AO shooting >70% from the line???

[PoppyHart]

the injury to AO cost us r 2nd national title

What about Robbie Hummel's injury? Kalin Lucas?

 

[OttoMets]

Go back and watch the last 4 minutes and check Wesley, Brandon and KJo and their "desire" to go get the ball on offensive sets. Oh my. Andy's brainfarts didn't help... but... we had a lot of guys "shrink" in the moment.

So frustrating. The one guy who didn't shrink is the player who some here would most like to shrink (and I think that night marked the birth of the "Scoop shot us out of that game down the stretch" canard).

Wes went from about the 7:00 mark (when he got undercut on a lob attempt - like the Providence play that got him hurt - without a whistle) to around the 1:00 mark (when he had a 1-2 trip the line, followed by a wide-open Ricky bobbling the rebound straight out of bounds) without a single touch. I don't remember Triche even being out there. And my lasting images of Joseph are a.) getting wrestled by that punk Matt Howard on a play that would've drawn a 15-yard penalty in football (with Butler retaining possession and hitting a three), and b.) another Butler player clearing him out, getting an offensive rebound and putback that more or less sealed it.

Our guys didn't deserve to win with their play, and the officiating down the stretch was worthy of a Burr/Higgins Pittsburgh game. And Boeheim's bizarre flip-flop of Wes and Ricky on the high and low post was one of the strangest (and least effective) Syracuse coaching decisions in recent memory. There was not one single positive thing associated with that game.

 

[OttoMets]

What about Robbie Hummel's injury? Kalin Lucas?

Exactly. Or DeSean Butler.

Given how limited Duke and Butler were that year, Michigan State and West Virginia fans could make a stronger argument than Syracuse fans that an injury cost them the title. The "what-if" game isn't very worthwhile.

 

[SWC75]

We almost beat Butler without AO and might have if we'd gotten that out of bounds call.

The thing aobut AO is that he gave us two options inside- two guys the gaurds could pass to. And he and Rick could pass it back and forth between eachother. With just Rick, Butler could collapse on one guy. We haqd aobut 8 first half turnovers trying to get the ball to Rick because he was our only inside option. I have to think AO would have been wroth at least five points in that game, and that's all we needed to advance. And Butler came within a rim shot of winning it all. That's not mythology.

 

[tbonezone]

is that 71% metric ?

 

[sufandu]

People talk about AO like we lost Carmelo Anthony. End of the day Rick didn't show up and Stevens could've given us a 4 hour game sending AO to the line 30x.

That was a completely different team than '03. It relied on chemistry and every piece had a purpose. The combination of AO and Rick gave us a size advantage that few teams could match. When AO went down it became much easier to rebound and defend the interior against us. Was he as important as Carmelo? No. He was, however, probably more important than Craig Forth and we probably don't win #1 without him. Anyone could see that our team was very different without him.

 

[Bayside44]

I get that, but like I said, we needed to win 4 games.

 

[strumpfasaurus]

I get that, but like I said, we needed to win 4 games.

I definitely think with AO we beat Butler comfortably. After that Kansas State just had a double overtime game probably would have beaten them and we always match up well against Michigan State except for 2000 but probably beat them two. That team was all about Chemistry and we lost a key player which killed the chemistry. I don't know if we beat Duke but I think we would have been in that game. Oh well hopefully after this year we will forget about that

 

[jordoo]

Oh well hopefully after this year we will forget about that

We could win the next six and we still wouldn't forget! Its part of being a fan. I know I will never forget crying after we lost to Indiana when I was 11.

 

[OttoMets]

I definitely think with AO we beat Butler comfortably. After that Kansas State just had a double overtime game probably would have beaten them and we always match up well against Michigan State except for 2000 but probably beat them two. That team was all about Chemistry and we lost a key player which killed the chemistry. I don't know if we beat Duke but I think we would have been in that game. Oh well hopefully after this year we will forget about that

I agree that we would've had a great advantage against Kansas State after two overtimes and against Michigan State without Lucas.

But with or without Arinze we'd have beaten Butler as "easily" as we beat Pittsburgh two months earlier. Unless the game were officiated far differently and Butler forced to go away from its preferred style of play, they were going to be a terrible match-up for our team.

 

[HoustonCuse]

When I think of that game, its just two things: the 8 minute stretch to start the game with no field goals and the absolute takedown of Joseph right in front of a ref with no call resulting eventually in a made 3 for them. Absolutely makes me sick.

Now, take a look at this video. I found this about 8 months ago, but the kid just cracks me up, I just love his break down of the game and it is hilarious to note that this kid absolutely pegs Scoop's primary weakness that became obvious last year, but did it 2 years ago:

 

[sufandu]

For a kid that looks like he has never actually dribbled a ball he actually sounds like he knows what he's talking about.

 

[PoppyHart]

"This is the Sweet 16! You gotta bring your A-game."

This kid is awesome. He needs to be the official mascot for this sight. Move over Kenny.

 

[MyMeloMyMan]

"Catch the ball Rick Jackson!!"
:rolling: