ROSEMONT, Ill. – For much of the season, Demetris Nichols was Syracuse’s best player. He was one of the most improved players in the Big East. After scoring averaging only 2.2 points in conference games last season, the junior was scoring 16.3 per game in SU’s first eight Big East games this year.

Those days are a distant memory now.

Thursday night against DePaul was just the latest game in Nichols’ regression. The junior scored only four points on 2-of-7 shooting in SU’s astonishing 108-69 loss.

That puts his scoring average in the Orange’s last seven games at a mere 7.3.

Part of the reason for Nichols’ decline is that teams are simply guarding him closer. Boeheim has said in recent weeks one of the junior’s weaknesses is his ability to score off the dribble. It’s an adjustment he will have to make as he sees fewer open looks.

Earlier in the season his stroke was smooth, particularly from the 3-point line. His shooting even led him to overshadow guard Gerry McNamara in his homecoming game on Dec. 27 against Towson in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. He scored 25 points on 9-of-11 shooting.

But that’s a far cry from the recent trend that continued against DePaul.

‘I think it’s just a matter of him getting his confidence back,’ guard Eric Devendorf said. ‘He’s a great player, a great shooter. He needs to get his confidence back and who knows what he can do and it’s all up to him.’

Speak-out

The only question from the media that seemed to actually interest Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim centered on the parity of the Big East and that only 12 teams are invited to the conference tournament. As of now, that leaves a team such as DePaul on the outside looking in despite its impressive performance on Thursday night.

‘Everybody should be in the Big East tournament,’ Boeheim said. ‘It’s absolutely embarrassing and it’s something that never should’ve been allowed to happen. The coaches, who are obviously the dumbest people, voted 16-to-0 to have everyone come to New York. We’re obviously the dumbest people in the league because nobody listened to us.’

Then after a pause, he continued with another gripe: the unbalanced schedule.

‘Of course we voted to play everyone once to have a fair league – that was 16 to 0 too. We’re just not as smart as the other people.’

At least the television-oriented schedule that forces many back-to-back games with little rest didn’t enter his mind.

Perspectives

The looks coming from the Syracuse bench in the second half could certainly have been described as ‘depressing.’ But Devendorf would have none of that word.

‘It’s frustrating – you can’t really say depressing because it’s just basketball, it’s not life,’ Devendorf said. ‘We are going to get over it. We’ve got to bounce back Sunday.’

Records fallen

The 39-point loss was the worst in the Boeheim era. The previous record-setting defeat under the longtime coach was a 34-point loss to Kentucky in the Great Alaska Shootout on Nov. 28, 1996.

It was also the fourth time in history a Boeheim-coached team has given up more than 100 points – all losses.

Published on March 2, 2006 at 12:00 pm