I just finished the 1996 Final Four game against Mississippi State at the Meadowlands.
Boy, that team had an athletic front court, and great, great interior passing. That's what our offense used to look like. Only Wallace was a 5 star, but Otis and Burgan were athletic and rebounded really well.
Not a ton of outside shooting on that team, but just enough. Even though they were "big, slow guys", Z Sims and Cipolla cheated down to the foul line, but had very good lateral quickness, Guys did not get past them on the drive very often.
What was the talent level on that team? Wallace - 5 star, Burgan, Hill and Cipolla (before his transfer) were all 4 star players, and the rest - Reafsnyder, Z Sims and Janulis were all 3 star, role playing guys. Reafsnyder had a bit of a nasty streak on defense, and was our best "Stetch 5" probably up to that point in time (or was it Sean Kerins?).
Boy, that was a lot of fun. Here's a link. All commercials taken out. Thanks to the Post-Standard.
In the 1996 NCAA Final Four, Syracuse's defense forced Mississippi State into 21 turnovers.
www.syracuse.com
