December 29, 2005
Commentator Know-It-Alls
Any serious fan of Syracuse University Basketball is well aware of the most popular criticism of Hall of Famer Jim Boeheim and his teams: the Syracuse Orange don't travel out of state enough and only play cupcakes during the pre-Big East part of the season. ESPN commentators such as Doug Gottlieb (an NBA wannabe from Oklahoma St. who averaged 5 pts/game for his career, shot 46% from the free throw line and, according to my man Carolina Jay, has no friends) and Dick Vitale (a terrible NBA coach with a record of 34-60 who gave his first born son to Christian Laettner) continually bash the program on the air, always reminding us that "The Orange don't even leave New York State until their 11th game!" and "Their non-conference schedule just isn't difficult enough to give them top-ten consideration!" The argument made by these "experts" is that when you're only beating up on the intrastate likes of Siena and Binghamton every season, you're nowhere near the top teams like Duke or North Carolina.
The assumption here is that Syracuse is inferior to other teams because they usually don't leave the home state until January, creating a poor strength of schedule and not properly preparing the Cuse for the meat of the season. Gottlieb and Vitale will tell you that teams like Duke obviously play a better non-conference schedule than the Orange - they'd let us know if they felt the Blue Devils were skimping a little on the quality of their contests, as it's their job to do so. We needn't double check their statements, of course, since it's such common knowledge that Syracuse plays a super easy in-state schedule, right? It would be foolish for me to actually look at the team's scheduling record - I'm sure that professionals like Gottlieb and Vitale do their homework by reading the schedule sheet before going on the air with their yearly bashfest.
Yeah. Well, I don't really have anything else to do...
Since the 2003-04 season Syracuse has played 35 games in November and December, 8 of them away from the Carrier Dome (with one more homer tomorrow). During that span, SU has gone 3-4 against seven top-40 opponents (Charlotte, Memphis, Mississippi State, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Florida, Bucknell). Of those "quality non-conference" games, 5 were played on the somewhat neutral floor inside Madison Square Garden, 250 miles from the Dome. Not very many, right? Surely every top-ten team in the country has played more quality games than the Cuse and they always spend more time away from their home floors - it would be just plain silly to waste more effort in checking up on that...
Too bad for Gottlieb and Vitale that this blogger really has nothing of importance going on this afternoon.
After looking through their favorite team's schedule, I found that the Dukies somehow seem to have played a very similar schedule to that of the Orange! Just to be sure - since that can't possibly be correct - I double checked the numbers and discovered that as of today, Duke has played 29 November and December games since 2003 - 10 of them away from Cameron Indoor. Of those 10 away games, 3 were played at neutral Madison Square Garden, 490 miles from Durham. Yes - a big two more away games than the Cuse in three years. That's okay, though, because one can assume that Duke simply plays their oh-so-difficult non-conference schedule at home. They must be mowing down those Final Four teams with regularity, as professional commentators wouldn't dream of being wrong when making statements on the air.
Over the course of the last three seasons, Duke has gone 7-0 versus top-30 opposition (Michigan State twice, Texas twice, Oklahoma, Memphis, Indiana). It seems that Duke is willing to schedule the toughest teams they can find - #2 Texas is certainly a great deal better than a #30 Charlotte or #20 Mississippi State - but that's still only 7 of 29 basketball games that were played against quality teams. Granted, it is a higher percentage of total games (24%) than the Orange's (20%) and Duke has fared significantly better than Syracuse in such contests, but it certainly doesn't demonstrate a supreme lack of schedule strength in Syracuse.
Just to be sure, as I don't want Coach K to be labeled as a weak scheduler like Jimmy B, I looked through a few other team schedules as well. During the same three season span, big-time powerhouses UConn (5), Texas (6), and North Carolina (6) all played less quality games than Syracuse. Teams like Illinois (8) and Michigan State (10) have worked harder during their pre-conference months, but still use November and December primarily as practice for the games that really matter.
Sure, Syracuse plays nearly all of their early games in the state of New York (though the distance to Madison Square Garden is greater than the full length of Massachussetts or Connecticut). Yes, 80% of those games are 'gimmes' that serve the same purpose as a scrimmage during practice. Even so, the Orange aren't the only ones who make a habit out of easy scheduling. The colormen with their catchphrases need to stop yelling at us about what they "know" of the teams and start making fair comparisons. After all, it is their job to do so.
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You make a good point that Syracuse gets a worse rap than it deserves, but even your own data show that a school like Duke does, in fact, play a tougher non-conference schedule. I agree with you that the difference is not as great as some pundits would have us believe ... but it is there.
You can see this not only in the level of competition (slight edge) but also in the records of that competition (this year, for example, you see Duke playing Texas early). That said, Coach K could certainly give the boys a tougher schedule -- North Carolina A&T isn't exactly competition.
There would be one way for us to find out for sure about this -- and that's Syracuse takign on tougher ealry season opponents. Period. And just because they have taken it a bit easy to date in that regard doesn't mean that the better preparation won't make them a better team.
Well written. Thanks for keeping the TV talking heads honest.
-- david
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You can see this not only in the level of competition (slight edge) but also in the records of that competition (this year, for example, you see Duke playing Texas early). That said, Coach K could certainly give the boys a tougher schedule -- North Carolina A&T isn't exactly competition.
There would be one way for us to find out for sure about this -- and that's Syracuse takign on tougher ealry season opponents. Period. And just because they have taken it a bit easy to date in that regard doesn't mean that the better preparation won't make them a better team.
Well written. Thanks for keeping the TV talking heads honest.
-- david
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