As you may have noticed on the site, I think to link up through Ballhype. It's a great tool for finding out what's going on with any sports-related topic and a great way to take the pulse of the sports blogging community. Well I took a look at what was hot in the world of Syracuse this morning and I came across this. It's a podcast hosted by Galen Clavio and Sean Bartel. It said they would discuss Syracuse basketball and whether or not the program was on the decline. Naturally my assumption was that they would come to the conclusion that although the program may have taken a step back in terms of tournament placement, the future looks bright. To my surprise, that wasn't the case. Not at all...
I look at 2003, and maybe in a lot of ways 1987 and 1994 (sic) as anomalies in the Jim Boeheim era. He has been the classic coach of "win all these games at home against mediocre squads, go .500 in your conference, be on the bubble every season, make it three out of four years, miss it one year and you complain, you whine and you bitch like crazy in the year that you don’t make it. I think he’s kind of just fallen back into the pattern he had before. He had one great player in Carmelo Anthony that led them to a dream season, a Danny Manning-type season, but he’s come back to where he is, which is a good, but nowhere near fantastic coach who’s going to win a lot doing what he needs to do: Winning at home against bad teams, going .500 in a tough conference then getting a win here or a win there to move on into the NCAA Tournament with a good seed, maybe make the Sweet 16 here and there, but that will be his legacy.
You know that moment towards the end of action movies, right before the hero starts kicking ass, when some false truth is unleashed and there's nothing the hero can do to stop it? Usually you find it in comic book movies when the hero suddenly becomes public enemy #1. That's what I felt like. This was getting out there and I was helpless to stop the untruthiness. I didn't have time to blog. I had actual work to do. If it did, I might have gone on a 3,000 word diatribe about how insane this discussion was. I felt helpless.
So I did the next best thing. I told the Orange blogging faithful. And let me tell you, they did not disappoint. Please, head on over to Cuse Country, Orange44 and State of the Orange. All of whom say exactly what I was thinking, and probably much better than I could have.
We eagerly await the rationalization from the guys over at Meaningful Collateral, who will try to convince us that a Hall of Fame, multiple Final Four, national champion head coach is at best, mediocre. As I said in the comment I left for them on their site, if you can honestly name ten coaches over the past 30 years who have better bodies of work than Boeheim, please do.
I leave you with the paraphrased words of Orange44's Matt Glaude:
"Mr. [Clavio and Mr. Bartel], what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response[s] were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul[s]."