START AGAIN

With veterans in fresh roles and a loaded crop of newcomers, Syracuse looks to break through to the

Final Four after last year’s unexpected early exit

BASKETBALL SEASON PREVIEW 2010-2011

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START AGAIN | The DAIly ORANGe bASkeTbAll SeASON pRevIew

3NextAfter Kris Joseph waited for two years on the bench, his teammates and coach say he is ready to lead Syracuse

Sports Editor Andrew L. JohnPresentation Director Becca McGovernPhoto Editor Bridget StreeterCopy Editor Susan KimArt Director Molly SneeAsst. Sports Editor Brett LoGiuratoAsst. Sports Editor Tony OliveroAsst. Photo Editor Kirsten CeloAsst. Photo Editor Danielle ParhizkaranAsst. Sports Copy Editor Michael CohenAsst. Sports Copy Editor Mark Cooper

t h e i n d e p e n d e n t s t u d e n t n e w s p a p e r o f s y r a c u s e , n e w y o r k

Kathleen Ronayne mAnAging EDitor

Katie McInerney EDitor in ChiEf

general manager Peter WaackStudent Business manager Rebekah Jones it manager Mike Escalanteit manager Derek OstranderCirculation manager Harold HeronSenior Advertising Designer Lauren HarmsAdvertising Designer Dom DenaroAdvertising Designer Matt SmiroldoAdvertising representative Adam BeilmanAdvertising representative Eric FormanAdvertising representative Bonnie JonesAdvertising representative Adam Schatz Advertising representative Marissa PerrAdvertising representative Yiwei WuClassifieds manager Michael KangAdvertising Design Coordinator Lauren GenivivaSpecial Advertising Sections Michelle ChiuBusiness intern Tim BennettBusiness intern Chenming Mo

Special thanks to Sue Edson, Pete Moore and SU athletic communications

cov er photoleft: danielle parhizkaran | asst. photo editor

right: kirsten celo | asst. photo editor

6Mixed baghow a diverse, much-hyped recruiting class came together, and how it plans to live up to that hype

4The crooked pathovercoming different obstacles along the way, Scoop Jardine now holds the keys to the Syra-cuse offense

8Eye of the stormSteve Lavin took a chance in returning to coach St. John’s. his comeback is already paying dividends during season preparation and in recruiting10

Open fieldthe nCAA tournament was expanded to include 68 teams this summer, and those involved say it will likely stay that way for some time

12Big dance or bustthe talent for the SU women’s basket-ball team is there. Can that talent come together for the program’s first nCAA tournament appearance in three years? 16Follow the leader

With the departure of nicole michael, Erica morrow will need to guide a young and gifted Syracuse squad15

left and center: danielle parhizkaran | asst. photo editor; right: greg babcock | contributing photographer

Beginning to endA closer look at SU’s challenging slate as well as position-by-position break-downs

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Among a mass of huddled reporters stands Kris Joseph. He’s now the center of attention, at the forefront

of another basketball season at Syracuse. At the annual holiday that marks the

start of the season — media day — Joseph, the 6-foot-7 junior forward from Montreal, is getting the superstar’s treatment. He fends off question after question, brushing off the notion that he has to replace his former roommate, Wes Johnson, as SU’s next great forward.

Yet deep inside, he has been biding his time, waiting for an opportunity like this.

“This is a big opportunity for me,” Joseph says. “And I’ve been preparing.”

Overshadowed by veterans during his fi rst two years on campus, Joseph is fi nally in a position to lead the Orange. Johnson, Andy Rautins and Arinze Onuaku are now gone, leaving Joseph with the keys to the car. It’s a big step for any player, even someone pegged for a breakout year.

He occasionally wipes the sweat from his brow in between questions. Early expectations are extremely high. Syra-cuse enters the season as the No. 10 team in the country despite losing three of its best players during the offseason. At least a portion of that is because of Joseph and the anticipation of just how good he can be.

“This year it’s going to be a much more intense effort on him, and he’s ready for that,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. “I think he wants that challenge, and I think he’s fully capable, at this stage

of his career, to be a go-to type of guy.”Joseph’s ability to adapt to his new role

could be the difference for Syracuse this season. Though the Orange returns three other key veterans, the spotlight will be on Joseph from the opening tip.

Those close to him have seen the year-to-year progress. They see the leaps of develop-ment. And they have seen Joseph’s prepara-tion for this opportunity.

“Last year he started showing what he can do, and this year he’s going to let it all out and let everybody know what he’s capable of,” said Johnson, now with the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves. “He’s very, very talented.

“This is his year.”

A kid from CanadaIn 2006, word was spreading about this mysterious kid from Canada. An athletic forward who could handle, shoot and pass was joining the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference, the most prestigious high school basketball league in Washing-ton, D.C.

Few had actually seen the kid play, which only added to the intrigue.

“Everybody was talking about this kid from Canada and about how he could play,” said former DeMatha Catholic High School guard Austin Freeman, now a senior at Georgetown. “We had no idea who he was.”

Looking to gain some exposure play-ing in a competitive league in the states, Joseph relocated from his hometown of

Montreal to Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C., prior to his junior year. With Montreal’s limited bas-ketball scene, Joseph viewed the move as an opportunity to showcase his skills on a more recognizable stage.

Before his fi rst game in Archbishop Carroll’s green and gold, Joseph did some homework on his opponent. He found that the opposition featured two players who were headed to Georgetown the following year, including Freeman, a McDonald’s All-American. Here was an opportunity for Joseph to justify the hype.

Within the fi rst minute of his fi rst game in his new surrounding, Joseph dropped two 3-pointers on DeMatha. Moments later, Joseph slammed home a pair of back-to-back dunks. In his fi rst game, Joseph was dominating one of the area’s top teams.

Freeman was fi nally getting his much-anticipated introduction. And the once-rau-cous DeMatha gym suddenly turned silent.

“I looked around and everybody was just stunned,” Joseph said. “It was like,

‘Who is this kid, why is he wearing a green jersey and why is he doing this to us?’”

DeMatha eventually prevailed. But the cat was out of the bag on Joseph. The performance was the platform he needed to introduce himself as a top-tier Division I prospect. Not long after, the scholarship offers started rolling in.

Once Syracuse offered, it was all over. Joseph jumped at the opportunity to be closer to home and play for the team he grew up watching on television in Canada.

“It takes a certain level of maturity for a kid to come from so far away to a totally different surrounding,” said Clinton Per-row, Joseph’s head coach at Carroll. “He had that maturity about him and knew exactly where he wanted to go from Day 1.”

It’s that maturity and drive that has many thinking Joseph is ready to take the next step and emerge as one of the top players in the Big East this year. For that to happen, Joseph realized early on that he must continue to add to his game.

To those around him, he has done just SEE JOSEPH PAGE 18

After a 2-year progression in the background, Kris Joseph is ready to lead the Orange

JuniorForward6-7, 210 poundsHometown: Montreal, QuebecHigh School: Archbishop Carroll (Washington, D.C.)

YEAR GP-GS MPG FG% FT% 3-PT% RPG APG SPG PPG2008-09 34-2 13.5 42.7 40.4 26.9 2.4 0.5 0.9 3.4 2009-10 35-4 27.8 49.0 74.8 22.0 5.5 1.7 1.4 10.8

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By Andrew L. JohnSPORTS EDITOR

After a 2-year progression in

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S coop this. Scoop that.Strolling into the Neumann-Goretti High School

(Pa.) gym eight years ago, Antonio “Scoop” Jardine was the raw city kid from Philadelphia. He was the kid who thought he was ready to play high school basketball in seventh grade. The kid who had a big game — but an even bigger head.

“When he came in, he was the big kid on the block,” said Carl Arrigale, Jardine’s head coach at Neumann-Goretti. “You know, the big shot. Coming in, it was all, ‘Scoop this, Scoop that.’”

Eight years later, Jardine stands in the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center among the media horde, a world away from where he started.

It’s “Scoop this, Scoop that.” But eight years later, Jardine is no longer the raw city kid from the streets of Philadelphia. No longer the kid who thinks he has earned anything. No longer embracing the attention, but deflecting it.

“We have more than just me,” Jardine says. “We have Kris Joseph, Rick Jackson, Brandon Triche back from last year’s team.”

He’s preparing for a junior season in which he will enter Syracuse’s starting lineup after playing a key role off SU head coach Jim Boeheim’s bench last season. And he’ll be relied upon to fill the void left by the departing Andy Rautins.

It took 22 years, with plenty of bumps along the way. But Jardine is where he wants to be.

‘My savior’Pop. Pop.

Gunshots. In the streets of Philadelphia, they’re all too familiar.

“I’ve seen a lot. I’ve seen murders. Drugs. Everything,” Jardine said. “Where I come from, it’s really tough.”

He looks at his eighth grade class picture. Twenty-five kids. And today six of them — one in four — are dead.

