NEW YORK CITY – By now, everyone knows the storyline. They came to Syracuse together as a heralded freshman group two years ago. Last season, Orange head coach Jim Boeheim declared that SU would only go as far as they took it. Well, that turned out to be only the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Last night, the graduating Class of 2007 – the juniors – finally arrived on the big stage. For the first time in the spotlight, the fab four of Terrence Roberts, Demetris Nichols, Louie McCroskey and Darryl Watkins all played well as Syracuse defeated Texas Tech, 81-46, at Madison Square Garden to advance to the finals of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer tonight against Florida.

The tone was set from the start. Never a jump shooter, Watkins spotted up 10 feet away three minutes into the game to break a scoreless deadlock. Then, it was Nichols on two driving layups and the rout was on.

The quartet displayed a confidence level unexpected so early in a season in which they will be asked to carry much of the load. The juniors have seen and will see more pressure-packed situations, but New York City and national television speaks for itself.

Curiously, after more than a year of talk about the juniors, Boeheim changed his tune. Rather, he had no tune Thursday night. The coach didn’t want to talk much about the junior class.

‘I’m really done thinking about that,’ Boeheim said. ‘We’ve got 10 guys. It’s not one class. It’s one team.’

But on Thursday, the juniors played a major role in the blowout.

Nichols was the top performer among the bunch, with 11 points and seven rebounds. Following a season in which he was frequently benched for missing one or two shots, Nichols has been allowed to find his range this year. He played a team-high 32 minutes and tied guard Gerry McNamara for the most 3-pointers attempted (seven) and most shots attempted overall (12).

Though Roberts went scoreless in the first half and finished with only six points and seven rebounds, his two dunks in less than a minute early in the second half sent the pro-Syracuse crowd into a frenzy.

‘We’re very confident now,’ Roberts said. ‘We’ve been through this before; we all played like vets tonight.’

Due to foul trouble, McCroskey was also scoreless in the first half. But in the second half, he exploded to the basket and finished strong multiple times to finish with 10 points. He also continued his strong rebounding with six off the glass.

Watkins used his hot start to propel himself to a quiet but solid 4-for-4 performance from the field. The center finished with eight points, five rebounds and two blocks.

The four might have put up bigger numbers but all were taken out of the game once the outcome was settled.

Still, Boeheim thought one area could have been better: 3-point shooting. Nichols went 1-for-7 and McCroskey 0-for-2.

‘I think we can shoot a lot better than this,’ Boeheim said. ‘We were 8-for-25 from the 3. Hopefully we can shoot better than that.’

Published on November 17, 2005 at 12:00 pm