My thoughts on Syracuse in the top 5

[Lawrinson14]

Every time I've watched Syracuse this year, I've subconsciously associated our top 5 ranking with us being overrated at this point in this season. But then once I really think about it, I can't think of many teams that have been better so far. Thus, corroborating our ranking.

And to me, this is astonishing considering our team consists of:

-A freshman point guard
-Stable of mediocre big men (potential aside)
-A returning two guard who could barely hit the side of a barn last year

That's 3/5 positions that were legit question marks at the start of the season.

And to all of this I say...ISN'T COLLEGE BASKETBALL GREAT?!

I love that we as Syracuse fans can watch our teams and players grow before our eyes. Yes, a team of one-and-dones ala Kentucky and Kansas can win a bunch of games, but the way our teams have been built lately with 2-4 year players has been a joy to watch.

Hopefully we remain in this position throughout the year and for years to come!

 

[HoustonCuse]

For long stretches last night, UNC and MSU both looked preposterously bad. If that was the #1 team in the nation, we're in much better shape than I thought.

 

[Jack Hall]

Let's keep this simple. We have made the FF how many times? How many of those times that we made FF were we greater than a 3 seed? jBs comfort zone is as the underdog, it is what it is...​

 

[strumpfasaurus]

Let's keep this simple. We have made the FF how many times? How many of those times that we made FF were we greater than a 3 seed? jBs comfort zone is as the underdog, it is what it is...​

While I do agree with you, the last two teams we were a number 1 seed we had unfortunate circumstances A.O. knees, Fab Melos, G.P.A. that really hurt us from making a run.

 

[Jack Hall]

While I do agree with you, the last two teams we were a number 1 seed we had unfortunate circumstances A.O. knees, Fab Melos, G.P.A. that really hurt us from making a run.

While I agree w you, here's what bothers me. Even before AOs injury, we were losing to gtown in the bet. Also we lost to cinci in bet w fab. JB just has not come thru as the favorite. I hope he changes that. Before he retires. I do t see why he can't. go Orange!!

 

[OrangeYaGladi]

While I agree w you, here's what bothers me. Even before AOs injury, we were losing to gtown in the bet. Also we lost to cinci in bet w fab. JB just has not come thru as the favorite. I hope he changes that. Before he retires. I do t see why he can't. go Orange!!

lol! yeah JB hasn't come through. #HotTake

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

While I agree w you, here's what bothers me. Even before AOs injury, we were losing to gtown in the bet. Also we lost to cinci in bet w fab. JB just has not come thru as the favorite. I hope he changes that. Before he retires. I do t see why he can't. go Orange!!

Almost always better to lose in BET. It's hard to win 9-10 in a row.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Let's keep this simple. We have made the FF how many times? How many of those times that we made FF were we greater than a 3 seed? jBs comfort zone is as the underdog, it is what it is...​

As a program, we are the best we've been since 1987-1991, and if it weren't for an injury and a suspension, we'd probably have another Final Four and maybe more in the past few years. We are killing it right now. I just hope JB can cash in one more big trophy before he hangs them up.

 

[Trueblue25]

We're a good team guys. If Coleman picks up his defense and Gbinije becomes a scoring threat, we'll be a national championship contender.

 

[CaptainJ]

To me this team still has a number of question marks, and seems to be capable of mood swings just like Duke(vs VT, vs Michigan). I'd love to be number one, but haven't seen evidence yet that we deserve it(eg beating a top 15 team, smashing teams by 25+). I guess with the parity, if that's what you can call the inconsistency of this year's field, a top 5 spot may be deserved at the moment. But can both of our guards manage to stay that hot for a season, or will they be off and on? Will our lack of talent with bigs be exposed by certain teams? Will Silent G, Grant, one of the bigs, and maybe one of the freshman really progress though the season? There is a lot of potential, but it could slide in either direction.

For a more unbiased look, right after SU's demolition of Indiana, Dana O'Neil replied to the ever-grinning Andy Katz that SU's chances of beating Duke for the ACC title and having a potential final 4 run were still "16 miles away", but "certainly not crazy".

Almost always better to lose in BET. It's hard to win 9-10 in a row.

As much as I like you, (bleep) that!!! UConn anyone??

Just to spite you, I hope you never have the pleasure of seeing us lose another BET game!

 

[cto]

While I agree w you, here's what bothers me. Even before AOs injury, we were losing to gtown in the bet. Also we lost to cinci in bet w fab. JB just has not come thru as the favorite. I hope he changes that. Before he retires. I do t see why he can't. go Orange!!

