I Can't Say I Blame Him
Recently a friend of mine posted an observation on Facebook about Syracuse basketball fans. This was during SU's embarrassing home loss to Seton Hall, arguably the low point of their recent 2-6 slide. He said it was amusing "watching an entire city jump off a cliff."
Because that's how SU fans are, but then again, it's hard not to live and die with basketball during those frozen, snowy Central New York winters. It's not like there's much else to do during the winter time, so you watch basketball and you become fully invested in your local team. But in recent weeks, it's gotten a little bit out of hand, especially with a certain segment of the fan base who exemplifies why I have said so many times that Syracuse fans are the WORST sports fans in the country. And yes, I realize I live in Philadelphia now... sorry, PhillyFan, you're not as bad as Syracuse fans.
For one thing, college sports don't get the big time treatment in Philly because they have a ton of pro teams here. Therefore, they prefer to attack the Andy Reids and Charlie Manuels of the world for coming up short, but they leave the college coaches alone. In Syracuse, you have the minor league baseball and hockey teams that nobody cares about because for the most part, they never win. And because college football and basketball are pretty much the minor leagues of the NFL and NBA because the best prospects have to go to college to get drafted, that makes Syracuse University the biggest game in town. Never mind that these are college kids, 19-22 years old, they are under the microscope in Syracuse, and their head coaches especially. The football program's struggles are well-chronicled both here and elsewhere, but the basketball team is a model of consistent winning. 41 consecutive winning seasons, 33 20-win seasons in coach Jim Boeheim's 35 years at the helm, 3 Final Fours, and a National Championship in 2003. Boeheim has 850 wins, 5th all time, and deservedly made the Hall of Fame a few years ago.
But that's not good enough for some SU fans. They see the last 35 years not as a model of consistent winning, but as a model of consistent disappointment. They've been spoiled by having a local hoops team to root for that is guaranteed to go to the postseason every year (and has with the exception of 1993, when they were on NCAA probation). They feel that Boeheim's failure to win a 2nd title is unacceptable. Only going to the NIT is a failed season. Not making it out of the 1st or 2nd round is a failed season. For many, not getting past the Sweet 16 is a failed season. As such, these people have wanted Boeheim gone for years now. In 2002, after a turmoil-laden campaign that ended in a NIT appearance, they were licking their chops, thinking that only one more season of failed expectations would be enough for them to run JB out of town on a rail. Instead, Syracuse won the national championship.
But now, 8 years later, this angry minority of fans thinks the only reason SU won the championship in 2003 was Carmelo Anthony... and when that argument doesn't work, they'll tell you we only won the title because Kansas couldn't make free throws. Yes, to them our national championship was won despite the coach, not because of it. These people have been labelled (correctly) "Internet trolls" because they hide behind their online pseudonyms, wouldn't actually say what they think in person (or god forbid, by going to a game), knowing they would get their asses kicked by the real fans. Or they call in to radio post game shows and attack the coaching. And they only seem to pop up when things aren't going well.
They want Syracuse to be up there with UNC and Duke with multiple national championships. Never mind that UNC and Duke have each had losing seasons in the last 20 years. They would have you think that they would gladly trade a 8-20 (UNC's record in 2002) or a 13-18 (Duke's record in 1995) for another national title or two. Bullshit. You know damn well that a season like that would not be tolerated by these trolls. They can't tolerate a trip to the NIT. In fact, UNC has had 3 NIT-or-worse years in the last 10, just as many as Syracuse. But Roy Williams has those 2 rings. One more than Jim Boeheim. Therefore, we still don't measure up in the eyes of these so-called "fans".
These trolls pretty much have the standard negative attitudes you'll find in Average Syracusan. Never mind all the great wins, these people define SU basketball by the losses, especially all the losses that occurred in years where SU should have made championship runs. They cannot forgive the Sweet 16 upset losses to Charlotte, Penn, and Iowa during the "Louie & Bouie" era of the late 70s. They really cannot forgive the early-round upset losses suffered by championship-caliber SU squads (1986 to Navy, 1988 to Rhode Island, 1991 to Richmond, 2005 to Vermont). And in the eyes of the trolls, Boeheim's cardinal sin is a 4-11 record in the Sweet 16 over the years and the fact that we have "only" been to the round-of-16 15 times in JB's 27 NCAA appearances. Never mind that those 15 appearances puts SU a very respectable 7th among all 300+ major college basketball programs in the last 35 years.
