Grantland Power Poll has list of all-time best Orange teams

[IthacaMatt]

Thought this was pretty interesting and did not see it linked in Eyes' news listings today. You may be surprised at who the writer picks as our all-time best squad.

http://grantland.com/features/tituss-top-12-ncaa-power-rankings-3/

 

[OrangeYaGladi]

Yeah it's clear this guy is coming from a national, outsider perspective.

Titus ranks the 09-10 team far too low. You could make a case that was Boeheim's best team.

 

[HOFCeluck]

That's straight up awful.

2013 better than 2010? 2012 best all time JB team? Lulz.

 

[CuseTG2003]

Yeah it's clear this guy is coming from a national, outsider perspective.

Titus ranks the 09-10 team far too low. You could make a case that was Boeheim's best team.

No question. JB said recently that there are no great teams in college bball anymore, but that his 09-10 team was a great team. As we all know, JB's not one for hyperbole so that's saying something.

 

[Tony DeFranco]

Making a run in the tournament is great but it can really mask a lot of things - did they forget we looked like we did not belong on the same court as Ville and GT last year? and it wasn't just off shooting nights - we were dominated skill wise and physically

 

[CusefanATL]

i pretty much agree with him... at least to the point where he isnt that far off.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Didn't we also beat Louisville at Louisville and Didn't we beat Georgetown in the BET? Short memory.

87, 89, 03, and 2010 should all be before the 2012 team.

 

[OrangeDW]

Thought this was pretty interesting and did not see it linked in Eyes' news listings today. You may be surprised at who the writer picks as our all-time best squad.

http://grantland.com/features/tituss-top-12-ncaa-power-rankings-3/

The 2010 is way under-ranked. And listing only John Wallace for the 1996 team is ridiculous. He didn't list only the "stars" for any other teams. Otis Hill, Todd Burgan, and Lazarus Sims were on par with many of the key guys that he listed for our other squads (Luke Jackson, Ryan Blackwell, Damone Brown, Rick Jackson, Scoop, etc. ) That's just disrespectful to the '96 team. No Pearl teams either? Weren't we 14-2 in the league with Pearl?

 

[NortheastOHSUfan]

Thought this was pretty interesting and did not see it linked in Eyes' news listings today. You may be surprised at who the writer picks as our all-time best squad.

http://grantland.com/features/tituss-top-12-ncaa-power-rankings-3/

The 1989 teams was perhaps the most dominant of the group. Coleman, Thompson, Douglas, and Owens were an incredible collection of talent. I miss the alley-oop showtime display these guys provided game after game. Every team we played tried to slow it down because we were deadly in transition.

 

[OrangeDW]

The 1989 teams was perhaps the most dominant of the group. Coleman, Thompson, Douglas, and Owens were an incredible collection of talent. I miss the alley-oop showtime display these guys provided game after game. Every team we played tried to slow it down because we were deadly in transition.

 

[Cowtown]

This made me smile:

"In other words, every one of Syracuse’s starters is playing as well as he ever has right now, which is pretty terrifying for the rest of the country, considering the Orange won 20 games in a row before they started setting all these career records."

 

[BuffOrange]

The press + dunks + JB fist pump vs Grown gives me chills - I want to find that game somewhere.
Orangehoops says Owens made FTs to force OT in '89 but I think they're mixing that up w/ the '90 technicals game?

 

[Opus]

Any of the late 80's teams hands down. If only Pearl stayed to play with DC his freshman year, that would have been epic. I am not taking anything away from 'The General', I just think Pearl and DC would have connected big time.

 

[thebigeast44]

Any of the late 80's teams hands down. If only Pearl stayed to play with DC his freshman year, that would have been epic. I am not taking anything away from 'The General', I just think Pearl and DC would have connected big time.

And I wish the General had redshirted his freshman year. Can you imagine him as the point guard on the 89-90 team?! Definitely would have been the best SU team of all time! The '89 team would have destroyed the 2012 team - simple as that.

 

[Opus]

Thanks for this. Those teams were my favorite!

 

[Opus]

And I wish the General had redshirted his freshman year. Can you imagine him as the point guard on the 89-90 team?! Definitely would have been the best SU team of all time! The '89 team would have destroyed the 2012 team - simple as that.

Agreed. Oh well. Enough living in the past. LGO 2014!

 

[jncuse]

• Why does every ranking have to be a "power" ranking. Such an overused word.

 

[Czar]

Revisionism has made the 2012 team, hard as it is to seem, underrated. It's better than 2010, I know what Boeheim says but that's not my opinion. Our 2012 team was stacked, we lost once, in Notre Dame (which may as well have been a coronation given the connotation of a #1 team losing there) in the regular season and with Fab could definitely have beaten Kentucky.

2010 was a great team but did not have that dominance.

 

[Shawn91111]

Always thought the 89 team that lost to Illinois was the best ever. Just talent everywhere.

 

[Eric15]

I have a genuine question about the 1989 team (I was born in 1982 and wasn't old enough to remember it) - if it was so great, then why did they lose 8 games? Did we suffer from injuries?

 

[Shawn91111]

The 1989 teams was perhaps the most dominant of the group. Coleman, Thompson, Douglas, and Owens were an incredible collection of talent. I miss the alley-oop showtime display these guys provided game after game. Every team we played tried to slow it down because we were deadly in transition.

Pretty much this. Just a great great team.

 

[BuffOrange]

Revisionism has made the 2012 team, hard as it is to seem, underrated. It's better than 2010, I know what Boeheim says but that's not my opinion. Our 2012 team was stacked, we lost once, in Notre Dame (which may as well have been a coronation given the connotation of a #1 team losing there) in the regular season and with Fab could definitely have beaten Kentucky.

2010 was a great team but did not have that dominance.

It's understandable that an outsider would give the edge to the '12 team. From strictly a results standpoint it was a little better, didn't lose at home, was 2-0 vs L'ville instead of 0-2...
But I don't think it's a coincidence that most of us fans are saying '10 was better. How much of the L'ville results was just Kuric making a higher % of the same shots in '10? We were lucky in a couple of those '12 home games (vs WVU & G'town). Ya Cincy got hot in the BET but Waiters was also in 'NBA Jam' mode or else we would've gotten blown out...with Fab. Plus Jospeh's knees/legs at the end of the year looked like Dan Marino's circa 1999.

I have a genuine question about the 1989 team (I was born in 1982 and wasn't old enough to remember it) - if it was so great, then why did they lose 8 games? Did we suffer from injuries?

Fair question. I was only 8 myself so not really sure. I think it was just a combination of not being that great defensively and other teams being more stacked as well. But we did lose to Pitt/Nova/Uconn/St John's teams who I don't think had many pros (someone can correct me if I'm wrong).
Definitely our best team on paper imo...
I'm guessing this was roughly when the "JB rolls the ball out there" crowd became really vocal.

 

[OttoMets]

Reading these national pop culture hipster types write about college basketball drives me nuts.

Mark Titus knows less about college basketball (and, especially, Syracuse teams over the decades) than half the people on this board.

Cool discussion topic, but his contribution to the discussion is worthless.

 

[OttoMets]

Just so I'm not offering an empty complaint without some contribution of my own:

He calls this a list of the "best Syracuse teams ever," but leaves off two retroactive national champions (1918 and 1926 teams that combined for 35-2 record) and the Bing/Boeheim team that went to the Elite Eight and almost averaged 100 points per game.

Then he leaves off 1986 (which has to be darn close to anyone's top 5) and 1988.

Then he includes 2013. Is that even in our top 15?

1990 and 1987 are probably too high.

Good find on 1994, though. That actually was an underrated team, as discussed in a recent thread on here.

 

[OttoMets]

I have a genuine question about the 1989 team (I was born in 1982 and wasn't old enough to remember it) - if it was so great, then why did they lose 8 games? Did we suffer from injuries?

I think it's some combination of our playing very strong opponents and our effort not being up to par every night.

Our recent run of success has a great deal to do with effort, both in the off-season and during games. Our players are fit, prepared, and focused. A great supplement to talent, and not always an attribute of Syracuse teams.