NCAA says Syracuse didn’t win the 2006 Big East Tournament

As part of the Syracuse Orange men’s basketball program’s NCAA punishment back in 2015, they (and Jim Boeheim) were stripped of 101 wins — though not the losses that also came with those seasons, because “stupid.” For some reason, yesterday was the day they chose to clarify which wins those 101 actually were. Click through for Mike Waters’s solid reporting on the matter.

There are a lot of fun ones in there that the NCAA wants you to believe didn’t happen. And they’re going to force Syracuse Athletics to remove published records of them too, to really try to sell the whole “Men in Black” mind-wipe thing. The full list is below, but there are four more damning ones than the rest:

Syracuse (apparently) never won the 2006 Big East Championship at Madison Square Garden. That magical run, led by now-assistant coach Gerry McNamara is a figment of your imagination. The press clippings you have in your attic? Photoshopped, clearly. The shirt you have commemorating the occasion? Syracuse makes shirts all the time, and this one was in error. The copious mentions of those four games in a certain 30 for 30 special about the Big East? Simply adds to the fiction John Thompson discusses throughout most of the film’s proceedings...

And if it truly didn’t happen, then yours truly isn’t writing this article, potentially, either. With a deadline looming to make a college decision back in March of 2006, I watched transfixed by the magic of what Gerry and the Orange were doing that spring. I was probably going to SU whether they won that Big East Tournament or not. But the fact that they did told me I wasn’t going anywhere else. The NCAA is telling you that I now run a Boston University blog called Jason Alexander is An Absolute Ambition, where I write angry articles recapping play-calling for a Terriers football program that folded years ago.

Counting the bodies, here’s what we’re left with, post-sanctions:

2004-05: 12-7 (15 vacated wins)

2005-06: 0-12 (23 vacated wins)

2006-07: 2-11 (22 vacated wins)

2010-11: 20-8 (7 vacated wins)

2011-12: 0-3 (34 vacated wins)

My freshman year’s gone above, as is Fab (fine), and that aggravating second-round exit to Marquette in 2011. Survivors include the entire Wes Johnson year, the 2013 Final Four run, the 6OT game and the “Dynasty” (the last of which you probably would’ve been happy to let go of).

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As we’ve stated over and over above, stripping Syracuse, Jim Boeheim and the Orange basketball players on this teams of these wins doesn’t remove the experiences or memories associated with them at all. The NCAA feels better about itself saying that these are “gone” and can’t be acknowledged, so fine. We’re sorry. Jay Bilas also doesn’t care what the NCAA says, and provides an easy roadmap for how we earn all of these wins right back:

Thanks for always being in our corner, Jay. Much appreciated.

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Angry? Sad? Don’t care? It’s cool. We have a pretty exciting season coming up. Might as well help Jim get some of those wins back this year.