Well, the last 11 months have been heady times for the trolls. Syracuse was #1 in the nation nearly a year ago today, with a team many felt could go all the way and win a 2nd national championship. However, center Arinze Onuaku went down with a knee injury during an upset loss to rival Georgetown in the Big East Tournament, and was done for the season. Without that (literal) centerpiece, SU was good enough to make the Sweet 16 on talent alone, but not quite good enough to beat those Cinderellas from Butler. Butler went on to the championship game, where they were a last-second half-court heave that spun out of the basket away from shocking Duke and winning it all. A hard-luck ending for Syracuse, winning 30 games but being shorthanded and losing to such an underdog. However, the trolls found it to be just one more Jim Boeheim disappointment.
This year's team started 18-0, #3 in the nation, despite losing Onuaku, and NBA draft picks Wes Johnson and Andy Rautins. Boeheim warned us that his young Orange was playing over their heads and not to get our expectation sky-high. But alas we did, and when the team suddenly started losing, real SU fans started panicking and fretting, and trolls gleefully told us that the sky was falling and the coach was to blame. Back to that low-water mark against Seton Hall. It was an absolute embarrassment, losing to a then-8-12 team at home, and many believe that the team just flat-out quit, and that was unacceptable. In a rare instance, SU got booed off their home Carrier Dome floor. When the Orange lost their next game, making it 4 losses in a row, with freshman 6th man Dion Waiters on the bench for the whole game, the trolls started actively stating, "What do we need to do to turn the fan base against Boeheim for good and get him out of here?" Well, apparently their brainstorming session worked, because days later, one of them started an Internet rumor of a point-shaving scandal. The rumor went viral, and almost became a full-blown media investigation before the troll recanted. Then SU went out and stunned #5 UConn on their home floor.
But after 2 more losses in the next 3 games, the shit hit the fan. People were calling the post-game shows predicting a NIT finish, stating that there was 2002-like division on this team, and attacking Boeheim's recent record against rival coaches like Louisville's Rick Pitino (a former JB assistant), Pitt's Jamie Dixon, and Villanova's Jay Wright. Never mind that Dixon and Wright have combined for ONE Final 4 appearance, a record of postseason "failure" even worse than JB's. Well, the media picked it up and ran with it, and when the Orange snapped out of their funk and beat West Virginia on Monday night, Boeheim devoted his press conference to mostly ripping the local media for bringing these head-to-head records up. He had earlier dismissed the Internet rumors by saying that anyone who asks him about them is worse than the trolls posting them. For this, the national media mostly called him "thin-skinned", and the trolls saw it as a declaration of war against them, and now they REALLY want him put out to pasture. Even true SU fans were scratching their heads and saying Boeheim may have crossed a line. He may have been a little too rough on individual Post-Standard writers, but for the most part I understood what he was saying.
Well, the other point that Boeheim made in this press conference that really riled up the angry online crowd was that he couldn't understand how everyone freaks out when his team has a rough stretch. "It rains a lot here", he reminded us, and when there's a rough patch, it's not the end of the world. Well, that's a good reminder to all of us who bleed Orange that after all, it's just basketball, and for that I don't blame Boeheim for setting us straight... but I feel like when he said he takes criticism personally, he was talking specifically to the trolls, and the local media has kinda picked up on that in recent days, taking the microscope off of themselves and instead questioning why anyone would be disappointed with a 21-6 record right now.
The fact is NO FAN should ever be disappointed by a SU team only having 21 wins in mid-February. How many programs would love to have uninterrupted success like Syracuse has had for the last 4 decades? I am told by a colleague who hails from Florida that he would love for the Florida hoops program under Billy Donovan to be like the SU program in terms of its long-term winning tradition. The problem is that the Internet trolls would love for the Syracuse program to be like Florida's... because Donovan has 2 rings.
And all the more quizzically, they think that designated head-coach-in-waiting Mike Hopkins is the guy who can do that, not our Hall-of-Famer Boeheim. First of all, Hopkins, for all of his qualifications, has never been a head coach. Secondly, ask fans at Indiana and UNC how it goes when someone replaces a legend. Rarely is it a seamless transition, more likely the successor will be run out of town for (ironically enough) not living up to standards. Mike Davis got shown the door at IU essentially for not being Bob Knight... he had 3 good seasons, then 3 mediocre seasons and he was gone. Kelvin Sampson came in, committed NCAA violations, and now Indiana basketball LOSES 20 games a year under its 4th coach in 6 years. UNC replaced Dean Smith with a long time assistant, but he left after 3 years, then Matt Doherty came in and took the team to its 8-20 nadir, and he was gone in 3 years. Thankfully, they've bounced back under Roy Williams. So again, anyone who thinks that the performance of SU basketball is just not good enough should take a good hard look at just how good we have it here, because you are really ruining the fun of basketball season for all of us. I really don't want to dread losing games because of how the Internet or the radio phone lines will blow up when it happens. All I'm saying is let's take a deep breath before the next time we all go running off a cliff together.
