Frank Bell got the call Sunday night.

It was Billy Edelin, his little brother’s friend since second grade.

Edelin urged Bell and his little brother, Erick, to make the six-hour drive from Silver Spring, Md., for last night’s game against Georgetown. After all, since the day Edelin committed to Syracuse, he’s been trash-talking Frank, a Hoyas fan.

So Frank donned a Georgetown hat and jersey, Erick slipped into similar Syracuse attire and the brothers settled into their Carrier Dome seats to root on their boyhood friend.

Edelin didn’t disappoint. In the Orangemen’s 88-80 win, he scored 10 points, dished three assists and had just two turnovers in 25 minutes.

‘Same old Billy,’ Frank said, shaking his head as he sat on a chair in the SU locker room.

‘I just got minutes today,’ Edelin said as his friends looked on. ‘Coach got me in there earlier, and things started off well. Sometimes, when you get less minutes, you’re more likely to force something. When you get minutes, you can let things come to you.’

Indeed, when Edelin played 28 minutes against Seton Hall, he scored 11 points. In 33 minutes at Rutgers, he had eight points and four assists. Edelin went scoreless in 14 minutes at Miami, and in his debut at Pitt on Jan. 18, he had two points in seven minutes.

If more playing time didn’t get Edelin hyped, familiar company certainly helped. During his time at DeMatha High, Edelin played against Georgetown’s Drew Hall, Tony Bethel and Mike Sweetney.

Hall called Edelin at SU’s team hotel Sunday night to wish him luck.

‘We’ve been talking about this game a little bit since the beginning of the season,’ said SU forward Carmelo Anthony, Edelin’s roommate.

‘Before this game, (Edelin) was extra hyped,’ SU forward Hakim Warrick said. ‘He was saying, ‘We can’t lose this game.’ ‘

Edelin entered last night’s game 4:28 into the first half. Within 15 seconds, he nailed a floater, his favorite shot.

‘I felt good after that,’ he said.

With 3:34 left in the first half, Edelin dished a no-look pass to SU center Craig Forth, who converted a short jump shot to put the Orangemen up, 40-34. Edelin scored four of SU’s last six first-half points. Eight minutes into the second half, he found Jeremy McNeil for a dunk that gave SU a 59-56 lead.

Edelin sprinted down the court, pumping his fist and yelling, ‘What!’

‘I like to get the team fired up,’ Edelin said. ‘Sometimes we’ll be leading by two or three points, and we look like we’re dead. So I try to get everybody hyped.’

‘He was just on-point with us,’ Syracuse forward Kueth Duany said. ‘He had a lot of energy, and that’s what we needed tonight. (The biggest things he had to get used to were) knowing where guys like the ball and knowing where other guys are gonna be on the court. Throwing a new guy out there, it takes time.’

Playing point guard last night, Edelin looked the most comfortable he has all season. He hesitated less, and the Orangemen responded by moving more when Edelin ran set plays.

‘Coach has been giving him time,’ Anthony said. ‘And all he really needed was an opportunity.’

After the game, Edelin smiled as he greeted Frank, Erick and two other friends from home. Watching Edelin run the floor as he did so many days back in Maryland, Frank and Erick could barely tell their buddy had weathered a pair of suspensions and a year-and-a-half away from competitive basketball.

To them, he looked like Same Old Billy.

Published on February 3, 2003 at 12:00 pm