PITTSBURGH – After Hakim Warrick chucked the ball halfway to the Petersen Events Center’s roof – and James Naismith stopped doing 180s in his grave – the spindly forward walked defiantly off the court, head high and chest out.

Terrence Roberts puffed his chest, too, making sure to grab his jersey with his thumbs to show the world the ‘Syracuse’ emblazoned across it.

For the first time in a while, the Syracuse men’s basketball team had reason to be that proud. It had just become the first visitor to send fans at the Pete home unhappy, beaten a No. 3 Pittsburgh team that some called the best in the nation and did so with a toughness that screamed, ‘Ready for March.’

For all the hand-wringing SU’s struggles and Billy Edelin’s absence have brought this season, the Orangemen gave reason to shove that in the background. They’ve punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament and did so on national television, where they’d previously done nothing but fall on their face.

‘No one can doubt us now,’ SU guard Gerry McNamara said. ‘To come down here and win a game like this, that shows a lot about this team.’

Maybe it wasn’t pretty, but neither were most of SU’s wins last season, and that worked out OK. The Orangemen just found a way to win, beating the toughest team in the nation using toughness – both physical and mental.

After Syracuse stumbled out of the gate and found itself down by eight points after just 10 minutes, it could’ve quit, could’ve wilted for so many reasons.

The Orangemen were playing in a building no opponent had ever left happy. McNamara, their best shooter, couldn’t make a shot. Heck, Josh Pace was SU’s leading scorer. They were supposed to lose this game, anyway – the oddsmakers had made them 11-point underdogs. Just pack it in and head to Morgantown, W.Va., and try to salvage a decent seed in the Big Dance.

But SU wouldn’t allow it. Pace continued his hot play, reminiscent of his surge this time last season. Hakim Warrick eventually got going. Its offense struggling, Syracuse relied on its 2-3 zone, which is starting to look a lot like the frightening monster it turned into last season. By the end of the first half, Syracuse had kicked into gear and was down just two at halftime. That took character and a resolution SU has lacked for much of this season.

‘We have a lot of character and a lot of heart,’ McNamara said. ‘When you have that, we can make some noise in the tournament.’

That heart manifested itself physically, too. Syracuse beat Pittsburgh at its own game, slowing tempo and turning the court into a rugby pitch. A month ago, Pitt embarrassed SU doing just that. Minimizing possessions and slowing down the game against Pitt is like playing swords with Zorro.

But SU head coach Jim Boeheim was bold enough to do it, and gave SU the confidence that it could. All week, Boeheim had hammered a message to the Orangemen that showed yesterday.

‘Don’t let anyone push you around,’ Boeheim told the Orangemen.

They didn’t. Freshman Terrence Roberts battled inside with Chris Taft and Chevon Troutman, two of the Big East’s roughest bruisers. Both McNamara and Roberts emerged from a pile limping, but neither so much as looked at SU’s bench. Warrick played all 45 minutes, including the final 11 with four fouls.

‘That was just a darn physical, tough basketball game,’ Boeheim said. ‘It was a tremendous accomplishment for our kids.’

Imagining a better scenario for Syracuse would be impossible, for both its NCAA tournament rsum and its psyche. A road win over the nation’s No. 3 team will send SU’s RPI ranking skyrocketing.

And after the Orangemen came away from the Pete with a win, it’ll be impossible to intimidate them. They won a game that anyone who thought they knew anything about basketball gave them zero chance to win.

‘We’ve never been 11-point underdogs,’ Boeheim said. ‘Maybe we proved something today.’

They did. If Syracuse can beat Pitt on its home floor, it can beat any team in the country anywhere.

Of course, that doesn’t mean it will. Maybe yesterday’s game was an aberration – that much we don’t know. What we know now, though, is that when we all counted Syracuse out, it was a little too early.

Adam Kilgore is the sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear regularly. E-mail him at adkilgor@syr.edu.

Published on February 29, 2004 at 12:00 pm