COLLEGE BASKETBALL : Boeheim Shuffling, but He Has the Cards

They’ve been up--ranked No. 1--and they’ve been down--four Big East Conference losses--but at Syracuse, there continues to be a lot of hope that the best is yet to come.

The Orangemen are 18-4, ranked No. 5 and have the appearance of a potential Final Four team, which is about as good as anybody can look right now, according to Coach Jim Boeheim.

“If you had to pick four teams to go to the Final Four, I don’t think anybody could pick even one,” he said. “It’s almost impossible. Everybody is just capable of getting beaten, is what it boils down to.

“There’s just a lot of good teams. There are no great teams. Missouri and Kansas are real good, but you’re not afraid to play them. You just don’t see anybody out there who scares you, but you also don’t see anybody out there you don’t think can’t beat you.”

Next up for Syracuse is a Saturday game in the Carrier Dome against Notre Dame, a 13-8 team that provides the Orangemen with a break between killer Big East games. So far, Connecticut and Georgetown are 8-3 and a half-game ahead of Syracuse (8-4) in the conference standings.

Said Boeheim: “Looks like a normal season to me.”

The Orangemen have been anything but normal. A preseason choice along with Georgetown to dominate the Big East, Syracuse has not done that. Instead, Boeheim has shuffled his lineup to find something that works.

Former Kentucky player LeRon Ellis began the season at center, then went to the bench, then moved back into the starting lineup at small forward. Derrick Coleman moved from power forward to center. Billy Owens moved from shooting guard to power forward. Stevie Thompson moved from point guard to shooting guard. Freshman Michael Edwards left the bench and became the starting point guard.

Boeheim said Ellis must improve for Syracuse to go very far in the NCAA tournament.

“He just hasn’t really gotten comfortable,” Boeheim said. “He’s been in a lot of foul trouble. I see signs of him getting going, though. He would make a big difference in our team if he would be able to step up his production.”

Edwards is a 5-foot-11 freshman from Eastern Regional High in Voorhees, N.J., and has a lot to learn, according to Boeheim.

“He has really helped the team, though,” the coach said. “We had to play Edwards just to get someone to push it up the court. Stevie has done a good job at (shooting guard). He’s more effective scoring there. And his defense has been great. He’s been having a great year.

“But the key to our team is the front court, really. Owens and Coleman are playing extremely well, and if we can get Ellis going a little better, then I think we can be a better team. Right now, we’re not there, but we could be.”

Pauley want a cracker?: Notre Dame Coach Digger Phelps said he thought Pauley Pavilion could have helped UCLA if it had placed bleachers close to the baseline to give the place the ambience of a small, so-called crackerbox gym.

Phelps has many memories of Pauley Pavilion, which is celebrating its 25th year in season-long ceremonies. It was the Irish who ended UCLA’s 115-game nonconference winning streak at Pauley in 1976, but Phelps cannot forget his impressions of Pauley the first time he walked inside.

“My first memory was not a good memory,” Phelps said. “We lost by 58. That was in 1971. We were horrible, we were 6-20 before the year was over. We lost to Indiana by 65. That was my first time to see (Pauley), and we got blitzed.”

Two years later in South Bend, Ind., the Irish ended UCLA’s 88-game winning streak. However, Phelps said it is in Pauley that he feels something special.

“It’s just one of the great arenas in the country,” Phelps said. “And of course with (John) Wooden winning 10 out of 12 national championships, it would be like Yankee Stadium. I mean, Pauley at UCLA is like Yankee Stadium to the Yankees in New York. Before the big domed stadiums, the big arenas, Pauley is really one of the last great arenas for basketball.”

Opposites attract: At the University of Washington, home crowds for the nationally ranked Husky women’s team average 3,331. Average home attendence for the sub-.500 Husky men’s basketball team is 3,028.

He’s got the point: Kenny Anderson of Georgia Tech may not be the best freshman in the country--Shaquille O’Neal of Louisiana State?--but he’s probably the top freshman guard. More than that, Anderson is a point guard, playing perhaps the most demanding position in college basketball.

The 6-2 Yellow Jacket from Archbishop Malloy High in Rego Park, N.Y., runs the show for Coach Bobby Cremins. Anderson is averaging 20.4 points, 8.7 assists, 5.3 rebounds and his 46 steals lead the team. He has played so well, he is already picking up huge compliments without even having finished his first year of college ball.

“Kenny Anderson is the best I ever saw at his position coming into college, and I’ve been following basketball since 1940,” NBA scouting guru Marty Blake told Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Constitution.

Georgia Coach Hugh Durham: “He’s the most complete backcourt freshman I’ve ever had the misfortune of going against.”

Temple Coach John Chaney: “He’s a throwback to the old lead guards . . . reminds me of Lenny Wilkens.”

The scoring load does not fall on Anderson’s shoulders, although it is his responsibility to get the ball to shooters Dennis Scott and Brian Oliver. But whether the Yellow Jackets go or not depends on Anderson.

“A point guard has to be a catalyst,” Anderson told Bradley. “He can turn a game on and off. He can pick up the pace or turn it way down. In Bob Cousy’s book--he sent me an autographed copy--he wrote: ‘A point guard should never make a bad decision.’

“But I just want to keep excelling. I want to excel at every level, at high school and college and the pros. Guys like Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan have done that. I want to, too.”