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Message: [QUOTE="IthacaMatt, post: 4583950, member: 405"] Syracuse had one of the original NBA franchises. The Nationals. They played here for 12 years, and we won an NBA Championship in 1955. In a 10 year stretch from 1952 to 1961, we won the championship, lost in the finals, and lost in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Celtics five times. Syracuse was crazy about basketball, and always has been. Jim Boeheim didn't invent basketball in Syracuse. The 24 Second shot clock was invented here in 1954. The Syracuse Nats, like SU football, helped break the color barrier in the NBA with Manny Breland. At the college level, Syracuse had a coach in the 19-Teens and Early 20s named Edmund Dollard who won almost 72% of his games (151-59) including a Helms National Championship team that went 16-1. Next, Lew Andreas coached us from the late 20s to the 1950 season. He made the post season 3 times in his last 6 years (when post-season tournaments like the NIT and NCAA were brand new), and also won a Helms National Championship. His career record was 358-135, almost 73% wins. Even in the 50s and early 60s under Mark Guley, we made an Elite 8 and had a winning record. Guley had losing records in his last 2 seasons and was replaced by Fred Lewis. It only took Lewis 1 year to get us back to a winning record. Fred Lewis went 91-57 (.614), but also made an Elite 8 and the NIT twice, when that was still a big deal. Fred Lewis only had ONE MORE losing season, and was replaced by Roy Danforth. In year one, Danforth had a losing record. But by his 3rd year, we were back in the NIT, beginning a string of 6 straight post-season births. The first 2 were in the NIT before the NCAA expanded beyond 32 teams. The 4 straight NCAAs including the 1975 Final Four, and a Sweet 16 a couple years before that. Danforth's record was 148-71 (almost 68%). So, just for the record, Syracuse has pretty much ALWAYS been good at basketball. Past coaches were fired for just 1 or 2 losing seasons, and the people who replaced them never took more than a couple years to be right back to winning ways. So all you "Chicken Littles" out there who think the SKY WILL BE FALLING if we replace JB; go read some history. Other coaches would have been fired by now. And our average recovery to post-season is TWO YEARS. Let's start the clock, shall we? [/QUOTE]

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