Best Center to Anchor the 2/3 Zone Defensively | Page 3 | Syracusefan.com

Best Center to Anchor the 2/3 Zone Defensively

Mentioning that game should be a yellow flag on this board

'09 28-10, '10 30-5, '11 27-8, '12 34-3, '13 30-10, '14 28-6.

What we wouldn't give to have any one of those seasons again...

Then it all ended because of those uniforms we wore vs. BC. :(

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'09 28-10, '10 30-5, '11 27-8, '12 34-3, '13 30-10, '14 28-6.

What we wouldn't give to have any one of those seasons again...

Then it all ended because of those uniforms we wore vs. BC. :(

View attachment 191311

And even right after that BC game, we had Duke beat in Cameron but they took it away with the stupid charge call. That was the 1-2 punch that did us in. Win that Duke game and nobody would’ve cared about BC.
 
Etan Thomas or Daryl Watkins. Watkins is really underrated as a zone anchor on this forum.

Guy could run with anyone, was strong as hell to bang in the post with big guys, and was a superior shot blocker. If only he could have harnessed those exceptional physical tools to provide any semblance of consistent offense...
Really wish Watkins had sat out the year he got hurt and added another year. He was rounding into a heck of a player at the end.
 
Really wish Watkins had sat out the year he got hurt and added another year. He was rounding into a heck of a player at the end.

Watkins was to SU b-ball as Johnnie Morant was to SU football.

Athletic stud for their position, from NJ. Came in highly touted but just wasn’t ready for prime time. Gradually got better and was rounding into a big time player as a senior but still wasn’t quite there consistency wise. Had a cup of coffee in the pros. If they had taken a redshirt, they both likely would’ve been monsters as 5th year seniors.
 
Etan. I always felt other teams didn’t even bother driving vs Etan. Not the same when Fab played -different game though. Thomas took away a lot of teams best option. The game evolved to more of a perimeter game in Fabs era.
 
Really wish Watkins had sat out the year he got hurt and added another year. He was rounding into a heck of a player at the end.
His bad hands were always going to limit him offensively. McNeil and Keita suffered from the same condition, unfortunately.
 
I also loved that Etan wanted to dunk it any time he could. Not much wasted dribbling down low. He went up strong and would finish with authority! Get fouled going up and upon making the free throw you would hear Bill Rafferty "With the kiss! If I had it my way Rafferty would have called every Syracuse game by the way.
 
Rosie
Fab
Etan
But by the inch nobody was better than 6'5 Bob Doooooms
 
Rosie was so good that his blocked shots had nicknames
Like another " Bouie Boomerang" or a "Rosie Reject"
 
This is a tough one. From playing the position so well in all phases on defense I have to go with Etan and Fab. Definitely Watkins was pretty good as well albeit streaky.

I think one of the best ever too was McNeil. He was the defensive equivalent of streaky like Watkins but when I watch the replays you have a Bull strength wise along with major hops in the ability to be a menace because of his athleticism too. He single handedly could change a game as we saw in the title run. Also just his size and strength downlow paired with shot blocking and vertical had so many guys rushing shots or struggling to get a clean look. It's easy to lose him in the mix given he was never a big minutes guy.
 

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