Eric15
Living Legend
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- Aug 28, 2011
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This board desperately needs a mental break from talking about new coaches and chancellors and ADs and the state of college sports.
Sunday is the 20th anniversary of the 74-73 first round win over Cincinnati, followed by the 86-84 quarterfinal OT win over #1 UConn, 58-57 semifinal win over Georgetown and 65-61 finals win over Pittsburgh.
In the Dome era, I consider the 2006 BET run the 4th most exciting set of circumstances for Syracuse basketball after only the 1987, 1996, 2003 NCAA runs. Even though the 2013 and 2016 Final Four runs were amazing, I don't remember feeling quite the same level of euphoria as those magical four days in the Garden.
We were out of the tourney when the BET began. We led most of the game, but Cincy took control at the end. Devan Downey misses the 2nd of two free throws to put Cincy up two with 8 seconds left. GMac comes down, dribbles behind his back and through two defenders and shoots a Josh Pace one handed floater that goes in. Jay Bilas actually said that he thought GMac traveled -- but we can ignore that. People may forget this, but Cincy had a half court heave at the very end that was extremely close to being a Cleveland State moment. After winning this game, we were probably a 50/50 coin flip to get in.
Quarterfinal game against UConn was an absolute mismatch on paper, and my single favorite BET game ever. The 6OT game is more famous, but I love this one more. They blew our doors off twice in the regular season. You could make the argument that was the best UConn team of all-time. We got off to an extremely fast start going up 12-0. But as expected, they slowly chipped away. Once again, GMac came down and hit a miraculous three to send it to OT. I watched this at a bar in East Syracuse and thought I literally may have a heart attack. Marcus Williams comes down and misses a foul line floater that would have won the game. With 26 seconds left in OT, Darryl Watkins stepped up and made two clutch free throws to give us a 85-81 lead. Devo then steals the inbounds pass and has a completely wide open layup attempt that would have sealed the win, but misses it. Marcus Williams misses a routine 6 foot jumper to tie the game. We win, and we are a lock for the tourney. I remember running around in the street screaming.
Semis vs. Georgetown. Hoyas dominated most of the game and were up 15 at halftime. We came storming back, and took at the lead on that incredible steal and fast break pass layup from GMac to Devo. Devo wasn't missing a clutch layup in consecutive games.
Finals vs. Pitt. We controlled most of the game and were never really threatened. Won our second BET in a row and that was our last conference tournament championship.
If you have a great anecdote to share about those insane 72+ hours, let's hear it!
Sunday is the 20th anniversary of the 74-73 first round win over Cincinnati, followed by the 86-84 quarterfinal OT win over #1 UConn, 58-57 semifinal win over Georgetown and 65-61 finals win over Pittsburgh.
In the Dome era, I consider the 2006 BET run the 4th most exciting set of circumstances for Syracuse basketball after only the 1987, 1996, 2003 NCAA runs. Even though the 2013 and 2016 Final Four runs were amazing, I don't remember feeling quite the same level of euphoria as those magical four days in the Garden.
We were out of the tourney when the BET began. We led most of the game, but Cincy took control at the end. Devan Downey misses the 2nd of two free throws to put Cincy up two with 8 seconds left. GMac comes down, dribbles behind his back and through two defenders and shoots a Josh Pace one handed floater that goes in. Jay Bilas actually said that he thought GMac traveled -- but we can ignore that. People may forget this, but Cincy had a half court heave at the very end that was extremely close to being a Cleveland State moment. After winning this game, we were probably a 50/50 coin flip to get in.
Quarterfinal game against UConn was an absolute mismatch on paper, and my single favorite BET game ever. The 6OT game is more famous, but I love this one more. They blew our doors off twice in the regular season. You could make the argument that was the best UConn team of all-time. We got off to an extremely fast start going up 12-0. But as expected, they slowly chipped away. Once again, GMac came down and hit a miraculous three to send it to OT. I watched this at a bar in East Syracuse and thought I literally may have a heart attack. Marcus Williams comes down and misses a foul line floater that would have won the game. With 26 seconds left in OT, Darryl Watkins stepped up and made two clutch free throws to give us a 85-81 lead. Devo then steals the inbounds pass and has a completely wide open layup attempt that would have sealed the win, but misses it. Marcus Williams misses a routine 6 foot jumper to tie the game. We win, and we are a lock for the tourney. I remember running around in the street screaming.
Semis vs. Georgetown. Hoyas dominated most of the game and were up 15 at halftime. We came storming back, and took at the lead on that incredible steal and fast break pass layup from GMac to Devo. Devo wasn't missing a clutch layup in consecutive games.
Finals vs. Pitt. We controlled most of the game and were never really threatened. Won our second BET in a row and that was our last conference tournament championship.
If you have a great anecdote to share about those insane 72+ hours, let's hear it!
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