#8 - Syracuse's rank among all D1 programs in NCAA Tournament wins during the 2000s
Kansas, Duke, Michigan St, UNC, Florida, Kentucky, and Connecticut.
That is it. That's the entire list of teams with more NCAA Tournament wins since 2000 than Syracuse. You will notice that elite programs such as Louisville, UCLA, Arizona, Texas, and Ohio State are all not on that list.
This really reinforces just how much of a golden era we are in with Syracuse basketball. No matter how you want to slice up the stats (Total wins, NCAA tournament wins, Sweet 16 appearances, Final Four Appearances, Championships), they are in the top 10 since the turn of the century.
This is also just a reminder to Rick Pitino and his #9 in NCAA Tournament wins Louisville Cardinals to give the mini dynasty talk a rest. Sit down young pup.
#9(00+) - The number of wins Krzyzewski and Boeheim each will have when they face off February 1st, the highest combined total ever for a head-to-head matchup.
Krzyzewski - 957
Boeheim - 920
Knight - 899
That is what the all-time college basketball coaches wins list looks like right now. My unparalleled skills of deduction tell me that if K and Boeheim are #1 and #2 on the all-time list, then when they face off this season it will be the most combined wins ever by a pair of coaches in the same game.
They don't call me the best in the business for nothing. Or at all really.
I tried to look up the highest combined wins total for two coaches prior to this matchup, but Google did not help me out. Suffice to say, it was less than 1,877.
I would say that the cat-and-mouse game these two will engage in should be more entertaining than the game itself. But let's be honest, these two coaches didn't get here by changing up what they do. Duke will play pressure man-to-man defense. Syracuse will play an active 2-3 zone. And the world will continue to turn.
Just remember, this is what we here at The Great White Forth think of Duke and Coach K...
#10 - Number of Assists / Game lost out of the starting backcourt.
10.9 to be exact. That is what we are losing with Michael Carter-Williams leaving early to be a lottery pick and Brandon Triche graduating. That is a lot of play-making to replace. That burden will fall mostly on freshman Tyler Ennis, the only true point guard on the roster. Considering Michael Carter-Williams had the 3rd highest assist per game total for a season by a Syracuse player (non-Sherman Douglas division - who single-handedly has the #1, #2, and #4 seasons), I'm not expecting Tyler Ennis to be able to completely replace MCW's production (yet alone Triche's as well).
On the flip side, last year's guards also averaged 6.1 turnovers per game . From everything I've seen and heard about Tyler Ennis it sounds like he will be much more in control and should be able to help cut down on that number. The number of times one of our guards gets stuck in the air with no idea where they are going with the ball should decrease by about 82%.
Although the majority of the point guard duties will fall on Tyler Ennis' shoulders, he will have some help. Trevor Cooney is back this year and as disappointing as his shooting was last year, his all-around game was much better than expected. Transfer Michael Gbinje will battle with Cooney for the starting 2-guard spot and, according to preseason reports, will be Ennis' back-up at the point.
Luckily, our green guards won't have to deal with the grabbing pestering Russ Smith and the Louisville Cardinals. Unfortunately they will have to deal with Duke and their pressure defense. Circle February 1st on your calendar. It should be the first true test of just how ready Ennis and Co. are to run the offense in the pressure cooker of March Madness.
We are officially 10 days away from the start of the regular season. Next Friday, the Cornell Big Red come to the dome to take on the Syracuse Orange in the battle of the colors. To help get you ready for the season, I'll be counting down the top 10 things you need to know about this years team, opponents, and everything else you wanted to know. Check back each day for a new key stat about the upcoming season. You know this man will be making an appearance somewhere...
We're well into October and college basketball practices are in full swing. We're a mere week and a half away from the first exhibition game and only 3 months away from tipping off conference play in the ACC.
That'r right, the ACC. For those of you who have been living under a rock the last year and a half or so, Syracuse is officially a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference now as part of a major shakeup to the power structure of college basketball. Let me break it down for you real quick...