Because that's how SU fans are, but then again, it's hard not to live and die with basketball during those frozen, snowy Central New York winters. It's not like there's much else to do during the winter time, so you watch basketball and you become fully invested in your local team. But in recent weeks, it's gotten a little bit out of hand, especially with a certain segment of the fan base who exemplifies why I have said so many times that Syracuse fans are the WORST sports fans in the country. And yes, I realize I live in Philadelphia now... sorry, PhillyFan, you're not as bad as Syracuse fans.
For one thing, college sports don't get the big time treatment in Philly because they have a ton of pro teams here. Therefore, they prefer to attack the Andy Reids and Charlie Manuels of the world for coming up short, but they leave the college coaches alone. In Syracuse, you have the minor league baseball and hockey teams that nobody cares about because for the most part, they never win. And because college football and basketball are pretty much the minor leagues of the NFL and NBA because the best prospects have to go to college to get drafted, that makes Syracuse University the biggest game in town. Never mind that these are college kids, 19-22 years old, they are under the microscope in Syracuse, and their head coaches especially. The football program's struggles are well-chronicled both here and elsewhere, but the basketball team is a model of consistent winning. 41 consecutive winning seasons, 33 20-win seasons in coach Jim Boeheim's 35 years at the helm, 3 Final Fours, and a National Championship in 2003. Boeheim has 850 wins, 5th all time, and deservedly made the Hall of Fame a few years ago.
But that's not good enough for some SU fans. They see the last 35 years not as a model of consistent winning, but as a model of consistent disappointment. They've been spoiled by having a local hoops team to root for that is guaranteed to go to the postseason every year (and has with the exception of 1993, when they were on NCAA probation). They feel that Boeheim's failure to win a 2nd title is unacceptable. Only going to the NIT is a failed season. Not making it out of the 1st or 2nd round is a failed season. For many, not getting past the Sweet 16 is a failed season. As such, these people have wanted Boeheim gone for years now. In 2002, after a turmoil-laden campaign that ended in a NIT appearance, they were licking their chops, thinking that only one more season of failed expectations would be enough for them to run JB out of town on a rail. Instead, Syracuse won the national championship.
But now, 8 years later, this angry minority of fans thinks the only reason SU won the championship in 2003 was Carmelo Anthony... and when that argument doesn't work, they'll tell you we only won the title because Kansas couldn't make free throws. Yes, to them our national championship was won despite the coach, not because of it. These people have been labelled (correctly) "Internet trolls" because they hide behind their online pseudonyms, wouldn't actually say what they think in person (or god forbid, by going to a game), knowing they would get their asses kicked by the real fans. Or they call in to radio post game shows and attack the coaching. And they only seem to pop up when things aren't going well.
They want Syracuse to be up there with UNC and Duke with multiple national championships. Never mind that UNC and Duke have each had losing seasons in the last 20 years. They would have you think that they would gladly trade a 8-20 (UNC's record in 2002) or a 13-18 (Duke's record in 1995) for another national title or two. Bullshit. You know damn well that a season like that would not be tolerated by these trolls. They can't tolerate a trip to the NIT. In fact, UNC has had 3 NIT-or-worse years in the last 10, just as many as Syracuse. But Roy Williams has those 2 rings. One more than Jim Boeheim. Therefore, we still don't measure up in the eyes of these so-called "fans".
These trolls pretty much have the standard negative attitudes you'll find in Average Syracusan. Never mind all the great wins, these people define SU basketball by the losses, especially all the losses that occurred in years where SU should have made championship runs. They cannot forgive the Sweet 16 upset losses to Charlotte, Penn, and Iowa during the "Louie & Bouie" era of the late 70s. They really cannot forgive the early-round upset losses suffered by championship-caliber SU squads (1986 to Navy, 1988 to Rhode Island, 1991 to Richmond, 2005 to Vermont). And in the eyes of the trolls, Boeheim's cardinal sin is a 4-11 record in the Sweet 16 over the years and the fact that we have "only" been to the round-of-16 15 times in JB's 27 NCAA appearances. Never mind that those 15 appearances puts SU a very respectable 7th among all 300+ major college basketball programs in the last 35 years.
Well, the last 11 months have been heady times for the trolls. Syracuse was #1 in the nation nearly a year ago today, with a team many felt could go all the way and win a 2nd national championship. However, center Arinze Onuaku went down with a knee injury during an upset loss to rival Georgetown in the Big East Tournament, and was done for the season. Without that (literal) centerpiece, SU was good enough to make the Sweet 16 on talent alone, but not quite good enough to beat those Cinderellas from Butler. Butler went on to the championship game, where they were a last-second half-court heave that spun out of the basket away from shocking Duke and winning it all. A hard-luck ending for Syracuse, winning 30 games but being shorthanded and losing to such an underdog. However, the trolls found it to be just one more Jim Boeheim disappointment.
