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Message: [QUOTE="Zelda Zonk, post: 2835133, member: 966"] I'm less worried about 'job desirability' than about the profile of the school in general, as perceived by potential recruits over the next ten years. Kids today don't have memories or reference to our 'glory days.' No one we're recruiting knows who Derrick Coleman, Stevie Thompson, Billy Owens, Pearl are. Kids are very much about now. If we continue to finish at .500 in the ACC, and continue to reinforce our reputation as a bubble team, we will soon be Buffalo or Boston College but with a dome. Outside of our alum bubble, "Syracuse" is just some small, non-NYC college, with a big sports building. Days of us being a conference leader are over. Whatever brand equity we built in the Big East is gone. Whatever brand equity Carmelo Anthony built for us in the NBA is gone. We haven't put any starters into the NBA since MCW's(?) rookie season. These are all damning considerations for the most talented kids coming out of high school, and those are the kids who will determine our future. As for JB—i think there's a disconnect, between the 'respect' he gets with the tv talking heads since 2003, versus how much he's actually respected by high schoolers. Of course, the kids we are being considered by will cite his HoFness, but i never had the sense that the true HS badasses, the alpha dogs, are all that impressed by his "professorial," whiny caricature. And then there's the zone. I've also long tended to doubt the competitiveness of a player who chooses to play for a zone-only program. Regardless of its occasional effectiveness, no kid in a pickup game ever shouts out, "Let's play zone!" Lots of you will say, "that's who we are. If you don't like it, find another team." Which is horsecrud. I joined up in 85. Zone is not our identity. It's a phase. And if we're honest with ourselves, we have to recognize that the product we have since going zone only is not one we would appreciate if we weren't somehow 'involved' with Syracuse. From the outside, we are not creating legions of fans like we did when we were 'showtime in the Dome' on Big East Monday Nights. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?