Even after an 18-point loss on the road in Pittsburgh Monday, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim could only offer one basic sentiment: It happens.

What else could he say? Every team has a bad night – Syracuse shot 41.8 percent from the field Monday. And when you’re playing top-15 teams night in and night out in the stacked Big East, a bad shooting night equals a loss.

‘We didn’t play well, and that’s going to happen in this league, because you’re playing good teams every night,’ Boeheim said. ‘You can’t have a game where you don’t play well. You’re not going to come out of it.’

Three weeks into conference play in the highly touted Big East, the conference has been as good as advertised. Saturday, then-No. 20 Louisville topped then-No. 1 Pittsburgh, 69-63, as a three-loss team upended the consensus top team in the nation.

Seven days since the upset, Syracuse will have played both – part of a four-game stretch in which the Orange plays only top-15 teams. No. 9 Louisville comes into the Carrier Dome for a noon matchup Sunday (Time Warner 26). The Cardinals enter the weekend on a six-game winning streak, including consecutive victories over Villanova, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh, all ranked teams.

So after the Pittsburgh loss, Boeheim encouraged his players to look at the big picture and to not focus on the loss.

‘What I told the players is, ‘We’re 17-3, we’re 5-2,” Boeheim said. ‘That’s better than we’re supposed to be. You just have to look at it that way. You have to understand where you are. It’s frustrating when you lose any game, one game. But you have to understand where you are, get ready for the next game.’

Junior forward Paul Harris, though, needs to see a little more. He’s looking to see how his team can slow down play, and not take hasty shots early in the shot clock. After the game against the Panthers, Harris suggested perhaps some of the Orange’s struggles are the result of poor shot selection, especially when it fell behind. The key against the Cardinals could be how SU manages the shot clock, especially if Louisville jumps out to a quick start.

‘The way we played this game, we need to watch the whole game,’ Harris said. ‘We need to watch the whole film of this game and see how much time we shot quick shots.’

But there was one thing Harris didn’t need to watch tape on to decide. After taking only six shots in the Pittsburgh game before fouling out, Harris decided he needs to be more proactive in his scoring. Harris has been one of the Orange’s best players all season, and SU relies on him for his offense.

‘I need to look to take more shots,’ Harris said. ‘I can’t come in here and take six shots and expect for us to win. I’m not saying I’m a main scorer, but sometimes we settle for a lot of one-on-ones and a lot of 3-pointers.’

But for Boeheim, the most important thing is moving forward.

‘These games are going to happen,’ Boeheim said. ‘You’re going to have these games all year long, and you’ve just got to put it behind you quickly.’

kbaustin@syr.edu

Published on January 23, 2009 at 12:00 pm