Syracuse basketball’s season is in full swing, and we caught up with Orangemen basketball legend Dale Shackleford to get his take on SU in this week’s The Juice on the Cuse Podcast, presented by SNY.tv.
Shackleford was a four-year starter from 1975-1979, played all five positions as a freshman, and saw the transition of the team from Roy Danforth to Jim Boeheim. So far, he likes Boeheim’s current batch of players, though it’s a very different type of team than he’s used to.
“Syracuse has a very good team,” Shackleford said. “If they’re on, they’re going to shoot the lights out. They can shoot with the best of them.”
But Shackleford also pointed out the team has its limitations.
“Defensively, we’re not very athletic, so we have to compensate in other ways,” he said. “Guys have got to hustle and make sure we’re positioned right.”
Shackleford also chatted about a wide variety of topics from the modern ‘positionless’ era of basketball, to student-athletes being able to profit off name, image and likeness, and what he thinks of the transfer portal.
He also spoke about how Boeheim has developed as a coach over time. When Shackleford played under Boeheim, he rarely yelled, unlike Boeheim’s demeanor toward certain players in recent times.
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Shackleford shared one of his favorite anecdotes as to why.
“A young man’s mother was said to him, ‘Why are you always yelling at my son?'” Shackleford said. “And (Boeheim) said, ‘Well, the reason why I yell at your son is because you never did.'”
These days, Shackleford hosts The Salt & Pepper Sports Talk Show, a weekly show recorded in Delray Beach. He’s also an assistant basketball coach at Cardinal Gibbons in Fort Lauderdale.
“I’m living the dream in sunny Florida,” Shackleford said.
Afterward, editor in chief Brad Bierman calls in to discuss Syracuse’s huge road win over Florida State to begin ACC play.
Catch up on all episodes of “The Juice on the Cuse Podcast,” a Syracuse Orange podcast, by subscribing to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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