In Syracuse’s last two losses and the days of practices leading up to Wednesday night’s contest against Rutgers, Scoop Jardine noticed an important part of Jonny Flynn’s arsenal was missing.

He didn’t seem to be having fun anymore.

‘When Jonny’s smiling he’s gonna be dangerous on the court,’ Jardine said. ‘He wasn’t smiling in those last two losses. I told him, ‘Why are you not smiling? You smile all the time?’ When he’s smiling, you see the results.’

Flynn had plenty to smile about during Syracuse’s 81-59 romp over Rutgers Wednesday night. The freshman followed up a pair of down games, in which he shot a combined 6-for-25 from the field and struggled to take care of ball, by scoring 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting. He served as the catalyst in sparking the Orange’s furious first-half run that proved to be the deciding factor in the contest.

Flynn’s point total was his highest since his 28-point output in Syracuse’s opening night win over Siena to break Carmelo Anthony’s record for most points by a freshman in his debut.

‘It feels good,’ Flynn said about his comeback performance. ‘You try not to dwell on games, and that’s what I did a little bit, because I hadn’t had very many bad games this season but to have two back-to-back … It kind of got on me a little bit.’

The freshman scored early, often, and in key moments for Syracuse. Nine of Flynn’s points came during a blistering 24-8 run by the Orange during the first half’s final 10 minutes. The freshman’s play seemed to jump start an Orange offense that looked less than crisp in the game’s first 10 minutes.

After a 5-0 run from Rutgers tied the game at 14, Flynn calmly took the ball at the top of the key and pulled up, draining the 3-pointer to regain the lead for the Orange.

From there, Flynn seemed unafraid to create shots for himself. A minute later, he stutter dribbled right, using a pick to create space and drain a fade-away jumper from 15 feet to give Syracuse a 19-14 advantage.

After the game, Flynn pinpointed the trey as the moment in the game when his swagger was restored.

‘It felt like I didn’t hit a 3 in two years,’ Flynn said. ‘It was good to get the 3, loosen the mood a little bit. … That just completely erased the memories of the past game.’

While Flynn admitted to playing timidly at West Virginia, he seemed eager to create shots for himself off the dribble against Rutgers, an aggressive style he credited to SU head coach Jim Boeheim’s advice.

‘Coach Boeheim came to me and said, ‘Go out there and score some points,” Flynn recalled. ”I don’t care if you get an assist or not but go out there and look for your shot. The assists are going to come to you.”

That mentality might explain why Flynn’s assist numbers (four assists to four turnovers) weren’t quite as sterling. But on this night, Boeheim was just glad Flynn found his shooting touch.

‘Jonny obviously got some good looks and knocked them down,’ Boeheim said. ‘He had the same shots he had against Cincinnati, he was 2-for-15; he had the same shots tonight and they went in. When the ball’s going in the net, things work a lot better.’

Just one week ago, Flynn said he ‘felt like he couldn’t shoot it into an ocean.’ The 6-foot point guard regained the confidence Wednesday to go for a fast-break dunk near the six minute mark in the second half. That moment ended in embarrassment: Flynn’s one- handed effort was halted by the front of the rim.

Flynn’s performance the rest of the game was good enough that he could smile about it afterward.

‘I only tried it is because (women’s head coach) Quentin Hillsman is always telling me I never dunk on a fast break,’ Flynn said, laughing. ‘So the time I go to dunk, I just prove him right that I can never dunk. I’m definitely gonna hear it from him tomorrow.’

Published on January 16, 2008 at 12:00 pm