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Message: [QUOTE="texacuse, post: 3257643, member: 3478"] I believe that the understanding and learning curve of our Coach Boeheim’s end of game strategy, implementation and execution underwent extraordinary trial by fire earlier in his career when our team free throw shooting percentages seemed to be among some of the worst numbers in all of division one men’s basketball for what seemed like 15 or 20 years. During the 1980’s, and before the advent of the collegiate 3 point line I would normally not feel comfortable with any lead we had until we were up by at 10 points with under 2 minutes to go. Unfortunately, even that faith was severely challenged when somewhere in the early 1980’s Rollie Massimino and the Villanova Wildcats overcame a 9 point lead with 51 seconds remaining against SU to beat us in a game which we should have won more than handily as heavy favorites even on the road. Our team on a nearly every game basis was at least 10 points better than our competition on any given night for several years. That of course was a necessity because of our atrocious free throw shooting as a team which could easily cost us 10 points over the last few minutes on any given night and cost us a head scratching loss out of nowhere from time to time. With bruises to our (his) psyche burned into our memory like that, it is no wonder that after the first 25 years of experience that our coach, in order to continue to master the craft that he has maintained for so long, would become so adept at end game management that he should be able to master anything after some of those shock therapy dumpster fire losses we suffered earlier in the years which would have destroyed the mettle of lesser men than our Coach Boeheim. Never truer words were spoken than when my dad told me over 50 years ago that good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from poor judgment. With Orange Nation fans hanging on his every move and with his battle tested assistants available to remind him during any game, it is no wonder that his memory is still fresh in how to avoid disaster and win so often. Now... if we could just turn back the clock and win a few more recruiting battles again so that our only concern might only be free throw shooting once again! :) [/QUOTE]

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