PHOENIX – If you’re looking for the moment it happened – one official moment – stop wasting your time. The dethroning of the Syracuse men’s basketball turned out to be a slow, painful process.

First, Alabama broke SU’s zone. Then, its press. And, finally, its will.

Using a dead-aim 3-point shooting in the first half and rugged inside play in the second, the Crimson Tide eliminated Syracuse from the NCAA Tournament last night, 80-71, at America West Arena in front of 17,684.

‘Right now, it hurts,’ SU forward Hakim Warrick said. ‘It’s tough to look at any positive side.’

‘Going to the Sweet 16 was a great run,’ SU freshman Terrence Roberts said. ‘But we could have done better. We thought we were the better team. But they came out and outplayed us tonight. I think we might have underestimated them a bit.’

Had that been the case, SU (23-8) received an early attitude adjustment. The Crimson Tide (20-12) did everything right against the Orangemen, making Syracuse look like the fledgling underdog and playing like steely veterans with loads of NCAA Tournament experience.

Alabama played the role of aggressor. It grabbed leads, and Syracuse never had a big enough answer to overtake the Tide.

At the outset of the second half, it looked like SU had a chance to do so. After a Mike Gottfried technical – the Alabama head coach stomped his feet and screamed after a call that went against center Chuck Davis instead of Craig Forth – that started the second half, McNamara sank two foul shots to tie the game at 38.

For the rest of the game, Syracuse looked lost on offense. SU head coach Jim Boeheim tried everything in his bag of tricks to jumpstart the Orangemen. A press. A three-guard offense. Pounding the ball to Warrick.

Nothing worked.

The Orangemen didn’t score a second-half field goal until there was 13:23 left. In that time, the Tide had inflated a two-point halftime lead to a 49-39 advantage. Unlike in the first half, when Warrick scored 15 points against constant double-teaming, the Tide fronted Warrick and didn’t let him touch the ball.

While the Orangemen flopped, Alabama center Davis sizzled. After SU switched from zone to man-to-man, Davis abused Jeremy McNeil, whom Boeheim inserted for Forth so he could guard SU’s basket while the Orangemen pressed and played man-to-man.

‘We did nothing to stop Davis,’ Boeheim said. ‘I thought with a senior center that we could gain something there. But we didn’t. We got beat up badly at center in the second half.’

‘They had to go man,’ Davis said. ‘That was my time to step and play.’

Alabama isolated Davis on McNeil and gave its center the ball every chance it got. Davis battered the usually rugged McNeil, scoring 17 second-half points. Boeheim tried Roberts on Davis, but that didn’t work, either.

Despite its offensive impotence, SU still surged back into the game briefly. With two electric 3-pointers and a nifty, full-court drive-and-dish to Hakim Warrick, McNamara woke up SU’s slumbering offense. After his one-man run, McNamara glared at the Syracuse fan section and screamed, ‘Let’s go! Let’s go!’

But Syracuse, as it’s done so many times in the NCAA Tournament, couldn’t find a way. Alabama continued to bust SU’s press and Davis continued to smash the interior of the Orangeman defense.

After McNamara’s surge, he had no miracles left. The dagger, a 3-pointer from Emmett Thomas that mercifully ended a torturous comeback bid, came with 2:28 remaining. The Tide had taken a 75-62 lead, a mountain not even the defending national champs could hope to climb.

After that, McNamara hit another 3. Warrick, perhaps for his last basket as an Orangemen, dunked. But those signature plays carried none of the enthusiasm they had just hours before.

Slowly and surgically, Alabama had dismantled the Orangemen. And, piece by piece, little by little, it chipped away at the crown Syracuse once wore atop its head.

‘There are only certain elite groups of teams that can repeat championships,’ McNamara said. ‘We were in a position where we could have made a run at the championship. But Alabama played a great game.’

Published on March 25, 2004 at 12:00 pm