ESPN Ranks the NCAA Basketball Champions | Syracusefan.com

ESPN Ranks the NCAA Basketball Champions

I personally expected us to be considered relatively middle of the pack in the eyes of others.
 
I personally expected us to be considered relatively middle of the pack in the eyes of others.
Which is where we landed. Bizarrely, Gasaway lists UVA ahead of us and lots of much better teams. Virginia almost lost 3 different times on their way to the title—even though margin of victory seems to be part of his calculation for other teams. There are many more talented championship teams than UVA over all the years. His list will not age well.
 
we were pretty equal to that 16th ranked 2012 kentucky team before fab went out
 
No issue w/ being middle of the pack, but having that Duke 2010 team ranked right behind us irks me. We beat that team by 20 w/ a healthy Arinze.
 
no idea how you can rank 2018 nova or 2019 virginia, 2017 UNC, 2016 nova ahead of us. those are all mind boggling to me. we beat 2 very good 1 seeds and 1 of the best 2 seeds of ALL TIME en route to our title.

lets be completely honest about UVA - the struggled against the 16 seed, they were OK against the 9 seed, the really struggled against a 12 seed, and you can make a strong case that they should have lost to 3 seed, 5 seed and 3 seed. they were probably under 10-15% winners in all 3 games with less than 15 seconds to go. call them a team of destiny if you want - but rank them about 75 out of 81. i believe i saw there were the 1st team to win a title without playing a 1 or 2 seed at all. and they still struggled.

2013 louisville is way better than 44 - that team was deadly dangerous.
 
It's like me judging the value of diamonds. They are all national champions and I don't think the writer lacked respect for any of them.

The problem I had with the list is that the criteria isn't clear. The only one he states is that he feels teams from when the players stayed four years had an advantage over teams of recent years because they would have had greater chemistry. Actually, the trend has been for the schools that keep their players for four years, (or at least 3) are the ones that still win the title. There's no discussion of what I call the "shelf life of a great team": how far in in the future do you go where you still consider a team competitive against other national champions?
How much do you emphasize dominance in their time or the historical significance of the team? Was Texas Western ''66 really the 7th greatest team ever? Could the 1956 San Francisco Dons beat The 1984 Georgetown team? How would the Alcindor or Walton gangs fare today? Is it about the fame of the team's best player? It's hard to tell what criteria he was using, at least not with consistency.
 
SU vs. the Champs
This is from 2013:

We played National Champion Louisville three times this year. We beat them at their place, lost to them at our place and then lost the rubber match in New York. It prompted me to see how well Syracuse has done over the years against teams that went on to win the national title.

2/23/50 We beat CCNY at Madison Square Garden, 83-74. It should be noted that the Beavers were later found to have shaved points but presumably that didn’t mean they weren’t trying to win. It’s possible though, that this one just got away from them.
CCNY point shaving scandal - Wikipedia

12/30/50 We lost to Kentucky at the Sugar Bowl tournament in New Orleans 59-69.

3/16/57 A Jim Brown-less Orange team lost in the finals of the NCAA Eastern Regional, (in Philadelphia) to undefeated North Carolina 58-67.

1/30/84 More than a generation later the Georgetown Hoyas visit the Dome and come away with a 67-80 victory.

3/3/84 Five weeks later the Hoyas blew us out of their own place, 71-88.

3/10/84 At MSG in the BET Michael Graham’s flagrant foul on Andrew Hawkins was reduced to a One and one and we lost in overtime 71-82. Deep down, JB is still fuming over that one.

