Ross Kindel remembers one practice leading up to the 1975 Final Four.

The Syracuse men’s basketball team was in San Diego, and Kindel, a freshman guard, recalls hearing cheers when practice concluded.

He won two state championships during high school in New Jersey. But applause for finishing practice?

Kindel laughed.

‘Jumping from high school to that situation,’ Kindel said, ‘was pretty amazing.’

He wasn’t the only one, though, trying to grasp the situation that the Orangemen were in. The entire team was thrust into a new spotlight.

The 1974-75 Orangemen were never picked as a favorite. They were undersized, underdogs and underappreciated, at times. More often than not, they were met on the court by a team with more talent. Yet they rose from virtual anonymity to go further than any other team in Syracuse men’s basketball history, becoming the first SU squad to make the Final Four. With a successful weekend, the 2004 Orangemen hope to become the latest Syracuse team to do it.

‘In everybody’s eyes and in our eyes, we weren’t supposed to (make it),’ said Jimmy Lee, a senior guard. ‘We overachieved instead of underachieving.’

Syracuse finished as the fourth-best team in the country with a 23-9 record in 1975. But midway through the regular season, the prospect of reaching the Final Four seemed awfully faint to Lee. A midseason slump began when Providence beat Syracuse badly.

Then Syracuse suffered back-to-back home losses. The Orangemen were up by nearly 20 at halftime to West Virginia but still ended up getting beat by three.

‘Then everything just went wrong,’ Lee said. ‘At that point, people thought we had a disease on the campus.’

But instead of falling apart, the Orangemen came together, Lee said. They bonded and made a pact. When reporters didn’t want to talk to them or only wanted to spew negatives – or fans criticized them – they at least had each other.

The last two home games of the season at Manley Field House weren’t even sellouts.

‘If nobody else cares about us, let’s go play on our own,’ Lee said. ‘We had 15 guys that hung out together, that were friends, that did everything together.’

It was from that point on that3 Syracuse began to play like a Final Four team. The Orangemen won nine straight games to carry them all the way to San Diego.

Not to mention Syracuse needed to defeat St. Bonaventure and Niagara to win the ECAC conference just to make the tournament.

‘The way we played, we sacrificed a lot with each other,’ said Rudy Hackett, the leading scorer and rebounder.

‘We played at the highest level we could have, consistently every game,’ Kindel said. ‘And that’s pretty amazing.’

In the opening round against LaSalle, which was in the top 10 for most of the year, Syracuse won, 87-83. At the end of regulation, Kobe Bryant’s father, Joe Bryant, missed a 10-foot baseline jumper, forcing the game to overtime, when Syracuse eventually won.

SU advanced to play North Carolina.

Once again, Syracuse lacked respect heading into the game. Nobody gave it a shot nor mentioned it as a contender for the title.

It wasn’t until the Orangemen defeated North Carolina, 78-76, that people started to take notice.

Against Kansas State in the regional finals, Syracuse once again needed overtime before a date with a much larger squad, Kentucky, which featured four players 6 feet 10 inches tall and more than 240 pounds.

Kentucky, with all of its size and talent, literally stood in Syracuse’s way for a chance to play for a title.

‘When you look at the whole thing, Kentucky we had trouble matching up with,’ Lee said. ‘They were bigger and stronger at every position.’

Ultimately, it was that realization that left Kentucky, which won, 95-79, in the title game, and Syracuse playing in the consolation against Louisville.

Syracuse eventually fell in another overtime contest to the Cardinals, 96-88, leaving it in fourth place.

Meanwhile, legendary coach John Wooden collected his 10th national championship as a coach when UCLA defeated Kentucky, 92-85.

It was Wooden’s final victory before retirement, and Lee decided to congratulate the legend after the win. He remembers waiting by the bus until the throngs of reporters left Wooden alone.

‘Coach, congratulations,’ Lee said.

‘Thanks a lot, son,’ Wooden answered.

Lee remembers walking away, thinking, ‘I wonder if he even knew I played in this tourney.’

But Lee not only played in it, he was named to the All-Tournament team. He was the overall leading scorer, and along with Hackett and fellow senior Steve Shaw, led Syracuse to the Final Four in their final season donning orange.

Hackett also had an experience with Wooden, but his was a little bit more personal. At one point, Wooden told the Syracuse star, ‘You’re welcome to come here and use our facilities anytime.’

Hackett was taken back by the offer.

‘That was something really special,’ Hackett said. ‘I could always use whatever I needed in the Wooden Facility. It was great knowing Coach Wooden.’

While Wooden’s coaching career ended, Syracuse’s run to the Final Four was a chance for the ascent of SU assistant Jim Boeheim to continue.

It was Boeheim’s third year on head coach Roy Danforth’s staff. His principal tasks involved recruiting, opponent scouting and helping the big men. Hackett remembers working with Boeheim quite a bit, and credits Boeheim for making him into an all-around player.

‘I never really noticed him as a head-coach (type),’ Hackett said. ‘He was such a good instructor. I was so involved with him, I never noticed.’

One particular instance during that year, Lee was in a shooting slump. He went to Boeheim asking for help.

Boeheim discovered a slight flaw in Lee’s shot and told him to hold his follow-through just a little bit longer. That was all Lee needed.

‘I must have shot for five minutes and didn’t miss,’ Lee said. ‘That one little tip all of a sudden got me on my run at the end of the year. And I played pretty good.’

Without Lee’s scoring in the postseason, Syracuse wouldn’t have stood a chance at advancing as far as it did. Nearly 30 years later, Lee remembers that one instance the most about Boeheim.

A year later, Boeheim succeeded Danforth as Syracuse’s next head coach. Originally, as it’s been much written about, Boeheim wasn’t considered for the job.

But ultimately Boeheim was given the shot.

‘Syracuse lucked out by getting him,’ Lee said. ‘But I know at the beginning they were looking elsewhere, but luckily they made the right choice.’

Kindel had the opportunity to play for Boeheim when he was an assistant as well as a head coach. Kindel didn’t originally think of Boeheim as a head coach, but he was happy and comfortable with the choice made. He’s not surprised now that Boeheim is still coaching at Syracuse and has achieved the level of success that he has.

‘He’s devoted to the place,’ Kindel said. ‘He loves the game and he loves Syracuse.’

With Boeheim leading the Orangemen to another Sweet 16 appearance tonight in Phoenix, March Madness annually brings back memories for those on the team. As the spectacle grows more and more each year, it only adds to the prestige of being the first Syracuse team to make the Final Four.

Hackett was in the United States two days before Syracuse played in the Final Four last year. He said he was ‘thrilled to death’ to be able to see the team play in the tournament atmosphere.

It’s that atmosphere that continues to bring back memories for each player on the team.

‘The thing that impresses us the most is that we played above ourselves and that’s what you hope for,’ Lee said. ‘Even now when you’re out in the real world, you want people that do things above and beyond what they’re capable of. And I believe that’s what we did. But we did it only because we played as a team.

‘And it’s something nobody can ever take away from us.’

Published on March 24, 2004 at 12:00 pm