When Jim Boeheim speaks, people listen. The Syracuse head coach is often at his best when he takes a step back and evaluates college basketball as an entity – offering insight that few have and credibility to claims that seem more important when coming from a coach with a bust in Springfield, Mass., and a resume of more than 700 wins and a national championship.

Recently, Boeheim spoke about the importance of a veteran presence on teams. Last Saturday – perhaps the best day of college basketball this season – the last three undefeated schools all lost to teams loaded with experienced players.

Gerry McNamara is the lone Syracuse senior who’s played four years. Matt Gorman is in his fourth year at SU, but redshirted last season. While SU features four juniors under the microscope, none really had the burden of carrying the load when the Orange had McNamara and Hakim Warrick, Josh Pace and Craig Forth.

The Big East is receiving acclaim for being unarguably the top conference in the nation this season, with seven teams in the Top 25, including the top overall team, Connecticut. But it seems that an upset is possible in the conference on any night because of the veteran presences.

‘If you look around our league, West Virginia has five seniors, and they’re playing as well as anybody right now,’ Boeheim said. ‘Connecticut has four or five seniors and a couple of juniors who seem like they’ve been there for a long time. … (Villanova) has guys who are tremendous players and have struggled in this league for a couple years now, learning all about it and they broke through last year and now they’re seniors.

‘If you look at St. John’s, with the veterans they’ve got, they’ve been through so much. Georgetown with (Brandon) Bowman and (Darrel) Owens and (Ashanti) Cook; guys who are seniors getting it done. That is a huge part of college basketball today.’

But leadership and experience are intangibles that are created through time. Syracuse is in a difficult position after losing three consecutive games, but all three were against top 10 teams. The leading scorer of the opponent each game was a senior – Rashad Anderson for UConn, Allan Ray for Villanova and Carl Krauser for Pitt. As the Orange tries to dig its way out of the hole, McNamara’s leadership will be important.

‘I’ve been in tough situations,’ McNamara said. ‘I’ve lost games before; we all have. We just have to keep our head high and continue to grind it out and try to improve. If you let the last one hold you down, you’re going to lose the next one, too.’

Syracuse hosts Seton Hall on Sunday and Rutgers on Wednesday. It then has a week off to prepare for UConn. But in a sign of the conference, the Orange recovers from the Huskies with games against No. 6 Villanova, No. 9 West Virginia, No. 21 Georgetown, No. 22 Louisville and tough dates with St. John’s and DePaul.

It’s a stretch that will challenge the Orange, but will also season the team that still needs experience.

‘Overall, I think we’ve played well and I think we’re getting better,’ Boeheim said. ‘But if you want to look at the teams that are having success right now, they’re teams that have been there and know what it takes.’

Published on January 25, 2006 at 12:00 pm