We lost to Georgetown in BET because that was the game in which AO was injured. Lots of time left in that game to win it... before AO went down

 

[DNABB5]

We lost to Georgetown in BET because that the game in which AO was injured.

Yes, And we were already losing by like 6 at the time he went down. Which was his point.

The JB needs to come through as the favorite point is certainly valid.

 

[bballbeadle]

For a more unbiased look, right after SU's demolition of Indiana, Dana O'Neil replied to the ever-grinning Andy Katz that SU's chances of beating Duke for the ACC title and having a potential final 4 run were still "16 miles away", but "certainly not crazy".

Apparently Dana hasn't read the ACC evaluation piece that Syracuse has been the "good" of the ACC right now, and Duke has been the "bad." Duke is reliant upon Parker scoring 25/game and when he doesn't, they have Big Trouble. Any idiot - even me! - can see that SU is playing better than Duke right now. But I suppose most "experts" bank on Coach K's track record getting teams into fighting form and assume he'll do it again. But 16 miles away? Please!

 

[OttoMets]

We lost to Georgetown in BET because that was the game in which AO was injured. Lots of time left in that game to win it... before AO went down

He'd been a non-factor in very limited time that day. It was an up-and-down game in which our wings struggled to keep Freeman and Clark from operating on the baseline and Georgetown shot lights-out; I don't think playing without Arinze for five minutes (we'd already done without him for 18) had much to do with our inability to come back from a 6- or 7-point deficit at that stage.

 

[Mano22]

"Dana O'Neil replied to the ever-grinning Andy Katz that SU's chances of beating Duke for the ACC title and having a potential final 4 run were still "16 miles away", but "certainly not crazy"."

This is possibly the dumbest thing ever said by a bball analyst. If she really said this, she is approaching dead to me, even after her nice article on Cooney and her generally pro-Cuse attitude. You cannot say idiotic stuff like this and command any respect at all in any walk of life.

 

[NKR1978]

While I agree w you, here's what bothers me. Even before AOs injury, we were losing to gtown in the bet. Also we lost to cinci in bet w fab. JB just has not come thru as the favorite. I hope he changes that. Before he retires. I do t see why he can't. go Orange!!

I agree with the 2010 team. I loved that team, but I have come to think that we have overrated it. It was a great team in many respects, but there were times it looked bad and I don't think a Final Four was a given with AO. I think there was a strong likelihood and we definitely would have beat those dickwads from Butler but not a given.

2012 was a great team. They got blitzed by Cincinnati early with some crazy 3's, but they actually made a game of it. Any team that gets blitzed like that early is probably going to lose. Even with that they had a really good NCAA Tournament and broke that Sweet 16 ceiling.

 

[OttoMets]

"Dana O'Neil replied to the ever-grinning Andy Katz that SU's chances of beating Duke for the ACC title and having a potential final 4 run were still "16 miles away", but "certainly not crazy"."

This is possibly the dumbest thing ever said by a bball analyst. If she really said this, she is approaching dead to me, even after her nice article on Cooney and her generally pro-Cuse attitude. You cannot say idiotic stuff like this and command any respect at all in any walk of life.

Meh, we're eight games in and we're in a new league.

She overstated it, but the point is valid: it's a bit presumptuous to be talking about our championship hopes before we've played a game. If we're 8-0 in league play, bring on the talk.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I don't think we look like a Top 5 team, but that's because I still think in college hoops terms from 10-12 years ago. It felt like Top 5 teams didn't have any flaws back then. Now, you can be a flawed team and be ranked in the Top 3. The game's a little different now.

 

[Eric15]

Almost always better to lose in BET. It's hard to win 9-10 in a row.

FWIW, of the last 5 Big East teams to win it all (1999 UConn, 2003 Cuse, 2004 UConn, 2011 UConn, 2013 Louisville) only SU didn't win the BET that year.

 

[OrangeCrush22]

-Stable of mediocre big men (potential aside)

Disagree with this. Many teams would kill for our centers. Especially Rakeem.

 

[Jack Hall]

I agree with the 2010 team. I loved that team, but I have come to think that we have overrated it. It was a great team in many respects, but there were times it looked bad and I don't think a Final Four was a given with AO. I think there was a strong likelihood and we definitely would have beat those dickwads from Butler but not a given.

2012 was a great team. They got blitzed by Cincinnati early with some crazy 3's, but they actually made a game of it. Any team that gets blitzed like that early is probably going to lose. Even with that they had a really good NCAA Tournament and broke that Sweet 16 ceiling.

