Wow is this how easy it is to become an analyst these days. I guess you can suggest dumb notions out and get paid. Put Syracuse up against other top teams. For me the only other teams comparable to Syracuse are UNC, Kentucky and Ohio St.

Let's start with Kentucky: All we ever hear is that Syracuse does not have a superstar to take over a game and have someone who will take the final shot. Please tell me who this is for Kentucky: Terrance Jones? who is more inconsistent than the tenth man coming off the Syracuse bench. Michael Kidd? Is doing well in his freshman year but certainly do not think he is one going to create for himself for the last shot.

Ohio St: Please tell me where all the offense is going to come from when they play good teams. I know Sullinger, Buford and Thomas will score but other than those three this team is very limited on the offensive end. Kraft has the potential to knock down shots but he is certainly a defense first pg.

UNC: This is the only team that I believe a case can be made for of being ahead of Syracuse. I know they lost at Kentucky but if that is a neutral court UNC wins that game. They are loaded with offensive talent. The only question with this team is defense. The are one of the worst teams I have seen this year in covering the three.

Syracuse is not overrated and they will get a number one seed in the tournament and unless something happens to all ten they play they will make a deep run.

Gary Parrish once again proves why he got DENIED from entrance into SU....His journalism skills are about as bad as a high school seniors...First he says the #1 teams is over-rated (yet 30 of 31 coaches voted them no.1), which ok i understand but then he doesnt even put one factual reason why he believes SU is over-rated....What kinda of integrity does that show? Ur a disgrace Gary

To teamco I disagree with u that Syracuse doesn't have star power they have about 7guys right now that if were on a diff team that ran the offense thru them they would be considered stArs or go to guys. I can promise you 5\6 ppl on there team will be in the NBA over the next 3years. But unlock the other top teams this team doesn't care about padding their stats to improve their draft stocks, they care about doing whatever it takes to win games. Guys on ESPN are finally watching SU games n realizing that SU does have individual star power n they're depth makes it look deceiving to ppl like on this site who just look at box scores an stats and already had a predetermined notation of who the top teams were before the season so they will call anyone but unc n uk overrated. Even if SU went undefeated winning by an avg of 23pts a game they wud still say unc was better. It doesn't matter just look at what the former coaches and players who are analysts who actually know this sport and they will all say SU is number 1 n it's not even close right now

Don't know what Parrish or Goodman or using as their criteria to base their overrated assertion on since they give no reasoning, therefore leave to assume it has something to do with the usual "star" power and national hype factor, or lack thereof. Probably the main reason most analysts and fans lay the "overrated" tag on Syracuse is because they don't have "star" power. The program doesn't have glamour names attendant with hyperbole the national press churns out for UNC, Ohio State or Kentucky. They aren't a team laden with future NBA players, though Kris Joseph, Dion Waiters and Fab Melo look like good bets (if not this year for the two underclassmen then a year or two from now).

Alternatively, if an assessment of who is number one at any given time is based on the quality of a team's play, who they play, how many of their games they win, the quality of wins and loses, you have to go with Syracuse at this time. What they do have is ten top quality players with no dropoff in quality of play when substituting. They are very deep and they can play at a very high level for 40 minutes, as a result. There are clearly players coming off the bench that would be starting at almost any other D1 school. And all the players have bought into the concept of role-playing and sitting when they 'other guy' has the hot hand.

Star power? Syracuse has little of it. Talent, depth and committment, Syracuse has riches in abundance.

Will they lose this year? Yes, take a look at the last seven or eight games Syracuse has to play this year. Their schedule keeps ramping up with those last half-dozen or so games against virtually all top ten programs- hey, it's the Big East, still some very good teams there. Want an immediate gut-check? Watch this Saturday's game against Marquette, should be a very good  test, as the Golden Eagles are a tough, scrappy team.

When a loss or two does come, I'm sure the nay-sayers will be shouting "I told you so!" from the rafters. But make no mistake, come March, Syracuse will be a number 1 seed and will go very deep into the NCAA tournament with as good a chance , if not a better, than any of the other top two or three programs, of coming away with a national championship.

When the first paragraph told me Syracuse is overrated and Parrish was going to tell me how, I was curious as to what he would say. As a diehard fan I was interested, but to my disappointment there was no reasoning for the selection other than him saying if the NCAA tourney was right now he probably wouldn't pick them to win. Compelling argument there and getting your cohost to somewhat agree (another ignorant "expert" who said Indiana was overrated by 15-20 spots???) hardly justifies a headline. So thank you for an extreme waste of time and I hope you can find the time to do your job, watch a few games of the teams you're analyzing and then maybe have an actual justifiable argument. 

With the season they've had so far, if Indiana falls out of the top 25 it means they cratered the rest of the Big Ten season. Even the biggest pessimist would have a hard time predicting much less than a .500 conference record, no? So it seems a little suspect to say that No. 12 IU is overrated by 20, or even 15, spots. Maybe Goodman thinks that IU is overrated by 15-20 spots in the Top 25 (and 1)? Perhaps. Seventh is higher than I've seen IU ranked by anyone else. But then Goodman himself contributed to IU's spot in those rankings. So he's saying that he himself overrated the Hoosiers just a few days ago? Is he confused? Or just intentionally antagonistic?