Rewatching the 2003 national title game with help from the Orange

Carmelo Anthony didn’t sleep much the night before the 2003 national championship game. He roamed Bourbon Street. Imagine, after a night out on the French Quarter in New Orleans, seeing the 6-foot-8 Anthony, maybe the best player in college basketball that season, by himself after midnight before the biggest game of his life. And before the title bout on Monday, April 7, in the Syracuse locker room at the Louisiana Superdome, Anthony, still a teenager, sensed his coach was agitated. Jim Boeheim was nervous.

“Carmelo came up to me before the game,” Boeheim told The Athletic, “and told me, ‘Coach, we got this.’ ”

A deep, experienced Kansas team, led by Roy Williams, was the favorite. The Orange started fast behind Gerry McNamara’s six 3-pointers in the first half. The Jayhawks stormed back late to make it a one-possession game. Sixteen years earlier in the same arena, the Orange had lost to Indiana in the final seconds of the 1987 title game. The feel in 2003 was ominous. A blown lead. More missed free throws. Would SU miss another chance at its shining moment? But Syracuse won, of course, 81-78, and Boeheim captured his national title. Recounting the game recently, the coach of 44 seasons says he had rewatched the game only once, maybe 10 years ago.

“We got off to a great start with Gerry getting it going,” Boeheim says. “Carmelo finished the game well. Kansas was an overwhelming favorite. They had a bunch of seniors. We played a great game, about as good as you can play.”

On Saturday night, with the 17-year anniversary approaching, Anthony, Boeheim, McNamara, Kueth Duany (a forward on that team), and former assistants Mike Hopkins and Troy Weaver rewatched the game in a Syracuse watch party on Facebook. We’ve included their comments below, along with my observations from two full-game reviews. I jotted down any observations I could, aside from mere play-by-play.

Let’s indulge in nostalgia as we relive the greatest two hours in the history of Syracuse basketball.

19:49, first half: Syracuse runs its basic motion offense to begin the game. McNamara hits Duany on the right wing, and Duany sends a pass to Anthony on the low block. With his back to the basket, the best freshman in the country backs down his man, draws a double-team, then dishes to a wide-open Craig Forth, who scores an easy layup. Syracuse 2, Kansas 0.

19:28: Syracuse ranks 14th in the country in defensive efficiency, per KenPom.com, running some man-to-man throughout the season but mostly relying on zone. The title team ran a tighter, paint-oriented zone than today. Still, activity and cutting off passing lines were key. On KU’s first possession, Anthony helps weak side and comes up with a steal near the basket.

Two noteworthy aspects of Syracuse’s game plan early: The Orange aren’t going to crash the offensive boards. They’d rather retreat and set up the zone. Second, Anthony knows he’s a matchup nightmare inside for KU. He begins many possessions closer to the paint than he normally would.

18:12: The first of six 3s for McNamara. Anthony, running the offense, drives right and kicks to McNamara on the wing, who catches and releases in front of the KU bench.

17:36: Maybe Syracuse’s zone started too tight. Kansas guard Keith Langford, one of KU’s five future NBA players, drives left and floats the ball before Forth meets him near the low block. The basket ties the game at 5, and Hopkins gestures on the bench that Forth should have come out more to help. The zone is supposed to limit interior opportunities and force KU to shoot from outside.

16:54: Anthony sets up inside the lane, comes out to the left wing, catches a pass, sizes up his opponent, and drills a 3. “Oh, how pure,” CBS announcer Jim Nantz says. A few seconds later, Kansas forward Jeff Graves finds Collison, the No. 12 pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, for a dunk. And-one. The high-low set is working for the Jayhawks. Collison makes the free throw. Syracuse leads, 10-8.

16:21: Anthony probably gets away with a travel, but he again draws KU attention. He passes to an open Duany at the top of the key. Duany drills the 3. He has five of SU’s first 13 points.

Under-16 timeout: Syracuse leads, 13-8. The Orange are 3-of-4 from 3.

13:46: Anthony picks up his third assist by driving right, drawing help and dishing to McNamara on the right wing. McNamara has the little bit of space he needs to shoot. Bucket. Syracuse is up 20-12, already putting KU in its largest deficit of the tournament.

“Early on, they were so focused on Melo, we were able to get some looks,” Boeheim said Saturday night as he rewatched the game. “We tried to not let them get too much inside. That was really a key. And Collison got off to a bad start.”

After McNamara’s second 3, the Jayhawks still try to push the pace and beat the zone up the floor. Syracuse isn’t having it. The Orange scurry back on defense and stop the Collison-Kirk Hinrich push, forcing the Jayhawks to set up a half-court offense.

