Best 4 year stretch in Program History

We're entering a renaissance of the late 80's of SU hoops and a golden age on the cusp of dominance.

These last four years have been the best in program history. 119-26, with two 30 win seasons, and two other 25+ win seasons. Two Big East Regular season championships, two Sweet 16s and one Elite 8. More times ranked #1 than any other stretch in program history. It goes on and on.

However, I made this comparison to a friend yesterday. We're truly the Atlanta Braves of the college basketball world...sustained consistent excellence but never sustained dominance. For all of their consecutive Division Titles, the Braves only had one World Series to show for it. And for all of our 20-win seasons, we still only have one NC to show for it.

Now with the amazing stretch this program has enjoyed over the last four years, SU should be ready to vault into that group of dominant programs that includes Duke, UNC, Kansas, Kentucky, etc. Our recruiting is rolling, our national exposure has never been higher, the sky's the limit.

I truly believe the best is yet to come for this program, with or without JB. Legendary coaches (Rupp, Smith, Knight, etc) come and go, but what JB's lasting legacy will be is that he's now created a program that is truly running itself, and has nowhere to go but up, to a seat at the inner circle as THE ELITE college basketball program on the East Coast, and among the major players in the game.

Thanks to Boeheim, Syracuse has come to the place where they are truly a selector school for basketball talent. Any decent coach should be able to grab a title every 10 years or less, at the very least.

I'm not underestimating JB by any stretch. Rather, it's his prolonged success here that has this program on the cusp of being a long-term ELITE program.

I'm pointing out that this is happening towards the end of JB's tenure here BECAUSE he's had the success that he has had over so many years. Much like how well Dean Smith and Adolph Rupp left UNC and UK when they stepped down. Their programs had already become ELITE, and the beat went on. With the overwhelming success of the past four years, SU basketball is in an incredible position to move forward into an ELITE group DESPITE losing a legendary coach and one of the best this game has ever known.

That's an incredible thing to say about the state this program's moving towards.

We're right on the cusp of true dominance, and it's a hell of an exciting time to be a Syracuse Basketball fan!