Is anyone honestly surprised?

[Cuse181]

It's what we sadly deserve. Not


So we used the portal to get some of our best players in the last decade and Jimmy was one of them?? Homer isn't just a town near Cortland.

I said “gave quality to great minutes” but why read the post? Amirite

 

[kingtidge]

I said “gave quality to great minutes” but why read the post? Amirite

In a word, no.

“No one neglects the transfer portal like we do” despite having used the transfer portal and before to get some of the better players in the last decade…

I just think the argument is false. Gbinje, White, Gillon, Chuckwu, Elijah, Swider, Jimmy and Griffin all transfers who ended up giving quality to great minutes. Just because Syracuse didn’t bring in 6 guys this year it means the team has neglected the portal? Get out of here

 

[two3zone]

It's what we sadly deserve. Not


So we used the portal to get some of our best players in the last decade and Jimmy was one of them?? Homer isn't just a town near Cortland.

Jimmy would be our best forward this year and there isn’t a close second.

 

[Cuse181]

In a word, no.

Okay so your operating under the assumption that I meant all of those players were the “best” Syracuse has had due to a previous post, over looking the qualifier added to the post that you quoted and responded to?

 

[Fly Rodder]

Jimmy would be our best forward this year and there isn’t a close second.

I agree, but I don't want to.

 

[kingtidge]

Okay so your operating under the assumption that I meant all of those players were the “best” Syracuse has had due to a previous post, over looking the qualifier added to the post that you quoted and responded to?

Honestly, I often have a hard time discerning what you mean.

Jimmy would be our best forward this year and there isn’t a close second.

Shockingly rough statement, but true.

 

[Newhouser]

I don't think anyone is surprised - these situations never end well and even JB's most ardent supporters knew there was going to be a drop off. The degree of drop off is unsettling, but this has been coming for a long time - slow and steady decline just got replaced by fall off the cliff.

 

[Cuse181]

Honestly, I have a hard time discerning what you mean often.



Shockingly rough statement, but true.

It’s pretty simple… I was naming off transfers.

 

[AZOrange]

This is just false. Miami, UNC, Virginia pt 2, NC State, all 4 of those games were flukes? Syracuse didn’t do ANYTHING right? It was all the other team doing everything wrong? Stupidest thing I’ve read all year.

I never said they didn’t do anything right. I said we have been bad from the start and had a couple games where we were less bad and our opponents were not good. None of the teams in the ACC are very good. We are at the bottom.

 

[Cuse181]

I never said they didn’t do anything right. I said we have been bad from the start and had a couple games where we were less bad and our opponents were not good. None of the teams in the ACC are very good. We are at the bottom.

Well first, they are not at the bottom that’s pretty plain to see. Bottom half? You betcha, but let’s not pretend Syracuse is BC or ND right now. And I’m not using that as a “gotcha” moment, I’m just saying it’s factually incorrect.

2nd, just because they’ve clearly fallen apart at the end of the year does not mean they never improved, you can see it on the torvik trends that they spiked for about a month and the performance on both ends had improved. That doesn’t mean these last games didn’t happen, but it also doesn’t mean the team NEVER improved.

 

[realorange]

It will be interesting to see if they can put on their big boy pants and play some decent defense in the short time they have left.

Offense is not the problem. They've been scoring enough points to win games. They just haven't limited the other team.

And JB says it's about pride now and he's right. I would hope those guys have enough pride in themselves to not look like the walk ons from a better team.

 

[RF2044]

Honestly ask yourself..are you really surprised it’s all came to the surface finally?

Basketball as a whole as completely changed since the 2000’s (college, nba etc). It’s a shooting sport now.
We still run a defense that no one runs exclusively in the country…because it’s outdated.
We still run the same “offense” from the 90s and 2000s…it’s outdated.

No one else neglects the transfer portal like we do/have been doing.
No one brings in a 8 man freshmen class of non 5 star players like we did. It’s a recipe for this.

