MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The image of Jonny Flynn grimacing in pain as he tried to play in the Sweet 16 Friday night during Syracuse’s 84-71 loss to Oklahoma may be the final memory of him wearing a Syracuse uniform.

After a strong regular season, an MVP award at the Big East tournament and an impressive three-game stint in the NCAA Tournament, Flynn now has to make a choice about his future. Several draft services project Flynn to be a first-round pick in the upcoming NBA draft.

In the FedExForum locker room after Friday’s game, Flynn answered questions about his future but did not give a clear answer about his eventual decision.

‘I love my teammates, and I love being a student-athlete at Syracuse,’ Flynn said. ‘It’s a hard decision to make, but I’m going to sit down with my family and see what’s best for me and my family, so I’m going to leave it at that.

‘Your dream always when you’re a kid is to play in the NBA. That’s the goal for every basketball player on the collegiate level. Whether it’s high Division I or mid-major Division I anyway, you’re trying to play in the NBA. That’s a goal I always wanted to achieve when I was young, and it’s right here.

‘You never know if you’re ready for the NBA, not until you get there. … But I just love my teammates, and I just love being around then, and I just love being a student-athlete at Syracuse.’

Flynn said he has no timetable for when he will announce his plans.

SU head coach Jim Boeheim also discussed Flynn’s future Friday night and said it is too early to begin thinking about it, but the process will begin immediately.

‘We’ll look at it, and he’ll decide what he thinks he should do,’ Boeheim said. ‘We’ll get an evaluation of where he goes, which you can never get. They told Donte Greene he’d be in the top 10, and he went 28th. You can talk about it all you want. You can get as much information as you want, and you can never know unless a kid’s a top-five pick. He can go anywhere.

‘He’ll have to decide what’s best for him. Look at these things that people say – he’s 25th, he’s 15th, he’s 30th, he’s 10th – they don’t know. They haven’t even started to evaluate players yet. So there’s no way of knowing what’s going to happen in the draft.’

Forward Paul Harris, Flynn’s roommate and his friend since high school, said Flynn at least needs to seriously consider jumping to the NBA.

‘If you have him projected as a lottery pick, and he asks me, I would say it might be time to move on,’ Harris said. ‘People will probably criticize him and say he shouldn’t leave. You can’t walk in his shoes every day. You don’t know what things he has to take care of at home. You just have to ask yourself if it’s the right decision and ask God if it’s the right decision.’

Harris, Devendorf speak about future

Harris and shooting guard Eric Devendorf have also been the subject of speculation about leaving school early. Both players addressed that after the game Friday night.

Harris averaged 12 points and eight rebounds per game this season as a junior. But his minutes declined as the year ended. He was not clear about his plans.

‘I don’t know,’ Harris said. ‘Honestly, I don’t know. We’ll see.’

Devendorf was more committal.

‘I’m coming back,’ said Devendorf, who averaged 15.7 points per game this season and was an integral component of Syracuse’s late-season run.

Devendorf is expected to graduate in May and has one more year of eligibility.

Goodbye, KO

Friday night marked the final game of Kristof Ongenaet’s two-year Syracuse career. In his last outing with the Orange, he played seven minutes and grabbed two rebounds against the Sooners.

Afterward, Ongenaet sat by his locker crying while being consoled by Lazarus Sims, SU’s coordinator of player development. Assistant coach Mike Hopkins came over at one point to express his congratulations. Ongenaet did not address the media.

He finishes averaging 3.8 points and 4.6 rebounds in 67 career games.

jediamon@syr.edu

Published on March 29, 2009 at 12:00 pm