The first step in Jardine’s journey took him through, and out of, those streets of Philadelphia. To do that required not falling into the trap. For Jardine, to do that required basketball.

“It’s easy to take that path because that’s all you know,” Jardine said. “Basketball was my savior. Basketball got me up out of there.”

Basketball talent got Jardine and fellow SU star Rick Jackson from playground leagues in seventh grade to Neumann-Goretti, a rising program that was starting to attract inner-city talent. Jardine was so anxious to get there, Arrigale said, that he applied for enrollment after seventh grade.

And so came the first turn in Jardine’s path. From the streets that hardened him to a private Catholic high school that made him a basketball player.

“It was the turning point of my life,” Jardine said. “I was in a different environment. I was able to be around kids every day that were trying to make something of themselves.”

With the four years at Neumann-Goretti came the matu-ration of Scoop Jardine, the basketball player and the person. And during the maturation, there were learn-ing experiences. Like when he wanted to transfer from Neumann-Goretti during that freshman season.

Arrigale said Jardine had little interest in guarding any-body. Arrigale had no interest in playing Jardine. And Jardine had no interest in riding the bench when he felt he deserved to play. He had a name in Philadelphia, and there were plenty of public schools that would give him playing time.

He talked to his father, the elder Antonio. He talked to his

grandmother, Deborah Jardine, with whom he lived while attending Neumann-Goretti. And with a little push from his father, Jardine chose to finish what he started.

“I told him he wasn’t quitting,” Antonio Jardine said. “You’re going to stick it out. You wanted to come here. You have to wait your turn.”

When he stayed, the maturation as a basketball player came right away, toward the end of that freshman season at Neumann-Goretti. It came when he went up against a future NBA player — the Houston Rockets’ Kyle Lowry — and scored 15 points in the fourth quarter, only to see the agony of defeat as his potential game-winning buzzer-beater clanged off the back iron.

And it came two games later against an Austin Freeman-led DeMatha High School, with Syracuse assistant coach Mike Hopkins in the stands for a showcase game in Spring-field, Mass. Jardine went off for 36 points in a Neumann-Goretti win.

“He was confident,” Hopkins said of Jardine’s recruitment. “He was playing with older players, and it didn’t matter.”

“Some guys,” he added, “just have it.”

Scoop Jardine’s journey has brought him from the streets of Philadelphia to a role as a leader on the Syracuse men’s bas-ketball team. Here are some of his stops in an up-and-down road:

Aug. 9, 1988: Antonio “Scoop” Jar-dine is born to Antonio Jardine and Angie Richards in Philadelphia.

September 2003: After attending four different middle schools, Jardine begins high school at Neumann-Goretti, a Catho-lic school.

Sept. 28, 2005: Jardine commits to Syracuse with high school teammate Rick Jackson, spurning offers from Vil-lanova, Virginia and Wake Forest.

March 4, 2006: In one of the most memorable scenes from Jardine’s high school career, more than 100 police are called to the scene in the aftermath of a tense Catholic League championship game, which Neumann-Goretti won on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

January 2007: Jardine opens his senior season in high school with 36 points against the Austin Freeman-led DeMatha (Md.) High School in a show-case game in Springfield, Mass.

June 2007: Jardine is with his cousin, Lawrence “Boo” Rose, when Rose is shot in the stomach. Rose died less than a month later while Jardine took summer classes at Syracuse. Jardine calls it the “worst moment” of his life.

Dec. 30, 2007: In his freshman sea-son, Jardine enters the starting lineup against Northeastern due to a season-ending injury to Eric Devendorf. He scores what was then a career-high 18 points.

Jan. 28, 2007: Jardine is suspended indefinitely from Syracuse after allowing his cousin to purchase $115.65 worth of food on a stolen SU identification card. His suspension lasts only two games, and he is never charged with a crime.

Oct. 17, 2008: SU head coach Jim Boeheim announces that Jardine will redshirt the 2008-09 season after play-ing much of his freshman season with a stress fracture in his left leg. In his time off, he sheds 15 pounds.

Nov. 9, 2009: In his first game back against Albany — in what would be Boe-heim’s 800th win — Jardine scores 12 points and dishes out four assists.

March 25, 2010: Jardine scores 14 points in Syracuse’s upset loss to Butler in last season’s Sweet 16, a loss he says still stings to this day.

Nov. 2, 2010: Jardine scores 11 points and has three assists in SU’s exhibition win over Kutztown. He says after the game that it is a start at “redeeming our-selves.”

THROUGH THE FIRE

The crooked pathWith bumps along the way, Scoop Jardine’s road has taken him to the spotlight

“Going through that situation makes you cherish everything. Because everything could have been taken away from me for one mistake. I could have been back in Philly, where I started. Because I made one little mistake.”

Scoop JardineSU GUARD

By Brett LoGiuratoASSt. SPoRtS EDItoR

see jardine page 14

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JuniorGuard6-2, 190 poundsHometown: Philadelphia, Pa.High School: Neumann-Goretti

YEAR GP-GS MPG FG% FT% 3-PT% RPG APG SPG PPG

2007-08 33-10 19.6 46.7 82.9 27.8 1.5 2.5 1.2 5.52008-09 DID NOT PLAY - MEDICAL REDSHIRT2009-10 35-0 22.2 48.9 75.0 38.9 1.9 4.3 1.2 9.1S

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kirsten celo | asst. photo editor

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Mixed bagSpanning 3 continents and 5 years, the story of SU’s freshman class may exceed its hype

F or the motley crew, there never was a true beginning. That’s what the three continents separating the Brazilian neighborhood of Juiz de Fora, the soccer-saturated streets

of Saint Louis, Senegal, an inner-city neighborhood in Philadel-phia and the Baltimore home of a kid named Carl Jr. will do to the most motley of recruiting classes.

But there is, and was, always an unquestioned leader in Dion Waiters. When Carl “C.J.” Fair scours his mind for that starting point for the 2010 Syracuse freshman class, the closest thing comes in the form of a faded memory. Fair knows the meeting in the elevator at a random AAU tournament put SU’s unique four-man recruiting class on the same path.

Fair, admittedly, can’t remember the location or date of the tour-nament. But what he does recall is what became the first in-person meeting between two members of Syracuse’s 2010 freshman class.

“I knew (Waiters), but he didn’t know me,” Fair said. “He knew of me, but he didn’t really know me.

“Time flies. And now we come up here with open arms.”And so the fusion of one of the most eccentric recruiting classes

in SU history — one comprised of Waiters, Fair, Fab Melo and Baye Moussa Keita — took off in the elevator. Syracuse’s 2010 fresh-man class is a four-man group of polar backgrounds and paths. It equates to the No. 7 class in the country — according to Scout.com — which is the best in the Big East.

There is the leader in Waiters, the No. 27-ranked player in the 2010 class who committed to Syracuse before he ever played a high school game. There is the gem in Melo, the No. 13-ranked player and preseason Big East Rookie of the Year who comes from Brazil, where athletic allegiance to a university is unheard of. There is Moussa Keita, the Gumby-strong Oak Hill Academy import from Senegal, ranked No. 96 in the country. And then there is the one ordinary recruit in Fair — from the Syracuse breeding ground of Baltimore that produced Carmelo Anthony and Donte Greene — ranked No. 90 in the country.

They may be an unlikely foursome whose recruiting processes were as motley as the group themselves. But as they prepare to start the 2009-10 season, they also comprise a class expected to provide SU with four key players. And all four of them are bringing that rookie-like bravado. Starting with the gem that is referred to by the SU basketball holier-than-thou word: Melo.

“They all felt like they could play right away and help impact the program,” SU assistant coach Mike Hopkins said.

Melo’s American name speaks directly to the outlandish nature of the construction of the class. The new Melo was found thanks to the first SU center who brought Jim Boeheim to a Final Four — Rony Seikaly. But before Melo became the next Seikaly or Carmelo who SU fans latched their hopes onto, he was merely Fabricio de Melo. Sagemont High School head coach Adam Ross’s lucky draw — thanks to de Melo’s two cousins living in Miami — from lower middle-class Juiz de Fora, Brazil.

Depending on the day of the week, Ross may have called his new center “Febreze” or “Fabio.” He couldn’t quite say de Melo’s

first name. So, during a Sagemont practice in the fall of 2008, Ross explained the predicament, and in the vein of Brazilian soccer stars, Ross had an idea. Instead of the classic Brazilian one-names of Pele or Ronaldo, Ross wanted to put a little American spin to it. How about two names? How about Fab Melo?

“That’s the best story of them all,” Ross said. “Fab just sat back, smiled and said to himself, ‘Fab Melo … OK.’”

Little did Fabricio know, his “OK” would soon turn into, appar-ently, the most ironic get for an SU fan and for SU’s class. Just months later, Seikaly called SU assistant coach Bernie Fine about Melo.

“Coach Fine was like, ‘I am hearing about this big kid,’” SU assistant coach Rob Murphy said. “Before he was even rated, we got a chance to see him, and he was as good as advertised.”

