Eric Devendorf has been granted an extra year of eligibility by the Big East after his application for a hardship waiver was granted, the Syracuse athletic department announced Monday.

The junior shooting guard tore his anterior cruciate ligament Dec. 15 against East Tennessee State and missed Syracuse’s final 25 games last season. The university applied for a hardship waiver on Devendorf’s behalf, which has been approved by the Big East. Devendorf will have junior eligibility for the upcoming season.

For a hardship waiver to be granted, the injury must meet three criteria. First, it must have occurred during one of an athlete’s four seasons of intercollegiate competition or after the first day of classes in the athlete’s senior year in high school. Second, the injury must have occurred in the first half of the team’s season, and resulted in the incapacity to play the rest of the season. And third, the player cannot have played in more than 30 percent of the team’s schedule that season.

Devendorf came close to missing that final mandate. He played in 28 percent of Syracuse’s games (10-of-35), a figure benefited by the Orange’s three-game run in the NIT. The percentage would have been 31 percent if not for those three games.

Syracuse’s offensive output last season decayed without Devendorf, who averaged 17 points per game and shot 40 percent from 3-point land before the injury.

In the game he tore his left ACL – a 125-75 romp against East Tennessee State – Devendorf drained 5-of-7 treys. Freshman guard Scoop Jardine initially replaced Devendorf in Syracuse’s lineup, and later junior transfer Kristof Ongenaet. But the Orange could not replace the long-ball void left by Devendorf and fellow guard Andy Rautins – who severed his ACL playing with team Canada in summer 2007.

With the outside-shooting burden falling mostly on freshman Donte Greene, Syracuse rarely stretched defenses. During conference play, the Orange ranked 15th of 16 Big East teams in 3-point field goal percentage (30 percent).

Without its starting shooting guard, an already thin Orange lineup was stretched even further. Syracuse lost six of its last nine games before it was relegated to its second straight NIT.

Devendorf started 52-of-70 games during his first two seasons at Syracuse. The Bay City, Mich., native averaged 14.8 points per game his sophomore season, good for second on the team.

The decision means Ongenaet and reserves Justin Thomas and Jake Presutti are Syracuse’s only seniors entering the 2008-09 campaign.

thdunne@syr.edu

Published on September 22, 2008 at 12:00 pm