Lawrence Moten (1972-2025)

If you asked me to come up with a list of 1,000 blog post suggestions, a post about Lawrence Moten would not be in the top 5,000. However, the passing of the Syracuse legend earlier this week brought up several memories. I grew up a fan of the University of Pittsburgh basketball team and by extension the Big East conference. I also went to college in upstate/central New York where Syracuse basketball was the biggest sports team in the area.*

Moten played for Syracuse from 1991-92 through 1994-95. Looking at his stats, he was only a 31.6% career 3-point shooter (though the 3-point shot wasn't as important or used as much then) and a 71.6% free throw shooter. Yet, Moten averaged 19.3 points per game in his four seasons. He was annoying. He always seemed to make a big shot or a key free throw near the end of games. Moten wasn't on the team that went to the NCAA championship in 1995 (which featured John Wallace and Otis Hill), but he was a big part of the foundation for that team.

Moten also played at a time when you really got to know college basketball players. Look, I'm all for current players getting as much NIL money as possible. Colleges profited off of players for years. I also think it was completely unfair that coaches could leave schools whenever they wanted for a new job but players would have to sit out a year if they transferred between institutions. I'm all for players being able to move from school to school. We'll get back to that momentarily. 

Pitt is still my favorite basketball team. I just looked at the 2025-2026 roster and really only recognize two names, Cam Corhen and Brandin Cummings. Okay, Papa Amadou Kante also looks familiar since he had a good game against Ohio State at the beginning of the last season. Otherwise, everyone else is new except for Amdy Ndiaye who played all of 21 minutes over 8 games during the 2024-2025 season. The complete turnover of rosters from year to year isn't exclusive to Pitt. It's everywhere. I also follow George Mason basketball closely, and there is only one player (Brayden O'Connor) who had significant playing time last season on the roster this year. 

Which brings me back to Moten. During his time, you knew the best players in college basketball. Looking at the all Big East teams from the early to mid-1990s, I remember nearly all of the names. I can't do that for many teams/conferences today. Maybe it's because I followed college basketball more closely in my teenage years than now, but I don't think that's the case. Yes, while the best NCAA players go professional immediately, many of the really good players switch teams year to year. It's impossible to follow. 

Moten was a star at Syracuse and in the community. That rarely happens in college basketball today when players are only at a school for a year or two.

RIP.

* Completely unrelated to Moten, in 1995 or 1996 former Vice President Dan Quayle spoke at Ithaca College. He may or may not have been testing the waters for a Presidential bid. Anyway, Quayle, born in Indiana and a representative of the Hoosier state in the House and Senate, started the speech by mentioning how Indiana defeated Syracuse in the 1987 NCAA title game thanks to a Keith Smart game-winning shot. The crowd, which was not all college students, was not pleased. There wasn't booing, but there was definitely an uneasiness of him bringing up a sore subject. For my Pittsburgh friends, it would be the equivalent of a Georgia politician speaking in Western Pennsylvania and being excited to mention Francisco Cabrera.

Photos by Manny Milan - Sports Illustrated via Getty and Nick Lisi AP

Get Off the Express

Perhaps you have heard of the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award in which the winning college football coach receives $70,000 to donate to charity and the school’s alumni association. Perhaps not. Regardless, I want to write about one person who definitely does not deserve the award: Greg Robinson of Syracuse University.

During the mid-1990s, I attended college in central New York about an hour away from Syracuse. I was surrounded by Syracuse University sports fans who always thought that this would be the year where they would win the national title. However, each year, it seemed like Syracuse would be ranked highly, lose a few games early to knock them out of national championship contention and then finish strong, so that they would be ranked highly again the next season. Although they never made it to the “next level,” the team was always competitive and won bowl games and/or Big East titles regularly.

The mid-90s teams featured future NFL superstars Donovan McNabb and Marvin Harrison. Looking back further in Syracuse’s football history, you see legendary names like Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, Joe Morris, John Mackey, Art Monk and former Steeler Gary Anderson.



So what happened at Syracuse? I haven’t followed them enough to know. I do know that Greg Robinson has not done very well. In his first year as head coach (2005), Syracuse finished 1-10. In 2006, the team was 4-8 followed by a 2-10 record in 2007. As I am typing this, Syracuse is 1-6 so far this season. Robinson may be a great person, a wonderful teacher and someone helping his players become excellent citizens, role models and college graduates. However, an 8-34 record is not very good, particularly at a school with the football history of Syracuse. Actually, that’s not a very good record for a team consisting of me and the writers of all the blogs listed in the links section!

Finally, you know things aren’t going well when the New York Times reports that the school has hired a search firm for a new coach even though the current coach is still there and has one more year remaining on his contract.

Therefore, I encourage you to vote for anyone for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award; except for Greg Robinson.

In case you were wondering, the slogan for the 2008 Syracuse football team is Get on the Express hence the title. Yes, I wrote hence!