Syracuse Basketball: Who had better comeback Boeheim’s Army or Duke?

Inside the Loud House looks back at the amazing comeback win Boeheim’s Army had against Team FOE in The Basketball Tournament and compares it to Duke’s comeback win against Louisville. Who had the better comeback? We discuss.

Boeheim’s Army, the Syracuse Basketball alumni, had an amazing comeback against Team FOE in The Basketball Tournament a few years ago. They came back from 25 points down to advance in the tournament, according to Cuse.com. It was a comeback for the ages and one Syracuse basketball fans will not easily forget.

Now you may ask why am I bringing this up all of a sudden? Well, Duke basketball had an amazing comeback of their own Tuesday night against Louisville. On the road at Louisville, a very tough place to play I might add, and looking completely out of sync through the first 30 minutes, Duke had their backs against the wall.

Then it happened. The No. 2 ranked team in the nation flipped a switch and went on a tear to not only tie the game but win it in regulation! That’s quite something considering they were down 23 points with 9:13 left to play in the game, according to ESPN.com.

After the game, there was talk in the media and online about Louisville choking, Coach Chris Mack of Louisville being outclassed by Coach Mike Krzyzewski, and that Louisville had no floor leader down the stretch to turn to. Those criticisms may all be well and true, however, it also has to do with Duke not giving up and fighting until the clock hits zero.

Nick Burch, a Louisville sports writer who also is serves as a co-host on Louisville Sports Live on 939TheVille had this to say after taking a night to absorb it all:

Duke won this game, not so much with their offense as they did with their defense. The Blue Devils lock down pressure defense totally baffled Louisville the last nine minutes of regulation leading to turnover after turnover which led to easy points in transition. The fact the Cardinals couldn’t respond and make shots down the stretch didn’t help any either.

The Cardinals deserved to lose this game considering how they played down the stretch in all aspects of the game. They played like the game was already won, and as we learned all too well, no lead is safe.

Looking back to Boeheim’s army’s game against Team FOE, the Syracuse alumni team won in a totally different fashion from Duke. Down 25 points with 11:54 remaining, the squad rallied with good offense and lockdown defense. Sure, they had a few steals here and there during the rally, but not nearly as many as Duke had against Louisville in those final nine minutes. Thus it forced the Army to make shots which they luckily for us, did.

Boeheim’s army made three after three led by sharpshooter James Southerland and then got back and played excellent defense led by little used former Syracuse/Eastern Michigan center DaShonte Riley. Disrupting shot after shot, Riley probably had his best game ever in an Orange uniform (of sorts).

On the other end of the court, Boeheim’s Army was led by excellent distributor Brandon Triche, who constantly found the hot Southerland behind the arc. As almost as if it was scripted this way, Triche converted a huge layup with just over 1:13 left to play to put the Orange up by three and iced the game for Boeheim’s Army. The comeback was one for the ages and one that was almost entirely led by the offense.

Though Duke and Boeheim’s Army both had excellent comebacks, how can you really compare the two? On one hand, Duke won with defense which led to transition buckets. On the other hand, you have Boeheim’s Army who won almost entirely with hot shooting and solid offense down the stretch.

Sure you could say Boeheim’s Army had the bigger comeback down 25, but they also had almost two more minutes to do so than Duke had. However, there’s an argument to be made that Boeheim’s army was playing semi-professional athletes where as Duke was playing a team made up of a bunch of amateurs who are still developing their games and are liable to making more mistakes.

Both games were absolute classics and will not be soon forgotten. For each fan base, it was a special and sweet moment seeing your team emerge victorious when you thought they had no chance and were on life-support. Regardless of whose was better, hardly anyone can deny that comebacks are one of the most amazing things about sports. So I guess #CardiacCuse is just something we’ll have to get used to because its not going away, and I’m not sure we’d want it to anyways.