On Monday, Nov. 24, the Orange defeated the 18th ranked Florida Gators in the semifinals of the CBE Classic Tournament in Kansas City, Mo. The next night, Nov. 25, they overcame a double-digit second-half deficit to upset the de facto home team, the 22nd ranked Kansas Jayhawks—last year’s NCAA National Champions—to raise the Classic trophy. The Orange then boarded a flight and flew North by Northeast back to Syracuse and on Friday, Nov. 28, hosted the Virginia Cavaliers for their third game in five days.
Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim was infuriated at one person in particular for this exhausting convolution in scheduling. “There’s really only one person to blame for this night and that’s me,” he said at the post-game press conference. “There’s no way we should be playing this game Friday night and, win or lose, there’s no way I should have scheduled this game, our sixth game in 12 days.”
Mind games: Syracuse University point guard Jonny Flynn will surely be getting in the heads of many opposing players this season with his styling and profiling on the court, as he did with Calvin Baker of Virginia last Friday. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO
But despite playing a game every other night for the past two weeks, the Orange once again overcame another double-digit second-half deficit and upended the Cavs 73-70 to improve their record to 6-0 and help them go from unranked nationally the previous week to now the No. 16 team in the country in the Associated Press poll. They since bested Colgate, 86-57, on Dec. 1.
“I told the players this was probably a harder and almost a better win than the two in Kansas City,” said Boeheim after Friday’s game. “Considering how far we were behind, how tired we looked and how the game was going their way, it was a tremendous win to overcome all that, plus the scheduling.”
The Cavaliers went on a 10-3 run to start the game and controlled the pace the entire first half and eventually found themselves up by 12 points with 13 minutes remaining in regulation. It was then that the switch finally turned on for the Orange with sophomore point guard Jonny Flynn providing the impetus as Syracuse took the lead with eight minutes remaining and never looked back.
Flynn was the co-Rookie of the Year in the Big East Conference last year and talking heads on several national TV and radio programs have declared him one of the top point guards in the country this year. And while his attitude is the polar opposite of disgruntled New York Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury, his ability to slash to the hoop and score at will while still maintaining astute court vision is not unlike “Starbury.” But Flynn, like the rest of the team, started off apathetic, scoring only four of his 15 points in the first half.
“We’ve been impatient on offense for three straight games in the first half,” continued Boeheim. “We take the first half trying to figure out what we should do in the second half and we’ve just been awful. We’ve got to be more patient in the first half.”
Since every press conference fields at least one twit-witted question, after this game the award went to a local reporter who asked Boeheim if he thought fatigue from playing in Kansas City earlier in the week played a factor in the slow start in the first half. “If fatigue would be a factor,” Boeheim enlightened, “it would occur in the second half.”
But since fatigue was not the culprit, the fact they were able to rally in the second half for two straight games can only be attributed to the marathon-like training of playing short-handed last year and having their full roster available this year. On top of that, last year, Boeheim said Flynn was the second best freshman he’s ever coached next to Carmelo Anthony.
With one more year of college experience, Flynn is beginning to look ’Melo-caliber. And with a team just as deep as SU’s 2003 national champions, if everyone stays healthy and keeps playing the way they’ve played so far, Syracuse could be cutting down nets once again this March, or at least avoiding the NIT for the third straight year.
Boeheim was forced to use his bench more so than normal this game as Arinze Onuaku, a junior who has been dominant starting at center, was held out for most of the second half because of foul trouble, substituted with sophomore Rick Jackson. The second-year sixth man responded with eight points, six rebounds and five blocks. “Ricky did a tremendous job coming in for A.O. {Arinze Onuaku},” said Boeheim, “this was his best effort.”
Last year, that kind of quality production was unavailable off the bench as Andy Rautins and Eric Devendorf were both lost to season-ending injuries. Although last year’s one-and-done Orange phenom Donte Greene left for the greener dollar-bill pastures of the National Basketball Association, the return of Rautins and Devendorf, plus the experience earned last year by the returning players, can only reap benefits.
Junior forward Paul Harris has improved his game every year he’s played at SU, and he narrowly missed his third straight double-double during the Virginia game, finishing with 13 points and eight rebounds. At 6-feet-4, Harris has the potential to be one of the shortest players ever to lead the Big East in rebounding. He’s currently averaging 9.5 boards per game, seven spots behind league-leading 6-foot-7 DeJuan Blair of Pittsburgh, who is pulling down 12.6 per contest.
“I’m not trying to, but if it happens it happens,” said Harris on the team’s preseason media day when asked if he thinks he could lead the Big East in rebounding. “I just want to lead the league in wins.”
—Tom Kahley
Bounding and astounding: Rick Jackson has been helping the Orange soar through the outer limits of success from the second unit this season. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO
