Syracuse Basketball: Top 30 Players in School History
By Josh Peelman
In a lot of ways, Sherman Douglas was the second coming of the great Pearl Washington. He was a fast, athletic guard who really knew how to pass the ball. The only reason he’s below Pearl in our rankings is because Pearl was the master who taught the apprentice everything he knew.
Douglas’s best play was the alley-oop pass to Stevie Thompson, Derrick Coleman, and Rony Seikaly. A master at sharing the ball, he remains (and will so for a long time) the leader in assists at Syracuse University.
As a freshman, Douglas didn’t get to play very much because Pearl was the starting point guard at SU. In addition, Douglas wasn’t highly recruited. In fact, Syracuse was the only Division One school that offered him a scholarship, according to Orangehoops.org. However, Douglas wanted to prove himself so he fought hard and learned a lot from Pearl in practice every day.
His hard work in practice would pay off the following year when Pearl decided to leave school early (after junior year) for the NBA. He would turn out to be a great floor general and would be a perfect replacement for Pearl at the point position.
As only a sophomore he would lead the team in scoring, and lead Syracuse to be crowned Big East Regular season champions. Douglas would also guide them to the Big East Tournament Finals but would lose to Georgetown despite a 20-point, eight assist performance.
The spectacular year would continue in the NCAA Tournament as Douglas would help the Orangemen reach the National Championship game against Indiana only to lose by Keith Smart’s incredible shot from the wing. That sophomore year he would average 17.3 points and 7.6 assists, according to Sports-reference.com.
Douglas’s leadership the year before led the Orange to be ranked #1 to start his junior year. No longer considered a hidden treasure, fans and analysts would take him seriously and he would not let them down. The team would be highly ranked all year long, and win the Big East Tournament. In addition, he averaged 16.1 points and 8.2 assists.
Unfortunately, a chance at a deep run with a great team was spoiled when Douglas became ill to start the NCAA Tournament. The Orangemen would lose against Rhode Island, but it wasn’t a wasted year for Douglas as he went into his senior year brimming with confidence.
In his last year, Douglas would average 18.2 points and 8.6 assists. His best performance would be against Providence when he would dish 22 assists. That is an NCAA single-game record (tied with two other players) that remains to this day according to NCAA Website.
Douglas would be selected to the All-Big East First team, and be named the Big East Tournament MVP despite Syracuse losing in the final. He would guide the Orange to the Elite Eight that year in his final season in Orange.
Douglas sits high on many all-time lists at SU: 6th in scoring, 1st in assists (6th all-time in NCAA history), 3rd in field goals made, 9th in free throws made, and 7th in minutes played, according to Orangehoops.org and Cuse.com. Additionally, these numbers reinforce why Syracuse retired his #20 uniform.
Douglas’s real legacy though is that he will go down as probably one of the best point guards in the history of college basketball. He was always so much better than the numbers he posted on the court. Douglas was so unselfish and did what it took to win and with a good attitude. That is what makes sports and the game of basketball so special. If we can remember him like that then we’ll remember Douglas and his career the way he’d want us to.