To Brandon Triche, shades of Dwight Howard surfaced. The Syracuse guard Triche watched from the SU bench as C.J. Fair skied.

With 3:36 left in Syracuse’s 48-point destruction of DePaul, Fair leapt from the left side of the Syracuse baseline. In Triche’s eyes, he became the Orlando Magic center dubbed the NBA’s ‘Superman.’ Yards away from the student section, the 6-foot-8 freshman Fair sent the students, as well as the rest of the 28,086 in the Carrier Dome, into hysteria. Launching over DePaul forward Tony Freeland, Fair scored two points on Syracuse’s ninth and final dunk of the game.

It was a finale Fair envisioned and carried out after he told SU forward James Southerland he would be running the left lane on the SU fast break with a full head of steam on that exact play.

‘I didn’t initially know I made the dunk until I saw everybody going crazy,’ Fair said. ‘I just knew I was going to get a dunk because the play before I told James on defense, ‘I want to get this side so I can run this lane.”

Fair physically threw the ball downward into the Syracuse basket — his hand never touching the rim — to give the Orange its 99th and 100th points in the game.

And in a game best described as a demolition, Fair’s dunk was the exclamation point on a record-setting performance. It was the best dunk of the game to Triche, in a game with a bevy of them.

‘I think it was C.J.’s because he didn’t even dunk it,’ Triche said. ‘He just threw it in, it was kind of Dwight Howard-style. That was better than his earlier dunk. I am expecting that to be at least top four (on SportsCenter) tonight.’

Triche’s expectations became a reality, as on ESPN’s Saturday night edition of SportsCenter, Fair’s dunk was No. 2 on their trademark ‘Top 10 plays.’

More so than just Fair’s dunk, Saturday was simply a dunk fest. The nine the Orange tallied provided the game with one highlight after another. In comparison, SU hasn’t come close to that number in many previous Big East games, whether at home or on the road.

Against St. John’s at Madison Square Garden, SU tallied five dunks. It converted two vs. Seton Hall at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. There were three dunks against Villanova in the Dome and five on the road in Philadelphia. There was only one SU dunk in the overtime win over Rutgers, two vs. Connecticut in Hartford, Conn., and four vs. South Florida in Tampa, Fla.

But on Saturday, everybody got involved and rattled the rims. There was the usual from the likes of Kris Joseph, as he finished with two dunks in his typical aesthetic fashion. Rick Jackson had his customary putback slams, and he finished with four dunks.

Others chipped in as well, including SU bench players Fair, Southerland and Fab Melo.

Fair’s dunk was the showstopper, though.

‘I haven’t seen the dunk yet,’ Fair said after the game Saturday. ‘I was looking for it (on television), but I missed it. Hopefully, I get some Top 10 love tonight.’

Jackson left off All-Big East first team

A day after departing the Carrier Dome with a trademark offensive and defensive dominant performance in his home swan song, Rick Jackson failed to make the cut.

The senior power forward Jackson — whom Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim has said is, in his opinion, the best two-way player and inside player in the Big East — was not selected as a first-team all-conference selection Sunday. Jackson, who is averaging 13.1 points per game and leads the conference in rebounds (10.7), field-goal percentage (59.5), blocked shots (2.5) and double-doubles (17), was left off the six-man squad, as voted on by Big East head coaches.

Instead, Jackson was selected to the second team.

Even with the vote, though, the Big East head coaches could still regard Jackson as the best big man in the league. Not a single inside player made the first team, and Jackson was the only interior player on the second team.

Guards and wings dominated the first team as Notre Dame’s Ben Hansbrough, Connecticut’s Kemba Walker, Providence’s Marshon Brooks, Pittsburgh’s Ashton Gibbs, St. John’s Dwight Hardy and Georgetown’s Austin Freeman were selected.

The same plaudits that have been there all year for Jackson from Boeheim returned in the SU head coach’s postgame press conference Saturday, a day before the selections were announced.

Jackson departed the Dome on Senior Day with a 14-point, seven-rebound performance on 70 percent shooting in 27 minutes played.

‘I think he’s the best inside player in the league this year,’ Boeheim said Saturday. ‘He’s led the league in rebounding, field-goal percentage and blocked shots. I think he has had a tremendous year, a tremendous career, really. He’s just been getting better. He gives you everything he’s got, every game. He doesn’t ever come up short.’

Jackson’s teammates Kris Joseph and Scoop Jardine made the conference’s third team and honorable mention, respectively.

aolivero@syr.edu

Published on March 6, 2011 at 12:00 pm