Waiters may have one season under his belt but his Syracuse timeline stretches back 5 years to his verbal commitment as a high school freshman.  In other words, there is a sense of entitlement that Waiters showed up with for his first season of college.  Throw in the fact that good old Cousin Scoop was already on campus making inroads and Boeheim was facing the perfect storm of personality, ego and trouble.

Waiters had an up and down season which was highlighted by his allegedly cursing out Boeheim during a loss against Marquette which was immediately followed by him playing zero minutes in the following game.  He showed flashes of offensive talent and fearlessness with the basketball.  When he wasn’t causing problems it was easy to see a productive career in front of him.

Given those glimpses, I am of the mindset that the 2011-2012 Orange are a better team with Dion as a potential lead option offensively.  I would guess that Boeheim feels the same away having recently survived the Devendorf era.  If he made it with Devo, he can make it with Dion.  So what was his motive in making those comments?

Let’s ask Seinfeld:

hand – (related terms: pre-emptive breakup) (1) one who has the upper-hand in a relationship. (2) the person who doesn’t have the upper-hand is said to have no hand. (3) one way to get hand is by executing a pre-emptive breakup.  (4) quote: “We all want the hand. Hand is tough to get. You gotta get the hand from the opening” — Jerry.  (5) quote: “Jerry, let me tell you something, a man without hand is not a man.  I got so much hand I’m coming out of my gloves.” — George

Do you see what we have here?  It is all about the hand in this relationship.  Dion came to campus with what he perceived to be hand.  Recruited and committed early, Cousin already in the backcourt who had his own troubles and lived to tell about it and legions of Orange fans awaiting his arrival.  All of this could lead to the feeling or the perception of having hand.

So what does Boeheim do?  It’s the pre-emptive breakup trick.  We don’t need you, your scholarship is a year-to-year contract and I am the one renewing it or not.  I can make you vanish like a fart in the wind and sentence you to Iona if I please.  Ladies and gentlemen, this is how you take hand back.  And I think it worked.

Dion Waiters will be in the Syracuse backcourt next season – I guarantee it – and he will behave himself because he just learned a lesson he didn’t expect to be learning.  When it’s time for the old coach to get the hand back he will and he just did.

See you next season Dion and remember, a man without hand is not a man, and you are still just a kid.