Patrick Ewing used to battle Rony Seikaly. Alonzo Mourning met up with Derrick Coleman. The Syracuse-Georgetown basketball rivalry once brimmed with premier post matchups.

But today’s battle between Craig Forth and Wesley Wilson will not be one of them. While Georgetown has a superstar big man in forward Mike Sweetney, Syracuse lacks a major post presence.

SU associate head coach Bernie Fine earned a reputation as one of the nation’s top center coaches. But for the first time in his 27-year career, Fine is in danger of going three years without developing a center who averages six rebounds — although the recent play of Jeremy McNeil suggests that by season’s end, Fine may avoid that.

Still, over the past three years, Fine’s centers have averaged 4.5 points and 3.9 rebounds. Over the previous 24 seasons, SU centers averaged 10.9 points and 6.7 rebounds.

“I’m probably not doing as good a job as I need to do,” Fine said. “But I’m certainly trying different things. I can’t go in and get the rebounds. That’s something they have to do.

“You just try to teach through repetition. Sometimes they get it. Sometimes they don’t. You never know which way they’ll go.”

For the moment at least, Syracuse’s centers appear to be improving.

Despite a horrendous start this season, McNeil and Forth combined for 18 points Wednesday at Rutgers, their best Big East performance. McNeil also totaled eight rebounds and scored the game-winning basket Saturday against Pittsburgh.

“They’re more active,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. “They’re getting more involved. They have to be ready to chip in, whether it’s a rebound or an offensive rebound and a put-back. The better they are, the better we’ll be.”

It’s always been that way.

Fine developed Dan Schayes, once an unheralded post player, into an NBA draft pick. He turned Seikaly from a Greek giant who had never played organized basketball into an All-Big East center. And he changed Etan Thomas from an awkward Oklahoman into a shot-blocking wonder.

But it didn’t come easy for any of them.

“First word: tough. Second word: fair,” SU assistant coach Mike Hopkins said when asked to describe Fine. “When you’re here you say, ‘God, he’s so tough.’ Later, you come back and thank him.”

A smile or sarcastic remark occasionally escapes Fine, but neither delays his courtside plodding. While Hopkins and fellow assistant Troy Weaver tackle, slap-box and hug players, Fine is all business.

And that’s how he taught his centers to act. In practice, he put them through hell. A pair of football pads was his favorite torture device. As soon as a center caught the ball, he was all over him, smacking him in the back, shoving him out of the way and leaving an occasional bruise.

“Basically, Coach Fine was in charge of turning boys into men,” former center Roosevelt Bouie said.

But now that he’s entering his 27th year of coaching at Syracuse, Fine doesn’t have the strength to pester physical freaks like McNeil and Forth.

“Now I have to let them beat each other up,” Fine said. “As they get stronger, they have a chance to get even with me.”

But when Forth, McNeil and freshman Matt Gorman nail each other with the pads, they do about as much damage as a pillow fight.

In Thursday’s practice, Hopkins practically mugged the guards as they came off screens, following his fouls with a simple statement: “That’s exactly what (Panthers guard) Jaron Brown will do. That’s exactly what Pittsburgh will do.”

The centers, meanwhile, went through set plays without any physical contact, although Forth and McNeil did face off in a short scrimmage, and McNeil stayed after practice and worked with Fine’s football pads.

“I think over the years I’ve probably mellowed,” Fine said. “I think of Rony Seikaly and all the centers earlier. Now they’d be upset with me, telling me I’m too nice.”

Said Forth: “He’s tough on us, but he’s not as tough as he could be. I’ve heard all the horror stories from the past, and maybe he’s getting light in his old age. One of the problems with me is I’m not prepared for the physicality of the games, because I don’t get beat up in practice.”

After all, the only players who bang with Forth are the bull-like McNeil, the still-skinny freshman Gorman and the always-skinny Hakim Warrick.

