Can’t be done, they said. No way. To win in the NCAA Tournament, you needed tested veterans, pillars who know what it’s like to lose and what it takes to win.

Sure, freshman Carmelo Anthony and his Syracuse men’s basketball kiddie corps teammates had a fun little run through the Big East. But come tourney time, their youthful exuberance would be crumpled by a gang of rough-and-tumble seniors.

In the past three trips through Bracketville, Michigan State’s Mateen Cleaves, Duke’s Shane Battier and Maryland’s Juan Dixon led senior-laden casts to college basketball’s Promised Land.

Maybe that’s why Sports Illustrated picked Pennsylvania, a less talented team stocked with seniors, to upend the Orangemen in the second round.

Flying in the face of convention, Anthony carried inexperienced Syracuse to its first national championship and made SU the youngest champion in NCAA history.

‘I’ve never seen a team this young win the championship,’ SU associate head coach Bernie Fine said. ‘It’ll be a while before such a young team wins it again.’

‘It’s an amazing thing to see done,’ Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun said. ‘When they talk about some of the champions, the young Syracuse team will be brought up because it is a rarity.’

The Orangemen started two freshmen (Anthony and Gerry McNamara) and a pair of sophomores (Craig Forth and Hakim Warrick). Their top reserve (Billy Edelin) was a freshman. In all, three of SU’s top six players were freshmen, six members of its eight-man rotation were underclassmen and Kueth Duany was the only senior on the roster. If Syracuse was any younger, head coach Jim Boeheim could’ve filed taxes as a day-care operator.

Syracuse’s starting lineup had fewer combined years experience (10) than any previous title winner. Conversely, last year Maryland’s starting five had 17.

Two seasons ago, when Battier led Duke to the championship, the Blue Devils’ starters combined for an infantile 12 years experience. But their rock-solid sixth man, Nate James, was a fifth-year senior.

Michigan teams from 1992 and 1993, led by the Fab Five, remain the closest squads to win a national title with less experience than Syracuse, falling both years in the national final — first to Duke and then North Carolina.

Those Wolverines were pioneers, brazen enough to win — and win with braggadocio — starting five freshmen. The famed quintet of Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson was a hardcourt phenomenon, but it fell, as detractors predicted, because of inexperience.

Michigan led Duke, 31-30, at the half in ’92 but choked in the second and lost, 71-51, to the Blue Devils, who were led by senior Christian Laettner.

In ’93, Michigan collapsed more infamously. On what could have been the game-tying possession in the final seconds against UNC, Webber panicked and called a timeout Michigan didn’t have.

There was all the evidence doubters needed. Put freshmen and sophomores in a pressure-packed arena, and they’ll fold like a greeting card.

‘People went in and said Syracuse just wasn’t old enough to win,’ Calhoun said. ‘We won our national title (in 1999) against what people consider maybe still the best Duke team. But they were young. And that’s why we beat them.’

This year’s Orangemen, though, proved freshmen can play poised. Down 18 to Oklahoma State in the NCAA Tournament’s second round, SU’s freshmen could have called it a season. But the Orangemen collected themselves, pressured the Cowboys into 22 turnovers and won, 68-56, behind Edelin’s 20 points.

‘This team had such great character,’ Fine said. ‘They aren’t normal freshmen. Even before the championship game, you’d think they’d be nervous in the locker room. But it didn’t faze them. They weren’t uptight. It was just a special group. They were young in age but not in maturity.’

Fittingly, a freshman guided the juvenile Orangemen, the antithesis of common wisdom. Seniors are supposed to carry teams through March, like Kansas’ Danny Manning in 1988 or UCLA’s Ed O’Bannon in 1995.

But the brash Anthony led Syracuse in scoring and rebounding for the season and was named Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament.

Only once before has a freshman been named MOP while leading his team to a national title. In 1986, Pervis Ellison, Louisville’s first-year center, scored 36 points in the Final Four, lifting the Cardinals to the championship.

But unlike Anthony, Ellison was bulwarked by a trio of seniors — Billy Thompson, Milt Wagner and Jeff Hall. Ellison, who averaged 13.1 points in the regular season, finished behind Thompson and Wagner for the team’s scoring lead.

‘(Experience) doesn’t matter quite as much if you can play,’ Calhoun said. ‘Do I think you can get by with younger kids? Yeah. But they better be like McNamara and Anthony.’

Indeed, SU’s youngsters were inexperienced in label only. Edelin, who would have been a sophomore if not for a year-and-a-half hiatus, has been through such strife that basketball seems easy by comparison. McNamara prepped for the spotlight in Scranton, Pa., where he’s been a star since eighth grade. And Anthony, of course, is a once-a-generation talent.

‘Carmelo Anthony isn’t just a rookie,’ Calhoun said. ‘He had things about him most players don’t have. He never really truly played like a freshman.’

Said Forth: ‘We all played for good teams in high school and have been in these types of environments before.”

Or maybe it was karma. After all, what are the chances of three prepared and able freshmen congregating at SU in the same year?

Edelin should have been a sophomore. Anthony could have gone to the NBA. James Thues, last year’s point guard, transferred to Detroit, freeing up a spot for McNamara. Boeheim worried McNamara would choose Duke over Syracuse. Indeed, in SU’s championship run the pieces fell together perfectly.

‘We knew they’d be young,’ Fine said. ‘Sometimes, people leave. When that happens, you have to play who you have. And this group was just way ahead of schedule. No question, experience helps. But character wins championships.’

Anthony showed such character when soaking up the Orangemen’s Elite Eight win over Oklahoma on March 30. As he leaned against his cubicle in the Pepsi Arena locker room, he exhaled and reflected on SU’s season.

‘A lot of people said freshmen couldn’t lead a team to the Final Four,” he said. “But we did it.’

Published on April 13, 2003 at 12:00 pm