Prior to last night’s game against Colgate, DeShaun Williams wore a blue warmup suit and watched from the Syracuse bench as his teammates ran through their drills.

He would come no closer to the court.

Williams served the first game of a suspension stemming from his arrest from a driving while ability impaired violation last April 7.

After SU’s win over Colgate, head coach Jim Boeheim hinted that Williams’ suspension will last three games. That would mean Williams would miss Thursday’s meeting with Cornell and Saturday’s matchup at Albany.

After the game, Boeheim blasted the athletic department’s policy regarding player suspensions, calling it ‘irrational.’

‘Any student that has a problem is dealt with by judicial affairs,’ Boeheim said. ‘But then the athletic department adds on a game penalty. I’ve been against it since we started the penalty system. Game penalties hurt the team and the fans, as well as the program.

‘If you have the need, if you want an extra punishment, I’m not one of those people, but some people do. Then it should be something that punishes the athlete and not the team and the fans. That’s the problem I have with the system. I don’t like the system. I never have. I’ve been against it since Day 1. But no one seems to listen to coaches’ opinions.’

Boeheim suggested that if the athletic department wants athletes to face consequences from both the team and the university, it should consider community service or counseling as additional punishments instead of suspensions, which Boeheim said are detrimental to team development.

The team did not learn of the suspension until yesterday, several players said.

Center Jeremy McNeil said he was unaware of the suspension until he saw Williams wearing his warmups before the game.

Sophomore James Thues started in Williams’ place and tallied five assists. But Thues also turned the ball over four times and scored just two points. Clearly, Syracuse struggled without Williams’ offensive presence.

‘We miss him a lot,’ Thues said. ‘He scores a lot of points for us. Without him, we need some people to come out and score some points.’

Williams garnered MVP honors at the Preseason NIT that concluded Friday with a win over Wake Forest, and his 21.6 points per game lead the Orangemen.

‘Without DeShaun we’re not the same kind of offensive team,’ Boeheim said. ‘Offensively, we were missing our first or second option.’

Boeheim would like to have Williams in his lineup for the next two games, but his pleas to the athletic department to have the rules changed have fallen on deaf ears.

‘Sometimes,’ Boeheim said, ‘your boss doesn’t agree with you.’

This and that

Syracuse has now beaten Colgate in 36 straight contests. Colgate last defeated SU on Feb. 24, 1962. Syracuse leads the all-time series 109-45. … Colgate forwards Pat Campolieta and Tim Sullivan both attended high school in Syracuse. Campolieta, who scored seven points in 28 minutes before fouling out, attended Bishop Ludden High School. Sullivan, a graduate of Skaneateles High, also played 28 minutes and scored eight points. … Ronneil Herron played six minutes, scored two points and had one block, which established the Syracuse mark for a team in a single game with 16.

Published on November 27, 2001 at 12:00 pm