A Down Year for the Orange

by James Finneral

With early losses to mediocre teams it did not seem like the Orange would be big hitters in the NCAA this year. They had plenty of talent, but could not seem to pull out victories in big games. The struggles continued when freshman power forward, Chris McCullough went down with a knee injury which sidelined him for the rest of the year. McCullough has NBA potential and was just starting to get used to the program when he went down. Losing McCullough's presence down low was painful because the Orange could not just rely on Rakeem Christmas to match up with the tough ACC front-courts. Then the Orange lost to teams like Miami and Clemson. They still battled towards the end of the season defeating teams like #12 Louisville and  #9 Notre Dame. These late efforts were not enough to put the Orange inside the top 25 and they finished with 18-13 record. This is one of the worst records in recent years for Syracuse, but that was only the beginning of their problems.

The NCAA issued a nine game suspension for legendary Syracuse head coach, Jim Boeheim due to many rule infractions over the years. The NCAA believes that, "it's head mens basketball coach failed to monitor his program". Due to the many violations Syracuse will lose three scholarships per year for four years totaling to twelve overall. The Orange are also forced to remove the wins from the seasons where the violations took place which included 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2012. This takes away 108 wins from Boeheim's grand total bringing him significantly down the list of the winningest coaches in college basketball history. Not that it matters with their record, but the Orange also self imposed a post-season ban which means they will not even compete in the ACC tournament. It is depressing to see the year end this way and these violations are going to hurt the Syracuse program in years to come.