COMMENTARY : Syracuse’s Boeheim Misuses Great Talent

There is a new video out in the Syracuse stores: Jim Boeheim on basketball.

What is next, Pia Zadora on acting?

Just kidding, Boeheim. Could not resist taking a shot, even if it missed the mark. Watching Syracuse play, you should be used to missed shots. What are you shooting, about 12 percent? Boeheim I know, I know. It’s unfair to bring Pia Zadora into this. Not only is your resume a lot more impressive than hers, it is more impressive than most of your peers.

Eleventh-highest winning percentage of all-time, fourth among active coaches. Won your 100th game faster than any coach in history and reached 300 faster than all but two. Your Orangemen have won 20 or more games 12 times and have qualified for postseason play in all 13 seasons you have coached them.

All impressive. All neatly printed on the Syracuse publicity release distributed to the media before every game.

This is not included on the release: The Orangemen under Boeheim have had some good talent but have made the Final Four only once. Since the Big East began play 10 years ago, the Orangemen have made it past the second round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament only twice.

And what awesome aggregations did Syracuse lose to in those second-round games? Iowa. Ohio State with Granville Waiters. Virginia without Ralph Sampson. Georgia Tech. Four Navy crewcuts and David Robinson--at Syracuse’s Carrier Dome. Rhode Island. Hardly a Hall of Fame of great names.

Luckily for Boeheim, playing lousy and losing 70-59 to the University of Connecticut Monday night in the Civic Center does not make Syracuse any less of a Big East beast.

Prospective blue-chip recruits who would recoil from John Thompson’s or Bobby Knight’s tight-fisted, my-way-or-the-highway methods like Boeheim’s no-frills, living room rap and his easy rider, run-and-gun, don’t-lean-on-the-guys style.

With a huge assist from the conference they are in, the television network (ESPN) they are always on, and the usual 30,000 orange-clad screaming meemies at the Carrier Dome--Southern California blue-chippers see more of Syracuse than the Pacific Ocean--Boeheim can pile up 20-win seasons the way Syracuse does snow.

But to make a nice snowman, you do not necessarily need tons of snow. You just need someone who can sculpt it. That was some collection of all-stars Boeheim recruited that showed up at the Civic Center Monday night.

--6-foot-10 senior Derrick Coleman, who scouts say may be the first player selected in the upcoming NBA draft.

--6-3 senior Stephen Thompson, the Los Angeles high school player of the year four years ago, and as a forward, the most effective great leaper the college game has seen since North Carolina State’s David Thompson.

--6-9 sophomore Billy Owens, who was almost unanimously regarded, along with Georgetown’s Alonzo Mourning, one of the two best high school players in the country two years ago.

--6-10 junior LeRon Ellis, a second-team All-Southeastern Conference selection last season who transferred from Kentucky.

Sophomore foward Tony Scott, whom Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun so coveted two years ago only to have Scott change his mind and go to Syracuse, sits on the Syracuse bench. If he showers after games, it is only for effect. Scott has played a total of four minutes in five Big East games this season.

The resumes of Boeheim’s players are as impressive as his. What is not impressive is the way they play together.

Boeheim, a 1966 Syracuse grad, was a walk-on guard who played alongside Dave Bing, later an NBA star with the Detroit Pistons. The only two guards in Syracuse history to rival Bing are the two Boeheim has had running his offense these last six seasons: first Pearl Washington, then Sherman Douglas.

The best high school point guard in the country last season was New York’s Kenny Anderson. Boeheim counted heavily on getting Anderson. He did not. Anderson went to Georgia Tech. The other point guards Syracuse was recruiting with less zeal went elsewhere, except for Michael Edwards, a 5-11 freshman from Voorhees, N.J.

Coming off the bench after Syracuse’s nonballhandlers had already put the Orangemen in dire straits, Edwards played 20 minutes Monday night. He was zero for five from the field and is shooting six of 29 from the field in Big East games. Boeheim says Edwards isn’t ready.

But what Edwards can do is something nobody else in a Syracuse uniform seemed able to do Monday--pass. He was on the bench while Syracuse put up one awful shot after another at the start of Monday night’s second half as the Huskies quickly extended their lead from seven to 12 points.

Edwards came in and had three assists, getting his teammates the ball inside as the Orangemen cut the deficit from 12 points to five with 6:19 left, at which time Edwards nearly made a great defensive play, but ended up getting hit in the groin by the ball and temporarily had to leave the game.

Edwards had four assists in 20 minutes, more assists a minute than any other player on either team. He may not be close to being Pearl Washington or Douglas, but he was the only guy in an orange uniform who seemed to know how to run a half-court offense.

Without Edwards in the game and with no one else capable of running a half-court offense, Syracuse’s big bruisers play offense like a National Hockey League team--they dump the puck, er, ball in and try to get a tip-in in front of the net, er, basket. Given their size and rebounding ability, it often works.

Boeheim claims Syracuse’s problem isn’t guard play, rather a consistent inability to put the ball in the basket, whatever the shot. Monday night, the Orangemen outrebounded the Huskies, 49-36, but shot only 35 percent from the field.

So how did Syracuse ever beat Duke? “They played us man-to-man,” Boeheim said.

Syracuse, an undeserving No. 1 in the polls two weeks ago, is 3-2 in the Big East and lucky to be that, given its last-second win over Pitt.

“I don’t think we have a great team right now,” Boeheim said.

Right now, they don’t seem to have any kind of team, just some talented, albeit confused, individuals. Boeheim has till tournament time to get them unconfused.