I know its kinda all said and done by now, but I just wanted to answer yet another "Syracuse students who stormed the court are worse than Hitler" diatribe (thanks for sending, Dom). I wanted to take issue with two things...first of which is the "we won a title in 2003 so we have no right" point.
Let's assume for the sake of argument that every student at that game was a senior. In their three seasons-to-date, the SU basketball team has lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament twice and failed to make it a third time. At no point did any of these students say to themselves, "Well, at least I know what it was
like to win the national title in 2003." You know why? Cause none of them were here when it happened. It's non-existent. Something they saw on TV but couldn't possibly appreciate in any real sense as an SU student.
The expectations of the SU basketball student have been recalibrated. They know the NIT better than they know the Sweet Sixteen. It's crazy to think that about Syracuse basketball but it's true. Sure, SU basketball is storied and its fans should have a sense of pride about the program, that's not in question. But SU has always been a school of valleys and peaks. There's a reason all of our Final Four appearances have come in different decades. Every few years, we're on top of the world. But in-between SU basketball always has good year and not-as-good years. The current group of students is just stuck in one of those "down-cycles." They came here with visions of national titles, NCAA supremacy and football bowl games dancing in their heads. Instead, they got NIT berths and Greg Robinson. You'd let off some serious steam every once in a while too.
Now as for all the "rules and regulations" that come with storming the court, I will say this. If you've ever been in a student section during a heated basketball game against a rival team in a must-win game, you know that the "rules" go out the window. It's easy to watch a game on TV and say how people should act and what decorum they should follow. It's only thing to be a part of the emotional roller-coaster that is a college basketball game that involves a team you bleed INSERT TEAM COLOR for.
I wonder what those people would do if they were there. Watch all their friends storm the court and shake their head in dismay, openly mocking the Phillistines who ran onto the court, celebrating, high-fiving the players, jumping up and down, going crazy in a completely fun and harmless way. Then they'd leave the Dome complaining all the way home about the current state of Syracuse fans and how it was so much better and classier in their parent's day until they finally got home, went inside, curled up in bed with a pint of Soy Delicious Ice Cream and the latest Cormac McCarthy novel, pretending to feel the prose come alive (just like Oprah said!) all-the-while unable to concentrate because they're wishing they actually just had a little fun today.
Many people like to say that if you were a student at the SU-G'town game and you stormed the court, you have no brains. I like to think that if you were a student at that game and didn't storm the court, you have no heart.
All right, case closed, at least until next year when we storm the court after beating South Florida.
Let's assume for the sake of argument that every student at that game was a senior. In their three seasons-to-date, the SU basketball team has lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament twice and failed to make it a third time. At no point did any of these students say to themselves, "Well, at least I know what it was
like to win the national title in 2003." You know why? Cause none of them were here when it happened. It's non-existent. Something they saw on TV but couldn't possibly appreciate in any real sense as an SU student. The expectations of the SU basketball student have been recalibrated. They know the NIT better than they know the Sweet Sixteen. It's crazy to think that about Syracuse basketball but it's true. Sure, SU basketball is storied and its fans should have a sense of pride about the program, that's not in question. But SU has always been a school of valleys and peaks. There's a reason all of our Final Four appearances have come in different decades. Every few years, we're on top of the world. But in-between SU basketball always has good year and not-as-good years. The current group of students is just stuck in one of those "down-cycles." They came here with visions of national titles, NCAA supremacy and football bowl games dancing in their heads. Instead, they got NIT berths and Greg Robinson. You'd let off some serious steam every once in a while too.
Now as for all the "rules and regulations" that come with storming the court, I will say this. If you've ever been in a student section during a heated basketball game against a rival team in a must-win game, you know that the "rules" go out the window. It's easy to watch a game on TV and say how people should act and what decorum they should follow. It's only thing to be a part of the emotional roller-coaster that is a college basketball game that involves a team you bleed INSERT TEAM COLOR for.
I wonder what those people would do if they were there. Watch all their friends storm the court and shake their head in dismay, openly mocking the Phillistines who ran onto the court, celebrating, high-fiving the players, jumping up and down, going crazy in a completely fun and harmless way. Then they'd leave the Dome complaining all the way home about the current state of Syracuse fans and how it was so much better and classier in their parent's day until they finally got home, went inside, curled up in bed with a pint of Soy Delicious Ice Cream and the latest Cormac McCarthy novel, pretending to feel the prose come alive (just like Oprah said!) all-the-while unable to concentrate because they're wishing they actually just had a little fun today.
Many people like to say that if you were a student at the SU-G'town game and you stormed the court, you have no brains. I like to think that if you were a student at that game and didn't storm the court, you have no heart.
All right, case closed, at least until next year when we storm the court after beating South Florida.