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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 4492414, member: 289"] From my series "From the Mists of Time" about the early days of my being an SU basketball fan, (1966-76): "The trip to the final four had made Roy Danforth a hot property and at this point Tulane made an offer to the Syracuse Coach, who had played his collegiate ball under Fred Lewis at nearby Southern Mississippi. Danforth decided to take the job, not realizing perhaps that a job like the one at Syracuse might be not a stepping stone but rather the kind of thing one jumps TO. After some discussion and rumors of various coaches being selected to replace him, the University decided to offer the job to Jim Boeheim, Danforth’s long -time assistant who at the time was interviewing with the University of Rochester. I recall seeing a giddy Boeheim being interviewed at the Rochester airport, allowing as how he’d rather have the Syracuse job. Late in the season a series of articles started appearing in the papers about what seemed like an amazing recruiting class for SU. There were articles on New York State’s leading scorer, (35ppg), Hal Cohen of Canton, NY. Another was on Cliff Warwell, who had grown up in New York City and moved upstate to Kandor, NY to average 30+ himself. Then there was Roosevelt Bouie, a big (6-10), athletic shot blocking center of the type we’d never had before, (Bill Smith being primarily an offensive player) from Kendall, NY, near Rochester. [B]Finally there was a “sleeper”, a 6-8 kid from Cincinnati named Louie Orr everybody seemed to think was too skinny.[/B] A big question was whether these guys would come here, now that we had a coaching change. They all did, and they turned the program into something it had never really been before: a powerhouse. You could see it the next season. In the center of the action was Bouie, like a great fish leaping from the sea, blocking shots, dunking the ball and grabbing rebounds. Meanwhile, [B]Orr, moving like an eel, would slide around and through the defense for scores and rebounds.[/B] Warwell, (another guy who left due to playing time), and Cohen had more limited contributions off the bench. Byrnes, Schackleford and Williams completed an impressive starting line-up. All though these years I have described, two teams kept blocking Syracuse’s path with their superior size, talent and depth. Louisville beat us 71-75 in 1967, 81-103 in 1972, and 88-96 in 1975. Maryland had our number in 1972, 65-71 and 76-91 then 75-91 a year later. They were just too big and too deep for SU’s scrappers to stay with for 40 minutes. But now we were ready to go head to head with them. SU played the Cardinals on their home court in the third game of the 1976-77 season and the Terps on their home court in the ninth game. The Orange beat the Cardinals, who had the nation’s top freshman in Darrell Griffith, when one of our freshman, Cliff Warwell, scored on a twisting lay-up in the final seconds. (I still remember Joel Mareiness going nuts describing it.) Maryland, whom we have never defeated to this day, [[I]but have twice since[/I] [I]I originally wrote this[/I]], ended SU’s 8 game season opening winning streak, 85-96 in their Maryland Invitational. But the key was that SU was no longer outclassed by these teams. When we played them it was no longer David and Goliath but instead a battle of national powers. SU went on to begin the Boeheim era with a sparking 26-4 mark and a #6 final ranking in the polls. Not only had we arrived, but we looked like we belonged there." Those young forwards Jim Boeheim is currently trying to bring along to make this year's team a formidable one could do well to watch film of Louis Orr playing the position. Jim could just point to it and say, "That's what we need!" He could also point to the person Louis was off the court and say the same thing. [/QUOTE]

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