Middling program?

[BlueCurtain]

ou
Y

The 1999-2000 team was a legitimate talented group of well-coached, under-recruited guys. Nearly everything else between 1996 and 2002 involved cast-off recruits trying to hang on and win games.

This is why I don't understand the love affair with JB. With a mediocre staff, his star power could not reel in top talent. All this talk of kids wanting to play for Boeheim is way overblown. Weaver, Hop, Murphy - in that order - are responsible for resurrecting the program. Without Weaver there's no Melo, without Melo there's no title, and with no title JB is not in the HOF. Credit him for realizing that he needed to find a better staff, but that's where the compliments should end.

 

[BlueCurtain]

that 2000 team with Hart, Thomas and Blackwell was very good. They just had the misfortune of meeting MSU in the sweet 16. Any other region and they may have been FF that year.

Misfortune? They were up 14 on MSU in the second half. It was a great matchup. JB looked like a fool not making any adjustments when MSU went on that 28-0 run. That was an epic fail. He still doesn't understand that when the zone is solved, it's useless.

 

[newmexicuse]

Got a kick out of this line from the Katz story on JB that ran tonight.

That's when the Orange signed Carmelo Anthony, Gerry McNamara, Craig Forth and Billy Edelin and changed the fortunes of what had become a middling program, winning the NCAA title in 2003.

Hey, Andy, Syracuse had won 20 or more games 19 of the previous 20 seasons and were 23-13, 25-9 and 26-6 the previous three seasons before winning the NCAA title.

Middling program? Whatever you say.

Yes, we are a middling program, middling of the Top 20 that is.

 

[suthrills]

Here are the 5 years prior to Melo and Gmac's freshman year. You decide if it was middling
98 - Lost in Sweet 16 to Duke. I think we were a 5 seed
99 - Lost in first round to Ok. State (Gottlieb). We were an 8 or 9 seed
2000 - Lost in Sweet 16 to eventual champ Mich State. Up 17 at half. Game played in Detroit. We were a 4 seed
2001 - Lost to Kansas in in 2nd round. We were either an 8 or 9 seed.
2002 - NIT. Think we lost in the semis. This was the Meshawn/Shumpert debacle year

Here are the 5 years post Championship:
2004-Lost in the Sweet 16
2005- Lost in the 1st round
2006- Lost in the 1st round
2007- NIT
2008-NIT
Despite the uptick in recruiting you can make the argument that the results were even more middling in the 5 year span after the Championship.

 

[mantonio]

I wonder if he would call North Carolina a "middling program" during their bad stretch a few years back. They actually had a BAD losing record one season, & were pretty crappy for a few years there...