Jonny Flynn has a new set of worries for a new season.

The Syracuse point guard, who spent last year beleaguered by an overflow of minutes, jokingly wondered after a balanced 85-51 win over Le Moyne if he would get enough touches this year.

‘I might never have to bring the ball up,’ Flynn said. ‘That might not be a good thing. With them pressuring the ball like that, I can take a break on offense. Just to have four guys that can really be comfortable and bring the ball up is really going to help us.’

Syracuse cruised to the 34-point win over the Division II Dolphins in front of 16,755 Sunday night at the Carrier Dome in its season opener, the first round of the College Basketball Experience Classic. The Orange played a complete, solid game, with five players scoring at least 12 points, but none more than Flynn’s 17. Six players racked up 19 minutes or more.

For a team with no clear superstar in the early going, after the departure of then-freshman Donte Greene to the NBA after last season, numbers like these could be something SU fans start getting used to.

Head coach Jim Boeheim could get used to it, too. ‘Coach kind of balanced it out today, kind of let everyone get the same amount of minutes,’ junior forward Paul Harris said. ‘As we go along in the season and we play tougher teams, you might see the same thing.’

Andy Rautins played 31 minutes, dishing out a career-high nine assists to go along with 12 points. Harris finished with a Harris-like double-double, with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Shooting guard Eric Devendorf, who said he is about 90 percent healthy after an ACL tear last year, finished with 14 points.

The depth allowed Boeheim to tinker with personnel packages. So did an early lead: The Orange jumped out to a 21-6 advantage and was never threatened.

‘We’re trying to get everybody in there and see who can play together,’ Boeheim said. ‘Sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller, sometimes we’ll just see which unit plays the best together. I think it will vary from game to game, but we’ll just have to keep trying things, see how they fit together.’

The Orange will play Richmond Tuesday in the second game of the CBE Classic, opening up what Boeheim called a tougher stretch of games than any other Division I team faces.But in its first official game without Greene, who took more than 25 percent of SU’s shots last year, the Orange didn’t have any trouble divvying up touches.

‘We’re not going to base anything off Donte leaving at all,’ Devendorf said. ‘This is a new team and a new year, so we expect big things from myself, Jonny, Andy and everybody else.’

Syracuse headed into the break up by 19 points, doubling Le Moyne’s output. In the second half, when the Orange could have slowed down – as it did during its exhibition games – it kept the pressure on and extended its lead. Flynn spearheaded the charge. He notched 13 points after the break.

In his postgame press conference, Boeheim pointed to a strong defense that helped Syracuse control all 40 minutes. SU spent much of the contest in a man-to-man defense, instead of Boeheim’s trademark 2-3 zone. Even when the Orange was shooting poorly – 50 percent on the game and 20.8 percent from behind the arc – the defense helped keep the game out of reach for the Dolphins.

‘We did a better job defensively throughout the game,’ Boeheim said. ‘I thought Le Moyne had a lot of good offensive sets, and I thought we did a better job of moving and getting over, defending,’

After playing two exhibition games in solid but not spectacular fashion, players were relieved after an opener that was never in question. After Harris grabbed only one rebound in the second exhibition, Boeheim chided him.

So Harris made a promise: Double-digit boards in the opener. When asked how he could will himself from one rebound to 10, Harris laughed.

‘I knew this one counted,’ he said.

kbaustin@syr.edu

Published on November 16, 2008 at 12:00 pm