MBB : John: Syracuse faces gut-check time after drastic turnaround to season
MILWAUKEE — It’s not often a college basketball team makes it through 18 games of its season before suddenly coming to the realization that it’s not invincible. But for Syracuse, that’s the current reality.
For a team that was, just two weeks ago, ranked as high as No. 3 in the nation and had Final Four aspirations, Syracuse now faces a reality check after continuing its losing streak Saturday against Marquette. And though many are surprised by SU’s sudden dropoff, its latest loss was the most recent reminder of the vulnerability that has been there all along.
The situation the Orange finds itself in is especially unique. No Syracuse team has started so hot and subsequently went so cold this quickly. Only three other Jim Boeheim-coached teams have ever suffered a four-game losing streak in 35 years. Recalling the last time a team won 18 consecutives games and followed that by losing four is nearly as impossible as the act itself.
That doesn’t mean there weren’t signs of a potential collapse there all along. Syracuse struggled to put away the likes of Detroit and William & Mary inside the Carrier Dome earlier in the year. This prompted SU head coach Boeheim to call his team ‘overrated.’ And a big win over then-No. 7 Michigan State on Dec. 8 at Madison Square Garden was cast aside when the Spartans fell outside the Top 25.
‘We’ve flat-out struggled,’ Boeheim said following the win over MSU. ‘This team has struggled probably more than any team I can remember. Through the first eight games, I don’t think I can remember a team that has struggled as much as this team has struggled.’
And yet, the Orange continued to reel off win after win. But that vulnerability was always there. It was easy to ignore when the Orange beat then-No. 15 Notre Dame handily inside the Dome, but SU didn’t face anybody in a particularly tough road setting like it eventually faced at Pittsburgh and Marquette.
Boeheim brought up the names of Wes Johnson, Andy Rautins and Arinze Onuaku after the loss to Seton Hall inside the Dome last Tuesday. He reminded everybody at his postgame press conference that those players aren’t here anymore. It’s going to have to be these players, the players who have seen the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in one season, to bring Syracuse out of its current losing skid.
For Syracuse, getting to that next game has to be both motivational and daunting at the same time. Inspiring yet filled with pressure. This is nothing any Syracuse team or player has ever faced.
‘We just have to get back to the way we were playing at the beginning of the year,’ Syracuse shooting guard Brandon Triche said.
Until the Orange breaks out of its current losing streak, questions will remain about the fortitude and resiliency of this year’s squad, as well as its legitimacy among college basketball’s elite. And after dropping its fourth in a row, those are fair criticisms at this juncture.
There’s little doubt the overall talent and experience is there to turn things around. But of all the feats Boeheim-led squads have overcome, this has to be somewhere at the top of the list. It speaks to the challenge the Orange faces from here on out.
And as Syracuse continues down murderer’s row in the Big East, this team’s true identity will finally be revealed. Will this team be remembered as the one that choked away a special opportunity or the one that turned things around and made a late run?
This Orange squad is talented enough that it could reel off a few victories, and few would flinch. But stretching this losing streak any longer would continue to send Boeheim’s squad into a downward spiral.
‘We still feel we can beat anybody,’ Triche said. ‘I think it’s pride. When you lose anytime, it’s going to hurt your pride a little bit, but we’re still confident we can win every game.’
Until further evidence, questions about this team and its vulnerability will persist.
Andrew L. John is a staff writer at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at aljohn@syr.edu.
