Mark Titus power rankings on Grantland... | Syracusefan.com
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Mark Titus power rankings on Grantland...

jekelish

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He once again has us ranked #2, but figured this may be of particular interest to some people:

"Syracuse is like the San Antonio Spurs of college basketball. Do you realize that only two programs have both won an NCAA tournament game in each of the last five seasons and made multiple Sweet 16s in that span? Kansas is one of them and Syracuse is the other. Here’s what makes Syracuse unique, though: During that stretch, Kansas has had three one-and-done players on their roster (Xavier Henry, Josh Selby, Ben McLemore) while Syracuse has had zero. In fact, even though the most famous Syracuse basketball player of all time might be the most famous one-and-done player of all time (Carmelo Anthony), Donte Greene is the only Cuse player to be one-and-done since the NBA’s age minimum was put in place in 2006. Funny enough, in Greene’s lone season in college basketball, the Orange went to the NIT.

While basically every blue-blooded program has turned into an NBA day care center, Boeheim not only maintains a traditional approach to his team, he’s also in the midst of arguably the greatest stretch of his coaching career. Sure, Syracuse games aren’t particularly exciting. But to hell with exciting. Boeheim doesn’t want guys who want to be exciting. He wants guys who want to win his way, and he’s got a good crop of them this year. The Orange might not score a ton, their players won’t throw up loose butthole monocles when they hit 3s, and their names won’t show up in the top 10 of many mock drafts. But they’re 18-0, they’re playing as well as anybody in America right now, and they are a lock to win the ACC and get a 1-seed in the NCAA tournament. I’m pretty sure Cuse fans are OK with that."

Full power rankings: http://grantland.com/features/tituss-top-12-ncaa-power-rankings/
 
He once again has us ranked #2, but figured this may be of particular interest to some people:

"Syracuse is like the San Antonio Spurs of college basketball. Do you realize that only two programs have both won an NCAA tournament game in each of the last five seasons and made multiple Sweet 16s in that span? Kansas is one of them and Syracuse is the other. Here’s what makes Syracuse unique, though: During that stretch, Kansas has had three one-and-done players on their roster (Xavier Henry, Josh Selby, Ben McLemore) while Syracuse has had zero. In fact, even though the most famous Syracuse basketball player of all time might be the most famous one-and-done player of all time (Carmelo Anthony), Donte Greene is the only Cuse player to be one-and-done since the NBA’s age minimum was put in place in 2006. Funny enough, in Greene’s lone season in college basketball, the Orange went to the NIT.

While basically every blue-blooded program has turned into an NBA day care center, Boeheim not only maintains a traditional approach to his team, he’s also in the midst of arguably the greatest stretch of his coaching career. Sure, Syracuse games aren’t particularly exciting. But to hell with exciting. Boeheim doesn’t want guys who want to be exciting. He wants guys who want to win his way, and he’s got a good crop of them this year. The Orange might not score a ton, their players won’t throw up loose butthole monocles when they hit 3s, and their names won’t show up in the top 10 of many mock drafts. But they’re 18-0, they’re playing as well as anybody in America right now, and they are a lock to win the ACC and get a 1-seed in the NCAA tournament. I’m pretty sure Cuse fans are OK with that."

Titus is great but this column pissed me off.
 
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jekelish said:
Oh, and another pretty appropriate quote from his writeup:

"In my experience, Syracuse fans complain about not getting enough respect more than any fan base in college basketball."

Yeah, I can't really argue with that.

We're first in something!
 
Good blurb.

But just so it sounds like we only rip guys who are critical, let me just say Titus still sucks. His writing is pretty much indistinguishable from Simmons. Surprised he didn't throw a "prominently involved" phrase in there.
 
He calls our games not that exciting really???
cj was in the dunk of the year finalist the last three years and this year grant is. Grant has doubled more sc top 10's then any college player this year easily.
we are almost always top 3 in the nation in blocks and we run transition basketball we trap and tip passes more then most teams and are slowly become one of the nations premier steals teams year in and out. And we put a full court press on top of it to pressure the ball at times.
Teams are forced to shoot alot of threes against us and every time a three goes up there is a excitement factor in any game.
Southerland, Devendorf,Flynn, Wes Johnson Waiters and Scoop, MCW, Harris we have had alot of excitement the last 6 years.

We don't beat people by 15-20 as often anymore now that the iq level of the game has changed.
I guess we lost our excitement there because I can't figure it out? Must be watching for the other team or a close game throughout instead.


Then he goes on to say we don't get much nba or top 10 talent like the other bluebloods?? We have had 4 guys drafted in the top 10 in the last 11 years and were amoung the top 8 teams in nba players with 8 last I checked. Its not like we were 30th. Yeah were not kentucky, duke or unc but JB is starting to get there. Ennis, Fair, Grant, Mccullough, Joseph are all coming to the nba soon.


Some of the article I like some I dislike. If you want to know what not exciting is go watch the duke miami game tonight, or UNC this year.
 
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i mean sure our defense is so good it really makes the OTHER teams not exciting, but i swear i see a Jerami Grant dunk on Sportscenter top 10 every time we play. And CJ Fair is known for a highlight every now and again too...right Otto Porter??
 
He once again has us ranked #2, but figured this may be of particular interest to some people:

"Syracuse is like the San Antonio Spurs of college basketball. Do you realize that only two programs have both won an NCAA tournament game in each of the last five seasons and made multiple Sweet 16s in that span? Kansas is one of them and Syracuse is the other. Here’s what makes Syracuse unique, though: During that stretch, Kansas has had three one-and-done players on their roster (Xavier Henry, Josh Selby, Ben McLemore) while Syracuse has had zero. In fact, even though the most famous Syracuse basketball player of all time might be the most famous one-and-done player of all time (Carmelo Anthony), Donte Greene is the only Cuse player to be one-and-done since the NBA’s age minimum was put in place in 2006. Funny enough, in Greene’s lone season in college basketball, the Orange went to the NIT.

While basically every blue-blooded program has turned into an NBA day care center, Boeheim not only maintains a traditional approach to his team, he’s also in the midst of arguably the greatest stretch of his coaching career. Sure, Syracuse games aren’t particularly exciting. But to hell with exciting. Boeheim doesn’t want guys who want to be exciting. He wants guys who want to win his way, and he’s got a good crop of them this year. The Orange might not score a ton, their players won’t throw up loose butthole monocles when they hit 3s, and their names won’t show up in the top 10 of many mock drafts. But they’re 18-0, they’re playing as well as anybody in America right now, and they are a lock to win the ACC and get a 1-seed in the NCAA tournament. I’m pretty sure Cuse fans are OK with that."

Full power rankings: http://grantland.com/features/tituss-top-12-ncaa-power-rankings/




Articles like this leave me grinning like a fool. I love our public perception these days.
 
I will grant him this year we aren't overly exciting. One or two highlight plays per game doesn't mean exciting. We don't get out on the break as much, we don't score as much, and so forth. We're kind of a grinding team this year, as opposed to previous years. We really aren't as exciting, especially since, when we have to play a halfcourt offense, it's not exactly a thing of beauty.

I don't think he's particularly off base there. If you weren't a Syracuse fan, would you be particularly excited by most of our games this year? No, you wouldn't. I'm going to answer for you before you start lying.
 
I don't think he's particularly off base there. If you weren't a Syracuse fan, would you be particularly excited by most of our games this year? No, you wouldn't. I'm going to answer for you before you start lying.
I think we're a little bit of a victim of of the success of our zone. I don't think it's that we want to play slow (although I do think we're trending that way, especially this season), moreso that other coaches feel that really slowing it down gives them the best chance to beat us.
 

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