SWC75
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In this week's Jim Boeheim Show there was some discussion of one-sided defeats SU has suffered in the Boeheim Era. I decided to make a list of the times we’ve lost by 20 or more points:
3/17/77 NCAA Sweet 16: UNC-Charlotte 59-81. A shocker: we were 26-3 and had just beaten the Ernie & Bernie Show of Tennessee. Nobody knew about Charlotte, except for Cornbread Maxwell. Suddenly the dream season was over. The key: our guards were 5-9, (Bug Williams) and 5-11 Larry Kelley. Their backcourt went 64 and 6-5. We couldn’t shoot or pass over them and they could do that to us all day. It was the first time I realized that height matters in the backcourt, too. That may be why we always seem to recruit big guards today.
2/1/81 at DePaul 69-91. Unlike 2006, the Blue Demons were a major national power, ranked #3 at this point. Louis and Bouie were gone and we were no match for them.
1/8/83 at North Carolina 64-87. We came in at 11-0 but couldn’t beat both Michael Jordan and his teammates and the refs, (fouls: 34-13) at the same time.
12/10/83 North Carolina 64-87. Same opponent, same score but in the Dome. This one was never close, despite Sonny Spera’s 60 footer at the buzzer.
3/3/85 at Georgetown 63-90. Revenge for the game they lost at the Dome to pearl’s jumper.
3/1/93 at ST. John’s 70-90. I have no memory of this game.
11/28/96 Great Alaska Shoot-out Kentucky 53-87. We essentially had a brand new team and they weren’t ready for prime time.
12/4/96 West Virginia 79-101. I have no memory of this one but it was essentially the same problem.
12/26/97 Puerto Rico Holiday Classic Michigan 61-93. I remember they had too much muscle underneath for us.
1/21/98 at Notre Dame 63-83. I don’t recall this one but I’m sure somebody went off from the three point line. Somebody always does there.
2/7/98 Seton Hall 61-85. The screen is blank for this one, too. We actually had a pretty team that year: 26-9 and 12-6 in the conference.
2/21/99 at UCLA 69-93. We finally got to play UCLA after all these years and…..ugh.
3/18/01 NCAA Round of 32: Kansas 58-87. They massacred us on the boards. Kansas looked like a national champion. Then they lost by 16 to Illinois who lost by 6 to Arizona who lost by 10 to Duke in the final. So we were only 61 points worse than the national champion.
1/24/04 Pittsburgh 45-66. Not a fun night at the Dome.
3/2/06 at DePaul 69-108. The Blue Demons by this time were the type of program that the ACC doesn’t have: a true bottom-feeder that you could be assured of beating. Except they fed on us. It was one of those scary games where everything they threw up went in. We waited for them to cool off but it never happened. For most of the game we kept the effort up but eventually that deteriorated and DePaul started getting fast break after fast break. I couldn’t watch anymore and just checked on the final score later. The all-time nadir. We lost our last three regular season games that year, (this was sandwiched around losses to Georgetown and Villanova, (Gerry’s last game at the Dome). Then we went to New York…
1/13/08 at West Virginia 61-81. I got nothin’ on this one.
1/25/11 Seton Hall 68-90. I don’t remember the details but I think we had an Oh-for-everything start. It was the gem of a four game losing streak that ended an 18 game winning streak.
3/9/13 at Georgetown 39-61. The Hoyas giving us the kiss-off in the last scheduled game. But we beat them in New York six days later. He who laughs last…
12/21/17 St. John’s 60-93. The DePaul game but in the Dome.
2/26/17 at Louisville 68-88. Always fun to lose to Rick Pitino.
1/26/19 at Virginia Tech 56-78. It might have been more interesting if Robinson hadn’t hit 9 of 13 shots- all three pointers.
Depressing? It shouldn’t be. That’s 21 games in 43 years. We’ve played 1,421 games in that time, so this is 1.5% of our games. This list is a map of when we were less than great: Louis and Bouie have only one such loss in their era. There were none from 1985-86 through 1991-92, a period of 7 full seasons generally considered to be the height of the program. There was one between 2008-09 and 2011-12, another great period. Finally, many of these losses came when it was darkest before the dawn: there were better times to come and in many cases we didn’t have to wait very long.
