If you caught yesterday's ACC Expansion What-If post on the 2005-06 season, it came with some supreme disappointment. Removed from the Big East in that alternate timeline, there was no "OVERRATED?!" moment and no miracle run through the 2006 Big East tournament. All-in-all, it was "just another season," with Syracuse grabbing a 10-seed, winning a game, and then being unceremoniously blown out in the second round.
Further playing with hypotheticals, one of the comments posed an interesting question. Via poster jimmybmyhero:
Can we simulate this season in the Big East without Gerry?
To confirm that Syracuse wouldn’t have won 10 F***ING games?
Well, yes we can, actually.
Now, these simulations were only done once each -- so take this all with a grain of salt -- and we won't be doing game-by-game recaps. But below is the result of the 2005-06 Syracuse Orange basketball season, minus Gerry McNamara:
Tuesday, November 8: W, 64-54 over Bethune-Cookman (1-0)
Wednesday, November 9: W, 66-56 over Cornell (2-0)
Thursday, November 17: W, 74-63 over Texas Tech (3-0)
Friday, November 18: L, 67-49 to Florida (3-1)
Tuesday, November 22: L, 66-61 to Bucknell (3-2)
Friday, November 25: W, 79-54 over Siena (4-2)
Wednesday, November 30: W, 62-54 over Manhattan (5-2)
Saturday, December 3: W, 67-47 over TCU (6-2)
Saturday, December 10: W, 79-48 over Colgate (7-2)
Sunday, December 18: W, 61-60 over Davidson (8-2)
Wednesday, December 21: W, 70-64 over Illinois-Chicago (9-2)
Tuesday, December 27: W, 73-55 over Towson (10-2)
**So we did win "10 effing games." Still, we're obviously dealing with a much smaller margin of victory than we did at this point in real life, when we were also 10-2 following a win over Towson.
Friday, December 30: W, 73-68 over Kent State (11-2)
Wednesday, January 4: W, 55-54 over UTEP (12-2)
Sunday, January 8: W, 77-48 over USF (13-2) (1-0)
Wednesday, January 11: L,, 73-66 to Notre Dame (13-3) (1-1)
Saturday, January 14: L, 67-58 to Cincinnati (13-4) (1-2)
Monday, January 16: L, 68-58 to Connecticut (13-5) (1-3)
Saturday, January 21: L,. 70-63 to Villanova (13-6) (1-4)
Monday, January 23: L, 72-48 to Pittsburgh (13-7) (1-5)
Sunday, January 29: W, 77-73 over Seton Hall (14-7) (2-5)
Wednesday, February 1: W, 74-68 over Rutgers (15-7) (3-5)
Wednesday, February 8: L, 88-79 to Connecticut (15-8) (3-6)
Sunday, February 12: W, 63-56 over St. John's (16-8) (4-6)
Wednesday, February 15: W, 66-57 over Cincinnati (17-8) (5-6)
Saturday, February 18: L, 68-64 to Louisville (17-9) (5-7)
Monday, February 20: W, 81-77 over West Virginia (18-9) (6-7)
Saturday, February 25: L, 83-60 to Georgetown (18-10) (6-8)
Thursday, March 2: W, 71-54 over DePaul (19-10) (7-8)
Sunday, March 5: L, 71-64 to Villanova (19-11) (7-9)
Identical overall and conference W-L to what happened in real life? How about the Big East tournament?
Wednesday, March 8: L, 81-73 to Cincinnati (19-12) (7-9)
***
And that would've been the end of our ride, save for a likely NIT trip that would somehow result in the Orange failing to get to that tournament's final four (you all remember the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons, don't you?). While Jim Boeheim was incorrect that "we wouldn't have won 10 effing games," there's still no denying how important he was to the respectability of results (much closer scores here than real life) and his role in guiding us to the Big East Tournament championship that season. Does that mean we doubt Jimmy B from now on? Is Andy Katz not an idiot? Could reporters actually have gotten their Pulitzers in Milwaukee on Monday night? Everything I knew is a lie.
John Cassillo authors Atlantic Coast Convos, covering every aspect of ACC football and the ongoing conference realignment conversation. Check out the blog, and follow him on Twitter: @JohnCassillo