1/2/85 Villanova handled us in Philly, 70-82
2/1/85 We blew the Wildcats out of the Dome, 92-79, (it wasn’t that close.) When that team beat Georgetown for the title, I couldn’t believe it.
1/18/86 After a 13-0 start and a loss to Georgetown we had to go to Louisville where the Cardinals were ready for us, 73-83.
3/30/87 No comment.
4/1/96 We lose our second national title game to Rick Pitino and his 9 Kentucky NBA players,, 67-76.
2/1/99 We beat a depleted Connecticut team in Storrs, 59-42.
2/28/99. We play them full-strength in the Dome and lose 58-70
3/5/99 We play them full strength in New York and lose 50-71. I don’t like the trend.
3/23/00 We are up 40-26 on Michigan State in their own backyard in the Sweet 16 and lost 58-75.
2002-2003 Every day at practice.
2/2/04 We got blown out at Connecticut 56-84.
3/7/04 We got revenge in the Dome. 67-56 in a game that seemed to mean a bit more to us than them. The rubber match in the NCAAs never came off, thanks to Alabama.
11/18/05 We thought Florida might be intimidated after we blew out Bobby Knight’s Texas Tech team by 32. They weren’t: 70-75 and went on to win the next two national championships while we bombed out in the first round of the NCAAs and then went to two straight NITs.
2/2/11 We beat the Kemba Walker team in Connecticut, 66-58.
3/11/11 We lost in BET to the same team in overtime, 71-76.
1/19/13 We somehow beat the Cardinals in Louisville without James Southerland, 70-68, the first of three straight losses for them.
3/2/13 They pull ahead in the late going in the Dome, 53-58.
3/16/13 We are leading in the BET title 45-29 and then….
All told we are 6-17 against 14 NCAA championship teams, including wins against all three UCONN tile teams, (but they beat our champs twice). The average score of the 23 games is 66-72. I’d have to say that’s a pretty good record.

Update from 2014 onwards:
2/14/15 We lost to Duke in the Dome, 72-80
2/28/15 We lost to Duke in Cameron 54-73
1/16/17 We lost at North Carolina 68-85
3/4/19 We lost to Virginia in the Dome 53-79
That makes us 6-21 against 17 NCAA championship teams with an average score of 65- 73.The pretty good record is getting a bit worse.
 
no idea how you can rank 2018 nova or 2019 virginia, 2017 UNC, 2016 nova ahead of us. those are all mind boggling to me. we beat 2 very good 1 seeds and 1 of the best 2 seeds of ALL TIME en route to our title.

lets be completely honest about UVA - the struggled against the 16 seed, they were OK against the 9 seed, the really struggled against a 12 seed, and you can make a strong case that they should have lost to 3 seed, 5 seed and 3 seed. they were probably under 10-15% winners in all 3 games with less than 15 seconds to go. call them a team of destiny if you want - but rank them about 75 out of 81. i believe i saw there were the 1st team to win a title without playing a 1 or 2 seed at all. and they still struggled.

2013 louisville is way better than 44 - that team was deadly dangerous.


Recency bias
 
The Kentucky team that beat us in 1996 is considered the best team since the addition of the 3 point shot. I personally have a hard time taking any team that played before the 3 point shot seriously. It was like a whole different game back then.

I still think if Sims hadn't gotten hurt Syracuse would have won that game or come very very close to winning.
 
The Kentucky team that beat us in 1996 is considered the best team since the addition of the 3 point shot. I personally have a hard time taking any team that played before the 3 point shot seriously. It was like a whole different game back then.

I still think if Sims hadn't gotten hurt Syracuse would have won that game or come very very close to winning.


Sims got hurt?

I do remember him making the only bad pass he made all year with 1:05 left on a fast break, down 5. Wallace fouled out trying to get the ball and that was it.
 
Sims got hurt?

I do remember him making the only bad pass he made all year with 1:05 left on a fast break, down 5. Wallace fouled out trying to get the ball and that was it.

He hurt his wrist and came out for a few minutes, and if I recall correctly we turned the ball over every single possession while he was out.
 
Sims got hurt?

I do remember him making the only bad pass he made all year with 1:05 left on a fast break, down 5. Wallace fouled out trying to get the ball and that was it.

yeah we were about to be down 3 needing a stop - instead they went to the line, our best player was out and it was curtains.
 
1 of the worst title teams ever - followed by their shabazz led uconn champ

2/2/11 We beat the Kemba Walker team in Connecticut, 66-58.
3/11/11 We lost in BET to the same team in overtime, 71-76.
 

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