Looking back at Syracuse basketball's 2003 NCAA Tournament title run

[SWC75]

This is like a game of telephone.

Love ya, SWC, but none of those things is accurate.

None? The Golden sombero?

I'd love to hear your version.

 

[SWC75]

I think blaming the paper for reporting on our cheating is a bad look.

Yeah others do it too. Doesn't mean it shouldn't be reported on.

I don't blame them for investigative journalism. I just wanted them to use SU as an example of what schools are doing to maintain elite programs rather than just trying to indict SU. College basketball should have been the subject, as is was in "Raw Recruits", not just what SU may have done wrong.

 

[OttoMets]

None? The Golden sombero?

I'd love to hear your version.

I'm gonna defer to the NCAA's version in the 2015 report.

 

[cuseinseattle]

Is this a serious question? The Lexington newspaper had a huge investigative series on Kentucky basketball a few years before the Post-Standard's series on Syracuse. I think it cost Eddie Sutton the head coach job.

The newspaper in Raleigh drove the coverage of UNC's academic shenanigans that the NCAA ended up ignoring.

The Kentucky issues came to light because of an LA Times story about the package that opened revealing cash to Chris Mills dad. Maybe after the fact and the NCAA being in they ran some story but they did not start the process to get UK put on probation. The UNC thing was driven by the academic advisor and the story was buried multiple times and she would come back with more info.

 

[CsonkaStash]

Is this a serious question? The Lexington newspaper had a huge investigative series on Kentucky basketball a few years before the Post-Standard's series on Syracuse. I think it cost Eddie Sutton the head coach job.

The newspaper in Raleigh drove the coverage of UNC's academic shenanigans that the NCAA ended up ignoring.

The Post Standard investigates Syracuse players, students, former players, friends of the program for 7 months!!!!

I’m sorry but this goes well beyond your regular “investigative reporting”. Bad look or not I believe the way they went about us was wrong and many other local papers would not have handled it the same way. Also this is why Jimmy treats the media the way he does. That and they ask stupid questions or say things they know nothing about.

It is ridiculous how the Sub Standard spun the whole thing even when players ate at houses of people close to the program they said impermissible meals. Post Standard went way overboard and did their best to try to bring the program down

 

[tbonezone]

i don't think you glide over the oklahoma state game and don't mention JEREMY MCNEIL.
down 16 he saved our bacon almost single handily anchoring the press. named game MVP.
if not for that performance on D the championship and carmelo legend don't happen.
at least mention his name.

 

[SWC75]

i don't think you glide over the oklahoma state game and don't mention JEREMY MCNEIL.
down 16 he saved our bacon almost single handily anchoring the press. named game MVP.
if not for that performance on D the championship and carmelo legend don't happen.
at least mention his name.

Everybody contributed. that's how you win these things. This past year we had one game where everybody contributed and it produced one of the great victories in the program's history. But we only did it once. To win the title you've got to do it six times in a row.

 

[OrangeDW]

i don't think you glide over the oklahoma state game and don't mention JEREMY MCNEIL.
down 16 he saved our bacon almost single handily anchoring the press. named game MVP.
if not for that performance on D the championship and carmelo legend don't happen.
at least mention his name.

I was kindve mad that Edelin was ignored.

He had 20 in that OSU game.

And Edelin was in his first year playing college ball too. Technically a freshman. He was one of our best players by the end of the season.

 

[Col. Bleep]

The Post Standard investigates Syracuse players, students, former players, friends of the program for 7 months!!!!

I’m sorry but this goes well beyond your regular “investigative reporting”.

I spent 6 months on a story a lot less complicated.
Reporters rarely get the opportunity to focus on one story...even one that's so important to your market.

 

[BlackSquirrels]

cuseinseattle, CsonkaStash, the Lexington Herald Leader won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for investigative reporting for its series on Kentucky basketball.

