Recruiting, what is the SU brand to entice the best recruits to commit to Cuse? | Page 3 | Syracusefan.com

Recruiting, what is the SU brand to entice the best recruits to commit to Cuse?

It's debateable that was our best stretch. '85-'91 was right there. I get that the two best win/loss records under JB occurred during '08--'14. But '85-'91 had us more consistently in the top 10 rankings and had more elite all american players, including at least two player of the year candidates with one winning it before being the number one pick in the draft. Regardless, 2008-2014 we were playing a fun brand of basketball. And the recruiting that led to the beginning of that run, if not the whole thing, fed off the success of 2003.

Can we be fun again and be exclusively zone? Maybe. We need some way to show recruits that we're aggressive and fun. What we've put on the floor recently is neither. A change in defense may not be required, but it could help.
I just feel that the competetition for top level players has ramped up considerably since the 80s and early 90s with far more teams vying for top prospects then there was back then. As a result, the teams’ that held national relevance was quite a bit smaller, leading to a much smaller crop of universities that could realistically compete and obtain top 10 rankings.

The Big East conference during the 08-14 stretch was also remarkably deep, with tons of great players and coaches constantly vying for the top spot and double digit teams making it to the tournament multiple times. That is very different from the 87-91 seasons where 2-3 teams drove all the competition.

Now this isn’t to say that it wasn’t impressive what they did in the 87-91 stretch (of course it was) I just think it was more impressive what 08-14 held, they had great talent, stellar records and as you said, a fun style of basketball.

As for whether a change in defense would make the team more fun? I don’t think any defense ever makes a team “fun” (it’s almost the antithesis what makes the sport fun to watch in general), instead what makes it fun is transition baskets and high flying athletic players, both of which can be a part a team that plays zone.
 
Best comparison I can make is JB is a Motorola flip phone and the college basketball world is using iPhone 13 and Android.

There are fans here that somehow think the Motorola flip phone will come back again and dominate the market.
 
i was kinda hoping Syracuse had built itself a solid pipeline to canada with BRISSET and GUERRIER but i kinda wonder now if that pipeline is ruptured with their early departures.
Only hafe kidding but Covid greatly slowed down travel across the border.
 
I just feel that the competetition for top level players has ramped up considerably since the 80s and early 90s with far more teams vying for top prospects then there was back then. As a result, the teams’ that held national relevance was quite a bit smaller, leading to a much smaller crop of universities that could realistically compete and obtain top 10 rankings.

The Big East conference during the 08-14 stretch was also remarkably deep, with tons of great players and coaches constantly vying for the top spot and double digit teams making it to the tournament multiple times. That is very different from the 87-91 seasons where 2-3 teams drove all the competition.

Now this isn’t to say that it wasn’t impressive what they did in the 87-91 stretch (of course it was) I just think it was more impressive what 08-14 held, they had great talent, stellar records and as you said, a fun style of basketball.

As for whether a change in defense would make the team more fun? I don’t think any defense ever makes a team “fun” (it’s almost the antithesis what makes the sport fun to watch in general), instead what makes it fun is transition baskets and high flying athletic players, both of which can be a part a team that plays zone.
I think your first paragraph is inaccurate because elite players stayed in school far longer, spreading the elite talent across a greater number of schools. Players like Coleman, Mourning, Grant Hill, etc stayed 4 years and Shaq, Owens, Larry Johnson, etc stayed 3. The talent was deeper and more experienced.

Your second paragraph is accurate in relation to it's time period. But you have to remember the early Big East had fewer teams with a full double round robin schedule. In 1985 6 of 9 teams made the tournament, three teams made the FF, and 1 won the NC, the second year in a row the leafue had a team win the NC. Syracuse had a 9-7 league record but remained ranked in the top 15 all year. That's a strong league. In 1987 two teams made the FF with Syracuse in the NC game. In 1988 6 of the 9 teams again made the tourney. In 1989 another team went to the FF. In 1990 6 of 9 made the tourney again and three teams finished the year ranked in the top 10. In 1991 7 of 9 teams made the tourney. Rarely did the team that won the league have fewer than 3 league losses. Five different teams made to the FF and 3 different teams made the NC game. Again, this is in a 9 team league. 6 different teams finished 1st or 2nd in the league regular season standings and 5 different teams won the conference tournament, so saying only three teams ran everything is wrong. It was a consistently deep league.

We'll just have to agree to disagree on which era was better. I think the earlier era makes a stronger case. In the earlier era they finished in the AP top 10 six times and top 15 seven times. In the later era they finished top 10 twice and top 15 five times. The earlier era had two consensus first team AAs, one of which was the national player of the year, and three second team consensus AAs. The later era had one on the first team and one on the second team. During the first era a player broke the national assists record and the national modern rebounding record. Nothing of similar note happened during the second era. They were both great and fun eras. The 2010 team was one of my favorites. But I think the numbers paint a clear picture.

As far as the defense thing, you're partly right (I think aggressive suffocating defense can be fun to watch when it's played by elite athletes on my team). The defense doesn't have to affect the excitement of the offense, but that may not be the perception, especially if a kid thinks he won't be able to show off his offense if he fails to learn the defense effectively. That perception likely is not fair, but it may exist. I would think it would be more appealing to an elite guy that plans on playing one year in college to not have to learn a defense he's never played before (the way SU plays it) and that he'll never play again after that one year. If we are going to appeal to that guy, we have to make it abundantly clear with our play on the court that we will be fun, and we haven't done that in a while. That allows other teams to use things like style of defense and JBs age as ammunition, fair or not.
 
When Pearl committed on national TV, he said something like "Im choosing the run and gun Syracuse Orangemen."
Wish I could find an old clip of that somewhere.
I recall he announced his choice to Al McGuire at halftime of an NBC broadcast of a St. John's home game in the Garden. I believe the clip might have been in that "Requiem of the Big East" documentary.
 
Best comparison I can make is JB is a Motorola flip phone and the college basketball world is using iPhone 13 and Android.

There are fans here that somehow think the Motorola flip phone will come back again and dominate the market.
I don’t know if they believe the Motorola will come back to dominate. It’s more like some of us know we can only have a Motorola, and they feel Insulted when the honest among us say the Motorola sucks and is obsolete. Because they bought Motorola stock, the t-shirt, named their first born Mo, and have a vanity plate that says MTRLA44.

I’m not sure why it’s so hard for some to separate what we have done for x number of years from who we are. Zone doesn’t have to be our identity. And if we are honest, we have to admit/recognize that no other program’s fans are clamoring for their team to adopt the zone.
 
We used to play fast, up and down the court. I really miss that.
Amen.
But you gotta have the horses to enter the race.

That's a big reason so many of us loved to see Symir in the game.
He could be a blur pushing the ball upcourt.
And when you pressure the defense like that there's a much better chance you can make something happen.
 

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