During the same time, Delaware assistant coach R.C. Kehoe began to badger Hopkins. And it was all because of that YouTube video that was never supposed to be. Kehoe took notice of Melo when recruiting another Sagemont player that fall. As quickly as he realized his team wouldn’t have a prayer in landing Melo, Kehoe got on the phone with Hopkins. His good friend needed to get to Miami. Now.

“It’s unbelievable,” Hopkins said. “I looked at the YouTube thing, and then a few weeks later we are playing in Miami during the NCAA Tournament.”

With one look at Melo on the Internet-stream, the stream that was only supposed to be a practice tape, Hopkins said he felt like he was being entranced by something that didn’t seem real. Melo was that good.

“You are talking about a guy, you watch a movie and you are like, ‘No way. No way,’” Hopkins said. “And then you are like … ‘Way!’”

On Aug. 4, 2009, Melo committed to Syracuse. He was the finish-ing touch on the class, four years after Hopkins originally saw Waiters. In between, the Orange managed to snag another big man who showed up on SU’s radar late in the game.

That big man was Moussa Keita, a Senegalese import through Carmelo Anthony’s former high school, Oak Hill Academy. His commitment was a sudden one, as very few had heard of him.

What the Orange secured was its first international big man in the class, a big man who, like Melo, grew up playing soccer. Not until the age of 14 did the then-6-foot-2 Moussa Keita pick up basketball. From there, he skyrocketed up the African basketball scene, aided by the Sports for Education and Economic Develop-ment School in Senegal. It’s a school that professes “NBA dreams with a dose of reality.”

In 2007, Moussa Keita got that dose of NBA reality. At the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders camp in Dakar, Senegal, the basketball deity of Africa, Dikembe Mutombo greeted a teenage Moussa Keita to the camp. Moussa Keita was tardy, and this was a huge chance.

“Because of the paperwork, I was kind of late,” Moussa Keita

By Tony OliveroAsst. sports Editor

see next page

#3 dion Waiters, guard

#5 C.J. Fair, forward

#12 Baye Moussa Keita, forward/center

#51 Fab Melo, center

know their faceS

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Spanning 3 continents and 5 years, the story of SU’s freshman class may exceed its hype

said. “That was like the last option. I then talked to Dikembe, and he told me to hurry up.”

From there, Moussa Keita hurried up all right, transferring to Oak Hill for the 2008 season.

Back in the United States, Waiters was in the midst of a hectic high school career in which his commitment to Syracuse was the only constant he had. He went through three high schools, including one he was kicked out of, before trans-ferring to Life Center Academy in Burlington, N.J., as a junior. Waiters remained there until he graduated.

But despite the tribulations of Waiters’ high school career, he was the early get for the

Orange. Thanks to seeing him play with his older cousin, current SU guard Scoop Jardine, in a pickup basketball game at Neumann-Gore-tti High School (Pa.) when Waiters’ was just an eighth grader, Hopkins and SU pounced on Waiters. He became an SU commit observing the evolution of the class he led through the rest of its formation — the elevator ride included. He was, basically, a member of the team. Murphy professed that even though Melo is the prize recruit, Waiters was the leader of the class. The guard referred to SU as his second family.

It speaks to the core of his situation, as well as the class’s. Waiters was the polar opposite of Melo. Melo is that marquee name that reminds fans of another identical one-word SU legend.

Waiters is the forgotten cornerstone.“We knew we had a solid guard and we could

build the class around him,” Murphy said. “That’s what he did. He is going to do a lot for us this year.”

If the Syracuse basketball team was Waiters’ second family, his inclusion in SU’s class might as well have been his first. That’s why on Nov. 19 of last year, Waiters played that role of leader when the nation’s No. 7 player, Tobias Harris, chose Tennessee over the Orange.

He played the role of big brother, even if he is the youngest of the family. Waiters called up the other members of the class and got the point across.

After a half-decade of SU putting together

perhaps the country’s best combination of skill and story in a 2010 recruiting class, this was the final family. These four were it.

They were the motley crew. And Waiters let it be known that in less than a year, each of the four would need to bring his best, wherever he was from, to help Boeheim to his first national championship since the days of another fresh-man tabbed “Melo.”

No matter where they were, someone needed to round them up.

“I told them once practice starts, we are going to go hard,” Waiters said. “They had to bring a championship back for Coach Boeheim.”

aolivero@syr.edu

kirsten celo | asst. photo editor

“”

It was perfect timing. Perfect class coming together. Bringing a little bit of everything to the team.

“”

Syracuse lost a lot of players last year, starters. We need to help. We are going to be good this year.

“”

When we are on the court, it is all SU ball. It is not like our background. We are all one unit.

“”

This was my own choice. I liked the family atmosphere.

from previous page

The motley crew gives their take on the class:

Fab Melo Dion WaitersC.J. Fair

Baye Moussa Keita

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OpenFor now, the NCAA Tournament is set at 68 teams after a summer of expansion talk

fi eld

G ene Smith subscribed to the idea that less is more in expanding the fi eld for the NCAA Tournament. The

chairman of college basketball’s biggest event couldn’t see the benefi t of opening it up to 96 teams. For Smith, that’s just too many.

For the NCAA, it’s too bad not everyone saw it that way. Life would have been much easier.

After months of debating the issue, with coaches and athletic directors airing their thoughts weighing the pros and cons, the NCAA opted to expand the tournament from 65 to 68 teams. It was the outcome of a long process of going back and forth between whether it should go to 68 or 96. The mere mention of the number 96 brought out the most heated arguments among fans, while coaches typically supported it.

So 68 it was. Expand a little, not too much. “I think it was the right choice,” Smith, also

the athletic director at Ohio State, said. “We thought it was important to put 96 out there to discuss its merits.”

Some saw those merits, others saw no way 96 had any at all. There lies the debate.

The question of how many teams to let into the tournament took control of college basket-ball discussions across America.

Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim was always at the forefront of that debate. His view has always been that the point of the tourna-ment was to allow all the good teams in college basketball to get a chance at winning it all. With better teams should come more spots, Boeheim said.

“I’m really tired of these experts saying that there are no teams that are good enough, that they’re all mediocre,” Boeheim said. “Just

because you have good balance doesn’t mean they’re mediocre. It means they’re balanced.”

The NCAA reached a compromise between the views of Boeheim, who was in favor of a 96-team fi eld, and others who didn’t want to fi x what wasn’t broke. Even coaches who were fi rm advocates of letting more teams in were satisfi ed with the outcome. If it meant even just a few more teams would get the opportunity to escape the NIT and compete with the best, they were all for it.

“I’m in favor of 68 as opposed to 96,” North-ern Iowa head coach Ben Jacobson said. “The quality of play, the depth of college basketball is much better.

But the decision to go to 68 called for more than just listening to what coaches thought about the situation. Somewhat unsurprisingly, a large part of what even began the debate came down to one thing: money. Specifi cally, money brought in from television revenue.

The NCAA opted out of its contract with CBS during the spring, when ESPN announced it had plans to make a proposal to buy the TV rights. But instead of accepting ESPN’s pro-posal, the NCAA signed a new 14-year contract worth $10.8 billion with both CBS and Turner Sports. That new deal allows four networks to air live games — CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV.

“It provides a unique platform,” Smith said. “They can work together and take advantages of those platforms. It’s a marriage of two great companies. TBS brings in that cable power.”

No matter what it comes down to, money or not, one thing was clear: Expanding to 96 teams was the point of contention. All the pos-sible problems that would come with it were

raised. Everything from attendance at regular season games to the players missing too many classes with what would be an increased num-ber of rounds.

But the biggest issue was that it might have “watered down” college basketball, said the critics of expansion. Opponents to the idea fi g-ured that if it went to 96 teams, why not just let anyone in? Teams would have less incentive to create a competitive regular season schedule. And then there might be some teams that don’t really deserve to be in the tournament at all.

“If you open it to 96, there would be some teams that would be mediocre.” Smith said. The competition for the championship should be the elite of the elite.”

Smith’s opinion stood in complete contrast to the opinions of many coaches. And per-haps no one would have disagreed more than Boeheim. Since the talk of expansion started, Boeheim has been one of the most outspoken proponents of opening up the tournament.

Ninety-six teams wouldn’t have been a prob-lem for Boeheim. That just means that instead of 64 or 68 good teams, there’d be 96. For many coaches, Boeheim included, the parity of col-lege basketball was all the evidence needed to prove that expansion was necessary.

There’s simply more teams that have chanc-es at getting to the Final Four.

“I think there are 96 good teams,” Boeheim said. “And if they’re not good teams, they’d get beat in the fi rst round, and you’ll be down to 64 anyway. That’s a fallacious argument, it makes no sense.”

Many of those who were opposed to expand-ing to 96 simply did not want to see the tourna-ment get changed. But what they forget, Boe-heim said, is that every time the tournament was expanded, it only got better — not worse.

“When they expanded it from 16 to 32, it got

better. 32 to 48, it got better,” Boeheim said. “48 to 64, it got better. So why’s it going to get worse? That’s nonsense.”

Not nonsense to some. There was still con-cern that too much expansion would bring too many ramifi cations for the conference tourna-ments. If 96 teams would be let in, then the signifi cance of winning the conference would lessen. If the signifi cance lessened, so would the attendance.

Though coaches understood that side of the argument, they still preferred expansion. And for the most part, coaches across college basketball agreed with Boeheim’s opinion. All agreed that there were more good teams that should get the chance to participate.

“There are a lot of really good teams, not a lot of great teams,” Virginia Tech head coach Seth Greenberg said. “They should all get a chance to play. I think 68 is a starting point, but I’m not saying 96 was right.”

For now, that’s all 68 will be — a starting point. There are no plans to expand anything further just yet. The NCAA found a way to appease both sides of the argument. Expand, but not too much. Sixty-eight was the number that all the conferences could agree on.

The NCAA expects to go with 68 for the near future, but there’s no guarantee that at some point, there couldn’t be greater expansion. But until that point, whenever that might be, there will be no more debate about too much expansion or just some expansion. All of that is settled. All of that is over.

For now, less is more has won out. “It’ll be at 68 for a while,” Smith said.

“You’re always going to have people that want expansion, but the intensity of those discus-sions won’t occur. We need to allow it to prog-ress with 68.”

cjiseman@syr.edu

By Chris IsemanSTAFF WRITER

illustration by cameron morgan | contributing illustrator

S P O R T S @ D A I L Y O R A N G E . C O M 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 1 b a s k e t b a l l s e a s on p r e v i e w 9

ANDREW L. JOHN BRETT LoGIURATO TONY OLIVERO

Projected record: 23-8

Big East fi nish: 4th

NCAA fi nish: Sweet 16

Biggest surprise: Dion Waiters

So many variables factor in this SU men’s basketball season. Will someone step up and be a consistent threat from beyond the arc? Will the frontcourt have enough depth? Will Scoop and Kris Joseph take the next step? Will the freshmen be as good as advertised? Still, this team has the talent to meet the lofty expectations. The biggest surprise will be Waiters, who I think will supplant Brandon Triche in the starting lineup come Big East play.

Projected record: 25-6

Big East fi nish: 3rd

NCAA fi nish: Elite Eight

Biggest surprise: Fab Melo

Losing Wes Johnson, Andy Rautins and Arizne Onuaku will hurt. They not only provided a wealth of produc-tion, but also leadership. Yet with Kris Joseph, Scoop Jardine, Rick Jackson and Brandon Triche, not to mention a star-studded freshman class, the talent and depth are there to win the Big East. It all depends on how well the veterans mesh with the youngsters. It isn’t a sur-prise that Fab Melo was the preseason Rookie of the Year in the Big East. But it will surprise a lot of people when he’s one of the best freshmen in the country, and it should help the Orange tremendously come March.

Beat writer predictions

Projected record: 24-7

Big East fi nish: 3rd

NCAA fi nish: Elite Eight

Biggest surprise: Dion Waiters

Get ready for another climb into the top fi ve in non-conference play. Get ready for a much-improved and slimmed-down Rick Jackson. Get ready for the second season in a row where the Orange do more than expected. But this year, it will not come with a Big East title. Rather, the elusive trip to the Regional Finals. It’ll be thanks to a deeper rotation, three point guards who can keep the game in control — remember Butler? It will come with big men in Jackson and Fab Melo who are improvements all-around from SU’s bigs last year. This will become a more com-plete team, and it will show in March.

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S P O R T S @ D A I L Y O R A N G E . C O M1 2 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 1 b a s k e t b a l l s e a s on p r e v i e w

S teve Lavin channels his inner John Wooden. He holds on to the countless lessons he learned from the late all-time

great when he was a coach at UCLA. He preaches them wherever he goes.

“Make every day your masterpiece,” Lavin says, quoting his former mentor.

Lavin coached UCLA for seven seasons, win-ning 20-plus games in six. He never produced the championships Wooden won with the Bru-ins, but he took his teams to the Sweet 16 fi ve times before be he was relieved on his duties and walked away from coaching in 2003. He had suc-cess as a big-time head coach. He can do it again, given the right situation.

Lavin had it made as an analyst with ESPN, a gig where he got to see great college basketball without the stress of being a Division I head coach. But he was willing to give it all up, as he did in March, when he was hired to take over a St. John’s program that had not made the NCAA Tournament since 2002.

“I wouldn’t have taken the job,” Lavin said, “unless I was very optimistic about the potential of St. John’s as kind of a sleeping giant.”

So Lavin has gone to work in all facets of the job. He has a Red Storm squad that is expect-ing a big season. He has St. John’s back on the national recruiting map, receiving commit-ments from some of the best high school players in the country.

And he hasn’t been doing it alone, either. Lavin has gone back to his mentors, and he assembled a star-studded supporting cast of coaches, including his former boss, Gene Keady.

Keady gave Lavin his entrance into coaching at Purdue in 1988. And like with Wooden, Lavin still uses the lessons he learned from Keady.

So naturally, when Lavin was feeling out a return to the bench, he went to Keady for advice.

“Other than my mother and father, he’s the most infl uential person in my life,” Lavin said. “The magic carpet ride that is basketball is a direct result of Gene Keady taking me under his wing.”

After Lavin accepted the St. John’s job, he turned to his mentor again. This time it wasn’t for advice, but for an opportunity to once again join forces. Nineteen years later.

Lavin convinced the 74-year old Keady to

come out of retirement and be a consultant. He brought in a coach who won six Big Ten cham-pionships and six National Coach of the Year awards. Keady brings the type of experience that could help turn around a program quickly. Red Storm guard Paris Horne said that with Keady’s knowledge and experience, he’s a “great voice around” for questions.

A voice only Lavin could bring in to this middle-of-the-road program.

And Keady brings a level of comfort for Lavin as he enters a diffi cult endeavor, one much more challenging than his fi rst coaching job at UCLA. Lavin has to turn around a program that hasn’t won in years.

What better person to do it with than his mentor?

“It was a good fi t,” Lavin said. “We have a good relationship. He still has a lot to offer to the game.”

The experienced coaching staff has factored into recruiting big time. And Lavin himself has brought his recruiting success — he brought NBA players, such as Baron Davis and Jason Kapono, to UCLA — to his new program.

D’Angelo Harrison had his college choices narrowed down to four schools. Three of them — Oklahoma State, Baylor and Marquette — were in last season’s NCAA Tournament.

The other team fi nished one game over .500. Yet Harrison, the No. 18 shooting guard in the Class of 2011, according to Scout.com, chose St. John’s.

That’s the Lavin effect on recruiting for the Red Storm. Harrison became the third player ranked at least four stars by Scout.com to commit.

Lavin has since received a commitment from a fourth. It’s the No. 7 recruiting class for 2011, according to ESPN. And with 10 seniors leaving after this season, the infl ux of talent couldn’t have come at a better time.

“It’s challenging because you have to start over in terms of hiring a staff, trying to build a culture and recruit 10 prospects in an eight-month period,” Lavin said. “That’s unprece-dented, in my opinion.

“If you miss with 10, then pretty much some-one else will be the head coach here within a couple years.”

For St. John’s, winning has been the missing ingredient in recruiting. Lavin hopes to bring

that back. And success this season could lay the groundwork for a long run of success at SJU, both on the recruiting trail and on the court.

“Putting all the NBA players in the pros from his previous stop played a role,” said Mike Car-rabine, Harrison’s high school coach at John Foster Dulles High School. “I think that was very appealing to D’Angelo.”

With all the prized recruits Lavin has in place for 2011, there is still a 2010 season to be played. And Lavin has a squad looking to play in March Madness for the fi rst time in years.

Last season, the Red Storm beat four teams that made the NCAA Tournament, but it wasn’t consis-tent. That’s evident in the 6-12 Big East record.

“We lost a lot of close games that we should have won (last season), and it was just the little things,” Horne said. “And (with) Coach Lavin and the staff, we’re getting better at it and just paying attention to detail and defense. I think this year you’re going to see that.”

The goals are to make the NCAA Tourna-ment and to win the Big East. Horne said that himself. Lofty expectations for a team that fi nished 13th in the conference last season. But the seniors have the experience.

And their new coach has them believing.

“Everything this year is aiming high,” guard D.J. Kennedy said.

The rest of the Big East is taking notice. The Red Storm was predicted to fi nish sixth in the Big East preseason coaches’ poll. That refl ects upon Lavin’s reputation because St. John’s hasn’t fi nished in the top six since 2002.

Louisville coach Rick Pitino even gave the Red Storm a fi rst-place vote.

“(St. John’s) has an ingredient that I think is very important to winning,” Pitino said, “and that is hungriness.

