The Hall of Fame head coach who rarely makes proclamations sunk the Orange  back in September telling ESPN’s Andy Katz this year’s Orange squad “the best team we’ve had in a long time.”

It’s been downhill since, finishing at 19-15 after a second round exit in the NIT. Anything short of a Final Four likely would have been considered a disappointment by many fans who expected that out of “the best team we’ve had in a while” especially coming off their second Final Four in four years.

This team was supposed to run 10 deep. Sharp shooter Andrew White III showing up on campus the day before classes started, the scorer SU needed to replace Malachi Richardson. Fellow grad transfer John Gillon came aboard to fill the void at point guard that had truly been there since Tyler Ennis left early for the NBA. Tyler Lydon was supposed build off last year’s great Final Four run, as was Tyler Roberson.

It obviously didn’t go as planned. White was a sharpshooter, but that was really it. Struggling to put the ball on the ground and pick up the zone on the defensive end. John Gillon wasn’t truly a fit. He was more a two-guard about 5 or 6 inches too short, who didn’t look for his teammates enough at times.

Tyler Lydon wasn’t featured offensively as expected. And when he did get the ball he was slow to pull the trigger, he often deferred to his teammates. Tyler Roberson didn’t get any better from last season and still after four years at Syracuse hadn’t developed a consistent jump shot to make him any kind of offensive threat. His positional counterpart, Taurean Thompson, was great offensively but unable to hold his own on the defensive end.

Tyus Battle was a bright spot, particularly late in the year when he scored 20 points or more in three of the last five games, and double digits in each of the last seven games.

But all year long the Orange showed the same problems. They could never defend and the offense stalled with a lack of ball movement, often getting bailed out by a three late in the shot clock.

Sure there were bright spots, and Gillon and White had they’re great moments in their lone season in Orange. Gillon scored 43 and single handedly won the game at NC State, then followed that up with a buzzer beating three to beat Duke just weeks later. White was the most consistent offensive option for the Orange, dropped 40 points on senior day, and broke the program record for most made threes in a season.

But overall, this season was disappointing. Not only was this team supposed to make the tournament, which it did not, it was presumed they’d be playing into the second weekend if not further. Likely with a high seed that would have seen the Orange travel to Buffalo then Madison Square Garden before having to go out of state to the Final Four in Phoenix.

Instead, SU missed out after a non-conference schedule with losses to three bad former Big East foes. Even in the ACC, the best conference in the country, the Orange could not make up that ground, especially after losing the conference opener to Boston College.  At that point it felt like not only the NCAA Tournament was off the table, but so was a .500 season.

Considering the start to the year, it was remarkable that the Orange was in the discussion for a tournament bid at all.

And considering the expectations at the start of the year, it was remarkable the Orange was on the bubble at all.