Look, overall, I love JB. He was the right man at the right time and, as Seneca says, luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. JB was ready, and he took it by the horns and was the primary factor that Syracuse basketball became Syracuse basketball. But he wasn't the only factor. It isn't disrespectful to acknowledge the Dome helped, ESPN helped, the other coaches/teams in the Big East all came together at the right time.
But it is also true that the guy who handed us the excellence for many, many years as you say, stopped producing excellence. He seemed to double down on his worst impulses; trashing players in press conferences, using his bench like a penalty box, being a jerk to media (especially "small" ones), while becoming a prisoner of the 2-3 zone that he had put on the map.
It's okay to acknowledge both. But, you totally off base in that last paragraph. A second tier recruiting school? Not sure, I agree with that but whatever. High expectations? Yes, guilty as charged. As a Syracuse fan I expect our program not to be irrelevant for most of a decade and trending downward even further. Is that unreasonable? If so, call me unreasonable.
Ingrates? He got paid MILLIONS of dollars to coach sports in one spot that has a low cost of living. He didn't have to drag his family all over the country from job to job. The school and community stood by and supported him through two NCAA violations. They named the court after him. He got to build a roster around his kids and coach them in P5 college basketball. If acknowledging the fact that he didn't walk on water and made some questionable decisions in his later years is ungrateful, so be it, call me an ingrate.
