Unprompted by any question, Jim Boeheim took time out of his postgame press conference to make something clear.

Boeheim felt the need to remind everyone that his Syracuse basketball program lost three great players from last season’s squad. And that although this year’s Orange has four veterans who are left to shoulder the load, they haven’t done so on a consistent basis. That those four — Rick Jackson, Kris Joseph, Scoop Jardine and Brandon Triche — left a lot to be desired Tuesday.

‘Not good college players,’ Boeheim said, referring to last year’s star trio of Wes Johnson, Andy Rautins and Arinze Onuaku. ‘Great college players.

‘Scoop and Ricky and Kris and Brandon, they have not played like they did earlier in the year. We’ve got to get them playing better.’

And just about anything would have been better than Tuesday’s performance, which led to the worst home loss for Syracuse in more than a decade. Seton Hall’s veteran starters came into the Carrier Dome and got the better of the No. 9 team in the nation, just 17 days after the Orange won at SHU.

Although all four key players for SU finished the game in double figures scoring-wise, they failed to guide Syracuse out of its recent losing streak.

‘At the end of the day, it’s on us, the leaders, the veterans on this team, to make a difference,’ Joseph said. ‘We knew coming in that this is what we would have to do.’

Syracuse is in the midst of a three-game tailspin after one of the best starts to a season in school history. Throughout an eight-minute press conference after the game, Boeheim kept returning to one theme: the play of his four veterans. It’s those four, Boeheim said, who need to lead SU out of its current funk.

‘For us to win, we have to be balanced,’ Boeheim said. ‘For us to have balance, Brandon and Scoop have to play to the level that they played earlier in the year. Those guys are crucial for us.’

Against the Pirates Tuesday, the quartet did what it could. Jackson finished with a double-double and an impressive six blocked shots. Joseph finished with a team-high 17 points, and Jardine and Triche each chipped in 11 points apiece. Yet it still wasn’t enough.

Inefficiency on both sides of the ball sunk the Orange against a team it was heavily favored to beat.

Boeheim said it wasn’t the defense — which allowed SHU to knock down its first seven shots of the game — that worried him. Early on, it was the Orange’s offensive cohesiveness. In each half, Syracuse struggled to get on the board. With four players averaging double figures, that’s something that shouldn’t happen. Especially at home against an unranked team.

The 34 percent shooting mark from the field in the first half from the veteran group coincided with a 13-point halftime advantage for Seton Hall. Joseph scored 16 of his points in the second half, but that was after the Pirates jumped out to a 50-30 lead. The damage had already been done.

‘We can’t come out slow,’ Triche said. ‘If we have to come from behind, we’re going to spend too much energy, and we’re probably going to run out of gas toward the end of the game. … Our starters have to play better earlier.’

It’s not a concept the Orange has failed to embrace. The leaders of this year’s Syracuse team know it’s on them to return to the form that allowed SU to reel off 18 consecutive wins to start the season. Boeheim knows the four veterans on this year’s team have it in them. This is the same Syracuse team that was ranked No. 3 in the nation just a week ago.

But 21 games into the season, the head coach is still reminiscent of the veteran leadership of last year’s team. Leadership that, in SU’s past three games, has been lacking.

‘The teams that are winning have upperclass players, every one of them,’ Boeheim said. ‘Every one of them has four or five upperclass veteran players. Our four veteran players have got us to where we are, with a little bit of assistance some games.

‘Those four guys have to be there every night. They have to be there every night for us.’

aljohn@syr.edu

Published on January 25, 2011 at 12:00 pm