SWC75
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One of the great teams in the history of High School basketball was the Mount Vernon, NY team of 1970-71, which had Gus Williams, (an NBA star), Ray Williams, (an NBA starter), Robbie Young, (started for Manhattan), Earl Tatum, (Marquette star), and Rudy Hackett who became the latest “plus one” for Roy’s Runts. Rudy was a tall, long-armed 6-8 with wiry strength. He could hit short jumpers and hooks and pound the boards inside. He was on SU’s last freshman team with Jimmy Lee, Mike’s younger brother. Coached by Jim Boeheim, they went 17-1. Rudy averaged 18 points and 13 rebounds. Jimmy scored 19 a game. For 1972-73 they moved up to the varsity to join Mike Lee, Dennis Duval, Mark Wadach and Bob Dooms. Together they made for SU’s best team between the Bing and Louis-Bouie years, (yes, better than the ’75 final four team).
In the third game, SU traveled to Tennessee, which was a noted power at the time. I remember Coach Ray Mears being interviewed as to what he thought of Syracuse he said “Hell, everybody wanted that Hackett kid!” He was not able to name any of our other players. Rudy helped put us on the map. We lost that one, 83-87 but I’m sure Mears knew who our players were after that. But in those days, the standards against which SU measured itself were Louisville, and Maryland, two national powers whose paths seemed to cross ours several times. The Terps were waiting in the Maryland Invitational and they got us a second time in the title game, 76-91. Later losses to Temple and (Ugh!) Penn State brought SU’s record to a still respectable 13-4.
Then the Orange put it into overdrive, winning 10 straight, including wins over traditional eastern rivals LaSalle, Fordham, St. John’s, West Virginia, Niagara and Rutgers. This was good enough to get SU into the NCAAs for the third time in history and a first round win over a tall Furman team gave us a sparkling 23-4 record. Then SU looked up and saw Lefty Driesell staring them in the face again. This time, it was 75-91. The Terps lost to Providence, which was the East’s best program during this era, (and did not deign to play lowly Syracuse), in the regional finals. The East’s best two chances to win a national title between the Tom Gola and Patrick Ewing eras were St. Bonaventure in 1971 and Providence in 1973 but in both cases their big men, Bob Lanier and Marvin Barnes, respectively, went down to injury at exactly the wrong time and they came up short in the Final Four.
Perhaps the most memorable aspect of the 1972-73 season for Syracuse was the way it ended. They still had regional and national consolation games in those days and SU faced off against Pennsylvania in the Eastern consey. The Quakers had been a national power in that era, going 78-6 the previous three years. They were 21-6 going into this game to SU’s 23-5 and it was close throughout. The Orange was down, 65-68 with a few seconds left when they stole two consecutive inbound passes and scored after each to pull out an incredible 69-68 victory over the shocked Quakers. Syracuse would not end a season with a victory again for 30 years.
The next year, Mike Lee and Mark Wadach graduated. To help replace them, SU did something rare. They took a transfer. Southwestern Louisiana, (doesn’t that sound better than “Louisiana-Lafayette”?), had risen from the small college ranks led by the nation’s leading scorer in Dwight “Bo” Lamar, only to fall victim to NCAA probation. Lamar escaped to the NBA. Two of his teammates came to upstate New York. One was Larry Fogle, who would lead the nation in scoring in 1973-74. Unfortunately, he would do it for Canisius. We got Fred Saunders a 6-7 forward who could score and rebound and made a good partner for Rudy Hackett on the other side of Dooms. Sweet “D” DuVal had an All-American year with 22.2 per game in the backcourt and Jimmy Lee popped his jumpers from the other position.
This team was potentially better than the previous year’s team, (it was certainly bigger, with Saunders replacing Mike Lee and Wadach), but the whole was somehow less than the sum its parts. The season started out with the usual 6 game winning streak, once more ended in a holiday tournament. SU won no tournaments of any kind between the 1964 Hurricane Classic, (when they won the summit between Dave Bing, Rick Barry and Bill Bradley), and something called the “ECAC Playoffs” in 1975 on the way to the final four. This time, an inexplicable 22 point loss to Miami- of Ohio, not Florida- closed out the streak. It was the first of three losses in four games. Five straight wins were followed by another three losses in five games. The teams we were losing to were not Maryland or Louisville but Rutgers, UCONN, Penn State, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, the sort of games SU won in a good year. Five more wins and we were able to sneak into the NCAAs through the back door, where we were paired with Oral Roberts, like Southwestern Louisiana a small college that had moved into the major college ranks. An 82-86 overtime loss left us at 19-7, which was a disappointment after 24-5.
In the third game, SU traveled to Tennessee, which was a noted power at the time. I remember Coach Ray Mears being interviewed as to what he thought of Syracuse he said “Hell, everybody wanted that Hackett kid!” He was not able to name any of our other players. Rudy helped put us on the map. We lost that one, 83-87 but I’m sure Mears knew who our players were after that. But in those days, the standards against which SU measured itself were Louisville, and Maryland, two national powers whose paths seemed to cross ours several times. The Terps were waiting in the Maryland Invitational and they got us a second time in the title game, 76-91. Later losses to Temple and (Ugh!) Penn State brought SU’s record to a still respectable 13-4.
Then the Orange put it into overdrive, winning 10 straight, including wins over traditional eastern rivals LaSalle, Fordham, St. John’s, West Virginia, Niagara and Rutgers. This was good enough to get SU into the NCAAs for the third time in history and a first round win over a tall Furman team gave us a sparkling 23-4 record. Then SU looked up and saw Lefty Driesell staring them in the face again. This time, it was 75-91. The Terps lost to Providence, which was the East’s best program during this era, (and did not deign to play lowly Syracuse), in the regional finals. The East’s best two chances to win a national title between the Tom Gola and Patrick Ewing eras were St. Bonaventure in 1971 and Providence in 1973 but in both cases their big men, Bob Lanier and Marvin Barnes, respectively, went down to injury at exactly the wrong time and they came up short in the Final Four.
Perhaps the most memorable aspect of the 1972-73 season for Syracuse was the way it ended. They still had regional and national consolation games in those days and SU faced off against Pennsylvania in the Eastern consey. The Quakers had been a national power in that era, going 78-6 the previous three years. They were 21-6 going into this game to SU’s 23-5 and it was close throughout. The Orange was down, 65-68 with a few seconds left when they stole two consecutive inbound passes and scored after each to pull out an incredible 69-68 victory over the shocked Quakers. Syracuse would not end a season with a victory again for 30 years.
The next year, Mike Lee and Mark Wadach graduated. To help replace them, SU did something rare. They took a transfer. Southwestern Louisiana, (doesn’t that sound better than “Louisiana-Lafayette”?), had risen from the small college ranks led by the nation’s leading scorer in Dwight “Bo” Lamar, only to fall victim to NCAA probation. Lamar escaped to the NBA. Two of his teammates came to upstate New York. One was Larry Fogle, who would lead the nation in scoring in 1973-74. Unfortunately, he would do it for Canisius. We got Fred Saunders a 6-7 forward who could score and rebound and made a good partner for Rudy Hackett on the other side of Dooms. Sweet “D” DuVal had an All-American year with 22.2 per game in the backcourt and Jimmy Lee popped his jumpers from the other position.
This team was potentially better than the previous year’s team, (it was certainly bigger, with Saunders replacing Mike Lee and Wadach), but the whole was somehow less than the sum its parts. The season started out with the usual 6 game winning streak, once more ended in a holiday tournament. SU won no tournaments of any kind between the 1964 Hurricane Classic, (when they won the summit between Dave Bing, Rick Barry and Bill Bradley), and something called the “ECAC Playoffs” in 1975 on the way to the final four. This time, an inexplicable 22 point loss to Miami- of Ohio, not Florida- closed out the streak. It was the first of three losses in four games. Five straight wins were followed by another three losses in five games. The teams we were losing to were not Maryland or Louisville but Rutgers, UCONN, Penn State, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, the sort of games SU won in a good year. Five more wins and we were able to sneak into the NCAAs through the back door, where we were paired with Oral Roberts, like Southwestern Louisiana a small college that had moved into the major college ranks. An 82-86 overtime loss left us at 19-7, which was a disappointment after 24-5.
