After Syracuse’s game with Villanova on Saturday, sophomore guard Louie McCroskey said he was fine with his move to the bench in favor of Billy Edelin. His normal humble self, he said whatever worked for the team worked for him.

Though No. 9 SU lost to No. 17 Pitt on Monday night, 68-64 at the Carrier Dome, the move seemed to work for both him and the team. McCroskey started the game on the bench but scored a team-high and career-high 18 points in 32 minutes of play.

‘Louie came in and had a tremendous game,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘When they went to the zone, he made some shots and some good plays.’

McCroskey was so good that he played 23 minutes more than Edelin, who remained on the bench for all but the last minute of the second half. McCroskey looked the most comfortable he’s been all season, showing his sweet stroke which, up until this point in the season, was only seen in practice.

His first basket came at 11:53 of the first half and he scored on the next two SU possessions, one a lay-up and one a 3.

‘Getting a good, early bucket changes your confidence,’ McCroskey said.

Until a second-half slump when McCroskey went scoreless for the final 10:50 on 0-of-4 shooting, he was almost unstoppable. He missed only one field goal previous to that stretch and was 2-of-3 from the free-throw line.

‘He’s a young player,’ Boeheim said. ‘We just couldn’t make a shot in the end. We got some good looks, Craig gave him some screens and got him open, but the game came down to that.’

McCroskey was tough defensively as well at the top of SU’s 2-3 zone. He guarded Pitt junior Carl Krauser, who is from the same neighborhood in the Bronx. McCroskey was active on the defensive boards, grabbing five rebounds for a total of seven in the game, but a defensive slump mirrored his poor offensive performance as Krauser hit three 3s in the final 6:35 to put the Orange away.

‘I know him from back home,’ McCroskey said of Krauser. ‘I’ll probably hear this for the rest of the summer until we beat them again. He just made tough shots at the end of the game.’

‘Enough about him,’ McCroskey joked, ‘I don’t like him.’

McCroskey said he actually suggested a move to the bench to Boeheim, and that Boeheim told them of the switch a couple days before the Villanova game.

‘It was good to see (McCroskey) come out there and play well,’ Edelin said. ‘A complete team has players coming off the bench and playing well. Unfortunately, we had to lose when he had a big game.’

The 18 points and seven rebounds were both career highs for McCroskey. After the game, he said he didn’t prefer getting his minutes either way, to him it’s all the same.

‘It’s just a different mindset,’ McCroskey said. ‘I’m not gonna say I wasn’t comfortable starting, but when you have to get Gerry and Hak involved there’s (not many chances left).

‘I’ll do whatever’s best for the team. It’s all about winning.’

Published on February 14, 2005 at 12:00 pm