NEW YORK — As Jim Boeheim leaned nonchalantly back in his chair, a rainy Central Park visible out the window behind him, the Syracuse head coach offered a quick, almost haughty response when asked about his team’s place tied atop the Big East Preseason Coaches’ Poll.

‘Yeah,’ said Boeheim at the Big East’s annual men’s basketball media day at the New York Athletic Club on Wednesday. ‘Normally that’s the way it works.’

Truth be told, he’d already predicted it. The SU head coach said as much during the Orange’s media day in Syracuse on Oct. 14.

On Wednesday, the Orange was voted to the top of the preseason poll — along with defending national champion Connecticut — to begin the 2011-12 season. Syracuse and Connecticut shared the top spot with 209 points each. The Huskies received seven first-place votes to SU’s five.

‘Coming off of a successful year and you have a lot of guys back, your ranking’s going to be pretty good,’ Boeheim said last Friday at SU media day. ‘As it should be.’

Louisville (3) and Pittsburgh (1) were the other two schools to receive first-place votes, and they ranked third and fourth in the poll, respectively. Cincinnati rounded out the top five.

The No. 1 ranking, though, expected by Boeheim, means more to the players than their legendary head coach. Boeheim has often expressed his opinions on how wrong the polls can be — see last year’s ‘most overrated team’ he’s ever had.

But it gives the players something to strive for.

‘They want to be the best team in the league, so that’s what they want,’ Boeheim said on Wednesday. ‘And that’s what they should aspire to.’

The team will be led by seniors Kris Joseph and Scoop Jardine, both of whom received preseason recognition within the conference. Joseph and Jardine were Syracuse’s player representatives Wednesday at the New York Athletic Club.

Joseph, who averaged 14.3 points per game and 5.2 rebounds per game in 2010-11, was named to the Preseason All-Big East First Team. He was joined by Ashton Gibbs of Pittsburgh (selected as the Preseason Player of the Year), Jeremy Lamb of Connecticut, Darius Johnson-Odom of Marquette, Tim Abromaitis of Notre Dame and Kevin Jones of West Virginia.

‘As an individual, I just want to be the best player, the best teammate that I can be, the best leader that I can be for these younger guys,’ Joseph said at media day on Wednesday.

Jardine was named to the Preseason All-Big East Second Team. He is coming off a junior season in which he started every game for the Orange, scoring 12.5 points per game and leading the team in assists.

Despite SU’s veteran leadership, Gibbs wasn’t sold on Wednesday of how deserving the Orange is of the preseason No. 1 ranking.

‘I guess they’re deserving of it,’ Gibbs said. ‘But at the same time, it’s preseason, so we’ll see if they deserve it or if any team is really deserving of their ranking once the season starts. We’ll see how everything unfolds after the season. Preseason is preseason.’

And with the preseason comes lofty goals and expectations, as each team enters with a clean slate. So with the No. 1 ranking in hand, Joseph looked at the bigger picture. He feels this Syracuse team is capable of much more than winning the Big East. And as a result, the players are expecting more.

Another early exit from the NCAA Tournament in March won’t suffice.

Said Joseph: ‘The team goal is to win it all, from the Big East tournament to the NCAA championship.’

mjcohe02@syr.edu

—Staff writer Zach Brown contributed reporting to this article.

Published on October 18, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13