In the Syracuse men’s basketball team’s first exhibition game against Le Moyne on Nov. 2, head coach Jim Boeheim worked in fives. He swapped whole units as if there was a change of possession in football.

Halfway through the first half, five reserves made their way to the court, exchanging high-fives with the starting lineup. In what would be a blowout victory, Boeheim simply wanted to rest his starters while testing SU’s depth.

The starting five – Craig Forth, Hakim Warrick, Demetris Nichols, Josh Pace and Gerry McNamara – is the same quintet that took the court seven months ago in SU’s Sweet 16 loss to Alabama. The familiarity they have after starting 18 games together helped them dismantle the Dolphins. They should be among the best in the country this season.

While Syracuse is loaded with talent, returning all five starting players is very rare. The last time Syracuse did so was in the 1982-83 season. This year’s team is only the second to do so in the last 40 years.

Some pieces from that team are still present 21 years later. Boeheim and Bernie Fine still pilot the team. And Gene Waldron, a starting guard in 1983, now sits on the opposite sideline. He works as a color commentator for Syracuse radio.

Leo Rautins, a starting point forward for the 1983 team, remembers a much different Boeheim from the calm demeanor fans and players are used to, though.

‘He was a lot more excitable and a lot more volatile,’ said Rautins, who now works as a television announcer for the NBA’s Toronto Raptors. ‘You really had to earn your stripes with him.’

After going 16-13 and failing to make the NCAA Tournament the year before, Boeheim had to be tough on his team. The Big East was stacked with players like Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Ed Pinckney and John Bagley.

Still, with five starters returning, Syracuse had confidence.‘We were excited because no one was really looking at us,’ Rautins said. ‘We felt we could sneak up early.’

Sneak up early is exactly what they did. SU opened with 11 straight wins, including a 92-87 win over No. 9 Houston at the Carrier Dome. Houston would make it to the national championship game that year thanks to ‘Phi Slamma Jamma,’ the high-flying and talented trio of Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler and Larry Micheaux.

Fine remembered a pregame interview he did with NBC. While Olajuwon was Houston’s tallest player at 7 feet, the Orange’s tallest player, Rautins, stood at only 6 feet 8 inches.

‘Al McGuire and Billy Packer said ‘They’re so talented and they’re so big. Are you gonna hold the ball?” Fine recalled. ‘I said no, because we were a running team. It was a very quick and exciting game. That’s the way we played. We were an up-tempo team.

‘We were smaller. If we let them slow it down, we would have been in trouble.’

After the upset win, SU broke the top 20 for the first time that season with a No. 16 ranking. The Orange rattled off five more wins and peaked at No. 9 before traveling to Charlotte to face No. 17 North Carolina.

Waldron had been looking forward to the game for some time because of a personal rivalry with Sam Perkins. Both grew up in New York City and visited SU together. Perkins told Waldron that he was coming to Syracuse, too.

‘We really recruited him hard,’ Fine said. ‘Coach Boeheim probably spent more time recruiting Sam Perkins than any player we’ve ever had.’

The game was on a Saturday, and the Orange arrived two days early to prepare.

‘I had a really bad vibe,’ Rautins said. ‘We had nothing to do for a couple of days and we were just hanging around the hotel. I felt stale when the game rolled around.’

The first half was fast-paced, playing right into SU’s hands. The Orange temporarily contained Michael Jordan. Then, the tide shifted.

‘Dean Smith got ticked off about something,’ Rautins said. ‘He sensed we were rolling, we were handling everything UNC had. Then there was a technical foul called on them and that was it. We didn’t get a call the rest of the game.’

Jordan and Perkins led the Tar Heels to an 87-64 win. It was the turning point to Syracuse’s season.

‘They didn’t just beat us, they crushed us,’ Fine said. ‘They kicked our ass.’

The Orange went 8-6 before traveling to Washington, D.C., to play Ewing and Georgetown in its season finale.

‘We had a horrible start against Georgetown,’ Rautins said. ‘We came out flat as can be, but somehow we managed to take the lead with a couple minutes to go.’

Rautins, who had three fouls, picked up two quick charging calls, sending him to the bench. The Hoyas won the game, 80-75, on a clutch, game-winning shot by Michael Jackson.

‘Jimmy (Boeheim) just ripped into us,’ Rautins said. ‘He was pissed off and I couldn’t blame him.’

A week before the Big East tournament and the Orange had struggled to play above .500 after opening the season 11-0. SU traveled to New York City to prepare for another game against the Hoyas in the Big East tournament.

Syracuse practiced in a local high school gym near Madison Square Garden.

‘(Boeheim) ran our tails off the whole practice,’ Rautins said. ‘We did the three-man weave for an hour at full speed.’

‘Jim believed we were every bit as athletic and every bit as capable as they were,’ backup forward Sean Kerins said. ‘He was pretty intense. He’s always been pretty focused and very competitive. He wanted to drive that message with us.’

Practice paid off. Syracuse beat Georgetown, 79-72, before losing to Boston College in the second round, 80-74.

In the NCAA Tournament, Syracuse had similar shortcomings. A No. 6 seed, SU opened with an easy win against Morehead State, 74-59. Its season ended two days later against No. 3-seeded Ohio State, 79-74. Jordan and the Tar Heels, on their way to the Elite Eight, defeated the Buckeyes in the next round.

Undersized and overlooked, the Orange made a name for itself in 1983. Boeheim didn’t have a Ewing, a Jordan or an Olajuwon. But the hard-working group of Hawkins, Rautins, Tony Bruin, Erich Santifer and Waldron used their run-and-gun style to make more than a few waves that season.

‘Had we beaten Ohio State, had we won, we would’ve played Michael Jordan back in the Dome,’ Rautins said. ‘How’s that for a matchup? We would’ve had 60,000 people in the Dome.’

Published on November 8, 2004 at 12:00 pm