It has been a season full of drama and scandal for the Syracuse Orange basketball team, from the child molestation accusations against assistant coach Bernie Fine to center Fab Melo’s three-game suspension for due to academic issues to making a run at an undefeated season. All things considered, it should have come as no surprise that the Orange made headlines during March Madness. Most fans would expect the national spotlight to be on ‘Cuse for making it to the Final Four or for some other basketball achievement in the tournament. Instead, on Tuesday, March 13th, two days before the start of the round of 64, the story broke that the number two overall seed would once again be without Fab Melo. However, this time around, the seven-footer would not be returning to the court anytime soon. Once again, due to his academic standing, Syracuse University ruled Melo ineligible for the NCAA Tournament.
With a legitimate shot at making a National Championship run, the indefinite suspension was a major blow to Syracuse. The team made a statement the following day stating that their starting center did not let them down, but the Orange were only a two blown calls away from potentially being the first #1 seed to lose to a #16 seed in the first round in the history of the 64/68-team tournament. Facing UNC-Asheville on Thursday, the Orange found themselves down by five in the second half to the lower-seeded Bulldogs. Don’t tell me that his teammates and the Syracuse wouldn’t have been holding him partly responsible for that loss had the final few minutes turned out differently.
While Syracuse is very well-balanced on offense (seven players average between six and fourteen points per game), loaded with future NBA draft picks, and plays a stifling 2-3 defense, their opening game exposed a new team that could easily be on a plane home within the next week. Historically, 1 vs. 16 matchups tend to be blowouts by 20+ points. There are a few exceptions every few years where a 16 seed plays forty minutes of quality basketball and loses by a small margin, but typically these are the most lopsided games in the tournament. In a game that was supposed to be a cake walk, Syracuse suffered greatly from the abscense of its big man in the middle. UNC-Asheville’s forwards scored forty of the team’s sixty-five points and the Bulldogs were equally as successful on the boards by being only two rebounds shy of matching the Orange’s thirty-three rebounds. Syracuse is still a good team without Melo, but they lose the “intimidation” factor. Standing at 7’0″ and weighing 255 lbs., Fab Melo is monstrous and has a size advantage over almost every player that he is matched up against. The center averages eight points per game, but scoring isn’t necessarily his forté. He grabs an average of six rebounds per game to go along with three blocked shots each outing. While “shots altered” is not a statistical category for college basketball, if it was a recorded statistic, Melo would be somewhere at the top of the list. Even if he does not get the block or grab the rebound, each possession, opposing teams try to find ways to limit Melo because of his domination of the paint.
If Syracuse is going to make it out of the East region, it will need every player who gets significant minutes to step up his game to make up for Fab Melo being sidelined. With him, ‘Cuse was likely a shoe-in for the Elite Eight and even a candidate for National Champion, but without their big man, the Orange are much more vulnerable. The East is filled with forwards and centers who can take advantage of Syracuse without Melo. Jared Berggren of Wisconsin is 6’10″ 235 lbs. (10 ppg, 5 rpg), Festus Ezeli of Vanderbilt is 6’11″ 255 lbs. (10 ppg, 6 rpg), Xavier Gibson of Florida State is 6’11″ 248 lbs. (7 ppg, 4 rpg), Yancy Gates of Cincinnati is 6’9″ 260 lbs. (12 ppg, 9 rpg), and Jared Sullinger of Ohio State is 6’9″ 265 lbs. (17 ppg, 9 rpg). These are a lot of numbers and may not tell us much about the matchups, but the point is that every team Syracuse could potentially face after the Sweet Sixteen has an extremely talented four or five man.
Syracuse’s tournament hopes are by no means squashed because Fab Melo is ineligible but they are severely limited. The Orange have enough talent on their roster between Kris Joseph, Dion Waiters, C.J. Fair, Brandon Triche, Scoop Jardine, Rakeem Christmas, and James Southerland to beat Kansas State in the round of 32 but they are in danger of getting bounced by Wisconsin or Vandy in the Sweet Sixteen. If the Orange have enough luck to squeak by to the Elite Eight, I think Syracuse comes up short of the
It’s a shame to see a team with potential to win the tournament lose one of its key players but they are called “student-athletes” for a reason. No work, no play, and Fab Melo hurt his team greatly by failing to meet the academic standards required to be a college athlete.
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| Courtesy of http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament/2012/story/_/id/7681715/2012-ncaa-tournament-syracuse-orange-announce-fab-melo-ineligible-tourney |
While Syracuse is very well-balanced on offense (seven players average between six and fourteen points per game), loaded with future NBA draft picks, and plays a stifling 2-3 defense, their opening game exposed a new team that could easily be on a plane home within the next week. Historically, 1 vs. 16 matchups tend to be blowouts by 20+ points. There are a few exceptions every few years where a 16 seed plays forty minutes of quality basketball and loses by a small margin, but typically these are the most lopsided games in the tournament. In a game that was supposed to be a cake walk, Syracuse suffered greatly from the abscense of its big man in the middle. UNC-Asheville’s forwards scored forty of the team’s sixty-five points and the Bulldogs were equally as successful on the boards by being only two rebounds shy of matching the Orange’s thirty-three rebounds. Syracuse is still a good team without Melo, but they lose the “intimidation” factor. Standing at 7’0″ and weighing 255 lbs., Fab Melo is monstrous and has a size advantage over almost every player that he is matched up against. The center averages eight points per game, but scoring isn’t necessarily his forté. He grabs an average of six rebounds per game to go along with three blocked shots each outing. While “shots altered” is not a statistical category for college basketball, if it was a recorded statistic, Melo would be somewhere at the top of the list. Even if he does not get the block or grab the rebound, each possession, opposing teams try to find ways to limit Melo because of his domination of the paint.
If Syracuse is going to make it out of the East region, it will need every player who gets significant minutes to step up his game to make up for Fab Melo being sidelined. With him, ‘Cuse was likely a shoe-in for the Elite Eight and even a candidate for National Champion, but without their big man, the Orange are much more vulnerable. The East is filled with forwards and centers who can take advantage of Syracuse without Melo. Jared Berggren of Wisconsin is 6’10″ 235 lbs. (10 ppg, 5 rpg), Festus Ezeli of Vanderbilt is 6’11″ 255 lbs. (10 ppg, 6 rpg), Xavier Gibson of Florida State is 6’11″ 248 lbs. (7 ppg, 4 rpg), Yancy Gates of Cincinnati is 6’9″ 260 lbs. (12 ppg, 9 rpg), and Jared Sullinger of Ohio State is 6’9″ 265 lbs. (17 ppg, 9 rpg). These are a lot of numbers and may not tell us much about the matchups, but the point is that every team Syracuse could potentially face after the Sweet Sixteen has an extremely talented four or five man.
Syracuse’s tournament hopes are by no means squashed because Fab Melo is ineligible but they are severely limited. The Orange have enough talent on their roster between Kris Joseph, Dion Waiters, C.J. Fair, Brandon Triche, Scoop Jardine, Rakeem Christmas, and James Southerland to beat Kansas State in the round of 32 but they are in danger of getting bounced by Wisconsin or Vandy in the Sweet Sixteen. If the Orange have enough luck to squeak by to the Elite Eight, I think Syracuse comes up short of the
It’s a shame to see a team with potential to win the tournament lose one of its key players but they are called “student-athletes” for a reason. No work, no play, and Fab Melo hurt his team greatly by failing to meet the academic standards required to be a college athlete.
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