Beware of the Lloyd

So I was doing a little bit of reasearch for my "this day in Syracuse history" section of the blog, and I ran across a name I hadn't heard in years... Michael Lloyd.

Lloyd was supposed to be Adrian Autry's (one of my favorite players of all-time that hardly anyone mentions because he was kind of stuck between the greatness of ShermDoug and Poetry in Moten) replacement. He even wore the same number. With an already loaded team of talent consisting of All-Americans Lawence Moten and John Wallace, Lloyd was expected to bring his 34 ppg average from JUCO to the Big East and help the Orange make an outside run at a title. The Orange were ranked as high as 6th that season and Lloyd was partly why in a big way. Though the cuse lost their opener that season at George Washington, Lloyd exploded onto the Citrus Scene by scoring 27 points (25 in the second half). That season he also nailed a buzzer beating three-pointer at Providence to give Syracuse a 60-59 win (on a personal note I remember crying just after the ball went in because I was so happy. That's a true statement, cross my heart. I was 10 years old. Still waiting on confirmation from my father if the tears were orange). For the season Lloyd averaged 12 pointsBut Mike's tenure on the hill only lasted one season after a heartbreaking loss to defending champ Arkansas in the second round of the NCAA tournament (thanks, Moten. Still love ya though).

Then it was discovered Lloyd had faulty transfer transcripts. He was removed from the team and the University.

But two years later another Lloyd stepped on the floor for the Orange. "Rock" Lloyd, who was a freshmen and a member of one of the greatest flame-out recruiting classes ever (LeSean Howard, Winfred Walton) had it not been for Etan and J. Hart, who still doesn't have a jumper by the way.

Rock didn't last long either. He left the team after just one season in Orange as well.

If anyone has any information about the whereabouts of either Mike or Rock Lloyd, please, let everyone know. It's imperitive to find out if it's worth recruiting anyone named Lloyd again or not.

One final note. Arkansas went to the Championship game in '95. Maybe its a good thing Moten called a time out with none left. I may not be here if they went on to lose two title games in a row ('95 to UCLA and '96 to the NBA's Kentucky Wildcats). Man they were loaded. Ouch. Sorry, I'll try never to bring that up again.