“There’s a lot of excitement behind that pro-gram, and I think they can reach that potential.”

The Red Storm still has a lot to prove. But that’s why Lavin was brought in. He has the experience. He has the connections.

And he keeps things in perspective. He learned that from arguably the greatest coach in NCAA history, Wooden.

“We just have to continue in a gradual way to make strides but not get too far ahead of ourselves,” Lavin said. “Because at the end of the day, we know how tall of a task we have ahead of us.

“It really is just ‘let’s get better today.’”mcooperj@syr.edu

Back from the booth, Steve Lavin sets St. John’s sights on

a return to the glory daysBy Mark CooperASST. COPY EDITOR

courtesy of st. john’s athletic communications

stormof theEye storm

s p o r t s @ d a i l y o r a n g e . c o m 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 1 b a s k e t b a l l s e a s on p r e v i e w 13

PittsburghPanthers

Ready to repeat?

NO

. 1

teams, namely Pittsburgh and Villanova, in order to win its second straight title

Last season’s record: (25-9, 13-5)Top returnees: Ashton Gibbs, Gilbert BrownTop newcomers: Isaiah Epps, J.J. Moore

Perhaps the most telling stat on Pitt coach Jamie Dixon is his ability to turn bench play-ers from a year ago into sudden stars. Six of the past 11 winners of the Big East Most Improved Player award have been Panthers, including last year’s winner, junior guard Gibbs. Two years ago, the Panthers made a run to the Elite Eight with DeJuan Blair and Sam Young. This year’s biggest name is Gibbs, and it’s hard to imagine this team doing what its counter-parts of two years ago could not.

VillanoVawildcatsN

O. 2

Last season’s record: (25-8, 13-5)Top returnees: Corey Fisher, Maalik WaynsTop newcomer: JayVaughn Pinkston

Scottie Reynolds is finally gone, but Jay Wright has composed a team that doesn’t look like it will miss him too much. Seniors Stokes and Fisher are more than capable, and rising sophomores Wayns and Cheek look to improve off their solid rookie sea-sons. Antonio Pena and Mouphtaou Yarou combine for a formidable frontcourt, but there are still questions to be answered by the bench.

syracuseorangeN

O. 3

Last season’s record: (30-5, 15-3)Top returnees: Kris Joseph, Scoop JardineTop newcomers: Fab Melo, Dion Waiters

Brandon Triche, Scoop Jardine, Kris Joseph and Rick Jackson all played key roles a year ago. And SU will have a solid bench and talented recruiting class to replace its departing seniors. The team will need lead-ers to emerge, but SU has the tools to make another run. Last year both Wes Johnson and Andy Rautins paced the team with their 3-point shooting ability, but both are gone. Players that can fill that void are sophomores Mookie Jones and James Southerland.

georgetownhoyasN

O. 4

Last season’s record: (23-11, 10-8)Top returnees: Austin Freeman, Chris WrightTop newcomers: Nate Lubick, Markel Starks

The Hoyas are led by Big East Preseason Player of the Year Austin Freeman and fel-low guards Chris Wright and Jason Clark. All three players averaged more than 10 points a game last season and will give Big East teams headaches all year. The team will start and stop with its backcourt and needs to find a consistent presence inside to avoid the low points of last year.

west VirginiamountaineersN

O. 5

Last season’s record: (31-7, 13-5)Top returnees: Kevin Jones, Darryl BryantTop newcomers: Kevin Noreen

Despite losing their heart and soul from a year ago in Da’Sean Butler, the Mountaineers still return a core group with experience. Fifth-year seniors Joe Mazzulla and Cam Thoroughman and junior Jones were all inte-gral parts of the program’s second ever Final Four team. Last season the Mountaineers were ranked 194th in the country in field-goal percentage despite their success, and they lose some of their top shooters from a year ago.

louisVillecardinalsN

O. 6

Last season’s record: (20-13, 11-7)Top returnees: Preston Knowles, Peyton SivaTop newcomers: Chris Smith, Elisha Justice The Cardinals had a lot of promise on their bench last year, and they’ll head into this year with a lot of raw talent and athleticism. One player that head coach Rick Pitino was high on during the offseason was sopho-more forward Rakeem Buckles, who should become a full-time starter this year. Lou-isville loses four starters from a year ago, including forward Samardo Samuels and guard Edgar Sosa.

st. john’sred stormN

O. 7

Last season’s record: (17-16, 6-12)Top returnees: D.J. Kennedy, Paris HorneTop newcomer: Dwayne Polee II

Since he was hired by St. John’s at the end of March, all Steve Lavin has done is build up the hype. He has a roster with 10 seniors, four of whom are returning starters. The coach has even landed four noteworthy recruits for next season, furthering expecta-tions for this year in the process. Still, the coach has yet to prove anything tangible besides his recruiting prowess. With much of the lineup returning, there needs to be marked improvement before this year can be any different from last.

seton hallPiratesN

O. 8

Last season’s record: (19-13, 9-9)Top returnees: Jeremy Hazell, Jeff RobinsonTop newcomer: Anali Okoloji

Despite all of the issues surrounding the program last offseason, the Pirates top three scorers from a year ago all return. Jeremy Hazell, Jeff Robinson and Herb Pope are all back in hopes of making Kevin Willard’s first year as head coach a memorable one. Last year Seton Hall had the nation’s No. 8-ranked scoring offense, scoring an average of 80.1 points per game. But the Pirates struggled from beyond the arc, making only about one-third of their 3-point attempts.

marquettegolden eaglesN

O. 9

Last seasons record: (22-12, 11-7)Top returnees: Jimmy Butler, Darius John-son-OdomTop newcomers: Vander Blue, Jae Crowder

Even after losing Lazar Hayward and Mau-rice Acker, the Golden Eagles have a lot of upside. The team will be led by returning starters Butler and Johnson-Odom, while freshmen Vander Blue and Reggie Smith should be able to contribute instantly. Mar-quette looks pretty good on paper, but what it lacks is experience.

connecticuthuskiesN

O. 1

0

Last season’s record: (18-16, 7-11)Top returnees: Kemba Walker, Alex OriakhiTop newcomer: Shabazz Napier

Much will be expected of Walker after his breakout year in which he averaged 14.6 points and was first in the league in steals (2.1) and second in assists (5.1). Jerome Dyson is gone, but there’s still a talented mix of players to choose from, including the freshman Napier.

notre damefighting irishN

O. 1

1

Last season’s record: (23-12, 10-8)Top returnees: Tim Abromaitis, Ben Hans-broughTop newcomer: Scott Martin

Even after losing Luke Harangody and Tory Jackson, the Fighting Irish still has a fair number of experienced players to call upon. The team returns three of its top four scorers from last season. There is no doubting that Notre Dame has a legitimate starting five, but question marks remain further down the bench.

cincinnatibearcatsN

O. 1

2

Last season’s record: (19-16, 7-11)Top returnees: Yancy Gates, Cashmere WrightTop newcomer: Sean Kilpatrick

Last year the Bearcats were second in the Big East in rebound margin. The team returns its top two rebounders from a year ago and adds some serious height with the addition of two big freshmen: 6-foot-8 Justin Jackson and 6-foot-10 Kelvin Gaines. Right now, junior forward Gates is the only returning player who averaged more than six points a game last season.

ProVidencefriarsN

O. 1

3

Last season’s record: (12-19, 4-14)Top returnees: Marshon Brooks, Bilal DixonTop newcomer: Dre Evans

Marshon Brooks, Vincent Council and Bilal Dixon are the only proven threats on this ros-ter. Council was named to the Big East All-Rookie Team, while Brooks is as consistent a player the Friars have. Look for highly touted freshman Gerard Coleman to get in the mix, as well.

rutgersscarlet knightsN

O. 1

4

Last season’s record: (15-17, 5-13)Top returnees: Dane Miller, Mike CoburnTop newcomer: Mike Poole

Sophomore Dane Miller became the first player since Carmelo Anthony to win Big East Rookie of the Week three straight times. When new head coach Mike Rice took over, he had only five scholarship players. Three players have transferred from a year ago, including the team’s leading scorer Mike Rosario, who moved on to Florida.

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Last season’s record: (20-13, 9-9)Top returnees: Augustus Gilchrist, Jarrid FamousTop newcomer: LaVonte Dority

Head coach Stan Heath thinks he has a potential first-round draft choice in Augus-tus Gilchrist, who missed 15 games with an ankle sprain last year. This team has plenty of talent on the wings but doesn’t have a true point guard to get these dynamic play-ers the ball.

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Last season’s record: (8-23, 1-17)Top returnees: Mike Stovall and Eric WallaceTop newcomer: Cleveland Melvin

Mike Stovall, Eric Wallace and Devin Hill all played in more than 20 games last year. They will be relied on this year, with the team los-ing its top two scorers from a year ago, Mac Koshwal and Will Walker. Oliver Purnell has proven he can rebuild a program with his work at Dayton and Clemson.

