Syracuse Basketball: Consecutive titles would easily trump rival domination

Championships versus dominating a rival for Syracuse basketball is a no-brainer.

FOX College Hoops posed an interesting question on Twitter that has us wondering about its applicability to Syracuse basketball.

If you had to choose between A) never beating your rival again, but capturing back-to-back national titles, or B) defeating your rival every year, but never claiming a championship, which route would you go?

I wholeheartedly would say “A.” I asked a few of my colleagues here at Inside The Loud House, and also several ‘Cuse hoops fanatics that I continually interact with on social media, and they all echoed my sentiments.

Certainly, other schools out there with a fierce rival may think differently, but for Syracuse, one important issue to consider is that the Orange doesn’t necessarily have a well-defined rival these days.

Alas, that is a topic that we will debate in the near future. But for the purposes of this column, let’s assume that the ‘Cuse annually tussles with a heated rival, whether a squad from the old Big East days, or perhaps a crew from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Syracuse basketball could enter a new stratosphere if it collected two more NCAA titles.

Even under that scenario, I’d still adamantly go with consecutive NCAA titles. If that transpired at present, such a circumstance would give head coach Jim Boeheim his second and third national championships.

That, in turn, would further boost Boeheim up the chain as far as all-time coaches are concerned. He’s already fairly high on the list, given that he has the second-highest amount of victories in Division I men’s basketball, along with one NCAA crown and five Final Fours reached.

But three grand prizes vault Boeheim into the company of North Carolina’s Roy Williams, former Connecticut boss Jim Calhoun and former Indiana/Texas Tech leader Bob Knight. JB would also surpass guys like Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, Rick Pitino, and Billy Donovan, although Boeheim would remain short of icons such as Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and John Wooden, as well as Dean Smith.

Boeheim collecting a trio of titles would hopefully also provide sufficient achievements so that all of his critics out there could take a chill pill, at least for a bit.

What a duo of additional titles would mean for Syracuse as a program is monumental, too. The Orange is in the top 10 historically in a bunch of all-time categories, including wins, but to notch three total championships would provide more evidence that the ‘Cuse is one of the best teams ever.

Sure, crushing Georgetown, or the Blue Devils, or the Tar Heels on an annual basis would amount to a lot of fun. However, that can never equate to Boeheim & Co. cutting down the nets in back-to-back seasons.

Rivalries are delightful. They really are. National success, though, is what matters the most.