BROOKLYN– Syracuse has been gone from the Big East for four years, but it still seemed strange to see them take the court for a 12 noon game against Miami in the second round of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament at the Barclays Center.
For years, the Orange conducted a campaign to make themselves New York City’s team and their massive alumni base filled Madison Square Garden for the old Big East tournament.
Yesterday, they looked like just another team headed out of town following a 70-67 loss to Miami in the ACC second round, hoping to hear their name called on Selection Sunday.
The Orange finished the season 18-14 and, with only two road wins all season over NC State and Clemson and needed to make three buzzer beaters to keep their heart beat alive. They are sitting uncomfortably on the bubble for an NCAA tournament bid after a third consecutive year in which they lost at least 13 games.
This has been a tough stretch for the 72-year old Jim Boeheim, who is in the twilight of a brilliant Hall of Fame career and is scheduled to retire after next season. The Orange program was an embroiled in a academic fraud scandal that forced Boeheim to vacate 100 of his victories, eliminating them from the tournament in 2015 when they proactively took themselves out of consideration. Then, last season, even though his team made an inspired Cinderella run to the Final Four, Syracuse had to slide into the tournament in the 11th hour as an 10th seed after Boeheim was suspended for nine games at the start of the season.
The ACC has the most political clout of any league in college basketball and there has been talk of at least 10 teams receiving bids to the tournament. From here, Carolina, Duke, Louisville, Virginia, Notre Dame, Florida State, Virginia Tech and Miami appear to be locks. Syracuse and Wake are on the bubble.
Boeheim, who has taken Syracuse to 32 NCAA appearances in his 36 years on the job, resisted talking about Syracuse’s chances, then felt compelled to make a case with the media for his team, which has beaten three Top 10 teams– Florida State, Duke and Virginia– but also had multiple bad losses to old Big East foes– St. John’s by 33 at the Dome, BC on the road and Georgetown at home, who all had losing records in their leagues.
“The facts in the case, last year we had three good wins against top teams– Texas A & M, Connecticut, which was not ranked, and Duke,” Boeheim said. “This year, we beat three good teams, who were in the Top 10 when we beat them.
“I see all the time on bracketology, it says Syracuse has six Top 50 wins. Last year’s team doesn’t have any against the Top 20.
“The committee has always looked at good wins. Everybody says they’re at home. The tournament is not played at home and on the road. We have better wins than we had last year. We have more wins. We have Miami, we had Clemson on the road, we have Wake Forest. We have a couple more non-conference losses this year and that is something that will be taken into consideration.
“We are universally felt to be the No. 1 conference in the country. We finished tied for seventh. Other conferences are talking about getting 60 percent of their teams in the tournament. If we’re the best conference in the country, we should get more than 50 percent of our teams in the tournament.
“People keep talking about bad losses. In the ACC, there’s four teams going to the tournament that has three wins in conference on the road and we have two. The only team with a winning conference record on the road is North Carolina and they’re in the Top 10 in the country. They’re 5-4, I think. And there’s two or three really good teams in our conference that have four road wins.
“Those are the facts. The committee is going to have to figure out where it falls. I feel– well I know our profile is better than last year in terms of top wins. I think the committee, from what I gathered through my years, is looking for teams that can win games in the tournament. I think we can. Our loss to Miami today was one game? And it wasn’t decided until the end. That shouldn’t mean anything.”
Ordinarily, that might be the case.
But in this case, perception is likely to become reality. If Syracuse had won a game here, we might not be having this discussion. But Miami made nine threes against the Orange zone and the dynamics of Syracuse’s chances changed when guard John Gillon– who beat Duke last week, 78-75, on a miracle 30-foot three point bank shot– missed a desperation three with 0.2 seconds to play that could have forced overtime.
“If I saw someone ahead of me who was wide open, I would throw it immediately,”Gillon said. “But there’s not enough time to think. We had five seconds left. So more than likely, I was going to shoot it.”
This was a chance for the Orange to shine in their backyard, But the Syracuse fans were left to drown their sowers and Boeheim was left to reminisce about the past.
“I think New York’s a great place,” he said. “Obviously, we get some fans here. It doesn’t matter in terms of our tournament. It doesn’t matter who wins. I just think New York City is a great venue for our tournament. I think the big city is where it should be played. I think it should be played here, Washington, Atlanta.
“I’m not going to be around much longer to care about it, but I think that’s where the value is. I think there’s a huge value in playing the tournament in those places.
There’s no value in playing in Greensboro, none. It’s there because the league’s been there and they have 150 people in that the ACC needs. It should not be there.
“You get in the media centers and the recruiting centers, how many players do they have in Greensboro? I mean New York,Washington, Atlanta, that’s where the media centers are. That’s where the players are. Madison Square Garden made the Big East. There were a couple other factors, but the Garden made the Big East.
“And I’m saying this because I don’t give a bleep. I’m just saying what’s right. Why do you think the Big Ten is coming to New York next year? It’s business. It’s good business sense.”
It’s hard to say how Boeheim’s lobbying will help his team’s position with the selection committee. But it’s safe to say he’s already lost the PR war with the city of Greensboro.
Dick Weiss is a sportswriter and columnist who has covered college football and college and professional basketball for the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Daily News. He has received the Curt Gowdy Award from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and is a member of the national Sportswriters Hall of Fame. He has also co-written several books with Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Dick Vitale and authored a tribute book on Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.
