2003 National Championship Watch Party | Page 10 | Syracusefan.com

2003 National Championship Watch Party

How cute was it during JB’s postgame interview at halfcourt when Edelin reached down & pinched Jimmy Jr.’s cheek & Jimmy looked up at him with the biggest smile. I also recall Jimmy sitting on Billy’s lap & Billy entertaining him during Carmelo’s NBA declaration press conference.

By all accounts, Billy was a pleasant, polite young man who made some poor choices & had some mental demons. I’ll always wonder what could have been with 3 more years & him & Gerry in the backcourt. Their games complimented each other so well.
 
W'boro'Cuse315 said:
How cute was it during JB’s postgame interview at halfcourt when Edelin reached down & pinched Jimmy Jr.’s cheek & Jimmy looked up at him with the biggest smile. I also recall Jimmy sitting on Billy’s lap & Billy entertaining him during Carmelo’s NBA declaration press conference.

By all accounts, Billy was a pleasant, polite young man who made some poor choices & had some mental demons. I’ll always wonder what could have been with 3 more years & him & Gerry in the backcourt. Their games complimented each other so well.
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Absolutely a huge loss that doesn’t get enough talk imo. We absolutely make another run over the next 2 years with billy there.
 
W'boro'Cuse315 said:
How cute was it during JB’s postgame interview at halfcourt when Edelin reached down & pinched Jimmy Jr.’s cheek & Jimmy looked up at him with the biggest smile. I also recall Jimmy sitting on Billy’s lap & Billy entertaining him during Carmelo’s NBA declaration press conference.

By all accounts, Billy was a pleasant, polite young man who made some poor choices & had some mental demons. I’ll always wonder what could have been with 3 more years & him & Gerry in the backcourt. Their games complimented each other so well.
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Never really knew the full story behind him. But when he was engaged, he was a really good player.

We don't win the title without him, no doubt about it.
 
orangedave said:
Melo had a better supporting cast.
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I actually took away from watching that Melo was the best college player I've ever seen but the rest of the team were over achievers. If thats the correct term. They all stepped up and gelled around the star.

Gerry and Hak both rounded out in later seasons but were raw honestly that tournament run I think Edelin was 2nd best player. Pace frustrating and Duany was similar to JP in that regard. Good players but the kind of players that get ripped on here if they were playing right now.

With regards to the bigs someone made the comment that when we had to go small when Forth and McNeil fouled out we weren't small at all just small for back then. Billy-Gerry-Duany/JP-Melo-Hak definitely has plenty of size and if that team were playing right now there would be plenty of stretches without either 34 or 52.
 
FRANKIEFAN said:
I actually took away from watching that Melo was the best college player I've ever seen but the rest of the team were over achievers. If thats the correct term. They all stepped up and gelled around the star.

Gerry and Hak both rounded out in later seasons but were raw honestly that tournament run I think Edelin was 2nd best player. Pace frustrating and Duany was similar to JP in that regard. Good players but the kind of players that get ripped on here if they were playing right now.

With regards to the bigs someone made the comment that when we had to go small when Forth and McNeil fouled out we weren't small at all just small for back then. Billy-Gerry-Duany/JP-Melo-Hak definitely has plenty of size and if that team were playing right now there would be plenty of stretches without either 34 or 52.
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Respectfully disagree, history has been very kind to that team, most very highly recruited players, including Forth. Hak a total diamond in the rough. A very good team with a great once on a generation player
 
SUFan44 said:
Couple things that really were awesome to hear:

- The Michigan State/bus story. Had to take cabs 5 by 5 to the game because the bus broke down.
- TJ Ford's mom telling Troy Weaver he was going home Saturday at the adidas party. Not sure why he was at the adidas party since we were/are a Nike school, but I digress...
- Andrew Kouwe bringing the Michigan State student newspaper to Melo and showing him that Alan Anderson said he was going to lock him down. Hilarious.
- Josh Pace giving Boeheim a couple nice shots to the ribs about his playing time that year.

Great night.
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JB and Troy essentially admitting we had Kevin Durant if Troy had stayed.

Kouwe also referenced the mini - issue about the team not sharing the ball well until after the Rutgers game. That was the Gmac/ Melo rift. If you go back and watch that game it’s pretty obvious.

They also discussed the Tea Bag dunk.
Fun stuff.
 
didn’t know about the Facebook live thing. I was actually on the phone with my dad the whole second half, as we both watched it.

Just curious...was Edelin there? How about McNeil?
 
Jake said:
Kouwe also referenced the mini - issue about the team not sharing the ball well until after the Rutgers game. That was the Gmac/ Melo rift. If you go back and watch that game it’s pretty obvious.
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I’ve heard this discussed before by another member of that team. A case could be made that Herve Lamizana’s banked-in 3 might’ve been the turning point of that season, though I don’t think there’s any doubt that the team came together & knew they could be special following the home upset of Pitt.
 
FRANKIEFAN said:
Pace frustrating
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Respect your perspective, but mine I thought Pace was a solid all-around player, with no outside shot.
In the title game, Pace missed some shots and made a couple T/O's, but had forgot how many great plays he made, many at key times.
Pace's contribution was important that game and over his career -no frustration here! :)
 
W'boro'Cuse315 said:
I’ve heard this discussed before by another member of that team. A case could be made that Herve Lamizana’s banked-in 3 might’ve been the turning point of that season, though I don’t think there’s any doubt that the team came together & knew they could be special following the home upset of Pitt.
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If I recall, there was a team meeting sometime after that game and before the Pitt win?
 
OrangeDW said:
didn’t know about the Facebook live thing. I was actually on the phone with my dad the whole second half, as we both watched it.

Just curious...was Edelin there? How about McNeil?
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Those were the only 2 scholarship players not there. If you’re interested, you can re-watch it any time on the Syracuse Orange FB Page. Craig Forth & Andrew Kouwe’s humor is worth the watch.
 
Red Holzman said:
Respect your perspective, but mine I thought Pace was a solid all-around player, with no outside shot.
In the title game, Pace missed some shots and made a couple T/O's, but had forgot how many great plays he made, many at key times.
Pace's contribution was important that game and over his career -no frustration here! :)
Expand...

He missed a couple makable shots near the end that would’ve likely iced it, which was unusual for him.

But yeah, Pace was one of those guys I never got mad at. He played to his strengths, contributed in a number of ways, played smart and played to win. Loved him.
 
All the camaraderie and reliving stories was fun to see and hear . Did it seem like Craig Forth was out of the loop with it all or something amiss?
 
W'boro'Cuse315 said:
I’ve heard this discussed before by another member of that team. A case could be made that Herve Lamizana’s banked-in 3 might’ve been the turning point of that season, though I don’t think there’s any doubt that the team came together & knew they could be special following the home upset of Pitt.
Expand...
Things got aired post game...and they were good going forward.
 

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