Here is an article about one of the Raleigh News and Observer reporters about the UNC scandal. He and his team wrote about the story for years.

You are free to hate the P-S, but SU does not face more scrutiny from local media than other programs.

 

[tbonezone]

blaming others for reporting news cuz you got caught cheating is worse than cheating itself.
their job is to report facts. your job is to play by the rules. do your jobs there's no issue.

 

[OrangeDW]

Actual footage of tbone when he heard SU was going on probation:

 

[SWC75]

blaming others for reporting news cuz you got caught cheating is worse than cheating itself.
their job is to report facts. your job is to play by the rules. do your jobs there's no issue.

Yes it is.

 

[CsonkaStash]

blaming others for reporting news cuz you got caught cheating is worse than cheating itself.
their job is to report facts. your job is to play by the rules. do your jobs there's no issue.

I completely disagree with this. Your job is to win...Not to necessarily play by the rules, if you can win by playing by the rules even better. I am curious how many whistleblowing local papers there have been in College Basketball or Football. The post standard initiated the investigation albeit after Wolffs book

Again the Post Standard was the whistleblower here...I do not excuse the program for their indiscretions at all but if you read the articles the Post Standard was also spinning it to be worse. Believe me the Rob Johnson stuff (was bad but he helped other schools too...what happened to them), boosters money, Bill Rapp, it broke all the rules. They deserved punishment and received it but the Post Standard sensationalized it also and made issues bigger than they were to add to the story.

Discounted rental cars, really, meals at Grimaldis (allowed on game day but some happened the day after), a grounds foreman taking players out to the dinner. Post Standard even dug into families who players knew during and before hand. If a player ate a someone's house, the Post Standard described it as impermissible benefits. Empire games and staying at the dorms that they didn't know they cannot do...Post Standard published that too.

I am not apologizing for the program...I actually think they got off pretty light in 92 but I think the Post Standard tried to make it even bigger than it was. Either way they helped open the door for UConn and their mission succeeded. The Post Standard dug into ever angle of the program and not surprising found major and minor violations at every turn. They reported them all. Even the $100 pick up game bet which was a joke.

 

[CsonkaStash]

Yes it is.

Funniest post of the night, you guys are ridiculous...

 

[OttoMets]

I was kindve mad that Edelin was ignored.

He had 20 in that OSU game.

And Edelin was in his first year playing college ball too. Technically a freshman. He was one of our best players by the end of the season.

i don't think you glide over the oklahoma state game and don't mention JEREMY MCNEIL.
down 16 he saved our bacon almost single handily anchoring the press. named game MVP.
if not for that performance on D the championship and carmelo legend don't happen.
at least mention his name.

This is part of why it's bats--- bonkers crazy that SU's 2003 National Champions banner on the Dome wall -- next to the 1918 and 1925 banners with photos of the full roster -- is a picture of Anthony and McNamara.

So insulting.

 

[OrangeDW]

This is part of why it's bats--- bonkers crazy that SU's 2003 National Champions banner on the Dome wall -- next to the 1918 and 1925 banners with photos of the full roster -- is a picture of Anthony and McNamara.

So insulting.

Agreed. McNamara probably wasn’t even the second best player. You could make an argument for him, but overall I think Warrick gets the nod. Warrick was our second leading scorer and second leading rebounder.

They should’ve just put a team picture up, if they really needed a picture. Or if it absolutely “must” be a candid, use the one of the post game pileup celebration.

 

[joct]

I completely disagree with this. Your job is to win...Not to necessarily play by the rules, if you can win by playing by the rules even better. I am curious how many whistleblowing local papers there have been in College Basketball or Football. The post standard initiated the investigation albeit after Wolffs book

Again the Post Standard was the whistleblower here...I do not excuse the program for their indiscretions at all but if you read the articles the Post Standard was also spinning it to be worse. Believe me the Rob Johnson stuff (was bad but he helped other schools too...what happened to them), boosters money, Bill Rapp, it broke all the rules. They deserved punishment and received it but the Post Standard sensationalized it also and made issues bigger than they were to add to the story.

