Syracuse men’s basketball head coach Jim Boeheim poked, prodded, pleaded and nit-picked.

Gerry McNamara was making a seamless transition to point guard. Carmelo Anthony was earning Rookie-of-the-Week awards like a kindergartner earns gold stars. But Boeheim was far from content.

While both freshmen starred on offense, they struggled on defense for the first eight games. But Monday’s 76-69 victory over No. 11 Missouri offered proof that Syracuse is sporting a vastly improved defense.

‘I counted about 10 or 15 (defensive) mistakes from (McNamara and Anthony),’ Boeheim said after Colgate buried 10 3-pointers in a 98-68 SU win on Dec. 3. ‘Most of the time, (the mistakes) cost us. (McNamara and Anthony) don’t give up as many points as they score, but they try.’

Anthony was routinely caught helping inside, and when the ball was passed to his man, Anthony would leap out just in time to watch the ball sail over his head. Meanwhile, McNamara displayed his shooting range but also allowed open looks to opponents from the same distance.

During their first eight games, the Orangemen allowed opponents to shoot 44 percent on first-half 3-point attempts. Many of Syracuse’s overmatched foes resorted to firing desperate second-half attempts in an effort to stick close, dropping their overall percentage to 34.

Interestingly, as Seton Hall’s Andre Barrett and Boston College’s Troy Bell replaced the warm-up contests on SU’s schedule, opponents’ shooting percentages plummeted.

‘Offensively, we’ve been a little sharper,’ Boeheim said last night. ‘When we didn’t make shots, we were able to rely on hanging tough and playing good defense. That was really the difference.’

In SU’s past four games, no opponent has made more than 29 percent of its 3-point attempts. In the previous eight games, SU’s opponents failed to reach that mark just twice.

‘When we get going on defense and rebounding, that’s when we really get out and run,” McNamara said. “That’s when it’s really fun. When we do that, this team is going to be tough to beat.’

Now that they have begun to understand their defensive roles, Anthony and McNamara have proven to be more athletic than the departed Preston Shumpert, DeShaun Williams and James Thues.

That trio’s departure has also allowed the athletic 6-foot-8 Hakim Warrick to gobble up more minutes.

With Warrick’s wingspan and Anthony’s 6-foot-8 frame manning the back of SU’s 2-3 zone, smaller guards have difficulty even spotting the rim.

‘They can be very effective because they have so many long athletes,” Seton Hall head coach Louis Orr said after SU beat the Pirates, 70-66, last Wednesday.

Still, Syracuse’s defensive struggles haven’t been completely solved. Centers Jeremy McNeil and Craig Forth have looked overmatched at times, even against inexperienced opponents.

Freshmen forwards Kelly Whitney (20 points) of Seton Hall and Craig Smith (26 points) of Boston College torched SU’s inside tandem.

Forth’s struggles began at the start of the year, when an Achilles injury hampered his mobility, and he was dominated by Valparaiso’s Raitis Grafs in the home opener. Still, SU’s big men showed improvement against Missouri.

Forth, SU’s fifth scoring option, nearly matched Missouri star center Arthur Johnson, limiting his touches and forcing him to score most of his points off jump shots and offensive rebounds.

‘(Besides Memphis), this was the first game this year where (Forth) really had to battle,’ Boeheim said. ‘He did a good job keeping the ball out, making (Johnson) take tough shots. We know they’re going to score in there, but unlike the past two games, we made it tougher.’

Published on January 14, 2003 at 12:00 pm