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) - Adds: Syracuse, Notre Dame, and Pitt in 2013-14. Louisville in 2014-15. Loses: Maryland in 2014-15.
Pretty good trade-off for the ACC. They lose one good, but not great, team and replace them with two consistently good programs and two of the elite programs of the last decade. Add holdovers Duke and North Carolina, and the top 4 of that conference is stacked with blue blood programs. For all intents and purposes, the new ACC is the old Big East in terms of perception of the strength of the conference and the threat every year to send 8-10 teams to the NCAA tournament.
Big East - Adds: Butler, Xavier and Creighton. Loses: Every program with a relevant football team and sinners on campus.
Considering all they lost, the Big East came out on the other side about as good as they could've hoped for. They retained some very good programs (Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette) and added probably the 3 best mid-majors outside of Gonzaga. The conference definitely is worse off than it was before all the moves, as they come out looking more like a better version of the old A-10 or C-USA (lots of solid programs but no real national title threats). But considering the prominent thought that all the new ACC members leaving would be a death knell for the conference, they saved face pretty well.
American - Adds: Louisville (for one year), UConn, Cincinnati, Memphis, and a bunch of mediocrity. Loses: Any hope of interest from the general public after next year.
This conference was doomed before it even began, with Louisville already scheduled to leave after 1 year, and UConn and Cincinnati openly trying to push their wares on any conference that will have them. It almost seems un-American to call it the American. The only tangible benefit from the formation of this conference is that it squashes any rumors of a Jim Calhoun comeback, considering this conference will be as relevant as a high school girls basketball league by next season.
Now, despite all that I just laid out above and how this change was clearly the right move for Syracuse, I know lots of fans are still hesitant to accept it. And I understand. I was there too, right up until I realized that we could potentially be playing anywhere between 3-9 games annually against Louisville, Duke, and North Carolina.
The biggest reason for this hesitation is because the typical Big East fan doesn't know these ACC teams after you get past the first 2 or 3 names. Seton Hall and Providence may have been crappy, but they were OUR crappy rivals. Who are these Virginia's and Georgia Tech's and why should I care about them?
Luckily for you, I have the remedy.
ACC Team: Notre Dame, Pittsburgh
Big East Equivalent: Notre Dame, Pittsburgh
Reasoning: Take it away Dennis Green...
ACC Team: Maryland
Big East Equivalent: Rutgers
Reasoning: The Deserters
Maryland and Rutgers are both heading to the Big Ten next year, making them completely irrelevant to us. Irrelevancy, also a feeling most Big East fans would associate with Rutgers.
ACC Team: Wake Forest
Big East Equivalent: DePaul
Reasoning: The League Doormats
In the past 3 seasons, Wake Forest had a league worst 11 conference wins. DePaul had 6 over the same time span. So consider Wake Forest a twice as good version of DePaul. Or in other words, a 1/5th as good version as every other team in the conference.
ACC Team: Boston College
Big East Equivalent: South Florida
Reasoning: The Geographical Conundrums
Don't get me wrong. I realize that these power conferences aren't exactly regional anymore, as expansion has created "rivalries" that make as much sense as this music video.
But look at these maps below and tell me South Florida and Boston College don't stick out like a sore thumb. I may not watch Sesame Street anymore (although I probably will again soon), but I can still play the "one of these things is not like the other game" pretty well.
(Speaking of conundrums, I was utterly flummoxed by what TCU was doing on the Big East map before a little research reminded me that they were "Big East Members" for a hot minute in 2011 before they jumped ship to the Big 12 without ever playing a game in the Big East. Isn't conference realignment grand?)
ACC Team: Virginia, Virginia Tech
Big East Equivalent: Providence, Seton Hall
Reasoning: Who cares? When was the last time one of these teams was relevant?
