In order to put Saturday's season-killing loss to Pittsburgh behind me I delved into some classic Syracuse games when SU had such good players that even an idiot like Boeheim couldn't fuck it up. Though he often did.
Syracuse vs Pittsburgh, January 3, 1990
Syracuse started Stevie Thompson, Dave Johnson, Billy Owens, Derrick Coleman and LeRon Ellis.
A mulleted Mike Hopkins came off the bench, committed a stupid foul and quickly got yanked.
Richard Manning also came off the bench and several times Dick Vitale commented about how the coaching staff thought he would be the next great SU player.
Syracuse was #1 in the country at the time, but entering conference play they had faced a weak schedule. Vitale (who did the game with Tim Brando) mentioned C.W. Post several times.
Pitt started Brian Shorter, Darrelle Porter, Jason Matthews and Bobby Martin.
Sean Miller was injured. Vitale talked about how smart he is, foreshadowing Miller's success as a coach at Xavier.
Pitt jumped out to a huge early lead and DC hardly tried and Billy Owens missed everything.
SU did come storming back once DC stepped up his game. He was unstoppable getting the ball everytime on offense and grabbing every rebound on defense.
Dicky V said several times he should be the number 1 overall pick (which he was), ahead of other top seniors, Lionel Simmons and Gerald Glass.
SU clinched the game with a steal by Stevie Thompson who streaked down the floor with his tail trailing behind him (no other hair on his head).
Georgetown - Syracuse, January 28, 1985
Syracuse started Rafael Addison, Dwyane "Pearl" Washington, Andre Hawkins, Rony Seikaly and Michael Brown.
Georgetown started Patrick Ewing, as well as David Wingate, Reggie Williams and a couple of other guys who drew "who cares?" and "so what?" chants from the crowd.
Georgetown was ranked #2 at the time having just lost to St. John's two days earlier.
St. John's became the new #1 by knocking off defending champ Georgetown and ending their 29 game winning streak.
The crowd for this one was absolutely incredible.
Attendance was 32,229 (3rd largest Carrier Dome crowd, 153 short of largest on campus crowd in history at the time) and they were doing the wave (which was still in its infancy).
The Dome Ranger was running around the perimeter of the court the whole game.
The crowd was so into it, it was everything we wished the Dome would be during our years there. It was definitely the loudest I ever heard the Dome. At one point the announcers (Len Berman and Bill Raftery) stopped talking because they wanted the crowd to be heard.
There was no 3-point shot for this game and the 45-second clock wasn't over the basket, it was off in the corner.
After the first SU basket the game had to be stopped because someone threw an orange on the floor.
Raftery said a cold snap hurt the orange crop in Florida, but not up in Syracuse.
Then when Patrick Ewing was shooting a free throw, an orange hit the back of the backboard and splattered.
John Thompson absolutely flipped out, ran onto the court then pulled his team off the floor.
The game had to be delayed so they could clean the backboard and Boeheim made an announcement (though they didn't show it on the broadcast) telling the fans not to throw shit.
Ewing got to reshoot the free throw he missed and he made the retry. Raftery said he was happy because it put the orange grove back in its place.
Berman and Raftery were talking about rivalries and said SU-Georgetown is becoming the best rivalry in the conference.
They said it all started when Georgetown won in the last game at Manley Field House and John Thompson declared it officially closed.
Back to the game.
Ewing was good but not great, he got his shot blocked by Seikaly a couple times and he hadn't yelled developed the offensive moves he had as a Knick. He dominated on defense though and Georgetown's trap worked so well because even if SU broke it they couldn't get an easy basket because Ewing was hanging back.
Raftery and Berman called Ewing "Russell with offense" and "Wilt who can shoot free throws."
They both agreed he was the surefire first pick in the NBA Draft and that whichever teamed drafted him would immediately become a title contender.
For Syracuse, Rafael Addison went off. He was out front of several breaks and also hit a few midrange jumpers, scoring 26 in the game.
Syracuse stole the ball with 41 seconds left trailing 63-62.
They killed most of the clock but with about 10 seconds Pearl made a move, going behind the back, then faking a spin to the baseline and pulling up and nailing a jumper to give SU the lead.
When Georgetown's inbounds went out of bounds the Dome erupted.
The fans stormed the court after the game. Some guy was hugging Boeheim.
You can watch some of this game on youtube.
Part I
Part II
Part III
Syracuse vs. Georgetown January 30, 1995
This was a matchup between #10 Syracuse and #13 Georgetown.
Georgetown had Jerome Williams, Othella Harrington, Boubacar Aw and a freshman named Allen Iverson.
Syracuse started Michael Lloyd, Laurence Moten, Lucious Jackson, John Wallace and JB Reafsnyder. The core of the 1996 Final Four team came off the bench, Lazarus Sims, Todd Burgan and Otis Hill.
Dicky V called this game as well, this time with Brad Nessler.
Vitale said the previous week SU blew an 11 point lead to UConn.
This game was the day after the 49ers beat the Chargers in the Super Bowl. Dicky V called it the dud bowl.
With a 3 point lead and a minute left SU tried to score and Lloyd drove the lane and found a cutter and SU took a 5 point lead.
And with 72-69 lead Wallace threw a baseball pass to Lloyd for an easy layup and another 5 point lead.
SU won 76-75 but after the game Boeheim probably screamed at them for not killing the clock.
Georgetown shot 9 of 26 from the line.
Going in, I only remembered the outcome of one of these games (the 85 game is very famous) but SU won all 3. A lot better than their percentage nowadays.
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