Tonight could change the perception of Syracuse men’s basketball for next season. If Syracuse signees Donte Greene and Jonny Flynn perform well in tonight’s McDonald’s All-American Game, the touted recruits can be elevated from simply Dick Vitale’s ‘diaper dandy’ status to a greater level – one residing between Durant-ian and Vitale excitement.

Let me explain with a little history.

I watched Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James live when James was both a high school junior and senior, watched Orlando Magic star Dwight Howard, Boston Celtics reserve Sebastian Telfair and former NBA first-rounder Dajuan Wagner as high school seniors. All had dominating performances. But none were part of the best individual performance I witnessed.

That came from current Denver Nuggets guard Earl ‘J.R.’ Smith on Feb. 14, 2004. Playing for St. Benedict’s (N.J.) against Germantown Academy (Pa.) at Villanova University, Smith was physically superior to everyone on the court. He was already built like a player in his mid-20s and was hitting 3-pointers from 30 feet out. His dunks were insanely athletic and his presence distinguished him on a court that featured a handful of Division I players that day. Smith finished with 33 points on 12-of-20 from the field and 5-of-10 from 3-point line.

At the time, Smith still had the ‘Earl’ on the roster because ‘J.R. Smith’ was not yet a household name. He was headed for North Carolina, so he certainly wasn’t a nobody. But the senior swingman was not entertained in the same discussion as classmates Howard, Telfair and Shaun Livingston, all of whom were in NBA mock drafts before they left for Winter Break of their senior years.

That changed on March 31, 2004, in Oklahoma City at the McDonald’s All-American Game. The annual classic always generates buzz, but there was special attention in 2004 because of the amount of players from the class who were contemplating the NBA Draft – and the NBA executives’ reciprocating interesting. Howard, Telfair, Livingston, Robert Swift, Josh Smith and Al Jefferson were all considered first-round picks. Marvin Williams, Rudy Gay and LaMarcus Aldridge – all eventual lottery picks – would have been first-round picks had they not gone to college.

But J.R. Smith’s was not in those discussions. He was a formidable player, but the general consensus was Smith was bound for the Atlantic Coast Conference, not the NBA’s Western Conference. He stepped onto the Ford Center floor that March night and scored 25 points, flashing the same range and athleticism he showed a month earlier on Villanova’s court.

Sorry Roy Williams, you lost your recruit. A performance like Smith’s at the McDonald’s All-American Game meant the player will be negotiating his shoe deal instead of getting tutored in Economics 101. The same happened with Jonathan Bender and Mississippi State in 1999. A good McDonald’s game can make a player a household name.

The NBA’s new age limit forbids a high schooler from going directly to the NBA. A good game in this new era of college basketball won’t make a player skip college but will instead rise expectations to Kevin Durant/Greg Oden/Branden Wright proportions.

Take Flynn. You won’t find a report that isn’t complimentary of the Niagara Falls, N.Y., product, but this is also a player who’s been advertised as Paul Harris’ sidekick. If he goes out tonight and scores 20 points and dishes 10 assists, suddenly Harris is Flynn’s sidekick next year.

With Greene, who’s already a top-10 prospect, an MVP performance could elevate his hype over the elite of next year’s class – Southern California-bound O.J. Mayo, Indiana-bound Eric Gordon, Memphis-bound Derrick Rose and Kansas State-bound Michael Beasley. The hype might raise the Carmelo Anthony comparisons to prolific – and unfair – proportions.

The consequences of a good game from either player tonight will be significant. Syracuse won’t win any games next season in tonight’s McDonald’s All-American Game, but it will change the amount of games SU fans expect the Orange to win.

Zach Berman is the sports editor for The Daily Orange, where his columns appear weekly. E-mail him at zberman@syr.edu.

Published on March 26, 2007 at 12:00 pm