The NCAA Is Vacating 101 Of Syracuse Basketball's Wins, Including The 2006 Big East Championship That Gerry McNamara Carried Them To
Syracuse.com- The NCAA’s order that Syracuse’s men’s basketball team must vacate 101 wins has cost the team every win in two different seasons and at least one Big East title, Syracuse.com has learned. When the NCAA concluded its lengthy investigation into the Syracuse University athletics program in March of 2015, the Committee on Infractions levied several sanctions. One of those sanctions mandated that the university vacate 101 men’s basketball wins that occurred in five different seasons and make note of them in published materials.
On Monday, an NCAA official confirmed Syracuse’s win-loss records in each of those seasons. It’s the first time in the 19 months since the NCAA ruling there has been any indication of exactly which wins Syracuse vacated. The NCAA will not require SU to indicate the specific games that are being vacated, however it’s now clear which wins are gone in 2005-06 and 2011-12. The vacated wins include every one of Syracuse’s 23 victories in the 2005-06 season, including the Big East Tournament championship. Syracuse went 23-12 that season, but the record will now be reflected as 0-12.
That means Syracuse’s memorable run through the 2006 Big East Tournament is now wiped from the record books. The run punctuated the legend of Gerry McNamara as the then-senior led Syracuse to four consecutive wins in the Big East Tournament.
Well it’s official, folks. The NCAA is a heartless, gutless organization. I mean we’ve had a billion examples of that for years now. But this ruling was the final straw. I understand vacating wins and championships because of violations. Sure it doesn’t mean shit since everybody remembers the teams that actually won the games/tournaments.
But the Gerry McNamara tournament run was more than just wins in a conference tournament. It was wins in the best conference tournament this world has ever seen and the ultimate example of perseverance of the human spirit. A little scrappy white boy with unlimited range carrying two cities (Scranton and Syracuse) on his back against some of the best teams in the country. The most heroic performance I or the world has ever seen. And just like that, it’s gone like a fart in the wind. Wiped away from the record books by some pencil pushing nerds headquartered in Indianapolis. Somebody involved in this investigation definitely wore a pocket protector and uses a protractor at least twice a week. That person is trying to tell me the Gerry McNamara run never happened. Fuck that person.
In fact I may just retire from watching college basketball after this news. How do you like that, @NCAA? I don’t know any of the players anymore since there is so much turnover. The NBA and NBA Twitter keeps me thoroughly entertained for the gap between football and baseball. And my old, washed up ass doesn’t need more things to watch. I’m thissss close to being #done with college hoops.
*Except for March Madness, obviously. And if the real Big East ever comes back. I would do very dirty things to bring back the true Big East and Big East Tournament
Now if you will excuse me, I am going to watch the video of GMac’s run for the 5,281st time and the number 1 reason that the song Remember The Name is tattooed on my brain.
P.S. I kinda wish the NCAA made Syracuse’s record 9-26 just as a nod to the classic “We wouldn’t have won 10 fucking games without Gerry McNamara” quote. This has to be my favorite Jim Boeheim rant ever, which is saying something.
h/t Anthony