1998-1999 Syracuse Orangemen
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Overall 21-12 NCAA First Round Schedule Results
Big East 10-8   Previous Next

Coach: Jim Boeheim

Player Cl Pos G GS Min FG FGA FG% FT FTA FT% 3PT 3PA 3P% Ast Reb DReb OReb Fls DQ TO ST BS Pts Ppg Apg Rpg
Jason Hart Jr G 33 32 1068 167 410 40.7% 71 96 74.0% 53 145 36.6% 143 98 76 22 100 2 103 101 6 458 13.9 4.3 3.0
Allen Griffin So G 33 33 897 87 225 38.6% 47 70 67.1% 41 118 34.8% 104 89 73 16 71 1 71 41 7 262 7.9 3.2 2.7
Damone Brown So F 33 26 815 128 256 50.0% 45 60 75.0% 13 57 22.8% 26 180 117 63 97 4 42 28 23 314 9.5 0.8 5.5
Ryan Blackwell Jr F 33 33 1096 135 305 44.3% 99 137 72.3% 18 53 34.0% 86 259 164 95 63 2 108 41 11 387 11.7 2.6 7.8
Etan Thomas Jr C 33 33 913 148 240 61.7% 109 190 57.4% 0 0
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17 243 148 95 92 1 56 27 131 405 12.3 0.5 7.6
Tony Bland Fr G 32 1 502 53 124 42.7% 24 40 60.0% 12 40 30.0% 51 44 31 13 35 1 46 27 8 142 4.4 1.6 1.8
Preston Shumpert Fr G 32 0 456 59 148 39.9% 27 37 73.0% 27 93 29.0% 18 76 37 39 25 0 29 15 6 172 5.4 0.6 2.4
Elvir Ovcina Sr C/F 33 0 452 37 117 31.6% 9 17 52.9% 10 52 19.2% 59 101 62 39 57 0 45 24 22 93 2.8 1.8 3.1
Eric Williams So F 15 7 175 35 61 57.4% 5 8 62.5% 3 9 33.3% 14 48 27 21 19 0 18 10 4 78 5.2 0.9 3.2
Malik Campbell So G 16 0 161 19 55 34.6% 3 8 37.5% 6 19 31.6% 15 17 11 6 16 0 8 13 4 47 2.9 0.9 1.1
Billy Celuck Fr C 9 0 44 10 17 58.8% 6 8 75.0% 0 0
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3 15 8 7 13 0 5 1 6 26 2.9 0.3 1.7
Rob McClanaghan So G 8 0 11 1 7 14.3% 0 0
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1 5 20.0% 2 1 1 0 2 0 1 0 0 3 0.9 0.3 0.1
Chris Schau So F 4 0 9 0 1 0.0% 0 0
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0 0
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0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0.0 0.0 0.5
Josh Watson Sr
F
1 0 1 0 0
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0 0
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0 0
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0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Kueth Duany Fr DNP - - - - -
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- -
---
- -
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- - - - - - - - - - 0.0 0.0 0.0
Mike Rosenblum So DNP - - - - -
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- -
---
- -
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- - - - - - - - - - 0.0 0.0 0.0

Syracuse was returning a squad with no senior leadership, instead a trio of talented juniors in Ryan Blackwell, Jason Hart and Etan Thomas would need to lead the way. The team's top two perimeter shooters, Marius Janulis and Todd Burgan, had graduated, and the Orangemen would need to figure out how to replace them.

Syracuse started out the season strong winning their first six games convincingly. The team was shooting the ball very well, and was winning despite the fact it was handling the ball poorly. The moved up to #12 in the country by beating Michigan and #10 Indiana to win the Maui Invitational. Syracuse was mixing up its defense playing both a very strong man-to-man and zone defense. They shut out Indiana's All-American guard A.J. Guyton.

However, poor ball handling was about to catch up with the Orangemen. They would lose in the first round of the Carrier Classic to Ohio University. Within the week they would turn the ball over 26 times to West Virginia University in a loss. Their rebounding was also struggling as the Mountaineers beat them by 9 on the boards. Next up was the Seton Hall Pirates. The Orangemen would handle the ball better, but their defense let down, and Seton Hall made 10 of 15 three point shots, and out rebounded Syracuse by 11 on the way to another Orange loss.

The team was struggling to find offensive consistency, a perimeter game and some rebounding. Sophomore Eric Williams quit the team because he had lost his starting position due to poor performance.

The Orangemen would play solid defense most the season, but never really find consistency with the ball handling and perimeter shooting. The highlight of the season was on February 1st when Syracuse went to Storrs, Connecticut to meet the undefeated #1 ranked UConn Huskies. The Huskies were without Big East Player of the Year Richard Hamilton, who was sitting because of injury, but they were still loaded with talent. Syracuse would win the game easily 59-42 behind an outstanding defensive effort. The Orangemen would out rebound the Huskies by 11, and force them into poor shooting, making only 16 of 45 shots.

Syracuse would struggle down the stretch of the regular season going 3-4. They would win their first two games of the Big East Tournament, and would meet UConn for the third time of the season in the Big East Semi-Finals. This time the Huskies dominated the game, beating Syracuse 70-58.

Syracuse would earn a #8 seed in the NCAA tournament and would face the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the first round. The Orangemen would never lead in the game, though they did make a late 8-2 run to tie the game up at 57-57 with 3 minutes remaining. That would be the end of it, however, as Oklahoma State would make a three point shot, and never let the Orangemen catch up again, in the 69-61 season ending loss.

©RLYoung 2005, 2012