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Here we go again. For the second consecutive year, the Syracuse University men’s basketball team will have to survive a stretch of games—or maybe the rest of the season—without one of its key players. Before the Saturday, Jan. 12, 72-61 victory over Villanova at the Carrier Dome, Syracuse officials released the following statement about forward James Southerland:
“Due to an eligibility matter, senior James Southerland will not participate in competition until further notice. Given university policy and federal student privacy laws, we are unable to provide any further details at this time.” Uh-oh.
“The statement’s out. I can’t say anything more,” SU coach Jim Boeheim said after Saturday’s game. “We’ve got to play the guys who are able to play. That’s all we can do.”
Whether it’s an academic issue or
something more, Southerland’s status for the remainder of the season is
in doubt. “I guess it’ll be a day-to-day thing, but you have to prepare
to go out there if he’s playing or if we are playing without him,” said
SU redshirt freshman guard Trevor Cooney.
Last year at this time, the Orange lost starting center Fab Melo for three games when he was declared ineligible because of an academic issue. Melo returned for the rest of the regular season, but was ruled ineligible again two days before the start of the NCAA Tournament and missed all of SU’s tournament games.
Southerland, a 6-foot-8 senior, is Syracuse’s top reserve and was a candidate for the national Sixth Man of the Year Award. He’s the Orange’s best three-point shooter (37.5 percent), and he ranks third on the team in scoring (13.6 points per game), third in rebounds (5.2 per game) and fourth in minutes (26.3).
Although streaky like most outside shooters, Southerland has had some monster games this season, including a 35-point outburst in a 91-82 win at Arkansas Nov. 30. He’s also one of the most likable and popular players on the team.
“James, he’s always going to make you laugh and he’s always doing something funny to get you going,” junior forward C.J. Fair said. “He’s still doing that behind the scenes; he was in here {the locker room} trying to get us motivated to play. He’s still part of the team, he’s just not playing.”
How will the seventh-ranked Orange respond without Southerland? The early returns were encouraging. With Southerland on the bench in street clothes, senior guard Brandon Triche, plagued by foul trouble, and junior center Baye Moussa Keita, unable to play in the second half after needing stitches to close a cut on his lip, the Orange overcame a four-point second-half deficit to defeat a Villanova team that had won seven consecutive games and has traditionally played well at the Dome.
Boeheim called it the team’s “grittiest, toughest performance” in recent years. SU’s three freshmen—Cooney, Jerami Grant and DaJuan Coleman—combined for 25 points, nine rebounds and three steals in 61 minutes to pick up the slack in Southerland’s absence. Grant, a 6-8 forward, scored 13 points (second on the team to Fair’s 22), while Cooney sank back-to-back 3-pointers to cap a 17-4 run that gave the Orange a 61-47 lead.
“I was just telling a couple of teammates that this was the biggest win for me in the past four years that I’ve been here, and I was on the bench for part of it,” Triche said. “Everybody stepped up. Trevor struggled a little bit but then he got those two shots down. Jerami played well, getting rebounds over the rim. Things just all came together when they needed to. This is definitely one of the biggest wins I’ve had.”
From Arinze Onuaku’s knee injury in the Big East Tournament that kept him out of the NCAA Tournament in 2010 to the Bernie Fine and Fab Melo controversies last season, Triche has experienced all kinds of adversity during his four years with the Orange. He said the key to getting through it is the guy on the bench with 906 career wins. “Coach Boeheim, always being so calm and cool, he always gives us that confidence that we can do anything,” Triche said.
The timing of Southerland’s ineligibility couldn’t be much worse, with the Orange about to embark on perhaps its most difficult stretch of the Big East Conference season. SU plays at No. 3 Louisville on Saturday, Jan. 19, and then has to turn around and play No. 21 Cincinnati Monday, Jan. 21, at the Dome. Those games are followed by a rematch at Villanova Jan. 26 and a visit to Pittsburgh Feb. 2.
While the Orange proved against Villanova that they don’t need Southerland to win, it would sure help if he eventually returned. “I think we can still reach our potential, but with James gone, it’s a big blow to the team,” Fair said. “Nobody expected this. We just got to find another way to make up for his production out there.”
