Before the Big Eat Conference gets started this week, I thought I’d throw it back to an old favorite of mine, the list for my Top 10 least favorite Syracuse players ever.

Honorable Mentions: 
Trevor Cooney
Kris Joseph (Drafted by the Celts, so he gets a pass.  Huge clown feet though.)
Jason Hart (He got by on hustle even though he turned the ball over way more than people want to remember…back when guys stayed in college for 4 years.)
Donte Green (Classic Victor Paige move to leave after accomplishing nothing.)
Wes Johnson
Michael Carter-Williams (If he stayed more than 1 year he would have definitely cracked the list).
Paschall Chukwu (For obvious reasons).

T-10. Donovan McNabb & Greg Paulus

Ok, so I know that McNabb barely played in his two years on the team but that doesn’t stop every single sports announcer from calling him a two-sport athlete.  He’s one of my least favorite NFL players (being a Giants fan) who choked year after year in the playoffs.  Greg Paulus might be my least favorite player from my least favorite college (Duke) so he pretty much has to be on any list of my least favorite anything in sports.  I don’t even care that he never played on the basketball team there.  

Pop Quiz: What’s worse, Greg Paulus’ football stats or Donovan McNabb’s basketball stats:

Paulus: 13 TDs, 14 INTs, record of 4-8 (last place in the Big East)

McNabb: Freshman Year: Played in only 5 games and shot 2 of 12.  Sophomore Year: 2.8 PPG, 1.1 RPG.  Some 2-sport athletes.  

9. Lawrence Moten

My first experience with hating a Syracuse player.  At the time, I thought his high socks were the stupidest thing I’d ever seen.  Looking back, I think he was a pioneer for high sock wearers everywhere.  For some reason I have memories of him wearing one sock up and one sock down.  That can’t be right can it?  Maybe it was Kerry Kittles.  I can’t remember.  Bunch of flashy punks.  He’d rather look good and lose than look bad and win.

8. Johnny Flynn

Dude looks like a little munchkin tank with a enormous head band.  Seriously, how big is that head band?  It takes up like half his head.  It’s more like a blindfold than a head band.  And is he doing the Cornholio move from Beavis and Butthead?  

I thought he was so overrated and definitely didn’t warrant a lottery pick by the Timberwolves.  They picked three PGs in that draft:  Ricky Rubio, Johhny Flynn (back-to-back mind you) and Ty Lawson (traded to Denver on draft day).  They started Flynn that year and neither of the other two guys played for them that year either.  Good work T-Wolves.  Good work Flynn.

7. Etan Thomas

Look at him.  Just look at him.  All you need to know about him, besides the fact that he has really long dreads and is a wannabe Predator, is that he released a book of poetry entitled, More Than An Athlete: Poems by Etan Thomas.  ‘Nuff said.

6. Andy Rautins

Now we have generations of guys I don’t like happening (his dad played at Syracuse too).  Just give yourself a moment and take a look at this picture.  He’s wearing a sweater with a sweatpants and looks like he’s straight off the Jersey Shore…and I hate the Jersey Shore.  Like father like son with those spikey monstrosities on their heads.  He shouldn’t have been any good but kind of was by his senior year.  At least enough to get drafted since he was a guy with some length who could knock down threes.  You only need to be really good at one thing in the NBA to turn in a couple of years in the league.  I mean, look at Kyle Korver and Jason Kapono.  I had to look it up since I haven’t seen him on any benches in a long while and it looks like he’s kicking it in the D-League right now on the Tulsa 66ers.  How awesome are the D-League team names? It’s like Single-A baseball.

5. Carmelo Anthony

First of all, those cornrows are ridiculous.  I’d love to see him go back to those but there is no way in hell that he ever will.  This ranking has more to do with how much I don’t like him in the NBA rather than in college but since these rankings aren’t based on any real, actual tangible bit of anything, than I’ll put him wherever the hell I want.  He’s a selfish NBA player (Exhibit A: How he forced himself out of Denver) but there’s no denying that he’s also a top-15 player in the League.  Just a side note, the year he won the NCAA National Championship, UConn beat that ‘Cuse team in the Big East tournament.  Just sayin’.

He was ridiculous that year as a freshman, carrying a team starting one senior (Keuth Duany), two sophomores (Hakim Warrick and Craig Forth), and two freshamn (Carmelo and Gerry McNamara).  Check out his highlights from that season.  This will be the one and only time that I give any props whatsoever to Syracuse.  How about you throw it down once in a while though Nancy Boy.  There, that’s better.

4. Gerry McNamara

Of course he would carry on as an Assistant Coach for Boeheim…of course he would.  There is no reasoning to why he was any good as a player.  Five foot nothing, a hundred and nothing, and with out a speck of athletic ability.  He did crush it in the Big East Tournament his senior year, becoming the first team to win the 5 games in 5 days and shattering the single tournament scoring record while sprinkling some buzzer beaters in.  That is, until Kemba Walker completely obliterated all of that with one of the greatest performances of all-time.  Before transitioning to the coaching ranks he was averaging about 10 a game in the D-League, which is semi-respectable if he didn’t spell Gerry with a G like he is a freaking 80 year old.  

3. Preston Shumpert

Jesus Christ, your name is Preston Shumpert.  You know what his name is in Turkish (’cause the guy’s Turkish)?  Mert Shumpert.  You lost before you even began.  You looked like you were 40 years old in college.  Seriously, you look super old, were you held back?  Dude could fill it up though, no doubt about that.  He’s actually still kicking around the Turkish League at 33.  Oh, did I mention I can’t stand you?

2. Paul Harris

This guy was built like a God Damn truck.  He’s got the body of a linebacker at 6’4” / 230 pounds.  You know when you probably shouldn’t declare early for the NBA Draft?  When you average 12.0 points and 8.1 rebounds and you’re 6’4”.  Oh, but he did shoot 22.7% from three that year, so I guess it makes sense.  Did I mention yet that he was charged with drug possession and domestic violence in High School, which ultimately led to student sections chanting “Where’s My 8 Ball?!?”  But he seems like a good guy (he was charged with second degree menacing as well…whatever the hell that is).

1. Eric Devendorf

The number 1 spot isn’t even a remotely close race to me.  This guy may be the single most easily dislikable player in the history of college sports.  Let’s see how he spent his time on the Syracuse campus:

2008: Devendorf put on probation by the school for harassing another student.

2008: Suspended indefinitely for hitting a female student in the face.  Sentence reduced to 40 hours of community service as school said he “didn’t take past probation seriously enough.”  Ya think?  Guess how many games he missed.  Guess.  0.

2010: Spent a night in jail after a brawl at a bar.

What’s that?  You left early with Paul Harris as well and didn’t get drafted either?  Maybe it’s because you suck and are a punk.  He averaged 15.7 PPG, 3.0 APG, & 2.0 RPG.  His numbers actually went down from the year before.  I don’t understand how these guys think that being an OK player in college translates into being a good idea to leave school early.  You made honorable mention All Big East once.  Once.  Good idea though.

Check out the link for all of the Crimes & Misdemeanors at Syracuse under Boeheim.  It seems they have a propensity to hit and harass women.  

Actually sort of liked: John Wallace.  That’s only because he was on Ray Allen’s High School team in He Got Game.