PHILADELPHIA – In a little over 24 hours, C.J. Fair played his final NBA Summer League game, flew from Las Vegas to Baltimore, attended his uncle’s wedding and arrived in Philadelphia in time for Boeheim’s Army’s 7:30 p.m. tipoff. All while barely having anything to eat.

The 2014 consensus All-American was the most high-profile addition to this year’s team but his arrival for the opener was in doubt. In the practice gym before the game, Eric Devendorf wanted updates from general manager Kevin Belbey on Fair’s whereabouts. “Where’s C.J. at?” he asked.

Belbey, nervous himself, reassured Devendorf that Fair would arrive on time despite speculation earlier in the afternoon that he’d miss the game. He entered the doors at Philadelphia University shortly after 6:30 p.m. in a tank top, shorts and backward hat, before putting up a stat line far from indicative of someone who had every reason to be drained. Fair scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 21 minutes as second-seeded Boeheim’s Army cruised to an 87-59 victory over No. 15 seed Basketball City NYC on Saturday night in the first round of The Basketball Tournament.

“I mean I got a broken foot but when I saw him I still gave him a big chest bump,” Belbey said of his reaction when Fair arrived. “I was checking out the D-League schedule for weeks … selfishly I’m a little happy the Blazers didn’t win the championship because they’d be playing Monday night.”

“He’s still nervous,” Devendorf chimed in with a smile at the postgame press conference.

Fair scored a team-high nine points in the first half, courtesy of three field goals that came from beyond the arc, midrange and on the low block. The same C.J. Fair who was named to the All-ACC first team in his senior season performed early in the game on Saturday, guiding Boeheim’s Army to a lead that shrunk but one that it never relinquished.

And with the help of two more buckets from Fair and six others joining him in double figures for the game, Boeheim’s Army blew the game open to easily keep its hopes of winning the $2 million alive.

“He’s a guy that can do a number of things at 6’8″,” Boeheim’s Army head coach Ryan Blackwell said of Fair. “(Hakim Warrick) stepped in and did a great job playing the 3, but (Fair) is a natural 3 and we needed that.

“A guy that can score, put the ball on the floor and rebound. A multitude of things, so that’s huge for us.”

Published on July 16, 2016 at 10:41 pm

Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman