When it comes to Syracuse men’s basketball, I am the eternal optimist. As I look at the team this year I see a team that has all the ingredients to make a deep run into the NCAA’s. They have big dominant players inside who can score and play aggressive defense. They have guards who can run an offense and shoot the three and they have depth. OK, well, maybe not a lot of depth but there’s enough for a run. They have a coaching staff that has experience and success in the playoff’s and they have played a schedule (so far) that has them battle tested.
I think the one thing I haven’t seen this year is a team that can play for 40 minutes with intensity. It shows up but not as often as they’ll need it come tournament time. Can they do it? A qualified yes because, as they say, you play like you practice. If you’re practice sessions don’t have intensity, it probably won’t show up on the court. Now, I have no idea how this year’s team practices but based on the performance on the court this year, I could conclude that the practice sessions have been inconsistent too. But you know, they had that insane stretch where they played something like five games in 10 or 12 days against ranked competition. How would you like to go to school and have the toughest final exam you’ll every take . . . every day!?
And having watched Syracuse basketball for 30 plus years, the team has always seems to do better when they fly under the radar a bit. Right now they’re a middle of the pack team in the Big East, not ranked in the top 10 and they’ve lost some games they should have probably won and lost, badly, to G’Town, Villanova and UConn. They’re definitely under the radar so I see a deep run into the tournament, maybe Sweet 16.
But I say that every year.
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