Syracuse Orangemen Basketball 1998-1999

1998-1999 Syracuse Orangemen

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	---	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	---	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	---	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	---	0	0	---	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	---	0	0	---	0	0	---	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Kueth Duany	Fr	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	---	-	-	---	-	-	---	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.0	0.0	0.0
Mike Rosenblum	So	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	---	-	-	---	-	-	---	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	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.