As the story goes, Hakim Warrick almost never even had the opportunity to put on a Syracuse Orange uniform. The 6-foot-9 forward out of Philadelphia wasn’t a highly sought-after recruit out of high school and it wasn’t until Julius Hodge surprisingly spurned Syracuse for NC State that a scholarship would open up for him on Jim Boeheim’s club.
That move ended up being a blessing in disguise for both Syracuse and Warrick — had Hodge decided to play his college basketball in Central New York, we never would have witnessed “The Block” that helped seal Syracuse’s first and only NCAA national title.