Chris McCullough caught the ball in the short corner and the game seemed to slow down.

Rakeem Christmas called for the ball in the post, Trevor Cooney waved his arms across the court and Holy Cross forward Malcolm Miller shyly shuffled out to meet Syracuse’s 6-foot-10 freshman forward.

With his teammates wanting the ball and his team clinging to an 11-point lead with just over 11 minutes, McCullough pumped once before rising up and sinking a mid-range jumper in Miller’s face.

The make gave him his 13th and 14th points — his last of the night — and the Orange (5-1) went on to beat the Crusaders (3-1), 72-48, in the Carrier Dome on Friday night. But while McCullough finished in double-figures for the sixth time in as many college games and went for his second double-double of the season with 13 rebounds, SU head coach Jim Boeheim redirected the attention to a ESPN article published on Wednesday by Chad Ford, which said McCullough was recently pegged as an NBA lottery pick by a group of pro scouts.

“You keep looking at what Chris Ford says, he’s a really smart guy, he knows exactly who’s going to get drafted,” Boeheim said of Chad Ford after the win. “I talked to 10 pro scouts, not one of them thought that Chris McCullough was a first-round pick.

“So who (Ford)’s talking to, I have no idea. And when you print that stuff, people read that, parents read that … ‘He’s in the Top 10 in the draft board, that’s why he’s going to go.’ On whose draft board? ESPN? They don’t have a team. They do not have a team.”

After acknowledging McCullough’s mid-range ability, Boeheim touched on the negatives of his performance against Holy Cross.

Boeheim said that McCullough gave up 15 points, on his own, as the Crusaders climbed back into the game in the second half. McCullough agreed with his head coach, saying he gave up too many shots in the corner while playing the wing of Boeheim’s 2-3 zone.

McCullough’s teammates praised the forward’s ability to stretch the floor, which helped compensate for an 0-for-14 performance from 3-point range. By establishing his mid-range jumper, McCullough helped senior Rakeem Christmas to a career-high 25 points in the low post.

Together, they shot 15-for-21 for 39 points, collected 25 rebounds and blocked five shots. But as far as recognizing the performance as a hint to McCullough’s draft stock, Boeheim pointed to the opponent McCullough splurged against.

“‘I’m 6-10 I’m playing against 6-3 guys, I should be able to get 14 points. I think that should be something I can accomplish,’” said Boeheim, talking as if he were McCullough. “Maybe I couldn’t now, I’d probably only get 10. Just let the kids play. Let them play, will you? If there’s any voracity in anything that those people say, it would be different.”

McCullough didn’t make much of Boeheim’s comments or the Ford article. He said he received a text message telling him he was being called a lottery pick, but mostly brushed it off before turning in what was arguably his most well-rounded offensive performance of the season.

“I’m not paying attention to it,” McCullough said. “I’m not worried about nothing like that right now.”

After beating Holy Cross, Boeheim couldn’t say the same.

Published on November 28, 2014 at 11:14 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse