Next year’s point guard was in the Syracuse locker room Friday night.

Niagara Falls High School point guard Johnny Flynn visited his future school – and his best friend Paul Harris. Flynn signed his letter of intent last week to play at Syracuse as a part of Jim Boeheim’s heralded freshman class set to debut next year.

Over in the corner, just a few feet away from Harris and Flynn, stood Josh Wright.

Harris is the player drawing the most attention, even though he isn’t in the starting lineup. Flynn is the one who most believe could man the point as a true freshman – during Wright’s senior season.

But Syracuse is currently playing its best option at point guard. Yeah, that other guy, Josh Wright.

The fans aren’t in love with Wright, but that’s the way he likes it – for now. He doesn’t want to be noticed. In fact, if he’s noticed, it probably means he’s done something wrong.

‘I came out and ran the team,’ Wright said. ‘I got people in the right position. That’s my most important job.’

And that’s exactly what the Orange should want from its point guard.

Wright scored 11 points, dished out nine assists, stole the ball three times and turned it over on just three occasions in his first career start on Friday. Wright averaged 9.3 points per game, 5.3 assists and 2.7 steals over the weekend. Sunday night, Wright turned the ball over six times, but scored 10 points.

Maybe SU fans are spoiled because of the man who ran the Syracuse point for the last four years. But Gerry McNamara wasn’t a conventional point guard. He was a shooting guard who could handle the ball well.

McNamara was the center of attention for SU, obviously. However, Wright’s role isn’t about replacing McNamara, it’s about filling the hole of point guard.

‘It was great because he was the reason the game was flowing real well,’ Darryl Watkins said on Friday. ‘He put everybody in the spots they were supposed to be.’

There’s a noticeable difference in the SU offense when Wright is manning it.

Wright is the fastest player on the team and brings a running mentality to the entire offense. A knock on Wright has been his inability to harness the energy and quickness he possesses, but in the first three games of this season, Wright has actually passed the run-and-gun style off to his teammates. Literally.

‘He started us off today running and leading breaks,’ Harris said. ‘He made everyone else want to run the court.’

Friday, Wright started an SU run with two assists in a 20 second-span in the first half. One of them was a beautiful alley-oop pass to Demetris Nichols. The Orange ran more of a fast-paced offense for the rest of the game.

When Wright isn’t in the game, it’s more of the chuck-and-duck style of offense the Orange used much of last season. Not that there’s anything wrong with that sometimes, but SU won’t always be shooting close to 50 percent from 3-point land.

The half-court offense thrives under Wright’s direction. Boeheim said before the season one of his main concerns was movement in the offensive zone. With Wright at the point, there’s usually more than one pass before a shot is taken, which freed up the big men, Watkins and Terrence Roberts, for a handful of easy baskets down low this past weekend.

Wright won’t wow you. He doesn’t have the upper body Harris does. He doesn’t have the big-shot capability Devendorf possesses. But he can handle the ball, and he’s the only natural point guard Boeheim has on his roster.

At this point, Wright is tired of answering questions about his ability to replace No. 3, let alone keep his job from going to Harris or Devendorf.

‘I don’t want to talk about being comfortable because I have no choice,’ Wright said. ‘I’m going to continue to play and get better.’

In this early stage of the season, there’s no denying it. Josh Wright should run the Syracuse point. He can worry about the shadows hanging over him later when he has some more experience under his belt.