MBB : Final loss caps ‘roller coaster’ season for young SU squad
The last time Syracuse had more than 14 losses in a season was 1968-69. Jim Boeheim averaged 23.4 points that season – playing professionally for Scranton of the Eastern League.
The Orange’s 14 defeats represent the most ever under the 32-year head coach, and it’s safe to say Boeheim and his players have never endured a season quite like 2007-08.
‘Between the off court stuff and on court; people leaving, the injuries, it’s just been a crazy year for us,’ freshman Donte Greene said after Syracuse’s 81-77 defeat to Massachusetts in the NIT quarterfinals Tuesday night.
The end result was the same as the previous season: The Orange (21-14) went as far as the NIT quarterfinals but could not make it to New York City for the final four. Last year, SU fell to Clemson on the road to end a 24-11 season.
The two straight NITs marked only the second time that’s happened under Boeheim (1981-83 was the other).
And after losing its two best shooters, Eric Devendorf and Andy Rautins to torn ACLs, Syracuse still was in contention for an NCAA Tournament bid until the very end.
But that was not much consolation to the players Tuesday, especially considering the way the Orange ended its up-and-down year, blowing a 22-point second-half lead to UMass.
‘Just a big roller coaster at Six Flags,’ freshman Jonny Flynn said of his first collegiate season. ‘You’re waiting in line, from high school, you’re waiting in line, waiting to get on the roller coaster. And then you get here, you go up to your highs. You go on SportsCenter your first day as a freshman. … And then you go to the Garden and you don’t score a bucket. Just a lot of highs and lows. We played great though, we overcame a lot of adversity a lot of teams didn’t face.’
Greene said his one regret for a season that went ‘too quick, too fast,’ was the first time Syracuse loss to UMass on Nov. 28.
‘I’d definitely like to go back to that Ohio State game [Syracuse’s first loss of the season] and start from there. … But you can’t.
‘It was a very disappointing season.’
As Donte Greene shrugged off questions about his future with Syracuse, another SU star defiantly proclaimed his intentions for next season. Paul Harris, whose name has circulated about a possible early exit for the NBA, said he will be back in an Orange uniform in 2008-09.
‘No, I’ll be at SU,’ the sophomore Harris said. ‘There’s no way I could leave after being here two years and never being in an NCAA game.’
Harris, who averaged 14.7 points and 8.2 rebounds this season, has had his name pop up about the NBA since he was a high schooler out of Notre Dame Prep (Mass.). He was an All-Big East second team selection this season.
But he said he’ll be back at it again next year.
‘Even if I was a No. 1 pick that’d still be tough for me because I have never experienced an NCAA game, never had the opportunity to say that I had a chance to win a national championship,’ Harris said. ‘That’s real hard that I’ve never been there, and I’ve been here two years. So it’s like there’s not a chance of me leaving.’
Travis Ford was so concerned about stopping Arinze Onuaku, he said after the game, he was up all night figuring out ways to stop the 6-foot-9 Syracuse center.
‘We knew we couldn’t guard him in the halfcourt,’ Ford said. ‘That’s just not an option. We sat and debated all night long whether to foul him every time he touched the ball.’
It turned out Massachusetts didn’t need to foul – Onuaku and backup center Rick Jackson missed enough open layups on their own – but it was obvious Ford and the UMass coaching staff was openly agitated about trying to contain the big man. Massachusetts has height, but its starting center, Dante Milligan, is only 215 pounds. Onuaku weights 258, with a lot of muscle.
Ford knew SU was going to give Onuaku as many post-up opportunities as possible, which it did.
‘I got up this morning, called another coaches staff meeting early this morning,’ Ford said. ‘I said ‘Maybe we need to double him’. I was very concerned because every tape I watched they’ve been really making an effort to get him the basketball.
Published on March 25, 2008 at 12:00 pm
