SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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...is to win the NIT. I know we don't want to be in it but now that we are, I'd kind of like to win it. I just wonder how the players will respond: I've been there when they didn't care, (FSU in '97), and I've been there when they did.
1981 was a magical time. We rescued a mediocre year by winning the BET in triple OT over against Villanova in the only time it was held in the Dome. The newly minted conference didn't have an automatic bid and the tourney was only 48 teams and we didn't get an invite, (we were 18-11 at the time). But we carried the momentum into the NIT, which still had some prestige left. The team and the community were determined to win it to show those NCAA so-and-sos. We beat Marquette 88-81, Holy Cross 77-57 and then Michigan in the Dome. The Michigan game was really special- probably the loudest I have ever heard the Dome, even through it wasn't a capacity crowd. We made our first 16 shots of the second half, almost all of them jump shots. Many of them would now be three pointers. The cheering from the crowd increased with each shot and didn't decrease until the next one raised it even more. I felt myself getting a natural high with all the excitement. We crushed them 91-76 and went on to new York for the "Final Four".
We beat Purdue 70-63 in the semi-finals and then faced Nolan Richardson's Tulsa team in the finals. The magic was beginning to wear off a bit band the game was back and forth. We finally managed to get a bout a 7 point lead midway through the second half when Richardson called a time out. I noticed that he spent the entire time out talk, relatively calmly, to the refs and not to his team. After that time out, virtually every foul call was against Syracuse and 4 of our 5 starters fouled out. The one guy they forgot to foul out was Eric Santifer who had the game of his life, scoring 29 points. he carried the team on his back and got us into overtime where we finally lost 84-86. Digger Phelps was moonlighting doing the color for the game and he and whoever the play-by play man agreed that the officiating was one-sided, Digger going as as to say that this was one game where the winner was decided by the officials. Our great post season run had ended one game and three points short of what seemed to be our destiny.
I was furious at the time, as were most Syracuse fans and vowed that someday we'd come back and win this thing. We were an NIT team again the next year but without the magic and lost in the second round to Bradley who went on to win it. We didn't return to the NIT until 1997, when nobody cared. 5,000 fans showed up for the game against Florida State, (it seemed like 500),. The scoreboard stopped working. The players seemed to sleepwalk through the game after being in the NCAA Final Four, ('Cuse is in the House...) the year before. Nobody was home and we lost 67-82. I decided there was no point in us being in the NIT at all any more.
But we returned to the NIT in 2002, a miserable season that began promisingly with a 16-2 record, with the two losses coming when JB was not available to coach the team due to his operation. We'd won the pre-season NIT and after a 4-7 slide, including a first round loss to Villanova in the BET, we had a chance to win the post-season NIT as well. We beat St. Bonaventure, Butler and Richmond to reach new York. Unfortunately our uniforms didn't reach New York and we had to wear a sort of hybrid practice uniform. (Things never go well when we straw from out normal unis.) We lost to South Carolina and then Then temple in the consy, an embarrassingly inept ending for what started out to be a big year. The big eyar woudl be next year.
We were back in 2007, again snubbed by the NCAA, (I still think some kind of a deal was done to put Arkansas in in our place, which is why we became the 2nd seed in the NIT Southern Regional- a point where Arkansas had originally been placed before the NCAA committee plucked them from the NIT.) The old anger was back and this produced much more interest than in '97. We beat South Alabama and San Diego State in the Dome before having to travel to Clemson, who was the #1 seed in the south. We lost there 70-74, so there would be no vengeance this year, either.
The Boeheim bashers ruled the board in those days. We'd followed up the national championships with a loss in in the Sweet 16, (saved from a first round loss by GMAC's 43 points vs. BYU), two first round losses and then two consecutive NIT years. The polite ones were suggesting he be eased into retirement because "the game had passed him by". We passed Robert Morris and Maryland by and took a 24 point second half lead on Massachusetts, one of those teams that had beaten us during the regular season and helped send us to the NIT. I really felt we were primed to finally win it and was glad that the bashers would be silenced, at least temporarily. So I was a happy guy unti, the lead began melting away. UMASS finally caught us and won, 77-81 and I went home, crestfallen. I stayed off the board for a week.
