would practice in the Dome all morning, and then have lunch at the Brewster-Boland dining hall.

One day my housemate Joe spots a guy eating alone and goes over to his table, thinking he was a freshman band kid needing company.

Nope.

Turns out he was a basketball player from overseas on campus early and at BB until he could get into his South Campus apartment. Marius Janulis.

Marius and Joe struck up a friendship and Marius became a regular at our house that year.

Was the coolest thing to see him hit that shot against Iona.

From what I remember, Marius was similar to Craig Forth, in that he took the student part of student-athlete pretty seriously. Is that fair from what you know?

 

[HOFCeluck]

By the way, how I feel reading this thread…

 

[Scooch]

From what I remember, Marius was similar to Craig Forth, in that he took the student part of student-athlete pretty seriously. Is that fair from what you know?

Yep, he was an actual student.

He was also a big fan of beer pong.

 

[dasher]

From what I remember, Marius was similar to Craig Forth, in that he took the student part of student-athlete pretty seriously. Is that fair from what you know?

Great student.

 

[elimunelson]

Great student.

I can attest to this.

I saw him studying at hotel in Denver during the 96 ncaas. He wasn’t with any tutors either. It wasn’t performative it was a guy keeping up w his work.

I watched that game in Disney world for spring break my senior year. We spent a few days hanging there. Ended up partying w Kyle McIntosh at pleasure island. Fun times.

 

[elimunelson]

August, 1994… I was in the marching band, and we were on campus early to prepare for the season opener against Oklahoma. We would practice in the Dome all morning, and then have lunch at the Brewster-Boland dining hall.

One day my housemate Joe spots a guy eating alone and goes over to his table, thinking he was a freshman band kid needing company.

Nope.

Turns out he was a basketball player from overseas on campus early and at BB until he could get into his South Campus apartment. Marius Janulis.

Marius and Joe struck up a friendship and Marius became a regular at our house that year.

Was the coolest thing to see him hit that shot against Iona.

Funny how some athletes are normal folk when they get to campus. I remember Olindo Mare lived in day hall and was pretty normal dude. Never understood how he ended up there.

 

[CuseGrad94]

I was working, got in the car to hear the last minute or so. Doug Logan went nuts. If thing that Gm jumps out to me is how much technology has changed the last 25 years for sure. Now you can see everything from your phone.

 

[sufandu]

When I was growing up, it was always Apollo launches or splashdowns.

My experience was different. In 4th grade they gathered us in the library to watch the Challenger launch. Then suddenly we're being ushered back to our rooms with no explanation as to what we just watched.

In high school I remember watching a Big East tourney game in class once.

 

[Scott11]

One year I was invited to a Syracuse basketball dinner in Boston with some of the basketball staff and fundraisers. I was seated next to Marius Janulis. We really hit it off and the next weekend I was playing in a charity three on three basketball tournament that supports treatment for a childhood disease called fragile X. I jokingly asked him if he wanted to play on my team and much to my surprise he loved the idea. He was living and working around the Boston area at that time.
He ended up playing in my team for the next three or four years until he moved back home. It was amazing to play with a guy who was so talented. He was only out of school for about four or five years at that time and still was incredibly sharp. One year, our team ended up playing against another team that had Walter McCarty on it. They both noted it was the first time that they had been on the basketball court together since the finals in 1996 and both of them were very motivated and put on a show. Unfortunately former Celtic Al Jefferson’s brother was on his team and I had to check him. He weighed 260 pounds and absolutely dominated me. But both Marius and Walter were great and the whole gym stopped to watch our game even though four games were supposed to be happening. McCarty was guarding Marius and Marius torched him both outside and off the dribble.
Guys could simply not check Marius. We think of him as basically an outside shooter, but against basically high school, college players and post college players in this tournament, he could score at will off the dribble. He also had an amazing low post game. And he was intense! One game, my cousin missed a layup to lose the game after Marius had made an amazing pass, and he went over and punched him in the arm hard. Absolutely hilarious, although maybe not for my cousin.
The next year in reaction to my cousin’s missed layup, he invited his brother-in-law and another friend to play with us. Both of those guys had played professionally overseas. It was obviously the farthest my team ever went. I think we lost in the semifinals.
Most importantly, Marius is a great guy who I continue to be friendly with to this day. He loves Syracuse basketball and had a huge smile when I brought up the Iona shot, which I watched in Jim Calhoun’s bar when I worked in Connecticut. (Calhoun is a douche, but that is a story for another time.) For a long time he complained that it inexplicably was hard to find his game winner on the Internet. He follows the team, though, not as closely as many of us do. and he runs his own company and has a wonderful wife and family.