Sherman Douglas

[sufandu]

We maybe slowed down a little in those Moten years but even then we I think were still scoring in the upper 70s, 80s and 90s each game. Maybe it's recency bias but it feels like for the last 10 to 15 years our offense has been significantly more tempo controlled...set the offense and very little push and fast break. Not sure. All I can say is I loved the fast paced offense and players like Douglas tossing Oops. Forget which game it was (found it...was against Indiana) but I remember Douglas making a pass down court like snapping a football. Thompson caught it and off course dunked. As everyone probably remembers it was unbelievable.

The pace has changed a few times. The post Douglas/Coleman years definitely slowed down a bit. We averaged 89 ppg in '88-'89 and dropped to 74.5 in '91-'92. We crept back into the 80's for a couple years but only averaged 74.5 in '95-'96 when we made our run to the finals. In '97-'98 we were only at 70.2. So in a decade our high and low were about 20 ppg apart. We didn't get back into the 80's again until '08-'09 and '09-'10, then fell back and haven't returned to it.

In the late '80's we were probably the most athletic we have ever been across the board, had the perfect point guard in Douglas for pushing the pace and Coleman dominated the glass and may have been the best outlet passer we ever had. We slowed down a bit when we lost that rebounding and couldn't fast break quite as much off of it. Point guards like Autry and Sims didn't push the ball quite the same. I particularly remember Sims using a slower pace during the '96 tournament run. Our scoring was still good many of those years because we had guys that were great scorers in the half court. In '08-'09 we had Flynn that was probably the best up tempo guard since Douglas. '09-'10 was the first year the top of the zone was crazy good at getting in passing lanes and creating a lot of runouts, so it was a little different than the way we ran in the late '80's. We were also great in the half court with all of our balance and variety of scoring methods. Getting steals at the top of the zone led to runouts for a few more years but our scoring average didn't reflect it well because of our halfcourt struggles. Since then, we haven't rebounded well and we've lacked an athletic true point guard. We just don't have the guys that can allow us to push the pace.

 

[sufandu]

Got to be contrarian... That 1995 squad with Jackson, Moten, etc... was plenty athletic. They had Arkansas beat in that NCAA game, and that razerback squad was vintage "40 minutes of hell"...

I didn't say completely unathletic. And don't confuse good for athletic. Moten was a great player but wasn't fast and didn't jump. Their style of play was different. Nobody can watch the team from Sherm's era and think the Moten era teams were nearly as athletic.

 

[sufandu]

and Blackwell who attends practice on occasion and was on the other game watch said he heard at the very beginning of the year Kadary was leaving.

Wow, he knew that early? I wonder what made him want to leave so soon.

 

[rrlbees]

Wow, he knew that early? I wonder what made him want to leave so soon.

no idea.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

We maybe slowed down a little in those Moten years but even then we I think were still scoring in the upper 70s, 80s and 90s each game. Maybe it's recency bias but it feels like for the last 10 to 15 years our offense has been significantly more tempo controlled...set the offense and very little push and fast break. Not sure. All I can say is I loved the fast paced offense and players like Douglas tossing Oops. Forget which game it was (found it...was against Indiana) but I remember Douglas making a pass down court like snapping a football. Thompson caught it and off course dunked. As everyone probably remembers it was unbelievable.

That was in the preseason NIT game against IU the fall after they beat us in the championship game. I just referenced that play the other day. It’s right up there with the Warrick block against Kansas, Wallace vs. GA, and Pearl against BC as one of my favorite Cuse plays ever.

 

[RF2044]

#20 was the greatest.

My all time favorite player in Syracuse hoops history.

Man, did he orchestrate an exciting era of SU hoops.