— Compiled by Ryan Marfurt, staff writer, rwmarf@syr.edu

Syracuse will have to tackle a handful of

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Projected record: 21-8Big East finish: 6thNCAA finish: First roundBiggest surprise: Carmen Tyson-ThomasSyracuse hasn’t been to the NCAA tourna-ment since 2007-2008, but this year’s team is as talented a squad as any that coach Quentin Hillsman has had. The freshmen will make some plays early in the season and transfer Iasia Hemingway has more NCAA tournament experience than the rest of the team combined.

Projected record: 20-9Big East finish: 5th NCAA finish: First roundBiggest surprise: La’Shay TaftQuentin Hillsman said he is looking for a combination of two or three players to fill the void left by Nicole Michael. With anoth-er Top 10 recruiting class, there is enough talent on the team to do that. The team has a proven leader in Erica Morrow and a solid low-post presence in Kayla Alexander. If players like Rachel Coffey, Carmen Tyson-Thomas and La’Shay Taft can knock down open shots, this team will surprise people.

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Projected record: 22-7Big East Finish: 7thNCAA Finish: First roundBiggest Surprise: Iasia HemingwaySU will be back in the NCAA tournament. The strength of schedule is there, with non-conference matchups against preseason No. 2 Baylor and No. 7 Ohio State. But more importantly, the talent is there for the Orange to do some damage. Replacing the program’s all-time leading scorer in Nicole Michael may not be as tough as it seems, as SU has a fourth-consecutive Top 25 recruit-ing class for coach Quentin Hillsman.

ZACH BROWN MICHAEL COHEN MARK COOPER

Women’s basketball beat writer predictions

Jardine had made it to Division I basketball. But there was still a long way to go.

‘One little mistake’Bang. Screams.

One shot to the stomach. Jardine was with his cousin near the 1800 block of South Sixth Street when it happened. Less than a week before Jardine was headed to Syracuse for sum-mer classes prior to his freshman season, this was another curveball.

Not a month later, he got the call from his mother. He didn’t want to step out of class.

His best friend, Lawrence “Boo” Rose, had passed away.

“It was the worst moment of my life,” Jardine said. “Just because how much he meant to me. How much we meant to each other. For him to pass away was really tough. It was hard for me.

It took me a while to get over it.”He carries the memory of his cousin with

him every day, a tattoo imprinted on his right shoulder:

“R.I.P. Boo.”With that began a self-admitted up-and-down

freshman season for Jardine. He went from the bench, buried in a highly touted recruiting class, to starting because of an injury to Eric Devendorf. Then suspended. Then back to the bench.

Jardine was out of shape as he came to Syracuse. He came in at about 16 percent body fat, Hopkins said, after Neumann-Goretti coach Arrigale originally worried about Jardine fill-ing out his frame.

“I think he got a little bored in high school,” Arrigale said. “It kind of cost him at the end of his senior year. Then he got slapped in the face when he first got to college.”

Despite that, Jardine played well enough. And he got the call-up to a starting role after the season-ending injury to Devendorf. He impressed in his opportunity, scoring what was

then a career-high 18 points against Northeast-ern on Dec. 30, 2007.

Not more than a month later came the next turn in Jardine’s career. Something he says “opened his eyes.” An indefinite suspension came when Jardine knowingly allowed his cousin, Robert Washington, to purchase $115.65 of food and drinks on a stolen SU student identification card, according to an article published in The Daily Orange on Jan. 31, 2008.

Jardine was never charged with a crime, and he was back on the court two games later at Vil-lanova. But for a week, he saw it all slipping away.

“Going through that situation makes you cher-ish everything,” Jardine said. “Because every-thing could have been taken away from me for one mistake. I could have been back in Philly, where I started. Because I made one little mistake.”

And he swore it wouldn’t happen again. He leaned on his grandmother for that support, that discipline she instilled in him during their time together.

He now admits that through it all, he was immature. But perspective was gained. And it helped him get through the next turn.

“You have to think first before you act,” Deborah Jardine said. “Because every action has a reaction. It has positive consequences and negative consequences. He started think-ing differently. He started focusing on what being a basketball player really meant to him. His freshman year was a learning experience for him.”

‘Just his time’Keep. Going.

That’s what Jardine would tell himself each time the pain started. The pain from the stress fracture in his left leg that would eventually force him to redshirt in 2008-09.

“I was going through so much,” Jardine said. “I knew I was hurt, but I didn’t want to sit out.”

To Jardine, the injury was another step down after his freshman season. But he used it to get

back up. Basketball was taken away from him for the first time. But he used the experience to get closer to the game he loves.

Knowing the extra weight was to blame for the stress fracture, he shed 15 pounds, getting below 10 percent body fat. He saw the game from a different perspective on the bench.

“He stopped talking about being good,” Hop-kins said. “And he started working on being good.”

Adds Antonio Jardine, “You can’t just come in and think your talent alone is good enough. So he had to make his body and his mind pre-pared for that.”

It’s why no one close to him was surprised when he took the next step last year, coming right in and scoring 12 points in the Orange’s first game against Albany. From there, the career-bests kept pouring in.

And to Wes Johnson, who saw it all unfold behind the scenes with Jardine while he sat out during his transfer season, it was what was sup-posed to happen.

“I just looked at Scoop, at all the time he sat out and all the work he put in,” Johnson said. “It was just his time. It was perfect timing when he slid right in and did what he did.”

‘Willing to change’When Scoop Jardine says the two words, he

is talking about his long path to where he stands today, at the forefront of the No. 10 basketball program in the nation.

“I changed.”In Philadelphia, change from playground ball

to basketball. At Syracuse, change in actions. Change in diet and change in results.

“You really look at a kid coming in as a boy and now becoming a man,” Hopkins said. “He has proven that. I just respect him so much. Change is a scary thing for a lot of people. He was willing to change.”

Change adds up. It adds up to starting lineup fixture come Friday. Antonio Jardine will be in the stands, making the same 254-mile trip from Philadelphia to Syracuse he makes for each one of Scoop’s games.

Antonio will return to Philadelphia after the game. Scoop, carrying everything with him, is here to stay.

Said Scoop Jardine: “I finally realize what I can be.”

bplogiur@syr.edu

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For those 77 minutes, Iasia Hemingway will always be grateful. Deep in the heart of Iowa, she had that once-in-a-lifetime

moment. Stepping out onto the biggest stage was something she could never forget.

And she did it twice. Hemingway experienced what it’s like to play

in the NCAA tournament over the course of three games in back-to-back seasons at Georgia Tech in 2008 and 2009. Though her team never made it past the second round, the magnitude of the achievement wasn’t lost on Hemingway — even as an 18-year-old freshman in 2008.

“That’s the best experience of your life,” Hemingway said. “Not too many teams can go to the tournament. So I embraced it, and I just sat back and enjoyed it.”

Following 2009, Hemingway transferred to Syracuse to be closer to her home in New Jersey. As the only player on SU’s roster with multiple NCAA tournament games under her belt, Hem-ingway hopes to lead the Orange back there for the fi rst time in three years.

Ever since that one trip in head coach Quen-tin Hillsman’s second season, it’s been two dis-appointing trips to the WNIT.

Now Hemingway joins a team in which 13 of the 14 players on the roster were top 100 recruits, and six of those 13 players were ranked in the top 50 out of high school.

With a roster as loaded with potential as this year’s, Hemingway said, anything less than a trip to the NCAA tournament would be a lost season.

“It would be a disappointment not to make it to the NCAA tournament,” she said. “Because we’re too talented not to.”

In reality, this year’s talent has been four years in the making for Hillsman. It’s the combi-nation of his 2007, 2009 and 2010 classes that give this team a world of potential.

Following last season, Syracuse lost argu-ably the best player in program history with the departure of all-time leading scorer and rebounder Nicole Michael. During her four years with the Orange, she witnessed the infl ux of talent and the higher-quality players who were coming to Syracuse.

She knew she was the best player on the team when she fi rst stepped onto the court as a fresh-man. That year, she led the team in scoring and recorded the most points in a season in SU history.

But as her career wore on, that trend started

to change. Her sophomore year, she was fourth on the team in scoring average. Her junior year, third. And it wasn’t until this past season, as a senior, that she led the team again.

“The talent went from me being the top player on the team,” Michael said in an e-mail. “And as years went by, Coach Hillsman brought in All-Americans and top 100 players.”

Michael fi rst witnessed this higher-level tal-ent with the arrival of Hillsman’s 2007 recruit-ing class. That class, which was ranked as high as No. 11 in the nation by All-Star Girls Report, contained current senior guards Erica Morrow and Tasha Harris — the only other two players with NCAA tournament experience.

Morrow, who was the program’s fi rst McDon-ald’s All-American, is now a senior, watching the same increase in talent continue into 2010.

“We have a lot of great younger players com-ing in,” Morrow said. “You want to keep building and just to show the girls what that NCAA tournament feels like.”

