JB's best year

[Capt. Tuttle]

Given the talent on hand, the front court youth and inexperience, the defections, the injuries, be they season ending, nagging and/or debilitating, the schedule as well as the fatigue, both mental and physical, this result is, in my mind, extraordinary.

 

[Day2]

Given the talent on hand, the front court youth and inexperience, the defections, the injuries, be they season ending, nagging and/or debilitating, the schedule as well as the fatigue, both mental and physical, this result is, in my mind, extraordinary.

I’ve been saying for awhile now that what he’s been getting out of these guys this year is a borderline miracle. Now that we’ve made the tournament, I’m ready to call it a miracle.

And this is arguably the hardest working and toughest group we’ve ever had.

 

[djcon57]

I still say 2003. He had to get Melo to buy into Gmac otherwise we never win.

 

[SUFan44]

1995-96.

 

[tipphill]

1995-96.

no question about this

 

[Day2]

1995-96.

I was a student back then and made the trip to the FF. While it was a great run with some amazing games, that team had way more talent. You could even argue they underachieved a bit during the regular season. The last two FFs were more surprising IMO.

 

[Jake]

It's top 5 in his career.

My top 5 would be:

1996
1987
2003
1980
2018

Not sure the order.

 

[pearl31]

Proclamation by OP seems to be fairly prevalent in past 24 hours... almost as prevalent as proclamations a week or so ago that it was time for JB to go

#fanbasesarecuckoo

 

[HOFCeluck]

Proclamation by OP seems to be fairly prevalent in past 24 hours... almost as prevalent as proclamations a week or so ago that it was time for JB to go

#fanbasesarecuckoo

I thought the “one more year” ultimatum sht was crazy when we were getting blown out by BC.

 

[Orijinal]

It's top 5 in his career.

My top 5 would be:

1996
1987
2003
1980
2018

Not sure the order.

I'd put the 2016 surprise in there. Cuse makes the tourney as a 10 seed and rides it to a Final Four by orchestrating a miracle against Virginia

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Proclamation by OP seems to be fairly prevalent in past 24 hours... almost as prevalent as proclamations a week or so ago that it was time for JB to go

#fanbasesarecuckoo

Not by me.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

1995-96.

Umm, we had John Wallace and Burgen up front. Far better that year than our forwards.

Z was a better PG than Frank (I have happily eaten crow on Frank this year, and Z is a favorite.)

Also the bench was far better, because we had one.

 

[newmexicuse]

jimmy has certainly done quite a lot with this group. the team had really terrible roster luck w injuries and defections.

it is hard to win with only three scorers. guys played hard and thru fatigue. credit to the coach.

however, i have to wonder if we are first out instead of last in if many here would still call it one of his best coaching jobs. just curious.

 

[Ringostar57]

Life on the bubble....last year first one out, this year last one in.

 

[hungrychuck]

Not sure about the thread title, but agree with just about everything else in the OP.

 

[OrangeTarheel]

In no order I feel:

- this season began with low expectations, got worse, then ended at the big Dance? I still don't know how we got here;

- last season felt like a better team, amazing highlights might have blinded me but we could score buckets;

- if we are fortunate this week we play three games in five days, how many fans think that works to our advantage?

- I really appreciate having Jimmy B come back - having another tournament with him is something special

 

[NorSyr66]

Several great and appropriate comments in this thread. What I loved the most about this year was we seemingly got hit time and time again by incoming rounds but we struggled on. The surviving 7 never gave up. It is one thing to play a short bench but it is entire different meaning to have only 7 players available. Short of Battle hardly a single player would have major playing time on many of the Syracuse teams in the past but here we are, in the NCAAs......survivors. Yet to live another day! Maybe not JB's best year but awfully damn good year from where we started.
LGO.

 

[OrangeDW]

I’ve been saying for awhile now that what he’s been getting out of these guys this year is a borderline miracle. Now that we’ve made the tournament, I’m ready to call it a miracle.

And this is arguably the hardest working and toughest group we’ve ever had.

Yeah, but we don’t run our offense like the Golden State Warriors.

 

[OrangeDW]

Umm, we had John Wallace and Burgen up front. Far better that year than our forwards.

Z was a better PG than Frank (I have happily eaten crow on Frank this year, and Z is a favorite.)

Also the bench was far better, because we had one.

Our team was better, but so was the rest of the sport. The sophomore Allen Iverson Georgetown, Junior Ray Allen UConn and Senior Villanova Kerry Kittles teams we were competing against were way better than the current competition because those stars all would never see a sophomore, junior, or senior year now.

 

[cuseinseattle]

Umm, we had John Wallace and Burgen up front. Far better that year than our forwards.

Z was a better PG than Frank (I have happily eaten crow on Frank this year, and Z is a favorite.)

Also the bench was far better, because we had one.

What bench? Reafsnider and Marius?

 

[Marroniac]

What year did he marry Juli? Because that year.

 

[NineOneSeven]

If Memphis won the AAC, does the tune change? It shouldn't, but my point is it's amazing how different these threads are when it just took ONE more automatic bid to knock us out of a tournament a group of old men decided to put us in seemingly against the odds of most, even here.

 

[OrangeDW]

I’ve always thought 2001 was one of his better jobs. We lost a lot from a really good 2000 team. Damone Brown was the only returning starter. Shumpert was 6th man the previous year. Williams and Griffin were bench guys that had their moments. Nowadays that’s considered having a decent amount of talent back, but not in 2001. And we had little after those 4 guys. No bench, and Billy Celluck/Jeremy McNeil started at center.

Going 25-9 was a great job with that team.

1991-92 as well. Dave Johnson was a returning star, Autry returning starter. Guys like Hopkins and McRae role players. In that era, they weren’t expected to be very good but they won their 20+ and were a bad call away from being in the sweet 16.

 

[syrBossHogg]

If Memphis won the AAC, does the tune change? It shouldn't, but my point is it's amazing how different these threads are when it just took ONE more automatic bid to knock us out of a tournament a group of old men decided to put us in seemingly against the odds of most, even here.

Nope. A good chunk of this board said they would've been happy with a winning record before this year.

 

[hungrychuck]

Nope. A good chunk of this board said they would've been happy with a winning record before this year.

Yep, that is true. Not sure if I wrote it, but I would have been one of them.

Also, I’m not the only one — far from the only one — to credit JB and staff for getting this team to overachieve even before the NCAA bid.

That doesn’t mean that targeted, more precise criticisms like those raised by RF in another post aren’t valid.

JB’s best job? Don’t know about that. This team hasn’t done enough.

But a good job? Hell yeah!