The Confidential’s All-Time Syracuse Basketball Team
Suppose you had to play one game… for all the marbles… and you could use your time machine (or TARDIS) to put together a team of 12 players at their peaks. Who would you pick? Well, the Confidential does not know who YOU would pick. But here is who the Confidential would pick for Syracuse:
Center: Rony Seikaly, Roosevelt Bouie
Power Forward: Derrick Coleman, Louis Orr
Small Forward: Carmelo Anthony, John Wallace, Rafael Addison
Shooting Guard: Dave Bing, Lawrence Moten, Gerry McNamara
Point Guard: Pearl Washington, Sherman Douglas
What do you think? Would you make any substitutions?
Stay tuned for other schools’ lists…
The Confidential 
Because I haven’t been watching SU basketball as long as you (my earliest memories are from the late 80’s), so I went with players that I have actually watched:
Center: Rony Seikaly, Fab Melo
Power Forward: Derrick Coleman, John Wallace, Hakim Warrick
Small Forward: Carmelo Anthony, James Southerland
Shooting Guard: Lawrence Moten, Gerry McNamara, Preston Shumpert
Point Guard: Sherman Douglas. Michael Carter-Williams
You lose me on Melo, Southerland, and MCW.
My strategy is pretty simple, and admittedly biased toward the more recent players. I’m not looking at necessarily the best players of all time, but guys that can fill specific roles.
Whether you like him or not, the “Big Bastard” was dominant during his Sophomore year. I remain convinced that had he not been suspended for the tournament, Fab Melo would have helped lead Syracuse to a National Championship that year. I was also considering Arinze Onuaku, before his knee injuries he was also extremely effective in the center.
Southerland provides length for the 2-3 zone (natch) and is a great perimeter shooter that can also drive to the rim. I was going back-and-forth between him and CJ Fair, who I liked because of his toughness, but I ultimately settled on Southerland because he’s a better shooter.
There are enough guys on my team that I don’t need a PG to do much except pass the ball. Compared against Flynn, Ennis, Jardine, and Triche, I like MCW the most as a ball handler/pure passer. His 2nd year (and only year as a starter) he had almost 300 assists, which is 2nd behind Sherman Douglas.
And unlike a certain Hall-of-Fame Coach, I would make sure that all 12 of these guys got playing time….
Fortunately it doesn’t come into play on my list, but obviously you can’t have Shumpert and D. Williams on the same team… it’s like the old puzzle of having a farmer, a chicken, and a bag of corn and trying to cross a river but you can only have 2 in the boat at one time.
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