For the first time since he can remember, Billy Edelin didn’t much care that his team lost last night.

He had other things to worry about. So, after the Syracuse men’s basketball team dropped an exhibition game to the Harlem Globetrotters, Edelin walked into the locker room, ripped off his jersey and asked the question that had distracted him since halftime:

‘Does anybody know what’s going on with Hakim?’

Edelin’s still looking for a good answer.

With two minutes left in the first half last night, Warrick pulled up with a right ankle injury, the severity of which is still unknown.

After the injury, Warrick hobbled straight into the locker room and never returned. Syracuse team trainers worked on the ankle throughout the second half.

Warrick will undergo more testing this morning and the training staff will re-evaluate the injury today.

‘It’s hard to focus on a game or care about a game after something like that,’ Edelin said. ‘This is an exhibition game. I mean, you watch him get hurt and you start worrying about the whole season.’

The injury happened after Warrick drove to the basket and collided with 320-pound Globetrotter center Ron Rollerson. Warrick, who was fouled on the play, hobbled immediately toward the Syracuse bench as the student section groaned. Warrick sat for a minute before limping to the locker room.

‘We’re worried about him,’ said SU guard Josh Pace. ‘I’m figuring it’s just a sprain or something. We have to keep hoping, waiting for an answer.’

Said Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim: ‘He’s got an ankle. I don’t really know. He hurt his ankle or something. I’m not sure.’

Getting the message

Discounting his statement about Warrick’s injury, Boeheim sent his messages clearly last night, especially to Craig Forth and freshman Demetris Nichols.

Upset about Forth’s play in the first half, Boeheim benched SU’s starting center for the first eight minutes of the second half, electing to start Jeremy McNeil instead.

Forth played 12 minutes, during which he failed to score and turned the ball over three times. On one possession in the first half, he missed two consecutive lay-ups.

‘If he doesn’t play well, he’s not going to play,’ Boeheim said. ‘Craig and Jeremy played 33 minutes and got two points. We need to get some production there. Their time has come where they need to be more effective for us.’

Boeheim seemed just as displeased with Nichols, who played well in Syracuse’s first exhibition game against Nike Elite last week.

Nichols missed his first two shots from 3-point range and seemed hesitant to shoot after that. When Nichols passed up an open shot late in the first half, Boeheim called a 30-second timeout and spent it screaming at Nichols.

‘Demetris had been gun-shy,’ Boeheim said. ‘He’s fighting the nerves and it’s going to take him a while.’

Said Edelin, who comforted Nichols during Boeheim’s tongue-lashing: ‘Coach was hard on him for sure. Every year coach has guys he’s trying to get ready. I told (Demetris) that if coach gets on you he thinks you’re going to be a player. If he doesn’t care, that’s when you’re in trouble.’

Because Nichols and Forth spent much of the second half on the bench, Matt Gorman played 13 minutes. Terrence Roberts played 30, in large part because of Warrick’s injury.

Freshman Darryl Watkins disappeared from the rotation after playing significant minutes against Nike Elite. He played for just two minutes and never shed his warm-ups in the second half.

‘You have to earn every minute you get,’ Boeheim said. ‘If you don’t earn your minutes, you have to take a long look inside and come out the next time ready to play better.’

Home sweet home

Lazarus Sims played well in his return to the Carrier Dome. The former SU star scored nine points to go with nine assists and four rebounds. After Sims hit a lay-up late in the game, he actually motioned his hands for his former hometown fans to be quiet.

‘He did a great job tonight,’ Boeheim said. ‘He got the ball to the right people. He hurt us maybe the most of anybody.’

This and that

The highlight last night for Syracuse fans came well before tip-off, when the university raised last season’s national championship banner. The ceremony lasted about 10 minutes and included a video-highlight film of last year’s championship run. … The Globetrotters have now won all six games they’ve played against college teams this season. … 20,733 fans – the largest crowd for an SU exhibition game – packed the stands. … Gorman played for a few minutes with cotton stuffed in his nostril to stop a bleeding nose.

Published on November 11, 2003 at 12:00 pm