Before Wednesday’s game against Canisius, Jonny Flynn taped a hierarchy of reminders to the inside of the locker.

Alone at the top is a sheet of white paper with two words’ ‘Have fun.’ Below that, four other papers pepper the wooden door, displaying phrases about being an ‘assassin’ and a ‘killer.’

Quite the dichotomy. But it’s Flynn’s version of a pick-me-up. After starting out averaging 21 points per game in his team’s first five contests, Flynn has averaged only 14.6 points per game in the last six. In Wednesday’s 82-60 win, Flynn turned in 12 points on 3-of-10 shooting, adding three assists.

So Flynn has turned to mind games to help him keep up the aggressiveness during a long season.

‘Any time you’re on the court, you want to trick yourself,’ Flynn said. ‘I like to say you look at it like an actor like Tom Cruise, He’s from the suburbs, grew up good. But if he gets to play a role where he’s a serial killer, he can play the best serial killer he can play. Every time I go on the court, I want to be the just a killer out there.’

The aggressiveness was there, if not always in the right ways. At the 9:55 point in the first half, Flynn received a technical foul after arguing some non-calls on what he thought was some overly physical play.

‘Jonny got hit a couple times,’ Boeheim said. ‘He tried to make a point to the referee. I don’t think he made it in proper English.’

For teammate and longtime friend Paul Harris, Flynn’s task is to ignore the expectations that have been placed on him. Flynn has been hailed by some as the top point guard in the country – something he has been asked about time and time again this season.

‘Jonny Flynn’s just got to be Jonny Flynn,’ Harris said. ‘…You know a lot of people are putting bugs in his ear, saying he’s got to try to be better than Sherrod Collins or Chris Paul.’

Flynn said his interest in the mental aspect of the game started after last season, when assistant coach Mike Hopkins gave him a book called ‘Unlimited Power,’ about the power of positivity. Now he’s making a list of what he’s setting his mind to: having fun – and being a killer.

‘That’s the things that he has to do,’ Harris said. ‘Just have fun, and be the best Jonny Flynn that he can be. Don’t go to try out and score 20. Do what you can do.’

More slow starts

If Syracuse has a hallmark so far this, it’s the propensity to start slow. The Orange has often waited until the second half to pull away from teams, before winning by 20 or more.

Wednesday was more of the same. The game was tied with less than four minutes remaining in the first half, before SU pulled away with a 10-0 run. It never led by less than seven the rest of the way out.

SU coach Jim Boeheim acknowledged his team’s tendencies to start off sluggish, but expanded it far beyond that.

‘I don’t think we’ve played well first half, second half, whatever you want to say,’ Boeheim said. ‘I think we’ve closed some games well, but that’s as far as I’m going to go as far as how we’ve played this year.’

Harris rebounds

Before the game, Boeheim told an ailing Paul Harris to just go out and see what he could do. Two hours later, according to Boeheim, Harris had turned in his best performance of the year.

‘My back was kind of spasming,’ Harris said. ‘Coach told me to go out there and see what I could do. I started feeling good, and I was playing pretty hard, and I played alright.’

Harris turned in his fifth double-double of the year, totaling 13 points and 11 rebounds in only 24 minutes. But the SU forward was hesitant to call it his best game of the year (he turned in 14 points and 14 boards against Kansas). Although he didn’t complain.

‘I thought Paul was back to himself for the first time – well maybe all year,’ Boeheim said. ‘I thought he was going after the ball and grabbing the ball, which he has not been doing. That was a significant thing tonight.’

Off to Memphis

After 11 games to start the season, Syracuse will be playing its first official road game Saturday.

The only two games SU has played away from the Carrier Dome were in Kansas City, a neutral site for the CBE Classic.

‘This would be a big win for us,’ Flynn said. ‘Going down to Memphis and beating a team like that, a team that doesn’t lose on that court.’

Memphis was last year’s NCAA runner-up. Although the team lost four starters, Boeheim said he still expects the Tigers to be contenders come March.

‘They’ve got a team that will contend in the NCAA Tournament, no question about it,’ Boeheim said. ‘They’ve got the weapons to play with anybody in the country.’

kbaustin@syr.edu

Published on December 19, 2008 at 12:00 pm