GMAC

[SoBeCuse]

Moten and Wallace before GMac. No brainer. Better players though not as 'iconic.' Saying SU should've beaten Kentucky is moronic.

 

[sufandu]

I take offense to this... sometimes the problem with old farts is that they believe young people are too naive. Have you ever considered that maybe, just maybe, some of the new generation of sports personas actually could have been better than the old? Too many times the legend of a player that played long ago is believed to hold higher court than someone who played less than a decade ago, only because it feels too fresh. I don't disagree that some of the legends absolutely deserve to be up on the wall. I just don't think it fair of you or anyone to say us "younger" fans are too naive to discuss things of this nature because we weren't around when so-and-so did such-and-such. I assume I just read the tone of that message the wrong way.

Carmelo is on the wall because he was the leader on a national championship team. GMac was very instrumental in that tourney run as well averaging 13.3 pts, 3.5 assists and 2.5 stl per game as a true freshman.

Take all the offense you want. The fact remains there are players that were instrumental to our program that should be honored before GMac. Without those players maybe GMac never plays here. It's not even about whether GMac meant more or less to the program. It's about the fact that honoring the guys that came before him is long overdo. Is it GMac's fault that the school is behind in honoring those guys? No. Is it a travesty that a guy still in his 20's waits a little longer so that players that paved the way for him and are now in their 40's and 50's get their turn first? Absolutely not. It's the way it should be. Just because Melo was honored when he was doesn't automatically mean it's GMac's turn right now. People have made sound arguments that hanging Melo's jersey should've happened later.

Just so you know, I'm not even an old fart. I'm only slightly older than you. I'm too young to have even seen Roosevelt Bouie and Louis Orr play. I started watching just after the Pearl left. However, from stories told by the "old farts" I have an understanding of what they meant to the program and that they should be honored.

 

[jordoo]

I don't think we win the UK game even with Wallace down the stretch. They had more horses than us plain and simple. They were likely to wear us down even if Wallace never fouled out. I think that team Ricky P had that day boasted 9-10 guys who at least stayed in the league for a cup of coffee.

 

[Eric15]

If you're ever having a bad day, just watch this 22 second YouTube clip and you'll be in great spirits immediately:

 

[sufandu]

I don't think we win the UK game even with Wallace down the stretch. They had more horses than us plain and simple. They were likely to wear us down even if Wallace never fouled out. I think that team Ricky P had that day boasted 9-10 guys who at least stayed in the league for a cup of coffee.

I think they had three go in the first round following that season and two the next. That team was absolutely stacked. Did we have anyone other than Wallace go in the first round? Our guys played over their heads just to keep it close. I loved that '96 team.

 

[jordoo]

I think they had three go in the first round following that season and two the next. That team was absolutely stacked. Did we have anyone other than Wallace go in the first round? Our guys played over their heads just to keep it close. I loved that '96 team.

Only Wallace. I think that squad was:
Sims,
Cipola
Wallace
Burgan
Hill
with
Reifschnieder
Janulis
and someone else off the bench. Been quite a while. I agree we played great to be in that game and UK was seriously stacked.

 

[Eric15]

Did we have anyone other than Wallace go in the first round?

McNabb... in the NFL draft. But yeah nobody on that 1996 team played one second in the NBA other than Wallace.

 

[Eric15]

Only Wallace. I think that squad was:
Sims,
Cipola
Wallace
Burgan
Hill
with
Reifschnieder
Janulis
and someone else off the bench. Been quite a while. I agree we played great to be in that game and UK was seriously stacked.

That's it - we went 7 deep. David Patrick and Bobby Lazor played sparingly throughout the regular season but down the stretch it was only seven.

 

[SUFan44]

We were only down by 5 when Wallace fouled out.

Z makes a better pass, Wallace scores and gets fouled, and now we're only down by only 2 with about a minute left. :noidea:

Hung with a bunch of lottery picks for 35 minutes with a decent NBA guy and a bunch of solid role players. That season was JB's best coaching job, hands down IMO.

 

[Dave85]

Ok, it's been 8.5 years since GMAC went out like a boss in the Big East tourney, ending a very memorable career as an Orange. His career needs no introduction as he was definitely the most beloved Syracuse basketball player I can remember (I'm 32) and arguably ever. He embodied everything the University, City and Fans could ever ask for. Hell, his senior day introduction is the first time I think I've ever teared up.

To the powers that be - Retire the damn jersey!

He made six 3-pointers in the first half and several key foul shots in the final minutes. His NC performance was probably the best single performance of any Orange player I've ever seen. But we would not have won the game without Anthony. And Warrick's block at the end is still the single greatest play I've seen in Orange history.

 

[OrangeDW]

I take offense to this... sometimes the problem with old farts is that they believe young people are too naive. Have you ever considered that maybe, just maybe, some of the new generation of sports personas actually could have been better than the old? Too many times the legend of a player that played long ago is believed to hold higher court than someone who played less than a decade ago, only because it feels too fresh. I don't disagree that some of the legends absolutely deserve to be up on the wall. I just don't think it fair of you or anyone to say us "younger" fans are too naive to discuss things of this nature because we weren't around when so-and-so did such-and-such. I assume I just read the tone of that message the wrong way.

