Mike's Mailbox: Who are the greatest leapers in Syracuse basketball history? | Syracusefan.com

Mike's Mailbox: Who are the greatest leapers in Syracuse basketball history?

There's like 6 names in there and one specific mention of vertical leap. FFS, Mike, you can't look up the numbers or ask someone with the SID? That's the first thing anyone would do if posed with the "who's the greatest leaper?" question.

Anyway, it was said that Jeremy McNeil was over 40". And it showed.

It'd be interesting to see a more objective list that answers this question.
 
[QUOTE="OttoMets, post: 2870674, member: 716"
Anyway, it was said that Jeremy McNeil was over 40". And it showed.
[/QUOTE]

Yup. Jeremy jumped comically high. When he would get pump faked or unnecessarily left his feet, it was like something out of a video game with him "floating" there. What made it more startling was his shared-tenure with Craig T. Forth, who my wife comically remarked played like he was wearing lead shoes.

I don't remember DC, but other than just the great leapers (Hak, Stevie, Dave Johnson, Wes, Jeremi, Johnny), I've been really impressed by how quick off their feet both Roberson and Brissett are, and their ability repeat jumping over-and-over, which is a more useful basketball skill than being a human pogo stick.
 
Stevie - dude was 6'2" in socks/real life.
Hak
Dave Johnson
Jerami
Wes

I still chuckle when I think of Jay Bilas' call of a Jerami follow slam -
"I'm surprised he didn't burn up on re-entry" :cool:

...and maybe not even that tall. I think closer to 6-1 or so.
 
Interesting one.
He made some good choices. A few others that come to mind that haven't been mentioned yet:

David Johnson. That guy could hang for a long, long time.
Cliff Warwell. I think he might be the best in terms of vertical ever, at least since I have been an SU fan. But he wasn't around very long.
Tony Scott. Another explosive, outstanding athlete who could just jump out of the gym. Sadly, he also didn't hang around long enough at Syracuse,
 
Interesting one.
He made some good choices. A few others that come to mind that haven't been mentioned yet:

David Johnson. That guy could hang for a long, long time.
Cliff Warwell. I think he might be the best in terms of vertical ever, at least since I have been an SU fan. But he wasn't around very long.
Tony Scott. Another explosive, outstanding athlete who could just jump out of the gym. Sadly, he also didn't hang around long enough at Syracuse,
Oh, yeah! Forgot Warwell! Cool dude! Too cool, in fact.
 
Stevie Thompson was a explosive leaper, averaging 5 RPG over his final 3 seasons despite playing a lot of Guard. . He was the recipient of many Sherman Douglas alley-oop passes. I think opposing teams didn't look for it, given his size.

On the other end of the leaping spectrum, I can still hear Joel Mareinis imploring "JUMP DANNY, JUMP!" to Danny Schayes.
 
Quick research reveals a few things.

One, there apparently are two tests, standing vertical and vertical from one step.

Two, Kenny Gregory, remember him? Was on the Kansas team that dominated SU in 2001. He's got the highest one-step vert in combine history: 45.5".

Three, back to Flynn. He had the best one-step vert at the 2009 combine: 40.0". But that wasn't the best Syracuse performance in recent memory. Michael Carter-Williams measured 41.0". That kind of surprises me. I don't think of him as a crazy leaper. (I remember him as having very long arms, which also isn't true: the kid who was a shade under 6'6" only had a wingspan a little over 6'7". As a comparison, Malachi Richardson was roughly the same height with a 7'0" wingspan.)

Wesley Johnson recorded a top-ten one-step vertical in 2010 (37.0") but his standing vertical was the best of the combine: 32.0". That makes perfect sense to anyone who saw him play - he was a fine athlete but really remarkably quick off the floor from a standstill.

For everyone wondering, Jerami Grant shows no recorded vertical leap test in 2014. Ennis and Fair were both 35.0" from a step.

Obviously this leaves out a ton of kids from an earlier era. I remember that SU used to test this during fall practice. Perhaps the SID has a ranking somewhere.
 
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In the words of the immortal Vince from Slap Chop... "You're gonna love my nuts!"

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Maybe 585 biased but height is keeping J-Dub off the list. Dude had insane hops for a 4
 
The first people I think of our Stevie Thompson, Hak and Wes in that order. I heard an interview once and the person was talking to Boeheim about Stevie's kid a few years ago. The person doing the interview say how would you compare. Boeheim says well he is a better shooter than Stevie was although that wasn't Stevie's game. The reporter then says, but is he as athletic as Stevie. Boeheim responds no one is as athletic as Stevie.
 

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