Syracuse is good, not great

Syracuse fans, it’s time to face reality.

It’s a reality that isn’t easy to accept, but it is what it is. In case we didn’t realize this after a four-game losing streak, we must realize it now.

Syracuse is a good basketball team. Let me repeat: A good basketball team.

Not a great team.

Not a title team.

Not a team that we’ll be talking about for years to come.

In the end, it will have brought cheer to the Carrier Dome crowds but not championships.

On Wednesday, we saw a ‘Cuse team lose 64-56 to a Georgetown squad in respectable fashion at the Carrier Dome. It hustled and hung with it, but in the end, the better team won, and SU couldn’t do anything to stop it.

The Hoyas simply executed better down the stretch. While the Hoyas drove to the basket, Syracuse settled for 3s and came up empty.

True or false: Only one player on the SU basketball team shot five times or more and shot better than 50 percent?

True. CJ Fair was 6-for-9 from the field and scored 12 points. And he, unlike a lot of his chums, didn’t attempt a single 3.

Clutch plays don’t happen by accident and neither do victories.

Mike Lacett is a Senior Columnist at The Juice Online. He also hosts “The Bud and the Manchild” Show on The Score 1260 in Syracuse. See more at http://www.espnradio1260.com/