Inside the Loud House
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Syracuse Basketball: Where is Howard Washington? (mailbag)

By Paul A. Esden Jr.

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 06: Howard Washington #10 of the Syracuse Orange drives to the basket against the defense of Tyler Kidd #0 of the Eastern Washington Eagles during the second half at the Carrier Dome on November 06, 2018 in Syracuse, New York. (Photo by Rich Barnes/Getty Images)
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 06: Howard Washington #10 of the Syracuse Orange drives to the basket against the defense of Tyler Kidd #0 of the Eastern Washington Eagles during the second half at the Carrier Dome on November 06, 2018 in Syracuse, New York. (Photo by Rich Barnes/Getty Images) /
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Thomas Anthony Wick: Why is Jim Boeheim still our coach? He has overstayed his welcome by 10 years. If you can’t figure out that your team needs to be able to play man-to-man maybe it’s time to head to Florida for the winter.

Paul ‘Boy Green’ Esden:

"Ah yes of course, how could we do a mailbag without the prerequisite question about Jim Boeheim and not using man-to-man. There are a lot of pro-Mike Hopkins people in our audience and I love him, but it wasn’t meant to be. We still have a Hall of Fame coach running this operation and he has an amazing track record of success with multiple Final Fours, Sweet 16 runs, and of course a National Championship. But to your point about man-to-man, Jim actually said throughout the offseason that we could finally see some man defense. We’ve seen exactly zero of that so far this season go figure. Here’s my take, with so many freshmen on this team, it would make sense to use some man situationally. A lot of these high school guys know man defense, the 2-3 zone involves a steep learning curve. Although I’d say after the Virginia game, the Orange defense wasn’t the issue. When you hold a team to 48 points, you should win that game every time. So we’ll have to table the man defensive talk for another day because Boeheim is doing good work."

Neil Adler:

"Thomas, you’re certainly entitled to this kind of opinion about Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim, and there are absolutely other Orange fans out there who think that Boeheim should ride off into the sunset. For me, personally, I believe that Boeheim has earned the right to roam the ‘Cuse sidelines for as long as he likes. Now in his 44th season at the Syracuse helm, Boeheim has never had a losing stanza, he’s produced countless 20-victory terms and NCAA Tournament appearances, and Boeheim has guided the Orange to a national title, along with five Final Fours. It’s reasonable to say that the ‘Cuse has under-performed a tad in its regular seasons since Syracuse moved to the Atlantic Coast Conference back in 2013, however, it’s also fair to say that the NCAA sanctions from a few years ago took a toll on the Orange’s recruiting. Combine that with fuzziness over how long Boeheim would coach, and some key players heading to the pros early, transferring or getting injured, and I actually think that Boeheim and his assistants have done an admirable job from 2013 until now, including a marvelous Final Four run in 2016, and a surprising Sweet 16 journey in 2018. As it pertains to Boeheim playing man to man defense, a huge reason why the ‘Cuse fares well in the Big Dance is due to its zone, and Boeheim has said that he may execute some man to man this year. Stay tuned."

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