I think it’s all just hit the fan all at once now. I think it’s been masked or “lipstick on a pig” with a great regular season or a crazy run in the tourny in the past.

Just sad to watch and I feel for the players

Unfortunately, this is a great post.

I'm not remotely surprised. The decline over the past 9 years has been steep, but the full effects were masked by a couple of post-season runs that made the fanbase feel positive about otherwise underwhelming seasons.

We also benefitted [psychologically] from not being in the NIT in 2014 -- when we self-imposed a ban in anticipation of NCAA sanctions -- and in 2020, the COVID year. Those two outcomes also served to partially conceal the downward trend.

Recruiting has also declined over the 9 year dip, to the point that our "best class ever" included a trio of three-stars.

And now we have reports of a roster mutiny, where JB seems to have lost the team -- for the first time so far as I can tell in his career.

Meanwhile, off the court -- JB's comments in the media have brought a lot of unwanted scrutiny and negative publicity. He's given a couple of teams unnecessary bulletin board material, and been forced to walk back his comments by the ACC.

And him putting his foot in his mouth came at a time when the team was actually performing well. We were coming off of a 3 game winning streak, where we'd gotten our "best" win of the year over a ranked NC State team, and seemed poised to potentially continue that run against Duke / Clemson -- both teams that were struggling at the time, at least prior to playing us.

But JB's press conference foibles were an inflection point in the season's trajectory. It's been nothing but downhill from there.

And coming off of last season's losing record -- the first in JB's 47 year career -- has caused a significant portion of the fanbase to lose faith.

JB has lost the team, he's a national laughingstock, and we've likely played our way out of even NIT contention. An offseason mass-exodus seems likely, and we have one two-star recruit lined up to come in next year.

I just don't see any way that the AD allows him to come back next year to coach whatever roster he'd be able to cobble together. Nor do I think JB should be extended that privilege -- at this point, he should be out of rope.

I can't even envision how ticket sales would drop off next year if he's afforded the opportunity to run things back.

Really sad -- JB is one of my sports heroes, and he's been the head coach of my favorite team for my entire life. But the situation we're in has been caused by his stubbornness, his mismanagement of the roster, and his propensity to make dumb comments to the media.

Which is why I'm not remotely surprised that things are ending this way. I suppose this type of train wreck ending was both predictable and inevitable, given his personality.

 

[MDCuse]

Honestly ask yourself..are you really surprised it’s all came to the surface finally?

Basketball as a whole as completely changed since the 2000’s (college, nba etc). It’s a shooting sport now.
We still run a defense that no one runs exclusively in the country…because it’s outdated.
We still run the same “offense” from the 90s and 2000s…it’s outdated.

No one else neglects the transfer portal like we do/have been doing.
No one brings in a 8 man freshmen class of non 5 star players like we did. It’s a recipe for this.

I think it’s all just hit the fan all at once now. I think it’s been masked or “lipstick on a pig” with a great regular season or a crazy run in the tourny in the past.

Just sad to watch and I feel for the players

Not in the least. This is about the least surprising ending for this story. There were so many opportunities for Jim and the administration to have it not go down this road but they decided to run it till the wheels came off. And I can't stop laughing at the arrogance of the radio doofus who keeps saying "be careful what you wish for. It can get worse.". It can't. This is rock bottom for so many different reasons.

 

[MDCuse]

Really sad -- JB is one of my sports heroes, and he's been the head coach of my favorite team for my entire life. But the situation we're in has been caused by his stubbornness, his mismanagement of the roster, and his propensity to make dumb comments to the media.

This part right here speaks to me. I'm 41 years old. All I have known is Jim Boeheim and SU basketball. It was such a massive part of my childhood. I have lived and died on so many games & moments. Seeing Jim destroy what he built is just heartbreaking for so many reasons. What he built over 4 decades, he destroyed in less than 7 years.

 

[Fly Rodder]

I can't even envision how ticket sales would drop off next year if he's afforded the opportunity to run things back.

