Orange Watch: Part II of past delays for Syracuse basketball

Rutgers-12-8-20-Girard
Dec 8, 2020; Piscataway, New Jersey, USA; Syracuse Orange guard Joseph Girard III (11) controls the ball against Rutgers Scarlet Knight Jacob Young (42) during the first half at Rutgers Athletic Center (RAC). Mandatory Credit: Catalina Fragoso-USA TODAY Sports

Item: After the Syracuse football team joined Boston College as the only two ACC teams not to miss a scheduled football game this past season due to pandemic-related issues, the basketball Orange will miss a total of three consecutive conference games through this coming weekend, due to New York state-mandated quarantining and testing protocols. SU hopes to resume play Jan. 6 hosting Florida State.

This is a continuation of a look back at several Syracuse games that were delayed in a particular season due to weather or extraordinary circumstances. Part I, which ran on Tuesday, covers from 1980 to 2000, with 2000-present below:

2000: A tragic dormitory fire on the Seton Hall campus in West Orange, N.J. on Jan. 22 that killed three people and injured some 60 others, caused the cancellation of No. 4 ranked Syracuse’s game against the Pirates in the Dome.

Rescheduled for just over two weeks later, the Hall, coached by Tommy Amaker, shocked SU 69-67 to end an opening-season 19-game winning streak.

SHU’s Darius Lane hit a dagger-shot three-pointer with 0:39 left for the two-point margin, then the Orange’s last chances came on a missed Preston Shumpert trey, and inside shots by Etan Thomas and Ryan Blackwell that missed the mark, sending a large crowd home unhappy.

2012: Guess who won the last Carrier Classic? Hint: It’s a trick question.

Not only did Syracuse beat Virginia Tech in a non-Big East regular season game in 2000 to win the final two-day Dome event known as the Carrier Classic, but Syracuse also won the two-day delayed final Carrier Classic on the water in the “Battle on the Midway” game played on a Naval Carrier in San Diego.

Culminating a two-season experiment of games played on battleships, SU and San Diego State were to play on a Friday night, but rain and windy conditions caused a postponement to Sunday.

» Related: For Syracuse basketball, sum finally bigger than individual parts

Despite sunny skies, the wind did not let up. Syracuse only attempted four three-point shots, and got the lucky break of shooting at the basket with the wind in the second half of the 62-49 victory.

2016: A previous travel-related “first” occurred for Jim Boeheim when the Virginia game was snowed-out on Jan. 24, due to the Charlottesville airport being closed amidst another Mid-Atlantic blizzard.

Instead, Syracuse chartered down to Va. the next morning for the rescheduled tip-off later in the day, becoming the first time the team flew to a game on the same day they were playing. To add to the hectic logistics, SU lost 73-65 to the No. 13 Cavaliers.

For more Syracuse coverage, Like our Facebook page, follow us @TheJuiceOnline and listen to our podcast.

Avatar photo
About Brad Bierman 848 Articles
Now in his sixth decade of covering SU sports, Brad was sports director of WSYR radio for eight years into the early 1990s, then wrote the Orange Watch column for The Big Orange/The Juice print publication for 18 years. A Syracuse University graduate, Brad currently runs his own media consulting business in the Philadelphia suburbs. Follow him on Twitter @BradBierman.