School Record for Wins to Start the Season

Derrick Coleman.  Carmelo Anthony.  Billy Owens.  Sherman Douglas.  John Wallace.  Lawrence Moten.  Hakim Warrick.  Rony Seikaly.  Gerry McNamara.  Jonny Flynn.  Stevie Thompson.  Preston Shumpert.  Etan Thomas.  I've seen all these superstars go through Syracuse since I started following Orange basketball circa 1988.  I've seen the amazing John Wallace-led run to the Final Four in 1996.  I've seen the more amazing Melo/GMac/Warrick run to the NCAA championship in 2003.  I've seen Gerry McNamara win the Big East tournament two years in a row, all by himself.  I've seen Jonny Flynn struggling to walk at the end of a 6 OT win over the hated UConn Huskies.  I've seen Jim Boeheim lose in early rounds with top-seeded Derrick Coleman/Billy Owens teams.  And I've seen him make long runs in the tourney with undermanned squads (a la 1996).  But I've never -- and no one else has ever -- seen a Syracuse team start a season 22-1.  Twenty-two wins.  1 loss.  After destroying Providence last night on the Jim Boeheim Court at the Carrier Dome, that's exactly what the Orange record is.  And it's fucking amazing.

This is already a year for the ages.  Wes Johnson is a top 5 pick in the NBA Draft this season, but this is not a team that looked, at least at the start of the season, like one of those great Coleman/Douglas teams, or even the more recent great teams that have gone far in the tournament.  This is looking a lot more like 2003, a perfect storm of talent and teamwork and the absolute perfect players in the zone defense to make it one of the toughest defenses to score on in the country, but also leads to a ton of fast-break opportunities, fueling one of the top 10 scoring teams in the country and the #1 FG shooting percentage team in the nation right now.  Somehow we're not even first in the Big East (Villanova remains undefeated in the league), but I have never been more impressed with a Syracuse team that I've watched at this point in the season.  Which makes sense.  They've never had this good a record before. 

Against Providence, a mid-pack Big East team and therefore automatically dangerous, Syracuse started strong but then had some major defensive lapses combined with cold shooting and entered the half with only a 3-point lead.  Wes Johnson took a bad spill in the first half on an alley oop attempt and hurt his hip.  He hardly played in the 2nd half (we're told strictly for precautionary reasons) and yet, only about 8 minutes into the half, the Orange had stretched its 3 point lead to 20.  Yes, twenty.  They just came out and absolutely dominated in a way that the all-time great Kentucky or North Carolina teams in recent decades that had 6 or 8 NBA draft picks on them do.  We have 1, maybe 2 NBA players if Andy gets a 2nd round flyer.  Teams like this do not look this good, this perfect.  But they did last night in the 2nd half.  The final score had Syracuse win by 17, but it was  not even that close.  Providence's defense had something to do with it -- the second half they were playing the matador special -- but this was just a team that was playing at a level far above its opponent, one of the mid-pack teams in the best conference in the nation... with its best player on the bench!  Remember, Wes didn't play nearly at all in the 2nd half, and not after the 18 minute mark.  They did this with Kris Joseph taking over the Wes role as slasher/finisher/superstar, as he punched in a career-high 23 points on only 11 shots (9 of 11 shooting).  And with Arinze Onuaku dominating inside to the tune of 20 points (10 of 12 shooting), Providence just had no answers.  Andy didn't do much.  Wes didn't do much (they combined for 17, even though they are our two leading scorers), and yet we won going away.  Scoop and Triche didn't do much either.  But the inside presence of Onuaku and Jackson, combined with a highlight's reel of slashing dunks by Joseph were all we needed to walk away victorious.  This is just an amazing team.  I'm going to keep reveling in the joy.  And someday soon I hope, alongside Coleman and Anthony and Douglas and Wallace and McNamara and Warrick and all the other Syracuse greats who actually made a Final Four, will be the names Johnson, Rautins, Joseph, Onuaku, Jackson, Triche, and Jardine.  Right now, they are about as good as it gets.

Comments

[LegFuJohnson]

You've sold me. I'm going to start betting big money on the Orange...

[Switsky]

You are more biased with your Orangeman fandom than someone we know is with his bias for the Seahawks.