Hillsman put together another Top 25 recruit-ing class in 2009 when Carmen Tyson-Thomas, Elashier Hall and Kayla Alexander all signed on. Last season, those three players combined to average 20 points and 13.4 rebounds per game.

And this year’s class of incoming freshmen was the highest ranked class of Hillsman’s time at Syracuse. Collegiate Girl’s Basketball Report tabbed it as the nation’s eighth-best group, with the likes of No. 19 Rachel Coffey and Hemingway, the transfer from Georgia Tech.

When Hemingway takes the court on Nov. 12, she will become the highest-rated high school recruit to ever put on an SU jersey. Hemingway was ranked as high as the No. 12 player in the nation coming out of high school.

“I believe this is the best talent we’ve had since I’ve been here,” senior point guard Harris said.

In terms of recruiting, Hillsman has done his job.

“That’s what you have to have,” said Dan Olson, women’s basketball recruiting analyst and direc-tor of Collegiate Girls Basketball Report. “Those back-to-back-to-back top classes in order for you to succeed. … That’s a tribute to him and his ability to recruit. I applaud his efforts.”

But stockpiling talented recruits doesn’t auto-matically translate to success on the court. And Hillsman is the fi rst to acknowledge that.

A team goes beyond talent, he said. That’s SEE HILLSMAN PAGE 19

Big danceor BUST

Following 2 NIT appearances under Quentin Hillsman, SU vows it is too talented to miss the NCAAs once againBy Michael CohenASST. COPY EDITOR

brandon weight | staff photographer

why it is so hard to predict what this Syracuse team can do in 2010. The team was picked ninth in the Big East preseason poll, but experts such as Olson and Bret McCormick of All-Star Girls Report see this team fi nishing anywhere from fi fth to 10th.

Even Hillsman is unsure about exactly what his team will be like.

“To have a good team is so different than being talented,” he said. “It’s going to depend on how they gel as a unit. It’s really going to be how we come together, how we play together. It’s just camaraderie.”

Last year’s team is a perfect example. On paper, that team ranked third in the league in points per game, fi rst in offensive rebounds per game and third in fi eld-goal percentage defense.

Yet in reality, last year’s team fi nished ninth in the Big East with a 7-9 conference record and lost four of its last six games to close the regular season. Six of its losses came by fi ve points or fewer. When it mattered, the team didn’t click.

“Now that the team’s talent is increasing every year, they all have to come together and make a commitment to not settle for less than their talent abilities,” Michael said. “The talent is already there. It takes full focus and trust.”

In a way, Hillsman challenged his players to step up even before they sat down to talk about

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Follow theLEADER

By Zach BrownSTAFF WRITER

Finally a senior, Erica Morrow is willing to put all of Syracuse’s pressure on herself

aaron katchen | staff photographer

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Quentin Hillsman recognized it eight years ago, when he began to take notice of that ninth-grader from Brooklyn.

He saw the talent Erica Morrow displayed on the court that led to her being named a McDon-ald’s All-American at Murry Bergtraum High School. He saw the intangibles she possessed that make her a natural fit at the point guard position.

“Her leadership and her maturity,” Hillsman said when asked what stood out about Morrow back then. “Her game was so far advanced at that age that you knew she had a chance to be a very good player.”

Morrow has continued to display those tal-ents throughout her time here at Syracuse. She started for the Orange from the moment she entered the program. She earned Big East All-Freshman team honors and helped the Orange make the NCAA tournament in her first year. She has led the team in steals and finished second on the team in points every season since she arrived.

She has made game-winning shots and game-turning stops. Morrow’s teammates said she has been a leader since she first donned an SU uni-form. And this year, her main goal is to lead the Orange back to the NCAA tournament, where Syracuse hasn’t been for the past two years.

“It’s a time where we have to step up and kind of just take things in our own hands,” Morrow said. “And I think that now that I’m a senior, I feel double the pressure to do that.”

Morrow’s role on the team has not changed much from her freshman to senior year, but there will be one major difference for SU this season — the absence of the Orange’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder, Nicole Michael.

Michael, who currently plays for Gran Canaria in Spain, had played with Morrow in AAU ball since the two were in high school. She described her relationship with Morrow as big sister to little sister. Last year, Michael was the team’s leading scorer, while the “little sister” finished a close second.

For Morrow, it will be strange to take the court without Michael at her side. But the “big sister” believes Morrow will do just fine without her.

“I know she will do well this season,” Michael said in an e-mail in October. “She is very strong and has a heart of a winner. There is not much I need to say to her about what she has to do this season. She pretty much knows what she has to do to get to the next level.”

That next level is the NCAA tournament. Two straight years of NIT appearances have

not been enough for Morrow. She got a small taste of the big dance at the end of her freshman year. She wants another shot at it. Another shot to elevate the Syracuse women’s basketball program into a consistent contender.

The players around her may be different now, especially without Michael. But her significance still remains the same. The team needs her to play, and play well, to get to the next level. She needs to put points on the board when her team needs a bucket. Make the right decisions when the ball is in her hands. Be scrappy and cause problems on the defensive end.

And then there’s the leadership again. Her teammates and coaches all see it. Senior guard Tasha Harris called it Morrow’s “second nature.” Michael said it was a “natural-born” quality in the senior. Hillsman echoed those statements, as did sophomore Car-men Tyson-Thomas after just one season with Morrow.

“I saw that (when she was a) junior, my first year last year,” Tyson-Thomas said. “Every time I didn’t know where to go, she told me. … That’s just her role as a leader.

“That’s her natural-born role.”There’s also another thing Morrow has done

with consistency since she stepped onto the Car-rier Dome floor for the first time. She tends to find a way to have the basketball with the game on the line.

Michael remembers being down 11 to George-town with seven minutes left near the end of Morrow’s first year. But Morrow refused to let the game get away. Then a freshman, she scored seven of the Orange’s next 14 points to close the gap to two.

She capped the run with a 3-point heave that clanged off the back iron straight into the air before swishing through the net, eventually giving the Orange a 68-67 win.

This year, with Michael halfway across the world, Hillsman said he would have no issue giving the ball to Morrow and letting her make a play with the game on the line, just like he has done many times throughout her career.

He wants his players to want to play hero in crunch time. And Morrow certainly enjoys it.

“Yeah, I love the challenge (of taking the last

shot),” Morrow said. “Who wouldn’t want to be that person? The person that everyone looks to.”

If last year is any indication, Syracuse might need some of Morrow’s heroics in the upcoming season. But the Orange needs those heroics consistently.

The Orange lost six games by four points or fewer in 2009. Because with being the go-to player in crunch times comes the good and the bad.

Morrow’s missed 3-pointer against George-town gave Syracuse its first loss of the season last year. Against St. John’s, her turnover led to the Red Storm completing its comeback in the game’s final five seconds. And she missed what would have been a game-winning shot against then-No. 3 Notre Dame.

“It can be tough sometimes, definitely a lot of pressure,” Morrow said. “But you always want to be that person. I always want to be that person

to take the last shot of the game.”For Morrow to reach her goal of a return trip

to the NCAA tournament, a few of those losses will need to become wins. That could be even tougher without Michael, and Morrow realizes it will be different not having her “big sister” with her.

But Morrow’s role as a senior has not drasti-cally changed from what it was as a freshman. The younger players may be looking up to her now, but she has been an Orange leader since her first year here. She has had the talent and intangibles to play this role since her years at Murry Bergtraum High.

And to get back to the NCAA tournament, Syracuse needs her on the court. And Hillsman knows it.

“She’s very important,” Hillsman said. “She’s important, and it’s not just about scoring. It’s about so many different things. It’s about her leadership. … She has a lot of responsibility for our team, and we need her to do a lot of things to be successful.”

zjbrown@syr.edu

SeniorGuard5-8Hometown: New York, N.Y.High School: Murry Bergtraum

Year GP-GS MPG FG% FT% 3-PT% rPG aPG PPG2007-08 31-31 33.0 39.5 72.8 37.9 5.0 3.7 13.92008-09 31-31 32.6 36.1 72.1 30.9 4.3 2.8 15.72009-10 35-35 31.0 32.7 69.9 24.1 3.9 3.4 11.7

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“It’s a time where we have to step up and kind of just take things in our own hands. And I think that now that I’m a senior, I feel double the pressure to do that.”

Erica MorrowSU gUard

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Numer Player height class hometowN

1 Chanieka Williams 5-9 Jr. Seattle, Wash.2 Elashier Hall 5-11 So. Washington, D.C.3 Rachel Coffey 5-7 Fr. Kingston, N.Y.4 La’Shay Taft 5-7 Fr. Baltimore, Md.11 Tasha Harris 5-9 Sr. New York, N.Y.14 Troya Berry 6-2 Jr. Flint, Mich.21 Erica Morrow 5-8 Sr. New York, N.Y.23 Tyler Ash 6-2 Jr. Liverpool, N.Y.32 Tiara Butler 5-10 Fr. Waldorf, Md.33 Phylesha Bullard 5-11 Fr. Cincinnati, Ohio34 Shakeya Leary 6-3 Fr. Brooklyn, N.Y.40 Kayla Alexander 6-4 So. Milton Ontario, Canada43 Iasia Hemingway 5-11 Jr. Newark, N.J.44 Carmen Tyson-Thomas 5-9 So. Philadelphia, Pa.