This year's team started 18-0, #3 in the nation, despite losing Onuaku, and NBA draft picks Wes Johnson and Andy Rautins. Boeheim warned us that his young Orange was playing over their heads and not to get our expectation sky-high. But alas we did, and when the team suddenly started losing, real SU fans started panicking and fretting, and trolls gleefully told us that the sky was falling and the coach was to blame. Back to that low-water mark against Seton Hall. It was an absolute embarrassment, losing to a then-8-12 team at home, and many believe that the team just flat-out quit, and that was unacceptable. In a rare instance, SU got booed off their home Carrier Dome floor. When the Orange lost their next game, making it 4 losses in a row, with freshman 6th man Dion Waiters on the bench for the whole game, the trolls started actively stating, "What do we need to do to turn the fan base against Boeheim for good and get him out of here?" Well, apparently their brainstorming session worked, because days later, one of them started an Internet rumor of a point-shaving scandal. The rumor went viral, and almost became a full-blown media investigation before the troll recanted. Then SU went out and stunned #5 UConn on their home floor.
But after 2 more losses in the next 3 games, the shit hit the fan. People were calling the post-game shows predicting a NIT finish, stating that there was 2002-like division on this team, and attacking Boeheim's recent record against rival coaches like Louisville's Rick Pitino (a former JB assistant), Pitt's Jamie Dixon, and Villanova's Jay Wright. Never mind that Dixon and Wright have combined for ONE Final 4 appearance, a record of postseason "failure" even worse than JB's. Well, the media picked it up and ran with it, and when the Orange snapped out of their funk and beat West Virginia on Monday night, Boeheim devoted his press conference to mostly ripping the local media for bringing these head-to-head records up. He had earlier dismissed the Internet rumors by saying that anyone who asks him about them is worse than the trolls posting them. For this, the national media mostly called him "thin-skinned", and the trolls saw it as a declaration of war against them, and now they REALLY want him put out to pasture. Even true SU fans were scratching their heads and saying Boeheim may have crossed a line. He may have been a little too rough on individual Post-Standard writers, but for the most part I understood what he was saying.
Well, the other point that Boeheim made in this press conference that really riled up the angry online crowd was that he couldn't understand how everyone freaks out when his team has a rough stretch. "It rains a lot here", he reminded us, and when there's a rough patch, it's not the end of the world. Well, that's a good reminder to all of us who bleed Orange that after all, it's just basketball, and for that I don't blame Boeheim for setting us straight... but I feel like when he said he takes criticism personally, he was talking specifically to the trolls, and the local media has kinda picked up on that in recent days, taking the microscope off of themselves and instead questioning why anyone would be disappointed with a 21-6 record right now.
The fact is NO FAN should ever be disappointed by a SU team only having 21 wins in mid-February. How many programs would love to have uninterrupted success like Syracuse has had for the last 4 decades? I am told by a colleague who hails from Florida that he would love for the Florida hoops program under Billy Donovan to be like the SU program in terms of its long-term winning tradition. The problem is that the Internet trolls would love for the Syracuse program to be like Florida's... because Donovan has 2 rings.
And all the more quizzically, they think that designated head-coach-in-waiting Mike Hopkins is the guy who can do that, not our Hall-of-Famer Boeheim. First of all, Hopkins, for all of his qualifications, has never been a head coach. Secondly, ask fans at Indiana and UNC how it goes when someone replaces a legend. Rarely is it a seamless transition, more likely the successor will be run out of town for (ironically enough) not living up to standards. Mike Davis got shown the door at IU essentially for not being Bob Knight... he had 3 good seasons, then 3 mediocre seasons and he was gone. Kelvin Sampson came in, committed NCAA violations, and now Indiana basketball LOSES 20 games a year under its 4th coach in 6 years. UNC replaced Dean Smith with a long time assistant, but he left after 3 years, then Matt Doherty came in and took the team to its 8-20 nadir, and he was gone in 3 years. Thankfully, they've bounced back under Roy Williams. So again, anyone who thinks that the performance of SU basketball is just not good enough should take a good hard look at just how good we have it here, because you are really ruining the fun of basketball season for all of us. I really don't want to dread losing games because of how the Internet or the radio phone lines will blow up when it happens. All I'm saying is let's take a deep breath before the next time we all go running off a cliff together.
Labels: Boeheim, college basketball, Syracuse
posted by Dave | 11:05 AM
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