Syracuse fits the profile of a team poised to make a run in NCAA Tournament. It is peaking at the best possible time and has a favorable draw that has the Sweet 16 reasonably within its grasp. That’s the good news.

The potential bad news is what it could mean for the Orange moving forward. This season will eventually end, whether it’s with a train wreck this weekend in Miami, a victory dance early next month in Detroit (dare we think it?) or somewhere in between. When it does, three of Syracuse’s best players – Jonny Flynn, Paul Harris and Eric Devendorf – have a decision to make about their futures that will define their careers and shape the next chapter of SU basketball.

With each upcoming victory, the easier their decisions become. If Flynn, Harris and Devendorf lead Syracuse to March glory these next few weeks, their stocks for the upcoming NBA Draft will likely hit an all-time high, bolstered by an inevitable surge in national attention from fans and professional scouts.

To put it simply: The farther the Orange goes, the more it would behoove this trio to bolt at the end of the season. There is a lot more riding on the Tournament than just a legacy for these three players, including the possibility of financial security during the worst economic period in 70 years.

And don’t think for a moment they don’t realize what’s at stake.

‘It definitely has an impact,’ Flynn said Sunday when asked if a deep Tournament run could affect his decision for next year. ‘Of course, if you ask anybody that question in the country, they’re going to say one thing, ‘You gotta go when you’re hot.”

‘You gotta go when you’re on top. You never know what could happen next year when you come back. That definitely does play a factor,’ he said.

The Orange’s finish in the Tournament may not matter as much to Devendorf. He could be the most likely to leave. SU head coach Jim Boeheim told ESPN’s Andy Katz that Devendorf would have declared for the Draft after last season, if not for his knee injury that ended it in December. His run-in with the law earlier this year has not helped his cause.

Flynn, however, can certainly help himself. He was already considered one of the top point guards in the nation and is fresh off winning the Big East tournament MVP award. Flynn is engraved in the national consciousness and is right now a top point guard prospect before ever playing in the NCAA Tournament. A few good games, and you’re looking at an early first-round pick.

Harris’ situation is a little different. He has not played well lately and has never gotten along particularly well with Boeheim. Even in the six-overtime game against Connecticut, when he scored 29 points and grabbed 22 rebounds, Boeheim benched him for much of regulation, saying afterward that he ‘can’t describe how awful he was for most of the part of that game.’

In many ways, Harris has become a starter in name only. Reserves Andy Rautins and Kristof Ongenaet are now regularly playing more minutes.

Still, Harris has loads of talent and is a physical specimen. With that in mind, Harris might have the most riding on his performance in the Tournament. Today, he probably isn’t drafted. Who knows how that will change if he averages 20 points-per-game on the nation’s greatest stage.

‘I don’t know, man,’ Harris said Sunday when asked the same question as Flynn. ‘Actually, I don’t really know right now, to be honest with you.’

Consider what happened to North Carolina after it won the national championship in 2005. Underclassmen Rashad McCants, Sean May, Raymond Felton and Marvin Williams accounted for 63 percent of the Tar Heels’ offense that season and promptly left for the draft that summer.

All four were taken within the first 14 picks and ensured themselves a substantial payday, no matter how well they played in the NBA. May has started just 21 games in three seasons in the NBA and likely earned such a high draft spot by winning the Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award the year he left school. If he had waited another season at UNC and struggled, he may never have received a guaranteed multimillion-dollar contract.

Flynn and Harris have already answered the first of a million questions about their futures. Last week, Flynn said he plans to return for his junior year, but prefaced it with the gigantic caveat of ‘as of right now.’ After the Orange’s last home game of the season March 3, Harris, a junior, jokingly asked if he has another year of eligibility in a response that could not have inspired much confidence in its truthfulness. Devendorf has not yet spoken on the subject.

All this may be much ado about nothing. Maybe they’ll all leave no matter what happens in the Tournament. After all, Donte Greene left after one season at Syracuse despite playing in the NIT.

And we all know how that worked out.

Jared Diamond is an assistant sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear occasionally. He can be reached at jediamon@syr.edu.

Published on March 16, 2009 at 12:00 pm