Coach: Lew Andreas

Lew Andreas had assembled a team deep in talent and experience. His 'Three Musketeers' (Vic Hanson, Charlie Lee, and Gotch Carr) were back, bringing their strong scoring abilities and teamwork precision passing. A couple of tall sophomores manned the center position in Bill Eisemann and Stan Richtmeyer, and senior Phil Rakov manned the other guard position.

The team started the season off well. Hanson twice set the school scoring record with 24 points against Clarkson, and then 25 against a very formidable Penn team. The victory over Penn established Syracuse as the team to beat, and Hanson as the best player in the country. With Hanson doing most of the scoring, the rest of the team was composed of gifted athletes who could pass, rebound and play outstanding defense. Teams would often double team Hanson, and he would make them pay for that move by passing off to a teammate.

The Orangemen had a habit of falling behind early in the games. With the strong defense and depth, they could overcome that trend in seemingly all situations, by wearing down the opposition.

Syracuse was moving the ball well, and had enough depth that a very talented second team of five could replace the starting five without much of a drop off. Unfortunately that depth would disappear over the course of the season. Charley Cook would get injured and miss the rest of the season, and center Bob Lambert would miss most of the season due to academic problems. In January Syracuse would lose guard Irving Mendell to academics, and on February 3rd Carr and Mike Maister would also become academically ineligible.

Andreas still had the talent to win the games, but now his bench was severely depleted, and his starting five altered. The Orangemen kept winning, and ran their streak to winning their first fifteen games of the season, eighteen in a row dating back to the previous season. Against Michigan on February 6th, they trailed 29-22 in the second half, before staging a 14-3 in the last ten minutes to win the game. On February 24th, they met the Nittany Lions down at Penn State, and the winning streak and undefeated season was ended at a 37-31 defeat as the Orangemen played sloppy defense, a rarity on the season.

The Orangemen would recover, however, and win their last four, including a identical lopsided score 29-12 victories over Penn State and Colgate, finishing the season 19-1. The Orangemen were recognized as the top basketball team in the country and awarded the National Championship (by the Helms Foundation).

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