NEW YORK – Hakim Warrick made a bet he refused to lose. If the Syracuse men’s basketball team didn’t win the Big East tournament, Warrick swore to assistant coach Rob Murphy he’d shave his head.

In his head though, he had nothing to worry about. Syracuse wouldn’t lose.

Thursday and Friday nights, SU wins over Rutgers and Connecticut inched Warrick closer to avoiding embarrassment. Saturday’s 68-59 victory over West Virginia at Madison Square Garden sealed Warrick maintaining a full head of hair when the Orange enters the NCAA Tournament.

Syracuse used a 21-6 spurt to close the first half and start the second, propelling the Orange to its first Big East tournament championship since 1992, and its fourth overall, in front of 19, 528, mostly Orange-clad, fans.

Although SU knew entering the tournament it would receive an NCAA Tournament at-large bid, Saturday’s victory handed Syracuse (27-6) the Big East’s automatic bid. It also likely boosted Syracuse’s tournament seed. While entering the tournament it appeared SU might have to a settle for a No. 5 or No. 6 seed, a No. 3 seed now looks promising.

And Warrick, who scored a game-high 20 points and earned the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award, won’t have to go completely bald for the first time in his life.

‘It feels great to be a part of,’ Syracuse center Craig Forth said. ‘But we’re not done yet.’

Considering just a week ago, Syracuse winning a Big East title and competing for a national championship seemed like a far off dream, the celebration after the game was mild at best.

No one cut down nets. No wild celebrations at mid-court. Just business as usual for the Orange.

The game itself lacked significant emotion. The pizzazz and finesse SU typically plays with never showed.

Gerry McNamara hit just three 3-pointers, the last of which with 1:31 remaining sealed Syracuse’s victory. Also strikingly missing were Warrick’s signature dunks. The offense as a whole showed some drop off after strong performances against UConn and Rutgers.

It didn’t matter, though, as the third-seeded Orange completed its improbable three-day run.

‘I think it’s the best conference in the nation,’ Warrick said. ‘If we can go out there and win against some of the best teams in the nation, I think we can go in there and play against anybody.’

Part of the credit for SU’s offensive struggles goes to the surprising Mountaineers (21-10). Outside the 21-6 run, SU’s offense never found much rhythm. Fortunately, it had its defense to carry the load.

SU’s 2-3 zone jumped out at WVU’s shooters, forcing contested shots. Unlike Friday’s semifinal win over Villanova when West Virginia shot 52 percent from 3-point range, the Orange held WVU to 31 percent 3-point shooting.

‘We just couldn’t hit a shot,’ Mountaineers guard Mike Gansey said.

West Virginia committed early to slowing Warrick, constantly bombarding him with double – and sometimes even triple – teams. At first Warrick failed to respond, throwing errant passes and forcing up ugly, contested shots.Late in the first half though, SU turned to its press, which several times this season has turned games toward the Orange. While West Virginia committed just six second-half turnovers, the press forced the Mountaineers to speed up its attack.

One turnover with 1:31 remaining in the first half led to a McNamara pull-up 3-pointer. Sophomore guard Demetris Nichols also hit a 3 off a turnover. SU entered the locker room up 10.

‘You know, we didn’t get a lot out of it, but we did get one or two plays,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said,

A late WVU run cut an 18-point Syracuse lead with 16:12 remaining to five with 8:21 left.

Then Warrick took over. It wasn’t your flashy prototypical Warrick. No fancy dunks, no slicing drives to the basket. Instead of fading away like he’d done in the first half, he took the ball into WVU’s defense.

Like most teams, the Mountaineers had no answer for the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. Three times late in the second half, Warrick forced his way inside, drawing fouls and padding Syracuse’s lead.

Finally, with 1:31 remaining McNamara, who finished with 16 points, knocked down his tournament-clinching 3.

‘It was pretty much the dagger,’ McNamara said.

After the final buzzer sounded, the Orange gathered near its bench donning Big East Championship hats and shirts. Terrence Roberts, one of SU’s most emotional players, flashed his shirt toward the crowd.

Each player accepted a championship watch from Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese. Warrick, Forth and Pace accepted the trophy, briefly holding it up to the crowd.

The trophy will likely end up in a Manley Field House trophy case. SU’s core veteran group now has a Big East tournament title to go along with its 2002-2003 national and Big East regular season titles. But it’s not the only championship the Orange want.

That group knows what it feels like to get hot at tournament time. That’s why Syracuse saved the celebration. It hopes there’s plenty more to come.

‘This is a really big thing, a big win,’ Warrick said. ‘But we definitely want to be cutting the nets down in St. Louis.’

Published on March 18, 2005 at 12:00 pm