For Fab Melo, the welcome-to-college moment came less than two minutes into his Syracuse career. Unofficially.

In an exhibition against lowly Kutztown on Nov. 2, Melo blocked forward Eric Brennan’s shot. He followed that up with a steal on the inbounds pass, racing down — dribbling — from end to end and finishing the play off with a thunderous dunk to give the Orange a 6-0 lead.

‘After my first dunk,’ Melo said, ‘I was thinking, ‘I’m in the right place. I’m in the (Carrier) Dome.”

Those were the easy early goings for the No. 8 Orange (8-0) and its highly touted freshman class. With SU head coach Jim Boeheim playing all four of those freshmen — which has been abnormal during his 35-year tenure as head coach — they have had to learn on the fly and grow up fast.

And even after SU’s blowout win over Kutztown, Melo had an eye for the future. He almost forecasted Syracuse’s first marquee matchup — against No. 7 Michigan State (6-2) Tuesday as part of the Jimmy V Classic in Madison Square Garden.

‘It was a lot different,’ Melo said of the college game. ‘The other team wasn’t that tall. It was different. I think as we start playing Big East teams, it will get harder. I think I’m ready for it, though.’

Melo is one of the four freshmen — along with fellow big man Baye Moussa Keita, guard Dion Waiters and forward C.J. Fair — who will need to be ready to take on the best opponent SU has faced thus far.

The Orange and the Spartans come into the Garden on different paths. Michigan State enters with two losses — but those came in close games to No. 1 Duke and current No. 6 Connecticut. Syracuse, meanwhile, has played mostly close games. And against mostly inferior opponents. None of the Orange’s eight foes thus far have been ranked.

‘You have to look at the reality of the situation,’ Boeheim said Monday in the Jimmy V Classic coaches’ teleconference. ‘We just haven’t played well enough. We’re going to have to play a lot better, and I think we can. I think we can get to be a better team, but we’re not now.’

And the team’s inconsistency has gone hand in hand with that of its four freshmen. The last time SU played this many was in the 2007-08 season, when Scoop Jardine, Jonny Flynn and Donte Greene started and Sean Williams saw cleanup time.

At times, this group of freshmen has dazzled. At others, it has drawn Boeheim’s glare from the bench.

And it all starts with Melo, the bluest of SU’s blue-chip recruits coming into the season. In Syracuse’s first six games, Melo was a shell of what he was projected to be. He vastly improved against Cornell, when he scored eight points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked four shots in the Orange’s 78-58 victory on Nov. 30.

Melo continued that play against North Carolina State on Saturday, when he scored five points on 2-of-2 shooting from the field. But he only played 14 minutes because of what Boeheim said Monday was another bump in the road — a sore Achilles.

‘Fab is struggling a bit,’ Boeheim said. ‘His Achilles has been sore for a couple of weeks now. It has held his progress up a little bit. He is having trouble getting up and down the court like we need him to.’

Another example of the inconsistency came Saturday against N.C. State, when Waiters twice left Wolfpack sharpshooter Scott Wood open for two consecutive 3-pointers that brought his team back from a first-half deficit.

In his press conference after the game, Boeheim singled out Waiters as the one to take the blame for those two 3s. But he realizes it’s what happens with the rotation he is currently putting out on the floor.

‘We have four freshmen out of eight guys,’ Boeheim said. ‘That’s probably the youngest that we’ve been since I can remember.’

Against Michigan State on Tuesday, those mental lapses can’t happen. The freshmen, like Waiters, know it. The veterans, like Jardine, know it as well.

Because as Jardine sees it, this Spartans team is the best team Syracuse will play all year. Everyone needs to grow up fast.

‘It’s definitely a chance for us to grow up as a team,’ Jardine said. ‘We had some close wins, they’ve had some close wins and close losses. We have to go down there and just play basketball.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on December 6, 2010 at 12:00 pm