NEW YORK – As much as Gerry McNamara would like to cherish his final days at SU – and especially his game-winning 3-pointer to beat Cincinnati on Wednesday – that isn’t possible.

Less than 24 hours after burying the Bearcats, McNamara and his team must face the No.1 team the nation, Connecticut, today at noon at Madison Square Garden in the second round of the Big East tournament.

The Huskies defeated the Orange, 88-80, at the Carrier Dome on Jan. 16 and 73-50 at the Hartford Civic Center on Feb. 8. Though the first score may suggest otherwise, neither game was close.

Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim has suggested his team needs to win more than one game in the Big East tournament to be considered for an NCAA Tournament berth.

Connecticut has been McNamara’s nemesis during his career. The senior has shot only 16-of-75 from 3-point range against the Huskies (27-3, 14-2 Big East) in nine career games, a 21.3 percentage.

‘Connecticut is a great team,’ Boeheim said. ‘I’ve said it from the beginning of the year. (UConn head coach Jim Calhoun) keeps telling me not to say it. They’re a great team. There’s no way to hide it, you know. We were not in either game when we played them.’

The Orange has posted its lowest shooting percentages of the season against the Huskies – 32.1 and 29.6 percent. UConn used its plethora of long and athletic bodies – particularly inside with 6-foot-11 Hilton Armstrong, 6-foot-10 Josh Boone and All-Big East First Team 6-foot-9 Rudy Gay – to rarely allow Syracuse, and in particular McNamara, open looks.

That said, the senior has never shied away from any challenge, and still has one last game to turn around his fortunes – and at the same time his team’s – against UConn.

‘You know, we’re fighting, and hopefully we can get another one,’ McNamara said. ‘If we’re going to do it, we have to do it against probably the best team in the country.’

Coming together

After Syracuse defeated Texas Tech in the third game of the season, Boeheim said to stop labeling the quartet of Roberts, Watkins, Nichols and McCroskey in one group. Much was made of them together as sophomores, but early this season the head coach wanted the media to forget about it.

That all changed on Wednesday.

Boeheim went out of his way to praise the junior class for its most complete game of the season. Roberts scored 16 points and hauled down nine rebounds. Watkins scored a career-high 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting. Nichols ended a mini-slump by hitting two 3-pointers for 10 points. McCroskey scored four points in 10 minutes.

‘This year is the first year they’ve had responsibility to carry us,’ Boeheim said. ‘They didn’t have it as sophomores; they didn’t have it as freshmen even to be factors. I think that it’s been a hard year for them to understand they’ve got to be the guys.’

A specific focus has been on the frontcourt, particularly Roberts and Watkins. They’ve each suffered prolonged stretches of ineffectiveness this season. Only recently has Nichols made it an issue for all three.

‘Today is really the first day that I thought all of the three front-line guys were involved in the game, all three,’ Boeheim said. ‘We’ve had one, two maybe. We haven’t had all three.’

Watkins was the standout. He even made his only free-throw attempt to complete a 3-point play in the first half. Another lay-up on the next possession gave Syracuse a 30-21 lead, its largest of the game up to that point.

If there was one specific area of improvement it was finishing near the basket. So many times this season Watkins and Roberts have missed dunks or lay-ups right next to the hoop. But that was a rarity against Cincinnati.

‘I think all of our guys did a great job of driving, penetrating to the basket and getting open looks,’ Roberts said. ‘We were working on that all this week and before the game.’

Published on March 11, 2006 at 12:00 pm