Syracuse Basketball: Top 50 Players in School History (35-31)
By Josh Peelman
“You had to earn your spot. You had to pay your dues. You respected the older guys on the team. You carried the ball bags and the suitcases on the road. I rode the bench, but I worked hard in practice.” -Greg Kohls
#31: Greg Kohls
Guard: 1969-1972
Greg “Kid” Kohls was one of the best scorers in Syracuse basketball history. Due to NCAA rules though he had to wait until almost junior year to show that.
Note: Freshman were not eligible to play for varsity in the 1970’s because the NCAA prohibited it. According to Mike Water’s book, “Legends of Syracuse Basketball (2004)”, Kohls played for the freshman team his first year because of NCAA rules, and averaged 20.5 points per game as a freshman.
***Inside The Loud House omitted this information in its original posting, and want to thank Mr Groopman, a reader of Inside the Loud House, for making us aware of this.
During his sophomore year, he only averaged 2.2 points per game, but would explode to average 22.1 points per game as a junior. The reason for the drop off from freshman year to sophomore year was two-fold. One, it was Kohl’s first year on varsity. Second, he received little playing time because veterans Tommy Green and Ernie Austin took a lot of the minutes at his position.
According to Waters (2004), Kohl’s described his sophomore year this way: “You had to earn your spot. You had to pay your dues. You respected the older guys on the team. You carried the ball bags and the suitcases on the road. I rode the bench, but I worked hard in practice.”
By Kohls’ Junior year, Coach Roy Danforth was so confident in Kohl’s he told him to score whenever he was open. A guard standing at only 6’1, he constantly made defenders pay for backing off of him, especially from long-range. If they played too physical on defense against him he would earn the foul, and make his free throws. He finished 82.4% from the stripe for his Syracuse basketball career, according to Orangehoops.org.
His senior year, he averaged 26.7 points per game, which is second only to the great Bing for the most per game in a season, according to Orangehoops.org. He would also score greater than 30 points a game in 11 games that season. That’s an amazing statistic because he also led the team in assists for that season as well.
Kohl’s was drafted in the 7th round by the Buffalo Braves in 1972 Draft, according to Cuse.com. He would not play a game in the NBA though and would instead play a few seasons with the Washington Generals, who many know are the main opponent for the Harlem Globetrotters.
Next: Syracuse Basketball: Top 50 Players in School History (40-36)
To this day, Kohl’s is right up there among the best scorers in Syracuse Basketball history. He probably would be higher up this if I had seen him during my time period. However, without seeing him play its hard to judge his career. The fact that he played well at SU, but failed to earn an NBA spot makes you wonder why. In my book, Kohls is a bit of mystery, but a great player nonetheless.