Following up on our Rankings, Schmankings post from yesterday, a few more arbitrarily-created rankings have come to light and I am contractually-obligated to share them with you. So ESPN was kind enough to rate the Syracuse basketball program the 10th most successful program in the last ten years. But what about specific squads?Ten is the magic number for the Orange again as the 2003 Syracuse Orange were ranked the 10th best team during this time period.
These Orange are known as the Melo Show, but there was a lot more on that roster than just the precocious freshman. Add in Hakim Warrick and Gerry McNamara, for starters, and contributions from Kueth Duany and (when he was on the roster) Billy Edelin, and this was a much more complete team than it's given credit for. Cuse had an impressive NCAA Tournament run, winning four games by double figures and beating a good Kansas team in the final. That said, despite the Orange's 30-5 record, they didn't blow people away (plus-10.0 scoring margin), shot the 3 at a very mediocre rate (34.4 percent) and were only plus-2.6 on the glass. Bonus: Warrick's legendary block in the final seconds of the title game against Kansas, preserving the three-point win. Nitpicks: As listed above, this was a very good but not great basketball team.
Being as impartial as possible, I think the 2003 Orange benefit greatly from their tournament run in terms of remembrance. They were a pretty good, but indeed not great, team during the regular season, as much as we care to remember otherwise. I don't even know if I would have personally called them one of the top ten teams of this timeframe, but I'm certainly not going to argue if someone else does.
Just in case who these "experts" are, voting on the best teams, here they are. Just the fact that their opinions are so wide ranging should tell you just how "scientific" this whole thing is. Also, Andy Glockner is now on my shit list.
For the real expert opinion, I say we turn to the people who are the most unbiased and untainted pool of knowledge around...the general public. Syracuse seems to be hovering at the #10 spot here as well. What does this prove? Well...nothing really...other than the next time you hear ESPN refer to someone as an "expert," know that his or her opinion will usually get you the same results as the guy at the end of the bar nursing his fourth scotch and soda and ranting incoherently about the price of movies these days.