Ask Andy Rautins. He knows how important the 3-point shot is for any basketball team. How it can mount a comeback ever so quickly. How it can turn a four- or five-point advantage into a more sizeable lead. And specifically, how it can extend a game, like his barrage of 3s did, to force a fourth overtime in the epic six-overtime Big East tournament game against Connecticut.

‘You just get on a roll and keep it going when you’re making 3s,’ Rautins said. ‘It’s definitely a huge asset. It’s a big weapon to have.’

Then ask Jim Boeheim about the current state of his team, 3-point shooting-wise. With Rautins and Wes Johnson gone, who can provide that spark for a comeback? That game-clinching shot? Or that game-extending shot?

‘I’m pretty comfortable with myself,’ Boeheim quipped at the Syracuse men’s basketball team’s annual media day last Friday. ‘I think I can make some if I get open. But the rest is up in the air.’

When SU hits the court Nov. 12 in its first game against Northern Iowa, its current ensemble of players chucking those 3-pointers will be one of Boeheim’s biggest concerns. Rautins and Johnson combined to shoot 364 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc last season. They made 149 of them, good for about 41 percent.

Those two are gone. And so is the certainty of a consistent 3-point threat going into the season. But Rautins, for one, isn’t worried like Boeheim.

‘I think that us leaving, it won’t affect them too much,’ Rautins said. ‘I know they have a hardworking bunch. They’re going to do their best to fill that void.’

One of the players who could step in to fill that void is Mookie Jones. A sniper in limited action last season, Jones shot 44.6 percent from beyond the arc in 56 attempts. He and James Southerland, who shot just 7-of-24 from 3 last season, are two who Rautins sees as dark horse threats to take over that void.

But first, they both have to get on the court. Jones struggled to get much playing time last year, only averaging 10.5 minutes per game. In Big East contests, that number was even lower. Southerland only managed 7.5 minutes per game last season.

But now, with Johnson and Rautins gone, the opportunity is there. And to Boeheim, it’s up to them whether or not they take it.

‘They both have great opportunities, and they have to take advantage of them,’ Boeheim said. ‘They’re going to get a great opportunity. We lost two perimeter guys who played 35 minutes a game last year, so there is a large amount of playing time there. I certainly think they are two guys who have improved a lot and should be ready to play.’

Jones knows the opportunity is there. He said sometimes during the summer, he would show up at the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center, dead tired at 3 a.m., and shoot the ball hundreds of times, many of which would come from beyond the arc.

And those early shootarounds have gotten him to a point at which he is comfortable trying to fill the void of the two most consistent 3-point shooters last year for the Orange.

‘I would work on it every day,’ Jones said of his offseason shooting work. ‘I’m comfortable with the way I’ve been shooting lately. But even though it feels good, I want to be better. I want to be more consistent. I want to be Andy Rautins consistent.’

SU also has two presumable starting guards who each shot at least 39 percent on 3-point attempts last season — Brandon Triche and Scoop Jardine.

But the question is whether they can both extend that to a full season’s work. Whether they can become the options in that facet of the game, rather than just options.

‘It changes a little bit,’ Triche said. ‘We have to adapt to the situation and get better. Transform into a little bit of Andy, try to get some shots up. I’m not as great a shooter as Andy, but I’m going to try to make my own way.’

But until Triche — or Jardine or Jones or Southerland — has completely transformed into Rautins, Boeheim won’t be comfortable.

Until then, those four are just part-time 3-point shooters. Kris Joseph, another player Boeheim singled out, is just a player who made some in practice but could never translate that into games.

Until then, Boeheim will still only feel comfortable with himself.

‘One of the question marks is going to be how well we can shoot the ball from the perimeter with those guys,’ Boeheim said. ‘James and Mookie are very good 3-point shooters. Dion is a good shooter. I think we have more guys who can shoot them.

‘We just have to find out if we have guys who can make them.’

Schedule maker

Boeheim quipped in his opening press conference at SU’s media day that he could not have come up with the Orange’s non-conference schedule.

One by one, he listed off why each out-of-conference opponent would be tougher than the last.

Georgia Tech will be good. Michigan is on the upswing. UTEP has four returning starters. North Carolina State will have almost everyone coming back. And Michigan State will be No. 1 or No. 2 in the nation.

‘It’s much more difficult than what we’d like to see,’ Boeheim said. ‘Pretty much go down our schedule, and it’s very challenging. The non-conference schedule is good, and hopefully that will help us for the conference schedule.’

Boeheim, of course, is the Orange’s schedule maker. And he thinks this year, both in and out of conference, will be SU’s toughest one in years.

Syracuse’s head coach also thinks the Orange’s Big East slate is the toughest it has had to face in a ‘long time.’ SU will play Georgetown and Villanova in home-and-home contests this season, two squads Boeheim said will be in the top four of the league.

‘It’s the best conference in the nation, and it is going to be tough again this year,’ Triche said of the Big East. ‘We play against the best teams. … There are going to be battles every game, but this is what America wants to see — great basketball.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on October 19, 2010 at 12:00 pm