Terrence Roberts stood at his locker after Saturday’s 96-73 win over Boston College. While the media suffocated his Syracuse basketball teammates Gerry McNamara and Hakim Warrick, Roberts stood in isolation, facing the wall, with a look of depression.

It played sharp contrast to his position twenty minutes earlier, but perhaps his mood was the same. He was surrounded. This time by his teammates who were seated on either side of him. But he sat on the bench, a position he took for 36 of the game’s 40 minutes. It’s a position that he, as well his freshmen teammates, have grown accustomed to, but perhaps still don’t accept.

Roberts is averaging nine minutes per game, while his freshmen teammates, Louie McCroskey, Darryl Watkins and Demetris Nichols – all highly touted high schoolers – are averaging 12, 5.6 and 7.9 minutes, respectively.

But even those numbers are a bit inflated. After being suspended for the first three games of the season, McCroskey’s only played in 10 of SU’s 13 games. Roberts has been held out of two games, Nichols hasn’t seen action in four games and Watkins was held from five games.

‘I thought I’d be playing a whole lot more than I’m doing now,’ Roberts said. ‘But I guess not, so I take what I’m getting.’Three days earlier, Roberts’ coach, Jim Boeheim, had stated that the freshmen weren’t playing because of their effort in practice. Roberts, always outspoken, always passionate, disputes that claim.

‘Hell no,’ Roberts said. ‘I practice hard every day, I’m out there working hard every day, I give my all in practice every day. So if it ain’t in practice I don’t know what it is.’

Then he took a breath and exhaled. Contrary to his diatribe, his voice was near a whisper.

‘I do what I can. It’ll come sooner or later.’

He sees his chance and knows he’ll have to be patient. His teammates – many of whom struggled to earn playing time in the past – know that the freshmen will eventually be afforded an opportunity.

‘Sooner or later the freshman are going to have to make plays,’ said forward Josh Pace, who averaged 12.1 minutes per game his freshman year. ‘They’re not doing that right now, but they’ve got to be ready because it’s not always going to go like that.’Now that the Orangemen have reached Big East competition and SU head coach Jim Boeheim has seemingly found a productive rotation, the freshmen’s minutes, for the most part, should decrease. That’s not to say that the four freshmen don’t have talent. Each may be one of the most athletic players on the team, possessing size and the type of freakish agility that only a select few possess.

Watkins, a center, is 6 feet, 11 inches; Roberts, a forward, is 6 feet, 9 inches; Nichols, a small forward, is 6 feet, 8 inches; and McCroskey, a guard, is 6 feet, 5 inches. Each glides across the floor. Nichols, about two inches taller than Boston College power forward Craig Smith, has one of the purest 3-point shots on the team.

So why are they confined to the bench for the better part of the game? Well, Syracuse is the defending national champions, so the Orangemen are stocked with talent. On the depth chart, the freshmen are stuck behind more experienced teammates, all of whom contributed to that championship run before any of the freshmen had their high school prom. Also, as Boeheim said after the St. John’s game, it’s about practice.

‘I just haven’t felt they’ve played very well in games or at practice,’ Boeheim said after SU’s Jan. 7 win over St. John’s. ‘If they were better at practice, I’d have a little different feeling about playing them. I know we’re going to be in close games and we can’t afford somebody going in there and making two or three mistakes and taking two or three bad shots. We’re going to try and play some guys in the next couple of games and they’re going to have to sink or swim.’

During the second half of the game against St. John’s, Boeheim never went to the bench. McCroskey, often the first freshman off the bench, was the only frosh to play against St. John’s and Missouri. The other three sat on the bench in their shiny warm-ups, waiting for their opportunity.

‘I hope to get a lot of playing time,’ McCroskey said before the season, ‘but you’ve got to be realistic and realize you’re coming to the defending national champions.’

Published on January 13, 2004 at 12:00 pm