What will they say now?

[zibby]

Apparently playing in San Diego wasn't enough...we still had to listen to the "never play on the road" crap. I can't wait to hear what they say next.

SU never plays four-on-five.
SU never plays with their shoes on the wrong feet.
SU never plays with Jim Boeheim locked inside a Hannibal Lecter cage.

And just as a reminder...SU plays the same number of home games as every other friggin team in the country.

 

[cuse522]

It really is ridiculous. You hear stuff like "true road game," as if playing SDSU on an aircraft carrier in San Diego wasn't a road game. Yeah, it wasn't in their gym, it was on a damn boat in their harbor!

Duke played Kentucky in Atlanta and Minnesota, VCU and Louisville in Nassau, Bahamas. They play Temple in East Rutherford, NJ, and Davidson in Charlotte. That's zero true road games outside of North Carolina and none in their opponents' backyard.

Indiana played Georgia and Georgetown in Brooklyn, and they'll play Butler in Indianapolis but not at Hinkle. Their other 11 non-conference games are in Bloomington. So they're playing zero "true" road games by the definition we're given.

Let me know when one of the pundits mentions that Duke and Indiana aren't testing themselves on the road this year.

 

[Zelda Zonk]

They'll stop mentioning it when we start playing real, challenging true road games before January. It would help if the opposing team were in the top 15. The typical JB rhetoric about "well, they went to the tournament last year" or "they'll finish at the top of their league" just isn't going to dissuade media or fans from believing SU shies away from competitive OOC scheduling.

Yeah, we play in the toughest conference, so our overall schedule is inherently difficult. But, that's got nothing to do with "the 'never play on the road' crap" argument. And using Duke to prove your point sorta ignores the back end of the problem. Duke played Kentucky, Louisville, and Ohio State already. Whether at home or on the road or on a neutral court — they're challenging themselves. If we did that often enough, even if all the games were in favorable arenas, people wouldn't be griping about "true road games."

 

[cuse522]

They'll stop mentioning it when we start playing real, challenging true road games before January. It would help if the opposing team were in the top 15. The typical JB rhetoric about "well, they went to the tournament last year" or "they'll finish at the top of their league" just isn't going to dissuade media or fans from believing SU shies away from competitive OOC scheduling.

Yeah, we play in the toughest conference, so our overall schedule is inherently difficult. But, that's got nothing to do with "the 'never play on the road' crap" argument.

The issue isn't so much that they stop saying it about SU, but that they start saying it about others.

San Diego State was No. 20 when we played them on the road. Typically the Big East has 3-4 of the top 15-20 in the preseason poll, which limits the options.

In the last two years on neutral or road ground we've played Michigan, Michigan State (ok, MSG, less than neutral), Georgia Tech and North Carolina State. Go back another year and we played Cal and UNC at the Garden and Florida in Tampa. One more year and you've got Florida and Kansas in Kansas City and Memphis on the road.

That's a pretty good list of programs, and only 3 of the 10 were in NYC. Our scheduling MO changed after the tourney snubs a few years back but the misconception carries on in the media, unfortunately.

 

[mantonio]

Duke doesn't do that every year, so it can't be used as an argument.

Most of the time, the top teams play mostly cupcakes until January.

 

[cuse522]

Duke sometimes plays a true tough road game, although it's often part of the Big 10/ACC challenge which they don't really control. A lot of their tough non-conference games, like ours, come in tournaments.

I'm not saying we play the world's toughest non-conference by any stretch, or even that Duke's isn't usually tougher. I'm just saying it's unfair that we still have this reputation when clearly it's changed over the last four or five years and other top programs do the same thing we do.

 

[mantonio]

AND...

Our record against the top teams is fantastic in the early season.

Our stat people on here should post Syracuse's record against top 20 opponents in the early season for the past 3 or 4 years.

 

[memcorsu]

This is no shot at anyone, just how I got of the frustration.... WHO CARES? We went from a program that went to the tournament every year with 20 wins a year to a program that is pushing 30 wins a year. Add to that we play some very exciting basketball and do so in the biggest conference. WHO CARES what some nasal drip moron says on TV. They are just hating on the fact we are the Orangmen. Ignore them and enjoy this years team!!!

 

[memcorsu]

They are talking heads who most of them couldn't pick up a ball without tripping over their feet.