NEW YORK – Scoop Jardine felt the change as the Syracuse team bus pulled into Madison Square Garden last night. Before that moment, he was stuck in a rut, playing second-fiddle on a team he knew he could lead. But after seeing the bright lights, he changed his mind. He began to visualize a way back to the top.

‘When we came to the Garden last night, I just knew it,’ Jardine said. ‘If you don’t get ready for this game, you shouldn’t be playing college basketball. This is where you want to be at, this is the Mecca, and I think that’s what helped me out. I just knew if I didn’t get up for this game, I shouldn’t get up for no game.’

After capitalizing on an early opportunity to play, Jardine refused to give up the floor Thursday. Filing off a non-stop barrage of dishes and drives, Jardine kept No. 13 California defense on its heels, scoring a career-high 22 points during the team’s emphatic 95-73 win over the Golden Bears.

‘I think Scoop is getting better,’ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘He has really done a lot of good things. I want him to be better.’

At the start of the game, Jardine sat on the bench like he usually does – freshman Brandon Triche was supposed to run the show. But Jardine’s luck began to turn when Triche committed an errant turnover right underneath California’s basket two minutes into the game. Boeheim reacted immediately, and jumped to his feet: Triche was out. Jardine was in.

With his team trailing 5-4, Jardine swiped the first of his four steals and worked a give-and-go with Andy Rautins to score, and give the Orange its first lead of the night – a lead it wouldn’t relinquish the entire game.

After that point, Jardine dominated the next 27 minutes he saw. The following possession, he hit Rick Jackson underneath the basket for an easy lay-in. The possession after that, he found Arinze Onuaku in the same spot.

‘When we see a guy working like that you just love to see him succeed,’ Onuaku said. ‘I mean he’s learning how to run the offense and we’re going to need him every game, so we just hoping he picks up from this and keeps it rolling.’

But the focal point for Jardine came with 36 seconds remaining in the first half. With the Orange up eight, Jardine had the opportunity to hold the ball and play for one more shot. Instead, with his confidence riding high and his defender playing off him, Jardine immediately stepped up and drilled the long-range three, sending Cal reeling into the second half.

‘When I hit the three,’ Jardine said, ‘I just started feeling comfortable with it.’

Walking off the court pounding his chest, Jardine said he wasn’t able to hear the ‘Scooooooop’ chant that followed him into the locker room, but it didn’t really matter. He was reveling in his opportunity to show what he’d been working on all offseason. To show – in the team’s biggest game to date – that he could pilot the Syracuse offense.

‘He definitely did a good job,’ Triche said. ‘It’s kind of fun watching him doing good things, going against him in practice, you just want to cheer.’

After the game, Jardine sat on the athletic trainer’s table and couldn’t help but reflect on the Orange’s last trip to Madison Square Garden in March 2009. Bogged down with a foot injury that forced him to redshirt, he watched the games on television, longing for the next year to pass so he could have a shot to play in ‘basketball’s Mecca.’

But he had no idea how high the stakes would be back then when that opportunity finally came. He didn’t know that he’d score a career-high point total in the midst of a battle for a starting spot, during the team’s most important game to date.

That just made it even sweeter.

‘It’s great, like I said, just playing in the Garden is great,’ Jardine said. ‘I was watching on TV last year when I was redshirting so to be out here and hearing everybody call my name is a dream come true.’

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on November 24, 2009 at 12:00 pm