General20
Basketball Maven
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- Aug 28, 2011
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PG - Douglas - I suppose this one is obvious from my name, not very many basketball players in history were more fun to watch than him. The guys was a winner, and a showman.
Honorable Mention - Scoop Jardine - Like Douglas he was a winner (which is just what a point guard should be) and he tends to be underrated by fans. He lead SU to two #1 seeds, but people remember him for that middle year when he was asked (because the team needed it) to shoulder more of the offensive burden than he was capable.
SG - Rautins - Every time he touched the ball he made a basketball move (its amazing how rare this is) he never just made a pass, he always made a move to put a defender in a weakened spot, then made the pass.
Honorable Mention - Jason Cipolla - For whatever reason I just liked him. Kind of a poor man's Rautins, he came out of nowhere (juco) to man the top of the zone (the first 100% zone team SU ever had), played great D, and hit some really big shots to help SU get to a final 4.
SF - Hopkins - He was the type of guy you knew from the very beginning would end up as a coach (those are my favorite kind of guys). There have only been three players who I ever really wanted to come back and coach, they are all on this list. Hopkins is one, Rautins and Jardine are the other two. For the record Hop was more of a guard than a forward but he actually played a lot of forward (this was before Syracuse played zone full time and went with exclusively tall forwards).
Honorable Mention - CJ Fair - I saw him in high school and was a big fan of his, honestly from what I saw there, I thought his mid range game would be even better than it has been, but I did not guess that he would always be in the right place at the right time.
PF - Owens - Arguably the only SU basketball player ever who had elite talent mixed with an elite basketball IQ. He has become (surprisingly to me) maybe Syracuse's most under-rated player because of the first round loss to Richmond, but he had something like 22 and 8 in that game. It was the rest of the team that choked, not him.
Honorable Mention - John Wallace - Among the most important SU players ever. A local blue chipper (from Rochester) came to SU despite the probation and just about singlehandedly kept Syracuse on top of the basketball world. His senior year was in my opinion the best single season any player has ever had under Boeheim.
C - Thomas - Hard working, hard working, hard working. The thing that made me really like him though is his personality, he's an intellectual. Being a short italian, I tend to relate to guards more often than big guys, but Etan is one big who I took an immediate liking to.
Honorable Mention - Arinze Onuaku - We are doing this by position so he only gets honorable mention, but he would make my top 5 favorite Orange of all time along with Sherm, Etan, Rautins, and Billy. He was so skilled with both hands, that he was basically unstoppable in the post. How can you not love that? Its the guys that have trouble finishing that drive you crazy.
Honorable Mention - Scoop Jardine - Like Douglas he was a winner (which is just what a point guard should be) and he tends to be underrated by fans. He lead SU to two #1 seeds, but people remember him for that middle year when he was asked (because the team needed it) to shoulder more of the offensive burden than he was capable.
SG - Rautins - Every time he touched the ball he made a basketball move (its amazing how rare this is) he never just made a pass, he always made a move to put a defender in a weakened spot, then made the pass.
Honorable Mention - Jason Cipolla - For whatever reason I just liked him. Kind of a poor man's Rautins, he came out of nowhere (juco) to man the top of the zone (the first 100% zone team SU ever had), played great D, and hit some really big shots to help SU get to a final 4.
SF - Hopkins - He was the type of guy you knew from the very beginning would end up as a coach (those are my favorite kind of guys). There have only been three players who I ever really wanted to come back and coach, they are all on this list. Hopkins is one, Rautins and Jardine are the other two. For the record Hop was more of a guard than a forward but he actually played a lot of forward (this was before Syracuse played zone full time and went with exclusively tall forwards).
Honorable Mention - CJ Fair - I saw him in high school and was a big fan of his, honestly from what I saw there, I thought his mid range game would be even better than it has been, but I did not guess that he would always be in the right place at the right time.
PF - Owens - Arguably the only SU basketball player ever who had elite talent mixed with an elite basketball IQ. He has become (surprisingly to me) maybe Syracuse's most under-rated player because of the first round loss to Richmond, but he had something like 22 and 8 in that game. It was the rest of the team that choked, not him.
Honorable Mention - John Wallace - Among the most important SU players ever. A local blue chipper (from Rochester) came to SU despite the probation and just about singlehandedly kept Syracuse on top of the basketball world. His senior year was in my opinion the best single season any player has ever had under Boeheim.
C - Thomas - Hard working, hard working, hard working. The thing that made me really like him though is his personality, he's an intellectual. Being a short italian, I tend to relate to guards more often than big guys, but Etan is one big who I took an immediate liking to.
Honorable Mention - Arinze Onuaku - We are doing this by position so he only gets honorable mention, but he would make my top 5 favorite Orange of all time along with Sherm, Etan, Rautins, and Billy. He was so skilled with both hands, that he was basically unstoppable in the post. How can you not love that? Its the guys that have trouble finishing that drive you crazy.