I've posted before that I think most season ticket holders who only have seats for themselves are going to still purchase, maybe a slight decline. But it's the re-sellers who are going to crater. They're not interested in dropping $25k on tickets to get maybe $5k and a few cheap promotional towels back. Duke and UNC tickets sold. I think a lot of fans from outside the area choose their one game a year for friend group reunions and that's about it.

 

[OptimusOtto]

Unfortunately this is probably the only way it could’ve gone to force us to rip the band-aid off. The quicker we get someone new in - internal or external - and truly restart building this back up, the better.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Doing good things in a game to almost get results had potential when we sat at 12-6. A premise that correlated with progress. We then proceeded to go 4-8 since with 4 straight blowouts to semi blowouts. Hanging ones hat on hey look we almost... should have if the refs.. are still too young...

Progress translates to good outcomes. A stretch of better play representing real growth as players and a team doesn't land like this. More than a few wins this year have been fool's gold in the form up teams missing open shots / not taking them that have been available for every opponent paired with such a weak schedule.

It's the simple eye test. Watching last night's game, already knowing the terrible result, and then watching Benny, in particular, not even try on defense for play after play after play, and not get replaced. Well, that was it for me. Boeheim is done. The team won't play for him anymore. Everyone will leave this summer. Why bring him back one more time for his fragile ego?

 

[Scooch]

I just think the argument is false. Gbinje, White, Gillon, Chuckwu, Elijah, Swider, Jimmy and Griffin all transfers who ended up giving quality to great minutes. Just because Syracuse didn’t bring in 6 guys this year it means the team has neglected the portal? Get out of here

Two thoughts…

1) JB himself said he didn’t want to use the portal this past offseason. And I commented here how bizarre that comment was, since, to your point, we’ve used transfers heavily the past 15 years to build out some of our better teams.

2) By many accounts the staff begged JB to use the portal to find a F or two this past offseason, and he refused. It was a colossal mistake, and one many here pointed out in real time.

For whatever reason, JB had no use for the portal recently and it’s killed the team. He owns that.

 

[Ringostar57]

Innovating and adapting is not in Jimmy's character. Too stubborn, too arrogant. Failure to do so has collapsed many a pyramid and lost a lot of battles. The Orange civilization is being snuffed out.

 

[BlackSquirrels]

I am not surprised. I realized JB would never step down willingly after the press conference after Hopkins left for Washington. Once that was settled, a bumpy ending was inevitable.

I watched that press conference again and didn’t remember how JB said “secession plan” instead of “succession plan” multiple times. It was an all-time Freudian slip that shows how JB views the idea of turning over the program to someone else.

 

[Nicknack]

I can't even envision how ticket sales would drop off next year if he's afforded the opportunity to run things back.

Yeah, and it could get even worse than that if Jesse and Mintz don't come back. Then things could r e a l l y get ugly.

 

[Fly Rodder]

Yeah, and it could get even worse than that if Jesse and Mintz don't come back. Then things could r e a l l y get ugly.

0.0% chance of Jesse coming back.

 

[SUOrangeSU]

I just think the argument is false. Gbinje, White, Gillon, Chuckwu, Elijah, Swider, Jimmy and Griffin all transfers who ended up giving quality to great minutes. Just because Syracuse didn’t bring in 6 guys this year it means the team has neglected the portal? Get out of here

and all those you named minus 3 were traditional transfers which is negated in this.
You're still in the defender bucket. It's clear as day

 

[Nicknack]

0.0% chance of Jesse coming back.

Really? I thought there was a chance. That said, who would want to play on this team right now? It can't be fun.

 

[MDCuse]

and all those you named minus 3 were traditional transfers which is negated in this.
You're still in the defender bucket. It's clear as day

Almost all those guys got a year to sit and learn. And let's be honest, Jimmy had been around this program his whole life. The current portal is a whole different ball game that Jim hasn't figured out