3/17/77 NCAA Sweet 16: UNC-Charlotte 59-81. A shocker: we were 26-3 and had just beaten the Ernie & Bernie Show of Tennessee. Nobody knew about Charlotte, except for Cornbread Maxwell. Suddenly the dream season was over. The key: our guards were 5-9, (Bug Williams) and 5-11 Larry Kelley. Their backcourt went 64 and 6-5. We couldn’t shoot or pass over them and they could do that to us all day. It was the first time I realized that height matters in the backcourt, too. That may be why we always seem to recruit big guards today.
2/1/81 at DePaul 69-91. Unlike 2006, the Blue Demons were a major national power, ranked #3 at this point. Louis and Bouie were gone and we were no match for them.
1/8/83 at North Carolina 64-87. We came in at 11-0 but couldn’t beat both Michael Jordan and his teammates and the refs, (fouls: 34-13) at the same time.
12/10/83 North Carolina 64-87. Same opponent, same score but in the Dome. This one was never close, despite Sonny Spera’s 60 footer at the buzzer.
3/3/85 at Georgetown 63-90. Revenge for the game they lost at the Dome to pearl’s jumper.
3/1/93 at ST. John’s 70-90. I have no memory of this game.
11/28/96 Great Alaska Shoot-out Kentucky 53-87. We essentially had a brand new team and they weren’t ready for prime time.
12/4/96 West Virginia 79-101. I have no memory of this one but it was essentially the same problem.
12/26/97 Puerto Rico Holiday Classic Michigan 61-93. I remember they had too much muscle underneath for us.
1/21/98 at Notre Dame 63-83. I don’t recall this one but I’m sure somebody went off from the three point line. Somebody always does there.
2/7/98 Seton Hall 61-85. The screen is blank for this one, too. We actually had a pretty team that year: 26-9 and 12-6 in the conference.
2/21/99 at UCLA 69-93. We finally got to play UCLA after all these years and…..ugh.
3/18/01 NCAA Round of 32: Kansas 58-87. They massacred us on the boards. Kansas looked like a national champion. Then they lost by 16 to Illinois who lost by 6 to Arizona who lost by 10 to Duke in the final. So we were only 61 points worse than the national champion.
1/24/04 Pittsburgh 45-66. Not a fun night at the Dome.
3/2/06 at DePaul 69-108. The Blue Demons by this time were the type of program that the ACC doesn’t have: a true bottom-feeder that you could be assured of beating. Except they fed on us. It was one of those scary games where everything they threw up went in. We waited for them to cool off but it never happened. For most of the game we kept the effort up but eventually that deteriorated and DePaul started getting fast break after fast break. I couldn’t watch anymore and just checked on the final score later. The all-time nadir. We lost our last three regular season games that year, (this was sandwiched around losses to Georgetown and Villanova, (Gerry’s last game at the Dome). Then we went to New York…
1/13/08 at West Virginia 61-81. I got nothin’ on this one.
1/25/11 Seton Hall 68-90. I don’t remember the details but I think we had an Oh-for-everything start. It was the gem of a four game losing streak that ended an 18 game winning streak.
3/9/13 at Georgetown 39-61. The Hoyas giving us the kiss-off in the last scheduled game. But we beat them in New York six days later. He who laughs last…
12/21/17 St. John’s 60-93. The DePaul game but in the Dome.
2/26/17 at Louisville 68-88. Always fun to lose to Rick Pitino.
1/26/19 at Virginia Tech 56-78. It might have been more interesting if Robinson hadn’t hit 9 of 13 shots- all three pointers.
Depressing? It shouldn’t be. That’s 21 games in 43 years. We’ve played 1,421 games in that time, so this is 1.5% of our games. This list is a map of when we were less than great: Louis and Bouie have only one such loss in their era. There were none from 1985-86 through 1991-92, a period of 7 full seasons generally considered to be the height of the program. There was one between 2008-09 and 2011-12, another great period. Finally, many of these losses came when it was darkest before the dawn: there were better times to come and in many cases we didn’t have to wait very long.
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