Lets get a couple of things clear:
1. To be a legend, you have to be a great player. I could care less about popularity; that is meaningless.
2. Pearl was probably the most single dominant player in Boeheim's era. He would take on a team by himself, and in more cases than not, he came out on the winning side. He did not have a great team alongside him, so I'm not sure winning anything of note is a fair criticism. He single-handedly put SU on the map as a national program The only player who I have ever seen who was as dominant was Carmelo. And I'd still take Pearl.
3. We win the national championship because of Carmelo being on the 2003 team. If no Melo, then no national title GMac may have a national title, but that has more to do with Carmelo than anything else. He had those 3s in the first half of the national title game and that was tremendous, but vanished in the second half. We win that game more because of Pace and Edelin in the second half than anything else.
4. GMac is arguably a legend; I do not agree that it is not debatable and I do not think it was that clear cut. He is in the discussion. The fact is that after Warrick and Carmelo left, and it became GMac's team, we became pretty ordinary, struggled to get into the tournament and did nothing in the tournament. A caveat is that I never believed the Big East Tournament to be much more than a show, and I would rather take a long run in the NCAAs than do anything in the conference tournament (although there is always something special about beating Georgetown)
5. As for the greatest individual performance in an NCAA game by Syracuse. Has anyone watched Carmelo's performance against Texas in the Final Four???
6. For all of GMac's heroics in the BET, I have NEVER seen a more dominant SU performer in the BET Tournament than Pearl. He was out of this world against the best of the best. (Ewing, Berry, etc.)
