Monroe Gives Syracuse Long-Distance Shooting and Experience

While the three-point field goal has been the subject of innumerable discussions and complaints this season among fans and coaches, one man not griping about the three-pointer is senior guard Greg Monroe of the Syracuse Orangemen.

Monroe’s success this season is a main reason why Syracuse, currently ranked 11th in the nation, has surprised the college basketball establishment. The Orangemen were 18-3 record going into this weekend.

Monroe knows the place during the game for the three-pointer. Indeed, the selective marksman who answers to the nickname “Money”--given to him by high school friends who said his jump shot was like “money in the bank”--attempts just slightly more than four three-point shots per game.

“We use it as kind of a back-breaking thing now,” he said. “It’s a psychological thing for the other team if we can hit a couple of those. It tends to open up the inside for our big men.”

Since arriving at Syracuse in 1983, the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Monroe has always been best-known for his outside shooting. In fact, the Big East Conference first heard from Monroe on February 27, 1984, when his buzzer-beating jump shot from deep in the corner of Alumni Hall helped the Orangemen to an 82-81 overtime victory over St. John’s.

But the accuracy of Monroe’s long-distance offerings has come into focus more clearly this season with the adoption of the three-pointer. Monroe shoots the bonus shot with as much accuracy--over 47%--as most players shoot from two-point range.

It’s no wonder that even with his scoring average this season up to 13.3 points per game from last year’s 5.4, Monroe still hears a familiar message from his coaches, the fans and the media: Greg, Shoot the Ball!

Monroe chuckles whenever he’s asked about the four-year-old directive.

“I’m still hearing that after four years,” he said. “And unless I start taking maybe 15, 16 shots a game, I guess I’m going to continue to hear it.

“But I take it as a compliment. I guess that means they think I can shoot the ball.”

Long-range bombs--selectively taken--aren’t the only skill that Monroe brings to the team. His leadership and poise have not gone unnoticed by some of the younger players on a youthful Syracuse squad. Freshman forward Derrick Coleman, one of the most highly sought players in the nation as a high school senior last year, says Monroe set an example for him the first day of practice last fall.

“He was the first man in line for everything,” Coleman said. “And it’s stayed that way. He sets the tone for us on the court with his poise.”

Leadership and poise are not qualities Monroe gained with experience at Syracuse. At least not in the opinion of long-time Syracuse assistant coach Bernie Fine, who said he saw those essential qualities in the player when Monroe was in the eighth grade in Rochester.

“Greg has always been a steady player,” Fine said. “We had already seen quite a bit of him by the time he decided to come to school at Syracuse. He’s been a major contributor here since he was a freshman.”

Playing in the comfortably long shadow of standout Dwayne “Pearl” Washington, Monroe contributed stability to a backcourt that featured not only the superb but turnover-plagued Washington, but also the erratic Gene Waldron, displaced by Washington at point guard and forced to adjust to the shooting guard spot in his senior year. All Coach Jim Boeheim asked of Monroe was to play defense and distribute the ball to scorers Rafael Addison and Sean Kerins while averaging about ten minutes a game playing time.

Now, as a senior, Monroe has helped the Orangemen quiet the doomsayers who predicted rough times after Syracuse lost Washington, Addison and Wendell Alexis after the 1985-86 season. Washington now is picking up hefty paychecks from the New Jersey Nets in the NBA, and Addison is working his way into the lineup of the Phoenix Suns. Alexis, the last cut of the Golden State Warriors, is expected by many, including the coach who cut him, to be in the NBA some day.

One of the few Orangemen who had playing experience entering this season, co-captain Monroe has been charged with making the adjustment from spare part on a Rolls Royce team to being the steering wheel with this year’s souped-up but untried dragster.

Sophomore Sherman Douglas has benefited the most from Monroe’s play, since the two share the backcourt.

“Playing with a great shooter like Greg takes a lot of the pressure off of me,” Douglas said. “Plus, with his ballhandling skills, either one of us can play point guard or off guard.”

Even Boeheim, who dishes out compliments about as often as he loses games, which isn’t very often--Boehiem’s record to date of 248-80 gives him the fifth-highest winning precentage among active NCAA coaches--had little to say when asked how his guard play so far this season could improve.

“Our guards have played pretty good basketball,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s an area we can improve in.”