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Message: [QUOTE="OttoMets, post: 59418, member: 716"] [SIZE=2]I am not making a statement on the main point, but why do you say "even without our injured starter, we got upset by an inferior team"? I assume your point is that you believe Butler was inferior to SU even without AO playing. I disagree. I think history has shown otherwise.[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]While it is fashionable not to give Butler any credit for their accomplishments, they did make the championship game two years in a row. It is not as though they beat us and then turned around and lost in the next round...they came within 2 points of winning the whole thing. They then managed to do it again the following year, so maybe people don't always recognize a "great" team when they see it, but just because they didn't receive the press accolades that others did they sure as hell proved their mettle in the tournament.[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]The fact is that we were a team that was very clearly a sum of the parts type of club. We were as good as we were because of how well all of the individuals played together and complimented each other, there was no take over guy on the club. When you remove a part it changes the entire dynamic of the team and how well it functions and when that club plays another great team the outcome is anything but certain.[/quote][/SIZE] I do think that Syracuse minus Onuaku was a better team than Butler; I know not everyone agrees with that. I don't mean to take anything away from Butler (although I personally don't have a lot of respect for that Pittsburgh style of hand-checking basketball, and Matt Howard was dirty and is one of my least favorite players in recent memory). But Butler was a very good team, for sure. And, as you said, our 2009-2010 team was a house of cards. When one guy went down, our shifting of players didn't adequately fill that gap. Still, we played our worst (possibly second-worst, with DePaul the worst) game of the season and lost a close game. I really think we were better and would've beaten Butler 6 or 7 of 10 times without Arinze. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?