Carmelo is on the wall because he was the leader on a national championship team. GMac was very instrumental in that tourney run as well averaging 13.3 pts, 3.5 assists and 2.5 stl per game as a true freshman.

As great as Gerry was in the title game and to the program as a whole...Wallace and Moten were better players(IMO) and came first, so they should be honored first.

 

[OrangeDW]

He made six 3-pointers in the first half and several key foul shots in the final minutes. His NC performance was probably the best single performance of any Orange player I've ever seen. But we would not have won the game without Anthony. And Warrick's block at the end is still the single greatest play I've seen in Orange history.

Carmelo had 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists in the title game.

As exciting and important and incredible as GMac's 6 first half 3's were, Carmelo played the better game.

 

[OrangeDW]

We were only down by 5 when Wallace fouled out.

Z makes a better pass, Wallace scores and gets fouled, and now we're only down by only 2 with about a minute left. :noidea:

What was also huge was Z hurt his wrist and had to come out of the game for a few minutes in the 2nd half, and going off memory I think we turned it over 5 straight times when he was out.

A non-biased fan would use that as another reason Kentucky deserved it...they actually had functional( or in some cases much better than that) backups at every position, where we didn't and completely fell apart for a few minutes with our PG on the bench. But looking at it from our perspective, if Sims didn't get hurt and Wallace didn't foul out we might have won.

 

[RF2044]

He made six 3-pointers in the first half and several key foul shots in the final minutes. His NC performance was probably the best single performance of any Orange player I've ever seen. But we would not have won the game without Anthony. And Warrick's block at the end is still the single greatest play I've seen in Orange history.

McNamara made 6 three pointers in the first half, and finished with 18. He didn't make any "key foul shots in the final minutes."

 

[RF2044]

I take offense to this... sometimes the problem with old farts is that they believe young people are too naive. Have you ever considered that maybe, just maybe, some of the new generation of sports personas actually could have been better than the old? Too many times the legend of a player that played long ago is believed to hold higher court than someone who played less than a decade ago, only because it feels too fresh. I don't disagree that some of the legends absolutely deserve to be up on the wall. I just don't think it fair of you or anyone to say us "younger" fans are too naive to discuss things of this nature because we weren't around when so-and-so did such-and-such. I assume I just read the tone of that message the wrong way.

Carmelo is on the wall because he was the leader on a national championship team. GMac was very instrumental in that tourney run as well averaging 13.3 pts, 3.5 assists and 2.5 stl per game as a true freshman.

No offense intended, but there is no way in hell that GMac was as good of a player as Wallace, nor were his career accomplishments are as impressive / important as Wallace's. That has nothing to do with age--it's an indisputable fact.

I love both players, but c'mon--are you actually arguing that GMac deserves to have his jersey retired before J-Dub?

 

[AZOrange]

McNamara made 6 three pointers in the first half, and finished with 18. He didn't make any "key foul shots in the final minutes."

is that it? For some reason I remember 20

 

[AZOrange]

The only thing I have to say...why the are Louie and bouie not retired? Good god

 

[Todd Gack]

The only thing I have to say...why the are Louie and bouie not retired? Good god

When they are, I hope it's against Louisville -- as I believe Louie was the reason for Pitino's honeymoon recruiting trip.

 

[thebigeast44]

Carmelo had 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists in the title game.

As exciting and important and incredible as GMac's 6 first half 3's were, Carmelo played the better game.

Crazy thing about that game is Gmac did not score in the 2nd half after hurting his hand near the end of the first half. And due to Melo's back acting up, he did not score in the final 12+ minutes. It was a total team effort that led to that win.

 

[OttoMets]

Crazy thing about that game is Gmac did not score in the 2nd half after hurting his hand near the end of the first half. And due to Melo's back acting up, he did not score in the final 12+ minutes. It was a total team effort that led to that win.

Well, yes, with some timely defensive stops. I think we only scored 26 or 27 points in the second half and really faded after the under-4:00 timeout. It was a funny, inconsistent game.

 

[CiceroCuse]

John Wallace is responsible for not only leading the '96 team to a near upset of Kentucky for the national championship, he is responsible for two of the greatest clutch plays in 'Cuse history: the perfect pass from out-of-bounds at midcourt to Cipolla for a great shot at the buzzer to tie Georgia in the Sweet 16 and send the game in OT, then JW ended the game by doing this; my voice was shot for a day or two.

It was great to watch that again! The Cipolla play is the one I still recall to this day.

 

[jekelish]

We were only down by 5 when Wallace fouled out.

Z makes a better pass, Wallace scores and gets fouled, and now we're only down by only 2 with about a minute left. :noidea:

I won't sit by and listen to anyone put anything remotely resembling blame on Z. The reason we lost that game, if you ask me, was because we simply didn't have another ball handler so when he hurt his wrist late, we turned it over on 6 of the 7 possessions he was getting checked out on the sideline. With Z in there I legit think we have a shot to win at the end.

Also, the final score is deceptive since Tony Delk went in and made a layup when everyone else was already shaking hands in the final seconds. I've always hated Delk for that.