The 2008 men's basketball season looked promising to the Syracuse Orange...in August. 

Days away from the madness that is known as March, Syracuse is sitting on the bubble once again. Only this year they weren't supposed to be on the bubble, they were supposed to be fighting for a top seed and top ranking in the tournament. 

How injuries and inconsistency have foiled that plot.

First, Andy Rautins went down with a torn ACL while playing for Team Canada in the World Games. Then weeks into the 2008 season, junior guard Eric Devendorf was lost to a torn ACL as well. Following these injuries, the lone Senior Josh Wright disappeared and was effectively kicked off the team. 

The Orange were left to fight it out in the Big East with a bunch of young and talented freshman. With Johnny Flynn and Donte Greene, Syracuse has two of the top freshman in the country. Add in Paul Harris and Arinze Onuaku, and they have talent that other teams dream of. 

Unfortunately, talent isn't everything as the Orange have learned. Inexperience combined with lack of depth/leadership has proven costly as each night, Jim Boeheim is left to guess which of his squads will show up.

The squad that plays hard, focused, and together; or the inconsistent play-for-myself team. Unfortunately, it's been the latter on most nights as Syracuse has been maddeningly inconsistent.

It looks as though it will be a second consecutive year that the Orange are in the NIT. It wasn't supposed to be like this.