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Number Player height weight class hometowN

00 Rick Jackson 6-9 240 Sr. Philadelphia, Pa.2 Nick Resavy 6-2 201 Jr. West Milford, N.J.3 Dion Waiters 6-4 215 Fr. Philadelphia, Pa.4 Nolan Hart 5-10 152 Fr. Albany, N.Y.5 C.J. Fair 6-8 203 Fr. Baltimore, Md.11 Scoop Jardine 6-2 190 Jr. Philadelphia, Pa.12 Baye Moussa Keita 6-10 213 Fr. Saint Louis, Senegal13 Griffin Hoffman 6-0 178 So. New York, N.Y.14 Matt Lyde-Cajuste 6-4 205 So. Mt. Vernon, N.Y.20 Brandon Triche 6-4 205 So. Jamesville, N.Y.21 Mookie Jones 6-6 220 So. Peekskill, N.Y.24 Brandon Reese 5-11 160 Jr. Davie, Fla.25 Russ DeRemer 6-4 210 Fr. Wrentham, Mass.32 Kris Joseph 6-7 210 Jr. Montreal, Quebec33 DaShonte Riley 7-0 233 So. Detroit, Mich.34 Matt Tomaszewski 6-8 215 Jr. Seabrook, N.H.43 James Southerland 6-8 210 So. Bayside, N.Y.51 Fab Melo 7-0 244 Fr. Juiz de Forz, Brazil

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that.“He’s just gotten better every year I’ve known

him,” Freeman said.

‘That next step’Joseph understood early on that he had to make adjustments to his game. As an admittedly over-weight freshman at SU, Joseph played sparingly in Boeheim’s rotation.

The players were much stronger than in high school. Faster, too. That first year at Syracuse was the ultimate learning experience.

“I was still learning. It was just a lot different than what I had been used to in high school,” Joseph said. “I knew I had to make adjustments.”

Every year Joseph seemingly adds a differ-ent dimension to his game.

Returning for his sophomore year 20 pounds lighter, Joseph saw immediate returns on his hard work. He was voted the Big East’s top sixth man, averaging 10.8 points and 5.5 rebounds per game while shooting 49 percent from the field.

“He came in as a freshman and didn’t play a lot but continued to get better, kept his head on straight,” said former SU point guard Jonny Flynn, also now with the Timberwolves. “Since then, he’s done all the right things.”

What began with shedding some weight eventually turned into a nutritional overhaul. As that plan continued to evolve, Joseph began to develop routines that paved the way for him to continually progress as a player.

Each step of the way, Joseph has added to his game here and there, and he cut out habits that have hindered his progression.

“With Kris, you see the progression, you see the growth,” Georgetown head coach John

Thompson III said, “and you see him continue to get better and better.”

This summer, knowing he’d be called upon to fill a bigger role, Joseph took to the gym to hone the rest of his game. Specifically, he focused on improving his jump shot. With more scrutiny likely to come from opposing defenses, Joseph’s 22 percent clip from beyond the arc last season just wasn’t going to get it done.

His summer was dedicated to reaching that next level.

“I always want to improve. I never want to go backward in anything I do in life,” Joseph said. “I wanted to go forward, and I have always known exactly what I had to do to take that next step.”

Over the past two years at Syracuse, Joseph has been slowly accumulating a variety of skills that haven’t yet been utilized. With Boeheim now giving him the green light, it’s finally time to see what has been hiding in what Flynn calls Joseph’s “shell.”

“This year is going to be such a great year for him because he finally gets to break out of that shell that has been sitting there for about two or three years,” Flynn said. “I’m looking forward to him having a big year.”

Eventually, Nick Resavy stopped anticipating the 1 a.m. phone calls. After weeks of the same routine, Resavy, a junior walk-on, knew exactly where to meet Joseph late at night during the summer. The Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center is a 24-hour facility, and Joseph had to get his shots in one way or the other. He had to take that next step.

“I told myself at the end of last year that I wanted to become a better shooter,” Joseph said. “So as soon as the season was over and we took our little two-week break, I was back in the gym

josephf r o m p a g e 32010-2011 rosters

‘he can be one of the best players in the country’

see next page

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goals for the 2010 season. All they had to do was look at the schedule. Staring the players in the face are two games against preseason Top 10 teams.

And that’s exactly what Hillsman wanted.He even called the director of the Bahamas

Sunsplash Shootout tournament and asked to play Baylor, the No. 2 team in the country, first. It really does sound crazy.

“I said, ‘We want to come, and we want to play Baylor first,’” Hillsman said. “And he goes, ‘No one has called and said they want to play Baylor first.’ But I told him that we do.”

In addition to the Bears, SU also has pre-

season No. 7 Ohio State on the schedule. It is by far the Orange’s strongest nonconference schedule since Hillsman’s arrival at Syracuse, and it was all designed with the NCAA tourna-ment in mind.

The 2009 team’s strength of schedule ranked 109th in the country.

“Last year’s (nonconference) schedule was what it was,” Hillsman said.

It was Syracuse rolling over the likes of Dela-ware State and Presbyterian. Other nonconfer-ence opponents in the Hillsman era include Maryland Eastern Shore, St. Peter’s and Ala-bama State.

But this year, Hillsman’s schedule has two teams that are virtual locks for the NCAA tourna-ment. He is giving his team a chance to play those types of teams and to see what it is made of.

Perhaps getting punched in the mouth by the 6-foot-8 Brittney Griner — maybe even literally — will show his team what it takes to play at the highest level.

“It will be a good barometer for Hillsman,” Olson said. “It will give him a good measuring stick of where he needs to be.”

All the players on the team hope for a dif-ferent four-letter acronym to come to mind at

the end of the regular season. They are tired of seeing “WNIT.” They want to see “NCAA” next to Syracuse’s name.

The talent is here. The schedule is in place. Now it’s time to live up to that potential.

“We appreciate going to the WNIT,” Heming-way said. “But it’s like when you’re playing in the Big East, you run to get to the real tournament.”

mjcohe02@syr.edu

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hillsmanf r o m p a g e 1 5

going hard every night.”Last season, Joseph scored the majority of

his points by slashing to the basket. It was a luxury he had with opposing defenses focusing on Johnson, Rautins and Onuaku. With the focus on Joseph this year, his primary goal this summer was improving his jumper.

So late on most summer nights, Joseph would meet up with Resavy or a team manager who would rebound for him. The goal, on most nights, was to make 500 jumpers before heading home. Eventually, it became a routine.

“Going into the summer, he knew he had to work extremely hard on his jump shot,” SU assistant coach Rob Murphy said. “With the work he put in, I think we’re going to see an even more improved Kris Joseph this season.”

Joseph took a couple weeks off to attend the Kevin Durant Basketball Camp, where he min-gled and worked out with some of the best college players in the country. Upon his return to Syra-cuse, it was back to the late-night regimen. This time, it was not only shooting a bevy of jumpers but also intensely working on his overall game.

“When he really dedicates himself, he can be one of the best players in the country,” Resavy said. “And I’m sure he knows that.”

Joseph had seen Johnson go No. 4 overall in the NBA Draft after having a big year at SU. On those long days, that served as further motivation when he just didn’t think he had anything left in him.

And every step of the way, he had his former roommate constantly poking, prodding and motivating via text messages. When he was in

town on Oct. 15 for an NBA preseason game, Johnson saw the evidence of what he considers “a much improved jump shot.”

“I just kept telling him to stay in the gym, stay working,” Johnson said. “I was always in the gym, trying to drag him with me. So he’s now taking that to heart and texting me to let me know that he’s getting shots up and staying in the gym. I just tell him to keep at it.

“There are no days off.”

‘he’s ready’Sitting with Scoop Jardine and Rick Jackson next to Boeheim at a table inside Madison Square Garden for Big East media day, Joseph sees the media scrutiny again turn to him.

By now he understands the expectations placed on him. He’s heard all about it for months, leading right up until Friday’s season opener.

And no matter how much he attempts to deflect the attention, he’s the player under the microscope this season. He’s the anointed one. Like Flynn and Johnson before him, the torch has now been handed to Joseph.

“There is always a guy that Boeheim will pick out to be that guy to lead the team,” Flynn said. “And now that guy is Kris Joseph.”

He isn’t hoping to replace Johnson. He has made that very clear. Instead, he adds himself to the many who are ready to find out just how good Kris Joseph can be.

And taking it from Boeheim himself, this year’s chosen one is up for the task.

“He’s ready,” Boeheim said. “He’s definitely ready.”aljohn@syr.edu

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