Monday, March 13, 2006
Sophomore Josh Wright clinched the title win with four late free throws.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Gerry McNamara was a big part of Syracuse's national championship as a freshman in 2003.
Four years later, the guard was the runaway MVP in the Orange's surprising Big East tournament title run.
Syracuse repeated as conference champions by beating No. 15 Pittsburgh 65-61 on Saturday night. It was the first time in the Orange's record four victories that they didn't need late-game heroics from McNamara.
It was sophomore Josh Wright who clinched the title win, making four free throws in the final 17 seconds.
But it was still McNamara's tournament.
Coach's comment
"Gerry had as good a four games here as anybody I've ever seen," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. "He just wanted to win."
Syracuse became the lowest-seeded team to win the Big East tournament -- the Orange came in at No. 9 -- and the third school to repeat, joining Georgetown in 1985 and Connecticut in 1999.
The Orange (23-11) arrived in New York this week with their chances of claiming an at-large NCAA tournament berth as on the bubble as a team can get. They are leaving with an automatic bid and a folk hero.
"For us to come down here in the situation we were in and win is impressive," McNamara said. "We won it so I guess I was pretty motivated we all were.
"This is the toughest year I've played and for us to battle they way we did and win this, like Coach said it's one of the greatest. We won it last year but it was a different story we were a team that had a great regular season and we had a team that was experienced and this year we were knew and we came down here and got it going.
Under the radar
"We were on the outside looking in coming down here and now there's a lot of teams looking at us."
McNamara, who was as obvious an MVP selection as any tournament has ever had, won the first-round game against Cincinnati with a 3-pointer with less than a second to play. He tied the quarterfinal game against top-ranked Connecticut with 5 seconds left in regulation and the Orange won in overtime.
In the semifinal win over No. 23 Georgetown, he hit a late 3 to bring the Orange within one, then made the pass on the winning basket and forced a turnover on the Hoyas' final possession.
In the championship against Pittsburgh (24-7), he had 14 points and six assists. He had three 3-pointers, giving him a tournament-record 16.
"Some guys win one game once in a while in a year, or two," Boeheim said, "I don't anybody's ever won four in a row by making the play in the game. That's pretty special."
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