Syracuse basketball fans calling for the head of Michael Carter-Williams and blissfully reminiscing about the Scoop Jardine days need to pay attention to some cold, hard facts.

A good measure of any basketball point guard is the Assist to Turnover statistic, the ratio of how many times a player helps produce a bucket versus coughing the ball up to an opponent. MCW has the best seasonal A-T ratio (2.3-1)in recent Syracuse basketball history.

By way of comparison, Scoop Jardine (nice player, even nicer guy) had a ratio of 2.1-1. Remember Jonny Flynn's mercurial sophomore season in the Dome? The one that led him straight to the NBA draft lottery? His ratio that year was 2-1.

I had to go back to the 1995-'96 Syracuse Final Four team to find a performance matching MCW. That year Lazarus Sims, widely hailed as one of the most efficient point guards in Orange hoops history, produced the same ratio as MCW at 2.3-1.

How about the great Sherman Douglas, who set an NCAA assist record during his SU career? The General's A-T ratio his senior season was 2.3-1, same as MCW. And don't forget: in the 1988-'89 campaign Douglas was surrounded by Derrick Coleman, Billy Owens, Stevie Thompson, and Matt Roe. A darn good supporting cast.

It's not fair, but I even ran the NBA numbers on two of the greatest point guards in modern basketball history. Steve Nash's career PROFESSIONAL ratio is 3-1 and John Stockton's is 3.7-1. Both very impressive. Want to know what their ratios were as seniors in college? Nash's was 1.7-1 at Santa Clara and Stockton's was 2.2-1 at Gonzaga.

Young MCW measures up to anyone.

For those who have called Michael Carter-Williams erratic and/or unproductive, chew on the numbers. And if that's not enough, then consider your criticism philosophically for a moment. A sophomore in college playing erratically. Imagine that. How many of us were reliable and steady at ANYTHING as college sophomores, much less running the show for a major college basketball team?