“I just remember the guys being loose and confident,” Hopkins says. “I remember Coach (Boeheim) saying, ‘The biggest thing is going to be transition defense.’ It was our best transition defense of the year.”

13:15: A why not? moment: McNamara crosses over KU’s Michael Lee and lofts an NBA-range 3 from the top of the key. His third 3 of the game. “My goodness,” Nantz says.

10:58: Billy Edelin’s floater falls. “Butter,” Anthony said on Facebook live. Syracuse 30, Kansas 17.

6:13: McNamara for 3, from the left wing and again from NBA range. “Off balance too,” Nantz says. “My eyes lit up,” McNamara recalls. His fifth 3 extends Syracuse’s lead to 15. Not 15 minutes into the game, the freshman from Scranton, Pa., is leading all players with 15 points. He would end up one 3 shy of Steve Alford’s title game record seven 3s, set in 1987 during Indiana’s one-point, last-second win against Syracuse in the same building.

SU finishes the first half 10-of-13 from 3-point range. Meanwhile, Kansas is struggling to score in transition, one of KU’s chief priorities. While the Jayhawks enjoy success in the paint, Syracuse retreats too quickly for them to score in transition.

0:16: Anthony is double-teamed on the left wing, but he doesn’t care. He pulls from way out, over Collison, and drills a 3 to push the Orange’s lead tback o 13. Collison answers by sprinting down the court and scoring a layup. KU leads the battle on the boards by five.

Halftime: Syracuse 53, Kansas 42.

“Hinrich didn’t get off to a great start,” McNamara says. “Early on, we took advantage of the fact that they couldn’t beat us from the 3.” As well as Syracuse played in the first half, Boeheim says he knew Kansas wasn’t done.

Anthony would lead Syracuse with 20 points in the game, even after experiencing back pain when he was injured in the 95-84 semifinal win against Texas. His back was heavily tapped, and he stretched a lot before the game and during halftime. “Melo’s back tightened up and he was never himself,” Weaver says. “He came to me, ‘My back, I can’t.’ I was like, look, ‘You gotta do what you gotta do.’ If I had told Coach, he would’ve been like, ‘He’s not coming out of the game.’ ”

Anthony was a beast throughout the 2002-03 season, capping it by leading Syracuse to a win in the national championship game.

19:03, second half: Kansas can’t make its free throws. KU made less than 70 percent of its free throws on the season, and what happens in the championship game is atrocious. At this point, KU is 8-of-15 from the line. It would get worse.

17:08: Back-to-back turnovers by McNamara help fuel Kansas’ run back into the game. Two fast breaks, including a Hinrich and-one, cut the Orange lead to three. An early blowout has become a one-possession game with plenty of time left. “Boy, we really could’ve made it a lot easier for us,” Boeheim says. Anthony interjects: “In my mind, it was over already.” Someone on the Facebook chat notes how McNamara did a whole lot in the first half but nothing in the second. “Hey, this is supposed to be a celebration,” McNamara says jokingly.

Kansas goes on a 9-2 run at the start of the second half. “They dialed up their intensity,” Anthony says. “Banging us around, getting to the free-throw line, slowing the game down. We just grinded the second half out.”

9:29: After the KU run to start the half, the teams exchange buckets for a while. Now, Graves catches a pass in front of the basket, where Kansas does the bulk of its best scoring, and lays up the ball. Syracuse still leads, 68-60. Hinrich, who would become a good NBA shooter, isn’t having a great night, and KU is shooting just 3-of-13 from deep. Hinrich finishes with 16 points on 3-of-12 shooting from deep.

6:55: At the under-8 timeout, Syracuse leads, 72-62. During the Facebook chat, a few players point out that this team went 30-5 in part because it could play many styles depending on the opponent. SU could run, shoot, pass, defend. It was a flexibility that served the Orange well throughout the stretch run, including in both Final Four games. “The most underrated part of our team,” Weaver says, “was we could really pass the ball.”

“This team could play with different looks,” Duany says. “We could switch things up on you anytime.”

3:30: McNamara turns over the ball again at midcourt, and here come the Jayhawks. The CBS broadcast shows former SU big man Rony Seikaly, whose No. 4 is retired. He stood in the same arena 16 years earlier after the title loss to IU. He chews gum anxiously near the Syracuse bench.

KU has a short bench and fatigue is now a factor. The Jayhawks can’t trap easily, nor can they push the tempo as much as they would like. But after the turnover, Hinrich spots up on the right wing. A drive and kick sets him up for an open 3, which he swishes. It’s a six-point game.