Discounted rental cars, really, meals at Grimaldis (allowed on game day but some happened the day after), a grounds foreman taking players out to the dinner. Post Standard even dug into families who players knew during and before hand. If a player ate a someone's house, the Post Standard described it as impermissible benefits. Empire games and staying at the dorms that they didn't know they cannot do...Post Standard published that too.

I am not apologizing for the program...I actually think they got off pretty light in 92 but I think the Post Standard tried to make it even bigger than it was. Either way they helped open the door for UConn and their mission succeeded. The Post Standard dug into ever angle of the program and not surprising found major and minor violations at every turn. They reported them all. Even the $100 pick up game bet which was a joke.

Well said. The Rob Johnson thing both the PS and Raw Recruits said was "he represented SU in NYC, steering recruits". At the time, Conrad was the first recruit out of NYC we signed since Pearl, who wasn't affiliated with him I don't think. Even if he was that was 6 years earlier. They kind of tied Gene Waldron to him if I remember, who was a frosh like 10 years earlier. If we were really running this crooked recruiting operation with him in NY, certainly didn't get their money's worth. Especially missing out on Kenny Anderson the same year they got Conrad, arguably the biggest recruiting miss ever in terms of the glaring hole he would have filled, didn't chase hard after anyone else, and the talent he would have played with. In all that investigating the whole Johnson thing was all that turned up in recruiting.

They also turned Owens shooting a couple of baskets before a practice on his visit an "illegal tryout", one player visiting a month before their frosh year started crashing at a player's place "illegal housing to recruits" since they hadn't started classes yet.

Violations sure, but the PS made it out way worse than it was IMO.

 

[FrancoPizza]

It’s pretty incredible, how relatively minor the stuff that Syracuse got DRILLED for, on 2 separate occasions

I think JB's personality and distaste for public relations with the media just gave reporters an opening to go looking for dirt. JB's relationship with the NCAA also probably did us no favors. In the real world knowing how to deal with people is the number one skill that everyone should master, and some just don't care enough.

 

[tbonezone]

I completely disagree with this. Your job is to win...Not to necessarily play by the rules,

wrong on so many levels. this is college sports. you follow the rules and if you win great.

 

[Sherman20]

That should have been our second championship. we just needed to make our free throws. The third should have been 2010. that's where we belong.

I’ve always felt this way. If we win in 1987 and 2010, Boeheim would more widely be considered one of the greats nationally because of 3 titles (and what would be 7 Final Fours) across three different decades and eras of college basketball. I think they perception on him would be very different among other fans and the media. All because of one made shot (or missed free throws) and one devastating injury (AO).

 

[Cusefan0307]

Agreed. McNamara probably wasn’t even the second best player. You could make an argument for him, but overall I think Warrick gets the nod. Warrick was our second leading scorer and second leading rebounder.

They should’ve just put a team picture up, if they really needed a picture. Or if it absolutely “must” be a candid, use the one of the post game pileup celebration.

They need to fix the banner. The entire team should be on it. I think Melo and Gmac had the largest affect in the title game, but Warrick/Durant/Edelin/McNeil were just as important.

 

[OrangeDW]

same program for 40 plus years. i'd hope you got some banners on the wall.

You don’t last 40 years at a program without putting banners on the wall.

You had no point there.

 

[OrangeDW]

They need to fix the banner. The entire team should be on it. I think Melo and Gmac had the largest affect in the title game, but Warrick/Durant/Edelin/McNeil were just as important.

Yup.

Pace was integral to several of those tourney wins too. Including the NC game, where he had several big hoops in the second half when our offense was struggling.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Yup.

Pace was integral to several of those tourney wins too. Including the NC game, where he had several big hoops in the second half when our offense was struggling.

Yup. Left him out on accident.