ACC Team: Georgia Tech
Big East Equivalent: Villanova
Reasoning: The Rollercoasters
Both teams are in / near fertile recruiting grounds (Philly / Atlanta), which lends them the ability to land some premium recruits occasionally. As a result, both have a Final Four appearance to their name in the last decade. However, neither program has been able to establish itself as a consistent top tier program and are in very difficult conferences brimming with some of the best competition in the country, lending itself to sporadic results from season to season.
ACC Team: N.C. State
Big East Equivalent: St. John's
Reasoning: The Five-Tool Flameouts
Both teams seem to bring in lots of "talent" that somehow consistently underperforms. If I had a Syracuse basketball title for every time one of these teams brought in a top 10 recruiting class and didn't make it out of the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, I would be writing my next post comparing Jim Boeheim to John Wooden.
ACC Team: Florida State
Big East Equivalent: Marquette
Reasoning: The Farmers
Nobody wants to play them because of how hard they are going to make you work, just like how nobody wants to be a farmer because of how hard you would have to work.
These teams may not get the best recruits, but you damn well better believe they are going to give you a run for your money every single time you play them and are more than capable of pulling off an upset (even if its likely to be a score of 42-39).
ACC Team: Clemson
Big East Equivalent: Cincinnati
Reasoning: The Mirages
These teams are well-known for hot start due to creampuff schedules, followed by falling apart during tough conference schedules and plummeting to a double-digit NCAA seed (if not missing the tournament completely).
Just remember whenever Clemson comes to town, that their actual record needs to be deflated by about 5 1/2 games to figure out their true talent level that season.
ACC Team: Miami
Big East Equivalent: Connecticut
Reasoning: The Cheaters
Stolen laptops. Recruiting Violations. Bans from postseason play. You want controversy and low ethical standards? These teams have them in spades.
Also, depending on the quality of the teams in any given year, UConn has consistently ranked in my top 3 most hated Big East teams for the last decade. Miami is sure to be in a similar position among ACC teams, thanks to my abhorrence of the phrase "The U", the second most annoying catchphrase in college athletics behind "THE Ohio State University".
ACC Team: North Carolina
Big East Equivalent: Louisville
Reasoning: The (Sort Of) Hated Rival
This one is tough, because you could make the case that Louisville has been our biggest rival over the last couple of season. They have a coach who's easy to hate (Pitino), many players who are easy to hate (Siva), and a style of basketball that is easy to hate (endless pressing, grabbing, and bumping with few or no calls from the refs).
But at the end of the day, if Pitino retired and Louisville hit a down cycle for a few seasons, I would pretty quickly forget about them as a rival. The hatred of their program is not nearly as ingrained in my grey matter as it is for Georgetown.
Then you have North Carolina, a team I don't hate (yet) and have even rooted for in the past when Syracuse was out of it. Going head-to-head as perennial top 15 programs now, I'm sure that will change quickly. UNC could easily be in my top-5 hated college basketball programs within the next 3 years. But UNC also has a tendency under Roy Williams to have some pretty severe down years mixed in with the national titles. And when they have one of those years, I will probably just ignore them.
So basically these teams boil down to a logic argument:
Is Louisville / UNC a top 10 team?
YES NO
Hate Is Rick Pitino / Roy Williams
still the coach?
YES NO
Hate Is Tyler Hansborough / Peyton Siva
still on the team?
YES NO
Hate Meh
ACC Team: Duke
Big East Equivalent: Georgetown
Reasoning: The Hated Rival
Things you can count on in this world: Death, Taxes, Denzel Washington outshining Ryan Reynolds in an action movie, and my hatred of Duke and Georgetown.
So there you have it. Your official Big East to ACC conversion cheat sheet. Keep it handy for the doldrums of February when you can't remember why you should care of a Tuesday night game against Clemson. Ah, who am I kidding, you shouldn't care about a Tuesday night game against Clemson. But at least you'll know it's because you shouldn't care about a Tuesday night game against Cincinnati either.
