Somehow, amidst Monday night’s celebration, one fan had the presence of mind to climb a tree on Marshall Street and drop his trousers.

Well done.

It’s funny what kids will do when their school wins its first ever men’s basketball championship, as SU did Monday. They’ll sway in trees while chugging Rolling Rock. They’ll dance through 8-foot fires. They’ll even set their own shirts and coats ablaze.

The scene struck me — as did a snowball and a half-empty Coors Light can — as I stood on the sidewalk across from Konrad’s on Monday night.

Having covered the Orangemen this season, I witnessed the five months that prefaced this celebration.

So with 5,000 people wading through the crowd around me, I thought back to November, when I accompanied a Daily Orange photographer to shoot Carmelo Anthony for the cover of our basketball guide.

After the shoot, Anthony sheepishly asked me, “Can I get some copies of these photos?”

That was before he graced the cover of the New York Post and Sports Illustrated (twice).

So on Monday, I wondered, too, what Jeremy McNeil would make of all this ruckus. After all, in the aftermath of SU’s three-court-rush upset of Pittsburgh on Feb. 1, McNeil dodged a swarm of fans and media to quietly lift weights with trainer Todd Forcier in the SU locker room.

I wondered what Gerard McNamara would think of all these people making such a fuss over his son, Gerry. Gerard — his friends call him Chiz — is a straight shooter, a blue-collar postal worker who attended every SU game this year. The most emotion I ever saw him show was after SU advanced to the Final Four, when he kissed his wife, Joyce, on the cheek.

It’s little observations like those that put Monday in perspective. From covering this team, I’ll certainly remember Monday night. But, more so, I’ll recall those quick pregame chats with parents like William Edelin and Murray Forth. And I’ll recount that snowy March night in South Bend, Ind., when Anthony brazenly told me that if SU got a No. 3 seed, it would make the Final Four.

Nearly a month later, as fireworks cackled in the light snow over Marshall Street, Syracuse’s five-month fairy-tale season ended. And while the Marshall Street celebration marked the final chapter, it’s the rest of the book that I’ll always remember.

Darryl Slater is an assistant sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear regularly. E-mail him at dpslater@syr.edu.

Published on April 8, 2003 at 12:00 pm