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Message: [QUOTE="IthacaMatt, post: 58637, member: 405"] This team is coming into the season with high expectations, as it should be, based on the sheer number of quality players we have returning from a team that won 27 games last year. On paper, when you consider the players that other teams lost, ranking us about 5th seem accurate. There are not many teams with more experienced talent than we have this year. Now, will we have great chemistry? Will we be dedicated to playing aggressively in the zone? Will the young big men be able to defend and rebound without having Big Rick to fall back on? These are legitimate questions, which is why we are not a sure-fire Final Four team, but few teams are at this time of year. Even if you look at North Carolina, who supposedly has the most loaded team in college this year, ask yourself - do Tyler Zeller and John Henson strike fear into anyone defending in the post? If their point guard Kendall Marshall goes down, they don't really have a replacement. Sure, they have great forwards in Harrison Barnes, James McAdoo and Reggie Bullock, but do they really have dependable 3 point shooting that can beat a zone like we play? All of that said, there seems to be a recurring theme with Coach Boeheim, and that is Syracuse underachieving in the post season. It happens year after year. Right now, in terms of recruiting (as measured by McDonald's AA's) and in terms of regular season wins with 85 wins in the last 3 seasons (averaging over 28 per year), and we have not made it past the Sweet 16 , and only made it that far in 2 of the last 3 years. Now, sure, we had bad luck with Arinze getting hurt, because that certainly seemed like a Final Four, if not Championship team. But last year we had no business losing in the second round to Marquette. That was lame. Getting beat by Oklahoma with the Jonny Flynn team was disappointing, in that they so clearly beat us. It wasn't even close. This year, I think there is some pressure on Boeheim to get past the Sweet 16, which has always been his "kiss of death" round. In 35 years, we've only made it past the Sweet 16 four times, which I find almost as bad as Pitt's record, when you honestly think about it. We have underachieved when we have had some of our most promising teams. This year, we MUST break through, or else we should start thinking about when the time is right for Mike to take over. No more excuses. We need to make a Final Four this year. [/QUOTE]

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