SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Alexis Peterson climbed the Werner ladder underneath one of the baskets in the Denny Sanford Premier Center. With tape on her right wrist unfurling, Peterson wore a championship shirt stating, “Bring Your Game” as a wide grin covered each Syracuse player’s face.

When the Sioux Falls Regionals’ Most Outstanding Player got up 10 feet in the air, she turned back to her teammates and yelled “Turn that wrist!”

Two days earlier, Orange head coach Quentin Hillsman walked into his team’s locker room after upsetting No. 1 seed South Carolina and began giving instructions on how to cut down the nets. SU still needed to win one more game, the regional final on Sunday against No. 7 seed Tennessee, but Hillsman wanted to get his team ready. Turning the wrist while cutting down the net was part of the game plan.

“It’s part of game prep. You got to start two days out,” Hillsman said smiling. “We started prepping on how to cut the nets on Friday. We went through it yesterday and this morning.”

No. 4 seed Syracuse (28-7, 13-3 Atlantic Coast) beat Tennessee on Sunday, 89-67, to win the Sioux Falls Region and advance to its first-ever Final Four. The Orange will face No. 7 seed Washington in Indianapolis on Sunday. After the Elite Eight win, Hillsman’s lessons came in handy as his players finally got the chance to cut down the nets.

He told his team the nets were much thicker than high school nets. It required a precise technique to cut the twine. The instructions were to get on the edge of the scissors, turn the wrist and snip hard. Then his players could slip their piece onto the back of their regional championship hats.

“Wait, wait, what if you wear it backwards?” Brittney Sykes asked on Friday.

“You can put it in the front,” Hillsman said. “We’re going to win hats on Sunday.”

The first time Hillsman remembered cutting down nets as a coach on the collegiate level was when he was at Siena as an assistant under Gina Castelli. She didn’t give instructions on how to cut down the nets before the Saints won a Mid-American Conference title. Hillsman said players struggled with the technique.

On Sunday, every Syracuse player did a good job with it, except for Cornelia Fondren, Hillsman said.

“It wasn’t hard at all but I did what he told me to do and I turned my wrist and it worked so don’t get why he said I was the worst,” Fondren said. “It’s once in a lifetime experience. Some people did it in high school, but it’s nothing like doing it in college.”

Fondren and Brianna Butler said they never previously had the chance to cut down nets in their basketball careers. As Syracuse reached new heights by reaching its first Final Four, so did some players.

“I’m scared,” Taylor Ford said as she climbed the ladder. “I’m afraid of heights.”

Exactly three weeks prior, Hillsman said that his team could win a national championship after losing by 11 points to second-ranked Notre Dame in the ACC championship game. When he explained how much basketball his team had left to play, he detailed six wins in the NCAA tournament. And then he said his team would be cutting down the nets in Indianapolis.

Cutting them down in the regional finals provided just a glimpse of what could happen next week. Hillsman’s lessons paid off as he said everyone except Fondren was successful. But with a national championship just two wins away, she could still have time to improve.

“She struggled a little bit,” Hillsman said. “Give her another lesson. Hopefully she can get another chance at it.”

Published on March 28, 2016 at 2:11 am

Contact Paul: pmschwed@syr.edu | @pschweds