If this team wants to win the NIT, it probably could. They need to decide that they want to do that first. It won't mean what it would have meant in '81 or even 2007. But it's still something I'd like to see them do, someday. That spot will finally be out.
1981 was a magical time. We rescued a mediocre year by winning the BET in triple OT over against Villanova in the only time it was held in the Dome. The newly minted conference didn't have an automatic bid and the tourney was only 48 teams and we didn't get an invite, (we were 18-11 at the time). But we carried the momentum into the NIT, which still had some prestige left. The team and the community were determined to win it to show those NCAA so-and-sos. We beat Marquette 88-81, Holy Cross 77-57 and then Michigan in the Dome. The Michigan game was really special- probably the loudest I have ever heard the Dome, even through it wasn't a capacity crowd. We made our first 16 shots of the second half, almost all of them jump shots. Many of them would now be three pointers. The cheering from the crowd increased with each shot and didn't decrease until the next one raised it even more. I felt myself getting a natural high with all the excitement. We crushed them 91-76 and went on to new York for the "Final Four".
We beat Purdue 70-63 in the semi-finals and then faced Nolan Richardson's Tulsa team in the finals. The magic was beginning to wear off a bit band the game was back and forth. We finally managed to get a bout a 7 point lead midway through the second half when Richardson called a time out. I noticed that he spent the entire time out talk, relatively calmly, to the refs and not to his team. After that time out, virtually every foul call was against Syracuse and 4 of our 5 starters fouled out. The one guy they forgot to foul out was Eric Santifer who had the game of his life, scoring 29 points. he carried the team on his back and got us into overtime where we finally lost 84-86. Digger Phelps was moonlighting doing the color for the game and he and whoever the play-by play man agreed that the officiating was one-sided, Digger going as as to say that this was one game where the winner was decided by the officials. Our great post season run had ended one game and three points short of what seemed to be our destiny.
I was furious at the time, as were most Syracuse fans and vowed that someday we'd come back and win this thing. We were an NIT team again the next year but without the magic and lost in the second round to Bradley who went on to win it. We didn't return to the NIT until 1997, when nobody cared. 5,000 fans showed up for the game against Florida State, (it seemed like 500),. The scoreboard stopped working. The players seemed to sleepwalk through the game after being in the NCAA Final Four, ('Cuse is in the House...) the year before. Nobody was home and we lost 67-82. I decided there was no point in us being in the NIT at all any more.
But we returned to the NIT in 2002, a miserable season that began promisingly with a 16-2 record, with the two losses coming when JB was not available to coach the team due to his operation. We'd won the pre-season NIT and after a 4-7 slide, including a first round loss to Villanova in the BET, we had a chance to win the post-season NIT as well. We beat St. Bonaventure, Butler and Richmond to reach new York. Unfortunately our uniforms didn't reach New York and we had to wear a sort of hybrid practice uniform. (Things never go well when we straw from out normal unis.) We lost to South Carolina and then Then temple in the consy, an embarrassingly inept ending for what started out to be a big year. The big eyar woudl be next year.
We were back in 2007, again snubbed by the NCAA, (I still think some kind of a deal was done to put Arkansas in in our place, which is why we became the 2nd seed in the NIT Southern Regional- a point where Arkansas had originally been placed before the NCAA committee plucked them from the NIT.) The old anger was back and this produced much more interest than in '97. We beat South Alabama and San Diego State in the Dome before having to travel to Clemson, who was the #1 seed in the south. We lost there 70-74, so there would be no vengeance this year, either.
The Boeheim bashers ruled the board in those days. We'd followed up the national championships with a loss in in the Sweet 16, (saved from a first round loss by GMAC's 43 points vs. BYU), two first round losses and then two consecutive NIT years. The polite ones were suggesting he be eased into retirement because "the game had passed him by". We passed Robert Morris and Maryland by and took a 24 point second half lead on Massachusetts, one of those teams that had beaten us during the regular season and helped send us to the NIT. I really felt we were primed to finally win it and was glad that the bashers would be silenced, at least temporarily. So I was a happy guy unti, the lead began melting away. UMASS finally caught us and won, 77-81 and I went home, crestfallen. I stayed off the board for a week.
If this team wants to win the NIT, it probably could. They need to decide that they want to do that first. It won't mean what it would have meant in '81 or even 2007. But it's still something I'd like to see them do, someday. That spot will finally be out.