No, The Winner Of 'The Voice' Did Not Turn Down A Syracuse Basketball Scholarship

The 2011-2012 Syracuse Orange basketball season was one of the most successful in the history of the program. We won more games than any team has ever won in one season. We spent a portion of the year as the No. 1 team in the nation. And we returned to the Elite 8 for the first time in almost a decade.

Alas, the team feel short of its goal, leaving fans to wonder what could have been. Syracuse fans will never get to hoist the 2012 National Championship Trophy.

We also won't get to hoist "The Voice" Trophy, assuming that they give out a trophy for winning the singing competition.

Jermaine Paul won the competition yesterday and told Singers & Critics that he removed himself from possibly getting a basketball scholarship offer from Syracuse University in 1997 in order to pursue a record deal with...Shaquille O'Neal? Alright...

"I went to Utica College of Syracuse University, a smaller school that was prepping me for Syracuse University basketball and a possible scholarship," he told us in a text message Sunday. "I signed a record deal instead and left school early."

So...wait...he was "prepping" for a basketball scholarship? What does that mean? Hell, I was "prepping for a basketball scholarship" my entire childhood.

It does sound like he was a very successful basketball player, averaging 15.6 points and 11.7 rebounds per game in high school. But in case someone wants to show me otherwise, I have a hard time believing Jim Boeheim was looking at a Utica College player a year removed from a trip to the NCAA Championship game.

According to some message board banter, Paul was thinking about transferring to SU and trying to walk-on with the team, which sounds a whole lot more feasible.

Methinks the person who wrote that headline was a little loose with the facts there. Well played, Singers & Critics. Well played.