cuseroc Wrote:

bitcruncher Wrote:Still, Syracuse ain't ELITE this year. 11th place will never be ELITE in anyone's book.

I hate that label, by the way. It seems to me an attempt to place upon a pedestal that which doesn't deserve to be there.

Our team is not very good this season, but thats because of injuries and a short bech, but the SU basketball program is certainly an elite program. SU could be 0-23 right now, and it would still be an elite program that is down right now.

Syracuse isn't bad this year. But I just dislike the term ELITE. Unless your team competes for the national championship each and every year, like UCLA used to do, you aren't ELITE. I don't consider UCLA ELITE any longer. That title should be reserved for teams that deserve - at the time the term is used.

If you want to go on past glories, there are a ton of teams I could name that you wouldn't consider ELITE. They could use the same argument, although the time span considered would be slightly longer.

You may think there's a difference, because SU's glory is much more recent. There isn't. The past is the past. Remember it. But leave it in the past where it belongs.

Syracuse isn't a bad team, and in most other conferences they would probably be able to get eligible for a bid. But not in The BEast. They aren't among The BEast's ELITE, much less the upper echelon. But that's not saying they're terrible. Just not ELITE.

bitcruncher Wrote:

cuseroc Wrote:

bitcruncher Wrote:Still, Syracuse ain't ELITE this year. 11th place will never be ELITE in anyone's book.

I hate that label, by the way. It seems to me an attempt to place upon a pedestal that which doesn't deserve to be there.

Our team is not very good this season, but thats because of injuries and a short bech, but the SU basketball program is certainly an elite program. SU could be 0-23 right now, and it would still be an elite program that is down right now.

Syracuse isn't bad this year. But I just dislike the term ELITE. Unless your team competes for the national championship each and every year, like UCLA used to do, you aren't ELITE. I don't consider UCLA ELITE any longer. That title should be reserved for teams that deserve - at the time the term is used.

If you want to go on past glories, there are a ton of teams I could name that you wouldn't consider ELITE. They could use the same argument, although the time span considered would be slightly longer.

You may think there's a difference, because SU's glory is much more recent. There isn't. The past is the past. Remember it. But leave it in the past where it belongs.

Syracuse isn't a bad team, and in most other conferences they would probably be able to get eligible for a bid. But not in The BEast. They aren't among The BEast's ELITE, much less the upper echelon. But that's not saying they're terrible. Just not ELITE.

You are entitled to your own views and opinions no matter how few people may agree with you. But based on your definition of Elite, there are no elite teams right now. Duke, UNC, Kentucky, Indiana, Louisville and Uconn etc.. would all fail to live up to your lofty expectations. But to each his own. Here is an article that i thought was interesting. You may agree with the writer's terms since he uses the term "powerhouses" rather than "elite":

Longtime powerhouses are scrambling to make the NCAA tournament
20 hours ago
TUCSON, Ariz. — In many years, Arizona, Kentucky, Maryland and Syracuse would be a strong Final Four.

This year, it might be the NIT Final Four. As the regular season winds down and conference tournaments tip off, the Terrapins, Orange and Wildcats - the Arizona and Kentucky varieties - are in bubble trouble.

If pedigree were all that matters, they'd have nothing to worry about on Selection Sunday. But while these powerhouses are long on tradition, at the moment they're short on victories.

"We are in desperation mode now," Arizona forward Chase Budinger said.

Arizona has reached the NCAA tournament 23 straight years, the nation's longest active streak.

Kentucky has played in a record 48 NCAA tournaments, with seven titles and 13 Final Four appearances.

Maryland and Syracuse have each won national titles in this decade.

They aren't the only big names sweating the stretch run. Florida (21-8, 8-6 SEC), the two-time defending national champion, has lost five of eight and has few notable victories.

Ohio State (17-12, 8-8 Big Ten), which reached the national final last spring, beat the Gators in December but has lost five of its last six.

Big East bully Villanova (17-12, 7-9 Big East) also has work to do.

"We know we've got to win some games to get in the (NCAA) tournament," Florida freshman forward Adam Allen said Monday. "Nobody wants to go to the NIT. It's like the champion of the losers if you win that."

Allen was talking about the Gators, but he could have been speaking for all the elite teams scrambling to improve their tourney resumes.