I certainly respect your opinion and altho we will never really know how much those two injuries truly hurt us I see things differently. In my mind if we had AO we could have beaten duke in a title matchup. Would we have made the final? I don't know but we would have the fav in ea if those games w AO. That team was v good defensively, one of our best ever IMO. And then we could score it from all over the place. aR outside, Wes was a tremendous finisher w size from the wing and then we had AO and RJ who could post up. 2012 I was not as impressed w . Altho they had an unbelievable run thru the BE reg season and as a result their win loss record was the best ever for an SU team up until that pt. but We had a bunch of guys who scored it from the same spot, in the lane, kj, dion, scoop and bt were all similar IMO. We had no major low post presence that yr like AO and we had no deep shooter like AR. IMO Uk was just the best team in 2012 and I was never confident we would have beat them w FAb altho I certainly hope I was off on that...who cares in the end we ll never know and I am. More interested in the future. Go Cuse!

 

[Jack Hall]

I certainly respect your opinion and altho we will never really know how much those two injuries truly hurt us I see things differently. In my mind if we had AO we could have beaten duke in a title matchup. Would we have made the final? I don't know but we would have the fav in ea if those games w AO. That team was v good defensively, one of our best ever IMO. And then we could score it from all over the place. aR outside, Wes was a tremendous finisher w size from the wing and then we had AO and RJ who could post up. 2012 I was not as impressed w . Altho they had an unbelievable run thru the BE reg season and as a result their win loss record was the best ever for an SU team up until that pt. but We had a bunch of guys who scored it from the same spot, in the lane, kj, dion, scoop and bt were all similar IMO. We had no major low post presence that yr like AO and we had no deep shooter like AR. IMO Uk was just the best team in 2012 and I was never confident we would have beat them w FAb altho I certainly hope I was off on that...who cares in the end we ll never know and I am. More interested in the future. Go Cuse!

And I will also say you could see how predictable our offense was against Osu and not sure fab would have changed that at all. Altho fab would have slowed down sullinger IMO and we would have made FF. Just not convinced anyone was going to take out uk. This yrs teams half court offense looks FAR less predictable than the 2012 offense which I think is a very good sign!

 

[Jack Hall]

Disagree with this. Many teams would kill for our centers. Especially Rakeem.

I agree, also imagine if Cole played like 32 mins a game for a team like Villanova or even duke. Even with his struggles he might be averaging something like 8-9 pts and 6-7 rebounds. Coles defense needs to improve and he needs to quit bringing the ball down low w unnec pump fakes and dribbling, but IMO he is not doing too bad considering he is playing like 15 mins in big games and JB hasn't called too many low post plays since he lost RJ and AO...l

 

[Jack Hall]

I agree, also imagine if Cole played like 32 mins a game for a team like Villanova or even duke. Even with his struggles he might be averaging something like 8-9 pts and 6-7 rebounds. Coles defense needs to improve and he needs to quit bringing the ball down low w unnec pump fakes and dribbling, but IMO he is not doing too bad considering he is playing like 15 mins in big games and JB hasn't called too many low post plays since he lost RJ and AO...l

Heck I think if you project out his mins to 32 per game he would be averaging 10 and 8...not bad

 

[billsin01]

I agree with the 2010 team. I loved that team, but I have come to think that we have overrated it. It was a great team in many respects, but there were times it looked bad and I don't think a Final Four was a given with AO. I think there was a strong likelihood and we definitely would have beat those dickwads from Butler but not a given.

I don't think a final four is ever a given so I'm with you on that and it's hard to play the what-if game regardless. But I'm not sure I understand how we feel the 09-10 team was overrated.

Here's some of what they accomplished:

30-5, 15-3
Since 85-86 when I came on board the only teams to exceed that win percentage in BE play (.833) were the '11-'12 group (17-1) and the 85-86 team (14-2, .875). That's the list. Now others came pretty close ('99-00, 86-87, 89-90, 90-91), but no other teams in 25+ years matched that feat.

14.5 ppg margin of victory
Since 79-80 the only team to exceed that amount was the 85-86 group (15.1). That's the list. In close to 35 years there's one team that won games by a larger margin. Obviously not a perfect stat given relative strength of schedule considerations, but still pretty impressive.

80.9 ppg
The highest scoring average since 94-95.

I don't know if they would have won a title or not and I suppose it's immaterial anyway, but that was a really, really, really good team and easily one of the best in the illustrious history of this program, IMO