On Sunday afternoon, Jim Boeheim delivered a frustrated message to struggling Syracuse men’s basketball centers Craig Forth and Jeremy McNeil: If you don’t play better, your team’s not going to win.

In SU’s 81-66 win over Valparaiso before 18,874 at the Carrier Dome, Forth, hampered by a sore right Achilles tendon, went scoreless and had two rebounds in 14 minutes. McNeil had zero points, five rebounds and five fouls in 19 minutes. Freshmen Carmelo Anthony and Gerry McNamara picked up the slack, scoring 28 and 18 points, respectively.

‘Our centers are really struggling big-time,’ Boeheim said. ‘They’ve just got to get more productive for us to be effective.’

When asked to detail Forth and McNeil’s ineffectiveness, which forced the 6-foot-8 Hakim Warrick to play center, Boeheim said curtly, ‘We’re playing a guy 195 pounds (Warrick) at center. I can’t send a clearer message than that.’

It appeared as though Boeheim was done, but he was just getting started.

‘Jeremy was in perfect position a couple times to rebound,’ Boeheim said. ‘He’s just glued to the floor. I constantly tell him, ‘We’d like to play you more minutes.’ But every time he plays 20 minutes, he’s out of the game. On the first pass, we hit him with a perfect pass, and it took him so long to get up in the air, he couldn’t get the shot off.’

The coach then turned his attention to Forth, saying, ‘Craig has not really practiced well or played well. He’s a limited jumper, and, now, he’s not able to jump at all. His Achilles has been bothering him since August. He’s got to have all the mobility that he’s got to be effective.’

Forth underwent an MRI on his Achilles, but the test showed no major problems, Boeheim said.

In the SU locker room after the game, Forth gingerly pulled on his socks and sneakers. When asked if the sore Achilles has hampered his mobility, Forth said ‘everything hampers my mobility’ and slammed his locker door.

Later, Forth stood with his father, Murray, and team doctor Irving Raphael and discussed the nagging injury.

‘He’s battling through it,’ forward Kueth Duany said.

McNeil, meanwhile, slumped dejectedly in front of his locker as his teammates fielded questions from reporters. When asked about not finishing on open looks, he asked, ‘I was getting some open looks?’

When pressed for another question, he paused, shook his head and said, ‘I’ve got nothing to say. I’m not gonna point fingers. We won the game.’

Said Duany: ‘This is one bad game for (Forth and McNeil). They’ve been playing well in practice. They just didn’t come to play this afternoon.’

On Sunday, Forth and McNeil were repeatedly victimized by the Crusaders’ 6-foot-11 center Raitis Grafs, who had 18 points and eight rebounds. With 7:40 left in the first half, Grafs put Valpo up, 23-13, with a 12-foot jump shot in Forth’s face. Boeheim called a timeout and benched Forth in favor of Warrick.

With about 13 minutes left in the second half, Forth returned to a chorus of boos from the student section and barely touched the ball on offense before Boeheim yanked him again at the 9:47 mark.

Then, with 5:44 remaining and SU leading, 59-55, McNeil fouled out, but Boeheim chose to move Warrick to center rather than reinsert Forth. Warrick scored just two points over the next 3:26, but the Orangemen went on an 11-2 run to seal the game.

‘I knew it was going to be tough (playing center),’ Warrick said. ‘I just wanted to go out there and hold down the middle, play tough and not let them get easy shots.’

When Duany fouled out with 2:16 remaining, Forth returned, this time to louder boos from the students. Within 30 seconds, Forth committed a foul, and Boeheim screamed in the center’s direction again.

‘We’ve got a way to go before we can even think about being a good basketball team,’ Boeheim said. ‘And it’s not really the guard play as much as it is getting something more done inside. We’ve got to do better inside, there’s no question about that.’

Published on November 23, 2002 at 12:00 pm