Should she choose, Patricia Albright has a show-and-tell story that could one-up any elementary school student in Syracuse.

Sure, she might have some explaining to do — how it’s possible that her father, Tyrone Albright, managed his way onto the Syracuse basketball team at the age of 26. How it happened that daddy walked on to the most popular team in town after never even playing high school ball. How it transpired that somebody who spent two years toiling at Onondaga Community College can now be hooping it up with a handful of future NBAers.

“My daughter loves it. She loves bragging to her teachers and her friends,” said Albright, who lives in Syracuse with his three children — Patricia, 7, is the oldest — and wife. “She’s so pumped for the games, and I’m pumped to have her watch me. My daughter admires me a lot, so whatever can get a smile on her face I’m happy to do.”

Albright’s journey, though, can’t be attributed entirely to his daughter’s charm. After all, it started when his firstborn could do little more than suck on a pacifier.

At Corcoran High School in Syracuse, Albright never played basketball. Instead, he graduated with little athletic fanfare and accepted a job at a local Boys and Girls Club. He spent four-and-a-half years there, only leaving for OCC because his salary wasn’t increasing when his family size was.

“When I started at Onondaga, it was because my job really didn’t pay enough for my family,” Albright said. “My wife actually convinced me into playing again. She said if I was there, I might as well do something I had wanted to do.”

Last season at OCC, Albright helped his team overcome a 1-8 start to finish 18-13. In the process, he topped all junior-college Division III players in the nation by averaging 12.7 assists.

That success drew scholarship offers from several Division II schools, but Albright, hoping to stay in the area, persuaded Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim to let him try out as a walk-on.

“From the conversations I had with him,” Albright recalled, “he said if I could show that I could play defense and help us transition into the offense, he would definitely have me.”

Unlike other SU walk-ons, Albright does have the comfort of a scholarship — his, however, comes from a combination of academics and financial need.

Syracuse’s need for Albright is another question. The 5-foot-11 point guard, who will enter this season as a senior, is behind Billy Edelin and several other scholarship players on the depth chart.

Yet with Edelin’s availability in doubt for the start of the season (he might be suspended because he participated in a recreational league last winter), Albright could sneak into the lineup.

“Tyrone might even be a little quicker off the dribble than Billy,” fellow walk-on Ronniel Herron said.

And if Albright does take the floor — even if just for the closing minutes of a laugher — at least it will help Patricia Albright with her story.

Instead of showing or telling, she could point to the court.

***

Waiting for Edelin decision

Syracuse University has concluded its internal investigation regarding a potential NCAA rules violation by Edelin. SU is now awaiting a decision by the NCAA student-athlete reinstatement department.

During a suspension from Syracuse last year, Edelin played in a recreational league. The NCAA prohibits competitive play outside of school-sanctioned events.

Rob Mathner, SU’s director of athletic compliance, said an NCAA decision is expected in the next one to three weeks.

In the NCAA rulebook’s chapter on eligibility, line 14.7.2.2 states: “Once a student-athlete becomes a candidate for the institution’s basketball team (i.e., has reported for the squad) … this prohibition against outside organized basketball competition remains applicable until the student-athlete’s intercollegiate basketball eligibility has been exhausted.”

According to the rulebook, “this includes time when the participant is officially withdrawn from college.”

Last week, though, Boeheim said the definition of “withdrawn” creates some ambiguity.

“The rule says ‘withdrawn.’ To me, that would mean someone who leaves voluntarily,” Boeheim said. “With Billy, it was more like he was expelled in my mind.”

The penalty Edelin faces — should there be one — will likely be a one-for-one penalty, Mathner said. In other words, Edelin will be suspended one game for every game he played in the rec league, a number SU has refused to disclose.

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State of the SUnion

Syracuse held its annual Media Day on Friday, and for the most part in a half-hour press conference, Boeheim was typically demure.

But that only made his glowing praise for Kueth Duany more noticeable.

“Kueth is shooting it better than I’ve ever seen him shoot it,” Boeheim said. “He’s probably improved his shooting as much in a one-year period as you could ever expect from a guy. He’s always improved a little bit each year, but this year it’s been a bigger jump than before. I’d say he’s a very good shooter now.”

In practices, Duany’s shot has a better end-over-end rotation than at any point last season, even during the Preseason NIT, when Duany was arguably SU’s best player.

Said Duany: “(I was) just working hard and shooting every day, taking out some glitches that I saw last year that I didn’t like. I just went to work this summer and got up a lot of shots.”

Aside from Duany, Boeheim also spoke at length about his team’s inexperience, a theme which occupied a majority of the media’s questioning.

Yet Boeheim, for one, showed little concern about SU’s youth.

“Our younger guys are more mature than most freshmen,” Boeheim said. “They’ve played more and had more basketball experience than most freshmen, and they’re well ahead of what I would expect a normal freshman to be. Some freshmen are more prepared to play college basketball right away than others, and I think our freshmen fall in that category.”

***

This and that

Lazarus Sims, who played with Syracuse from 1993-1996, was selected to join the Harlem Globetrotters last week. … ESPN.com has already released its first edition of “Bracketology,” a projection of how the NCAA Tournament will shake down come March. The Orangemen are currently listed as a No. 12 seed. … Individual tickets for all SU home games go on sale today. Tickets can be purchased, beginning at 9 a.m., at the Carrier Dome box office or at www.dometix.com.

Published on October 22, 2002 at 12:00 pm