Syracuse team has all attributes of a winner
A lot goes into making a successful college basketball program.
There's talent, of course, which supersedes everything else. Coaching is a huge factor, along with how the schedule works out, injuries and, of course, a lot of luck.
However, it's the intangible factors that often differentiate between a good team and a great team. This year's Syracuse squad has many of those qualities, to go along with above-average talent, that has translated in a 22-1 record, the best start in Orange history.
Let's take a closer look at some of them.
Unselfishness:It's been apparent from the first game of the season that this team is one of the most unselfish in Jim Boeheim's 34-year tenure.
A look at the stats tells the story. Last year, SU, which went 28-10, averaged a little over 15 assists per game. This year's team is averaging close to 22 per game, which ranks among the best in the country.
Six players on this year's team have more than 30 assists as opposed to last year when only three had that many.
The leading assist man on this year's team isn't even the point guard. Shooting guard Andy Rautins is averaging five assists per game. Power forward Rick Jackson is averaging almost two a game, and forwards Wes Johnson and sixth man Kris Joseph are both averaging 2.5 assists per contest.
Another sure sign of sharing the ball is the team field goal percentage. A year ago, SU shot 48 percent from the floor. This season, the average is nearly 53 percent and the Orange have shot better than 50 percent in all but four games.
Seven different players have led the team in scoring. And on any given night, that can change. It's a team without egos, who couldn't care less who scores the points.
Toughness:After Boeheim called out his club for not being tough enough in the loss to Pittsburgh, the Orange has responded.
A team that wasn't tough-minded mentally and physically could not have gone to West Virginia and come home with a win, or eked out that ugly win at DePaul last Saturday despite playing its poorest game of the season on offense.
This team has a renewed will to win, and that has shown on the court. When things get tough, they respond. Past teams, even with abundant talent, have not.
That stems from the leadership of players like Andy Rautins, who is among the toughest competitors in the Big East, and transfer Wes Johnson, whose calm on-court demeanor belies a fierce competitive streak.
The big guys, Jackson and Arinze Onuaku, also have shown a mean streak at times, which makes SU so tough to defend.
Single-mindedness:SU's sole focus since that embarrassing exhibition loss to LeMoyne has been on getting better each game and playing hard.
In a season that now stretches almost six months, that is almost impossible to carry out. During a 35-plus-game season, there are going to be peaks and valleys, great games and stinkers.
It's amazing that through the first 23 games, SU has given only one sub-par effort (DePaul). Even when the Orange isn't in great form, it can still win because the defensive intensity has rarely waned.
Less is more:Nobody would argue that the best three players on last year's team were Jonny Flynn, Eric Devendorf and Paul Harris.
Losing a trio such as that would almost automatically guarantee a down season this time around because they were also the team's three leading scorers. Where, people asked, was Boeheim going to find enough points from his returning players?
Even though Johnson was highly touted, I don't think anybody actually thought he was this good and would become not only a Big East Player of the Year candidate but a national player of the year candidate as well.
Defensively, Johnson is a huge step up from Harris, who was undersized in the back of the SU zone. Johnson is much quicker, covers a lot more territory and has become one of the best rebounders in the country.
Kris Joseph barely got off the bench last year. This season, he has been arguably SU's most important player with valuable contributions off the bench almost every game.
Scoop Jardine, who missed all of last year with a leg injury, has helped fill the void in Flynn's absence. He and true freshman point guard Brandon Triche are averaging a point more combined than Flynn last year (18.4-17.4), and more than an assist more than Flynn (7.7-6.6), who was the sixth pick in the NBA Draft.
Flynn and Devendorf dominated the ball so much the last couple of years, they were the focal point of everything that happened. More players are getting more touches this season, and consequently, the offense is running a lot smoother and has been much more consistent.
Put all of those things together and it becomes apparent why SU has risen to third in the national polls. The Orange have become a true team, with players who care about one other and are playing for one another.
That's a rare commodity in this day and age.
TOP PLAYER DISCUSSION
A couple of weeks ago, the race for Big East Player of the Year was clear-cut between three or four players.
Among them were Notre Dame's Luke Harangody, who won the honor two years ago, Villanova's Scottie Reynolds, sophomore Greg Monroe of Georgetown, West Virginia's Da'Sean Butler and SU's Johnson.
But into the mix and making huge gains has been South Florida's Dominique Jones. The reigning Big East Player of the Week for the past two weeks, Jones has averaged nearly 33 points per game during that stretch and has helped lead the Bulls to fourth straight league wins for the first time in school history.
In my mind, Reynolds is still atop the list because of his big-game contributions to the Wildcats, who are still the only unbeaten team left.
Among other players making a case for first-team All-Big East are: Georgetown's Austin Freeman, Samardo Samuels and Edgar Sosa from Louisville, Lazar Hayward from Marquette, Seton Hall's Jeremy Hazell and Mike Rosario from Rutgers.
ROWDY WEST VIRGINIA FANS
The profanity flying out of the West Virginia student section was so loud it could be heard on national television, prompting a university official to warn students to tone down their language at basketball games.
They obliged a week later — technically — during a game against Louisville. But on 10 separate occasions students chanted the name of a woman that Cardinals coach Rick Pitino admitted having sex with outside his marriage.
Ken Gray, WVU's vice president for student affairs, said obscenities aimed at Ohio State on Jan. 23 could be heard across the land. So he e-mailed students a few days later urging them to stop the behavior and handle themselves with "sportsmanship, class and character."
At Saturday's game against Louisville, several dozen members of the Mountaineer Maniacs, the largest student group on campus and part of the Student Government Association, wore T-shirts resembling tuxedos in a mockful play on showing class. Coach Bob Huggins went into the student section before the game to encourage fans to be respectful.
"He knows how passionate we are," said WVU freshman Chris Northrup. "And he doesn't want us to tone any of that down. But he just wants us to keep the f-bombs off TV."
Then came the repeated chant of Karen Sypher's name at Pitino, the result of a note circulated among the student section before the game. Last year Pitino admitted having a consensual sexual encounter with Sypher in 2003.
During one of the chants, which occurred during a timeout, Huggins motioned toward the students to quiet down.
The issues at West Virginia started Jan. 16 against Syracuse when fans threw items onto the court. One Syracuse blogger urged fans for the upcoming Georgetown game to refrain from littering the court: "Let's stay classy. We're not West Virginia fans, right?"
They continued Wednesday night when Huggins had to take the microphone and scold the fans for throwing things on the court during the Pittsburgh game.
And later, after a short on-court scuffle, Pitt assistant coach Tom Herrion was hit in the face by an object thrown from the stands, drawing a technical foul.
Sportswriter John Day covers Syracuse basketball for the Times. The Associated Press contributed to this story.