2:02: Syracuse’s last field goal of the season is a teardrop by Edelin. The Orange chew up the 35-second shot clock to stretch the lead back to seven. Kansas answers with a Hinrich-to-Collison alley-oop that ignites the KU crowd. “The seniors,” Nantz says of KU’s star duo, “not letting go of the dream.”

Later, Pace comes up with a huge deflection on the defensive end to deny a KU basket. But he misses a layup on the other end with about one minute to go.

0:39: Once ahead by 18, Syracuse is clinging to an 80-77 lead. KU is at the free-throw line. CBS shows Boeheim’s wife, Juli, in the stands. She’s holding the couple's oldest child, Jimmy, who is now a junior forward at Cornell. Juli holds him tight. Especially considering the venue and the 1987 history, the Syracuse lead is anything but secure. But Graves makes only one of two free throws. The Jayhawks would be undone by their struggles at the line, missing 13 of 17 foul shots in the second half. Collison, the All-American who scored 19 points with 21 rebounds, misses six straight foul shots at one point.

0:24: Collison fouls out. That sends Duany to the line, but he only splits a pair. Syracuse 81, Kansas 78.

0:18: McNamara is screened at the top of the zone and doesn’t recover in time. Hinrich catches and shoots a great 3-point look from straightaway. It rattles out. Boeheim gestures to McNamara that he should’ve played farther out in the zone to contest. Fortunately for SU, the best shooter in the gym missed.

After he grabs the rebound, Warrick is fouled and goes to the line. He can essentially end the game by making them. He bricks the first. In a little-known move, Boeheim takes out McNamara, the best free-throw shooter in the Big East. Coaches want elite free throw shooters in the game late, but he doesn't love what he saw defensively. He wants a bigger, longer lineup for the final defensive possession. He brings in Pace.

Warrick misses the second free throw. KU can tie with a 3. Many Syracuse fans hold their breaths, well aware of the symbolism: Warrick, like Derrick Coleman in 1987, misses his free throws. KU, like Indiana, would get the final shot.

0:03: In the greatest defensive play in Syracuse history, Warrick starts from the basket and darts out to the corner to defend KU’s final shot. Hinrich is covered well at the top of the key, so the guard dishes to Lee in the corner. Lee, however, takes a while to release. He later admits in an interview with The Athletic's Dana O’Neil, then with ESPN, that a friend had warned him he needed to quicken his release, but he was “stubborn.” It costs him.

“I wasn’t planning on blocking the shot,” Warrick says. “I was just looking to get a hand up. And then I was just trying to turn my body not to foul.”

“We wanted Hakim to play center because he was able to get to the corner,” Boeheim told The Athletic. “Craig (Forth) couldn’t get to the corner to block that shot. It was a game-saving play, thanks to his quickness.”

The ball goes out of bounds. But with 1.5 seconds, KU has another chance. In a timeout, Boeheim exhales. He’s chatting with his team. Weaver jokes his undershirt is soaked in sweat. “Boeheim didn’t know what to say to us,” Anthony says. Turns out he did: For the first time all game, Boeheim instructs Syracuse to play man-to-man defense on the inbounds play. Syracuse would scrap its vaunted zone for the play.

0:00: Hinrich gets a decent look, but it’s contested in the corner. Way long. Boeheim raises his arm. McNamara says it was the first time in his life he ran aimlessly, without a direction or destination. “Pure elation,” he says. Before the game, Anthony told his teammates he had one request: If SU won, he wouldn’t be at the bottom of the celebration pile. Yet he finds himself on the bottom. Hopkins sprints over from the bench and is buried near the bottom of the pile.

“I just remember saying, ‘I can’t breathe,’ ” McNamara says.

Boeheim and Williams entered the night with a combined seven Final Four appearances, 42 years of coaching, 1,070 games won, and exactly zero national championship banners. Boeheim is the victor, though he offers a message to his friend.

“I’ll never forget walking down to shake hands after they beat us in 2003 in New Orleans,” Williams said before North Carolina played Syracuse in the 2016 Final Four. “I remember it like it was yesterday. I said, ‘Jimmy, I’m really sad, but I’m really happy for you.’ I meant that. I’ll never forget Jimmy’s response. He basically said, ‘Thank you, but you’re going to get one too.’”

In the Syracuse locker room, players dance. There is no speech from the head coach. He stands, speechless. “We’re like, is he gonna say something?” someone on the Facebook chat says. Boeheim keeps looking at the box score, pacing back and forth. “It was just a shock of the moment,” someone on the chat adds.

“Coach,” Pace says, “was in the clouds.”

(Photos: Craig Jones / Getty Images)