Fine continues to use the same drills. Centers show up to practice 20 minutes early to work on a rebounding machine that forces them to grab the ball in two hands. Then they watch shots taken from different angles to learn where rebounds are likely to land.

Although Fine’s intense nature worked wonders with Seikaly, it would have a different effect on Forth and McNeil.

Last year, after more than two seasons with Fine and Boeheim, McNeil left the team.

“When I used to say I hated them,” McNeil said before the season, “(My mom) would tell me, ‘Don’t because they know what they’re talking about.’ ”

Given his performance the last two games, it seems like McNeil’s beginning to listen.

Forth, meanwhile, brings intensity to practice but hasn’t shown it during games.

He’s the team’s hardest worker, but he’s wound tighter than a golf ball. He criticizes himself for every mistake, often leaving practice muttering under his breath.

“How are you Craig?” a well-wisher will ask.

“Like usual — like I need to punch something,” he’ll grouse.

Said Fine: “You have to see how some people are. Some people get turned off by (too much intensity).”

Fine and his centers agree that Forth and McNeil need an attitude adjustment.

“My problem is I’m too nice of a person,” Forth said. “I’ve been told that too often. I need to get a mean streak. I need to rip the ball out of other people’s hands.”

While the attitude has been slow to develop, McNeil and Forth have displayed recent progress. Against Rutgers, the pair dunked instead of settling for layups, shooting 9 of 10.

McNeil and Forth tower over most rebounders, but Syracuse has been outrebounded in four of its seven Big East games. While McNeil and Forth jump straight up and bat the ball around, opponents cut inside, fly toward the glass and secure the ball with two hands.

Syracuse’s centers have company among struggling Big East big men. Only six of 14 Big East squads start a center. West Virginia has no center on its roster.

The league’s most successful pivot man, Connecticut’s Emeka Okafor, is only 6-foot-9 and has the body of a forward. Okafor and Virginia Tech’s Terry Taylor — a squat 6-foot-8 player — are the only two centers who lead their teams in rebounding.

The problem: There aren’t many centers left to recruit.

Some coaches blame the NBA for taking most of the big men. According to NBAdraft.net, a Web site that predicts future drafts, four American-born centers will be first-round picks over the next two years. Only one, Colorado sophomore David Harrison, will need to go to college to secure first-round status, according to the Web site.

Hopkins agrees that the NBA has depleted the college talent pool. He also believes most players enter college with a cap on their potential.

For Syracuse, this means most available centers may not have a chance at approaching Seikaly’s abilities. After all, Fine can’t buy the slow-footed Forth a new pair of legs or the stone-handed McNeil a new pair of mitts.

Big-man coach Pete Newell, who runs a summer camp open to the top collegiate centers, believes the NBA is a problem, but post players face a larger battle.

Before the widespread adoption of the motion offense, coaches used a 2-3 offensive set — picture Syracuse’s 2-3 zone on offense — that created passing angles to the post and plenty of room for centers. Once coaches switched to the motion offense, a fourth offensive player was sent below the free-throw line, limiting space inside and allowing opponents more opportunities to employ double-teams.

With so little room to maneuver, centers rarely utilize low-post moves. And with centers’ scoring chances limited, Newell said nobody wants to play the position.

Newell said 7-footers like Brian Cook (Illinois) and Kevin Pittsnogle (WVU) drift around the outside because it offers more scoring opportunities.

“That’s where the shots are,” Newell said. “They have a height advantage, and they can get shots off. Nobody wants to take the abuse if it’s not going to help them score.”

NBA scouting director Marty Blake agrees: “Centers?” he asked. “What centers? If we have them all, I’d like to know where we’re hiding them.”

Still, to Fine, neither the NBA nor the lack of centers are acceptable excuses for SU’s struggling big men.

“I think you have to blame it on everybody,” Fine said. “We’re not going to be a great team until we do a better job rebounding.”

Published on February 2, 2003 at 12:00 pm