The Le Moyne men’s basketball team begins their second season as a DI program on Monday night. The Dolphins will be facing Syracuse University at 7 pm in the JMA Wireless Dome.
Le Moyne has a history of opening its season with a match against the across-town school. In the past two decades, Le Moyne has faced Syracuse nine times, with eight of those matchups being season opening exhibitions.
Former head basketball coach and current Senior Associate Athletics Director for Le Moyne Chris Evans talked about his experience coaching these matches: “A new NCAA rule in 2005 allowed Division I schools to play Division II schools in exhibitions,” Evans explained. “The opportunity to play Syracuse was new, exciting and it drew a lot of attention to the program and the school.”
Syracuse was just two years removed from a National Championship in 2005, so the frequent exhibition matches brought a good amount of attention to Le Moyne College.
This year’s match, however, is going to be much different than in years past. The Le Moyne and Syracuse matchups have been, up to this point, exhibition games that do not count for the standings. “You play exhibitions to experiment,” Evans said. “You want to win, but you are trying things out.”
Exhibitions are valuable in game preparation, but they aren’t the same as a regular season game. But this year’s match will count. It is the season opener for both squads, and the outcome will affect their regular season records.
Aside from that, this will also be the first time the two teams will meet since Le Moyne’s transition to Division I. In the past, Syracuse was the big brother beating up on the little brother, often winning in blowout fashion. Now, the power dynamic has shifted, with both of the teams being a member of the same athletic division.
Syracuse is still the clear favorite to win the game, but Le Moyne has upset Syracuse before. Monday’s game will be nearly 15 years ago to the date that Le Moyne basketball conquered SU for the only time in its history. Evans, who was the coach at the time, talked about what he remembers from that game.
“It was unbelievable. The World Series was on an off day, and it was a tuesday so there was no football, so there was not a lot of sports on that night. A lot more people were tuning in to watch this game,” Evans recalled. “The idea of a D1 team getting beat by a D2 team was improbable, and became the lead story on sportscenter. To be able to have that spotlight was great, and the story was on what went right with Le Moyne, not on what’s wrong with Syracuse.”
Above all, Evans was grateful for the increased interest of Le Moyne alumni. “The pride that Le Moyne alums had throughout was something we have never seen before,” Evans added. “I got a lot of voicemails that night.”
Evans had some words of advice for the players before they head into the Dome for the first time in 3 years. “When we won, we were really focused on playing the best game we could, not stopping Syracuse.” Evans encourages them to “Stay in the moment. There is a lot of games to play. You’ll learn from every one.”
Le Moyne already has one win against Syracuse University this year, when the men’s soccer team upset #7 ranked Syracuse back in September. The basketball team will try to make it two on Monday.