Start with the Arizona Wildcats (17-12, 7-9 Pac-10), who have picked a bad time to hit the skids. They've lost six of their last seven and were swept over the weekend by USC and No. 4 UCLA at McKale Center, their once-impregnable home.

Even so, interim coach Kevin O'Neill believes his team deserves strong consideration from NCAA selectors.

"I just want to play through the rest of the season and see what they say," the former Toronto Raptors coach said. "I doubt there are 64 teams better than us, but we will see."

The Wildcats finish the regular season at last-place Oregon State and Oregon this weekend. The Wildcats split with those teams in January.

Kentucky (16-11, 10-4 SEC) is going in the other direction. After a 7-9 start, including an unthinkable loss to Gardner-Webb, the Wildcats looked as if they had no prayer of making the tournament. But with nine wins in their last 11 games, they're closing with a rush, and on Saturday they threw a scare into then-No. 1 Tennessee, losing 63-60 in Knoxville.

The Wildcats have lost freshman Patrick Patterson, their No. 2 scorer and leading rebounder, for the rest of the season with an ankle injury.

Kentucky visits South Carolina on Wednesday and wraps up the regular season against Florida on Sunday.

"I know they can win these games without me," Patterson said. "I know they can play because if they couldn't, they wouldn't be here. We have total confidence in ourselves and our teammates."

Kentucky last missed the NCAA tournament in 1991, Rick Pitino's second season in Lexington - and it wasn't because of performance. The Wildcats went 22-6 but stayed home because they were on NCAA probation.

The last time the Wildcats were eligible and failed to qualify for the NCAAs was in 1988-89, when they went 13-19 in Eddie Sutton's last year. To put that into perspective, Patterson was born on March 14, 1989, four days after Kentucky ended its season with a loss to Vanderbilt in the SEC tournament.

If Syracuse and Maryland don't make the NCAA tourney, they will look back on last weekend with regret. Both blew double-digit leads and lost at home, and if there's one thing the selection committee doesn't like to see, it's home losses.

Syracuse (17-12, 7-9 Big East), the 2003 national champs, blew an 11-point second half lead to Pitt on Saturday and gave the game away with a turnover under their own basket in the final seconds.

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, a 32-year veteran who has led his alma mater to 25 NCAA tournaments, called it "the most disappointing game I've ever been involved with."

It was the fifth loss in six games for Syracuse, which will try to bounce back at Seton Hall on Wednesday night. The Orange finish the regular season against No. 21 Marquette on Saturday.

"It's going to be hard recovering from this," freshman point guard Jonny Flynn said.

The Terrapins know the feeling. Maryland (18-12, 8-7 ACC) coughed up a 20-point second-half lead to Clemson and lost on Terrence Oglesby's 3-pointer with 2.3 seconds to play.

The Terrapins have only one regular-season game remaining, at Virginia on Sunday, and then they'll try to make some hay in the ACC tournament.

For many of the nation's elite programs, conference tourneys are something to endure until the real post-season tips off.

Not this year.

For some, it may be the only way into the NCAAs.

That's true. There are no ELITE teams at the moment. There are some very good teams. But none that I'd call ELITE.

I admit. I have old-fashioned standards. I think you should earn your bragging rights each and every year.

I don't like the elevation of teams simply because they've been good historically. That's led to a lot of deserving teams getting screwed. A lot of fans have gotten screwed too. Instead of a good game between 2 fairly evenly matched teams, they watch a team that is obviously overrated getting blown out in a game they don't deserve to play. The BCS comes instantly to mind as a perfect example of exactly what I'm talking about.

Ohio State...

Elite programs like Syracuse, UCONN, Louisville, Cincinnati and Marquette should NEVER rush the floor. If your program has been there by that I mean won an NCAA Championship, you should act like it. These made of TV ESPN moments with drunk college kids stumbling onto the floor should be left to programs in other conferences. Big East schools should be above that.
CJ

CardinalJim Wrote:Elite programs like Syracuse, UCONN, Louisville, Cincinnati and Marquette should NEVER rush the floor. If your program has been there by that I mean won an NCAA Championship, you should act like it. These made of TV ESPN moments with drunk college kids stumbling onto the floor should be left to programs in other conferences. Big East schools should be above that.
CJ

Tough to stop a bunch of spoiled, rich drunk kids from the I-95 corridor from acting stupid though.