Championships are won on the court, in the locker rooms and during practice. But they’re built by car rides to Wynnewood, Pa., cell phone conversations to Silver Spring, Md., and by first class mail to Griffin, Ga.

Sure, to win a national championship as Syracuse did last year, you need elite players. But you need the type of player that fits your program. All the high school All-Americans in the country can’t guarantee a national championship.

To do that, you need blueprint, a model for success. Syracuse has it, and has been executing it for years. Last year, it finally paid off.

The Foundation

Every team needs a starting point. Syracuse’s came in the form of five players. Hakim Warrick, from Wynnewood. Craig Forth. Billy Edelin from Silver Spring. Josh Pace from Griffin. Marc Konecny. They formed the freshman class of 2001. They were the ones who took Syracuse basketball already farther than it had ever been before.

Funny how fate works sometimes. Warrick, SU’s biggest current star, was almost left out of the mold. Syracuse had signed the four others and was in the running for Harlem’s Julius Hodge, who had narrowed his choice of schools to Syracuse and North Carolina State. He chose the Wolfpack. Immediately, SU signed Warrick. Konecny, who was supposed to be the star of the group, transferred from Syracuse and has been bouncing around the country looking to play.

‘That class with Warrick, Forth and Pace, that was the foundation for everything,’ said Dave Telep, national recruiting expert. ‘That big five-man class built a solid foundation. Boom, then you start building for ’03, ’04. Then you start rolling.’

The 6-foot-8, 185-pound Warrick is the prototypical Syracuse recruit. Long. Athletic. Quick. It’s the perfect frame for head coach Jim Boeheim’s 2-3 zone defense.

Edelin, too, fits that mold. At 6-foot-4, he’s tall for a point guard and fits well in the front of the zone.

At the time, there were no superstars in the class of 2001, just solid players that fit the style of play that Boeheim preferred.

‘They find the players that fit Boeheim’s system,’ ESPN.com’s Andy Katz said. ‘They get the long and lean guys that can be effective in the 2-3 zone. The best way to recruit is to recruit to your style. At end of day, it didn’t mean as much that Seton Hall and Villanova and those teams in the Big East had those stellar recruiting classes, because they fell apart.’

It’s that 2001 class that set the bar. Once the foundation was in place, SU could build. Syracuse recruited solid, three-to-four year players. That breeds continuity. Boeheim gave them room to grow in their first season. Forth started every game as a freshman and Warrick started 19 times. When high school players saw the playing time given to the young group, it made Syracuse attractive.

‘Just coming in,’ Warrick said, ‘you could sense a turnaround.

‘That would be great coming back here and seeing them going for the fifth or sixth national championship, just knowing that you won the first one, knowing that you helped get that monkey off (Boeheim’s) back.’

The Superstar

A player like Carmelo Anthony will most likely never play college basketball again. In the day of high school superstars attempting to make the jump to the NBA, the likelihood of having that skilled a player is slim to none.

It seemed like the perfect arrangement. Anthony gets one year to prepare himself for the NBA while Syracuse gets its national championship. Of course, it wouldn’t have worked with just Anthony. He had the backing of Warrick, Edelin, Pace and sophomore Gerry McNamara.

That’s the recipe for success. Build a core group of players, then plug in a superstar. Bam – fans are dancing on Marshall Street.

‘That’s the plan a lot of schools have,’ Telep said. ‘They build the foundation and then get that one guy to hit the home run.’

In Anthony’s case, it was a grand slam. The aftershock of his decision to attend college will make Syracuse a hot school for potential recruits.

‘This effect will last a little while,’ Telep said. ‘Syracuse will get a whole lot of mileage out of this. Carmelo’s going be a big presence in the national basketball scene. As his profile goes up, we’ll continue to see Syracuse highlights.’

Said assistant coach and top recruiter Mike Hopkins: ‘In the world of recruiting 16- to 18-year-old kids, that’s it. Carmelo Anthony is on the cover of Slam, he’s on the cover of Sports Illustrated for Kids, he’s got GQ Magazine. He’s like that street guy, he’s got the street rep where Lebron (James) got that mass media.’

The Guru

Hopkins is a main reason for the focus in SU recruiting. He played under Boeheim from 1990-93 and he’s one of those tall, lanky players that the coach covets. He’s able to relate to the teens he’s recruiting because, well, he acts like a teen himself.

‘You try to be someone they look forward to talking to,’ Hopkins said. ‘You try to be someone when they get a letter and it’s got Coach Hop printed all over it. They’re just going to know I’m wacky. I’m just stupid. You want them to remember you, to be able to break the ice, especially with kids who are quiet. It’s like a psychology. You gotta make them feel comfortable. When they feel comfortable, you can talk basketball with them.’

His off-the-wall demeanor has led to success on the recruiting front. All four SU players in this year’s freshman class were ranked in the top 100 of most national recruiting polls. Recruiting analyst Tim Watts ranks this year’s class among the nation’s top 20. Telep ranks it No. 6.

The four players – Demetris Nichols, Darryl Watkins, Terrence Roberts and Louie McCroskey – aren’t superstars. None of them ranked in the top 10 nationally in recruiting polls. But like Warrick and others before, they fit Boeheim’s mold.

‘It’s always more important if they got what they needed rather than whether or not (the recruits) were ranked first to 50th,’ Katz said. ‘I judge it more on their needs.’

Still, the freshman class is no pushover. The most talented of the bunch may be Roberts, who at 6 feet, 9 inches, runs the floor with the speed of a guard.

‘The main thing (that SU did) was that they stuck with me,’ Roberts said. ‘They didn’t recruit over me, and they stuck with me. They just kept on top of me, calling me during my other college visits just to ask how I was doing, just to know where I stood.’

The future of the Orangemen looks equally bright. Already, they’ve signed Utica’s Josh Wright and received a commitment from former Fowler High star Dayshawn Wright.

Both fit the needs of Syracuse, are potential four-year players and could play vital roles in SU’s rotation if Warrick bolts for the NBA after this season. According to several recruiting gurus, Boeheim seems content with landing two recruits for next year’s class. Much like this year’s class, the freshman class of 2004 is solid. There’s no superstar in the mix, but for Boeheim, there doesn’t have to be.

Put to Perfection

The publicity of winning the national championship alone will draw recruits to Syracuse that wouldn’t have even blinked an eye at the Orangemen previously.

But unlike Duke, which recruits upwards of four high school McDonald’s All-Americans per year, SU is content to pick and choose from its talent pool, which is dense with players from the Northeast.

‘They’ve recruited to their style about as well as anyone in country,’ Telep said. ‘As a staff, that shows an unbelievable game plan and execution. That doesn’t happen enough in college basketball.’

The recruiting classes of the past four years – starting with Warrick’s class and ending with the 2004 freshmen – have been among the best in the country. During that time, Boeheim and the coaching staff have all but secured Syracuse a spot in the top 10 for years to come.

‘It’s difficult to say that (it’s the best four-year recruiting effort),’ Telep said. ‘But it’s certainly one of best four-year runs of anyone in college basketball. You have to take a look at Duke and maybe even Indiana, but it’s been one hell of a four years.’

Published on November 20, 2003 at 12:00 pm