Inside Manley Field House, they have no more proving to do. Their teammates know. Here, any transitional period has passed. Here, their full-scale changes are clear.

The first ACL victim, Andy Rautins. Speaking into a bevy of microphones and tape recorders at Syracuse’s media day in mid-October, Paul Harris put it on record. Rautins, the once-bony featherweight who loved McDonalds, snapped up as many bench-press repetitions as a heavyweight.

Nah, this wasn’t emasculating. More like being an eyewitness to a transformation on Harris’ turf – the weight room.

‘He did 225 just as many times as I did yesterday,’ said a wide-eyed Harris. ‘He was just a skinny guy, but he put on some weight.’

The second ACL victim, Eric Devendorf. During the first week of a practice – a volatile blur of drills paced by assistant coach Mike Hopkins’ thunderous cadence – Devendorf took part in a drill where guards took charges from senior Jake Presutti.

On Devendorf’s first of three turns, Presutti dribbled into him and Devendorf crashed into the hardwood. He screamed a profanity. Alarmed, Presutti winced and pointed to his own knee. To his relief, Devendorf hopped up. On Devendorf’s next turn, a cautious Presutti dribbled softly into him and the guard lethargically flopped to the ground.

Devendorf jolted up and scowled at Presutti. ‘Go hard!’ he demanded.

So on the do-over, Presutti rope-a-doped with a quick stutter step and blasted all of his 6-foot-3, 190-pound frame into a waiting Devendorf. Bulky black knee brace and all, Devendorf smashed into the ground.

For three seconds, he lay there. Not in pain, rather vindication. A smirk embroidered on his face. Any head games with his rehabbed knee were over.

***

Finally, they’re back.

The slasher and the marksman. Thirty points worth of offense per game. More one-on-one matchups for others. More impromptu water breaks. And – get this – an actual rotation for head coach Jim Boeheim. All of it, back. Two familiar faces have the once-depleted Orange feeling liberated.

‘There’s no telling how much we’re going to score this year,’ Rautins said.

Last year, NCAA Tournament hopes evaporated early. In the summer prior, Rautins severed his ACL playing for Team Canada in the 2007 FIBA World Championships. Ten games into the season, Devendorf tore his ACL against East Tennessee State. The fallout was unprecedented.

Syracuse started three freshmen, four players averaged at least 30 minutes per games, the team’s 3-point percentage sunk to 30 percent in conference play (15th of 16 teams) and, for only the second time in Boeheim’s 32-year career, SU played in the NIT in back-to-back years.

Now, they’re back. Rautins grew physically. Devendorf, mentally. Both are different people with different perspectives, harvested by one painful year away from the game that defined their lives.

‘It’s, it’s extremely tough,’ Devendorf stammered. ‘Your teammates are out there, at times struggling, and you want to go out there knowing you can contribute. Especially, not being able to play the game that I love. It was taken away from me.

‘You really don’t know how much it means to you, until it is taken away.’

***

Rautins was disappointed in himself that Oct. 15 day in the weight room, the day Paul Harris raved about. Rautins said he burned out toward the end of the set. Still, the once-frail, now-ripped guard pumped up 225 pounds 14 times.

Before his injury? Two reps, tops.

But Rautins changed the way he approached training and the way he approached his diet. He dumped his fast food infatuation. He monitored everything that went into his body. He studied fitness magazines and worked out every day. His father couldn’t believe it.

‘Like a lot of young players he lifted, but I don’t know how committed he was to it,’ said Leo Rautins, who played for SU from 1980-83. ‘Now it’s 100 percent commitment to his body – lifting, running, training, the whole bit. … He took what was a horrible injury and what could have been a horrible experience and made it a real positive one.’

Andy Rautins wanted to re-introduce himself as a completely different physical specimen. In isolation, he built his surprise daily.

‘It almost feels much better than being in the spotlight, putting in that work behind closed doors, knowing you’re getting better without being glorified,’ Rautins said. ‘I liked that much better – doing it my own way.’

Now he aims to apply this to the court. During his sophomore season, 188 of Rautins’ 226 field goal attempts came from beyond the arc. He rarely ventured into the lane, accumulating 24 free throw attempts and 69 rebounds in 35 games.

Those one-dimensional days are over, he said. Adding 20 pounds of muscle will do that.

‘I think (weight training) is going to help me rebound better and stay in front of people and not get muscled around,’ said Rautins, a 6-foot-5, 205-pound guard. ‘I’m looking forward to playing with a new body.’

Rautins laughed that Harris may have ‘just got tired and quit’ that day in the weight room. But he’ll bask in the ooh’s and ahh’s from gawkers.

‘It’s good to hear people compliment on your body after you work hard on it,’ he said. ‘It was a lot of hard work put in.’

Not to say Rautins isn’t the long-ball specialist Syracuse was starving for last year. Playing for Team Canada during the summer, Rautins hoisted 700 shots per day behind the NBA 3-point line at the Toronto Raptors’ facility. Naturally, fall workouts at Manley felt like firing away at a Nerf basketball hoop.

‘Andy probably missed five shots the whole preseason,’ point guard Jonny Flynn said.

Echoed Harris, ‘Andy Rautins is the best shooter in the country.’

***

Mike Hopkins is used to it by now. People come up to him with the same question again and again. They see Eric Devendorf jawing on the court between whistles – that swagger agitating opponents (and infamously an SU fan after a 107-100 loss to Massachusetts last year).

‘Eric Devendorf … My God, what kind of kid is he?’ Hopkins said they asked.

Hopkins’ response is always the same.

‘He’s the greatest kid on the planet.’

Last year put Devendorf’s attitude to the test. Away from the spotlight he craved, the SU guard needed to be the ‘greatest kid on the planet.’ For Devendorf – the animated chest-thumper that ‘guys love to hate,’ as Hopkins said – the distance from the national stage figured to cue cabin fever.

Instead, team trainer Brad Pike said that out of the more than 150 ACL rehabs he’s conducted, Devendorf was in the top 10 percent of ‘most compliant’ athletes.

‘I was very impressed with his maturity,’ Pike said. ‘He’s grown since he has been here so much since he’s been a freshman, and he grew a lot through this process.’

There were days Devendorf could have strayed from the plan. Pickup games at Manley were a hallway away. On his trek to the training room, teammates regularly prodded Devendorf to be their 10th guy.

The answer was always ‘No.’

‘There are some people I’m very leery of letting do things,’ Pike said. ‘Eric always went out and did what I told him to do. There was a point where I said, ‘OK, you can play 1-on-1 now. You can play 2-on-2. You can play 3-on-3. And he resisted the urge to play 5-on-5.’

Devendorf improved his grades. He relished the coach’s perspective of the game. (‘Sitting there slowed the game down,’ Devendorf said.) And he overcame setbacks. Six weeks after surgery, Devendorf needed to undergo another surgery because he couldn’t fully extend his leg. He cleaned out the scar tissue and reset his rehab.

Like Rautins, all of this unraveled behind the scenes. Devendorf was working harder than he ever had, but nobody knew it. Seclusion changed him – more into the ‘person’ Hopkins lauds.

‘I’m not taking anything for granted at all anymore,’ Devendorf said. ‘You always have to take it day by day, because you never know what could happen.’

The cursing and trash-talking will probably continue. But those who know him know it’s substantive. Rautins said Devendorf isn’t the ‘punk’ many label him, and he’s proud of how far his teammate came through this process. Hopkins agrees, too.

‘I think people always respected his work ethic,’ Hopkins said. ‘He was always the first guy in the gym and last to leave. But to see someone in hard times and how he overcomes it …to really see this kid grow up and really grow as a person has been phenomenal.’

***

Their rehabs were staggered. When Rautins was playing pickup games, Devendorf was laying on a bench. When Rautins was pushing the ball upcourt for Team Canada with Chris Paul at his hip in an international exhibition game, Devendorf was playing full-court for the first time.

A few weeks ahead in his rehab, the former was the latter’s continuous inspiration.

‘Just moral support, knowing he went through the same thing that I did. I wasn’t by myself,’ Devendorf said. ‘It was real good to have him by my side and help me through the process.’

Rautins knew what Devendorf endured.

‘It’s a pain in the ass to be honest with you,’ Rautins said. ‘Our rehab brought us closer, going through the same things and the same pain.’

Same pain in their knees. Same pain in watching the second-half meltdowns last year. But different changes.

For Rautins: ‘100 percent committed to his body,’ Leo Rautins said.

And for Devendorf: ‘The most misunderstood player in the country,’ Hopkins said.

thdunne@syr.edu

Published on November 11, 2008 at 12:00 pm