NEW YORK — Even with more than 1,000 Division I wins between them, John Chaney and Jim Boeheim don’t know everything about college basketball.

Both Chaney, the Temple coach, and Boeheim, the Syracuse coach, has made more than 15 NCAA Tournaments and guided his teams to at least 15 20-win seasons. Still, one college basketball phenomenon puzzles them.

“Why do people think players wouldn’t want to play in the NIT?” Boeheim asked last week. “They are basketball players. That is what they want to do.”

“I just don’t understand why college basketball people wonder if kids will be excited to play in the NIT,” Chaney said in a press conference Tuesday night. “Kids go to the schoolyard every day and play. They lose, and then they play some more. Why in the world wouldn’t they want to play in front of thousands of people at the NIT?”

Maybe because the programs are used to the NCAA Tournament. Yet Syracuse and Temple, whose tumultuous seasons mirror each other only in terms of disappointment, meet at 6:30 tonight in the NIT’s third-place game at Madison Square Garden. South Carolina and Memphis, who downed the Orangemen and Owls, respectively, in the semis, tangle for the championship at 9.

Temple led Memphis for most of the second half only to succumb in the last minute. Memphis’ freshman phenom, Dajuan Wagner, drew three defenders and fed teammate Kelly Wise to put his team ahead, 78-77, with 18 seconds left. From there, Temple’s David Hawkins missed a 10-foot baseline shot and the Owls’ space-eating big man, Kevin Lyde, missed a point-blank tip that would have won the game.

All the while, Temple’s heart sat on the bench in a white T-shirt, covering his eyes. Point guard Lynn Greer, who could work his way into the first round of June’s NBA Draft, didn’t play for the second straight game because of an ankle sprain he suffered last week.

Greer, who averages 22.6 points and is one of college basketball’s best clutch shooters, carried Temple through the early stages of the NIT, scoring a combined 64 points and nailing 10 three-pointers in wins over Fresno State and Louisville.

On Tuesday, Temple couldn’t find another hero. Its search will likely continue since Greer is doubtful tonight.

Syracuse, meanwhile, tried to ride its star in the second semifinal. Preston Shumpert finished with 28 points, though South Carolina held him scoreless for the final 4:43. That, not surprisingly, coincided with the Orangemen’s stumble down the stretch, during which the Gamecocks’ outside shooting propelled them to a come-from-behind 66-59 victory.

“Temple and us both had tough losses,” Syracuse forward Kueth Duany said. “Neither of us wants to see the season end on that note. That is not what these programs are about.”

Actually, these programs aren’t about the NIT in general. Before this year, Temple had made the NCAA Tournament for 12 consecutive seasons. In 26 years under Boeheim, Syracuse teams have made the big tourney 21 times.

“I love Jim Boeheim,” Chaney said. “He should be a Hall of Famer. I think these two programs, these two teams, are similar in a lot of ways.”

Similar as historical hotbeds for basketball success, yes. But this season, the teams took very different paths to the NIT. Temple started off 6-12, the worst start in Chaney’s tenure. The Orangemen won 16 of their first 18 games only to lose nine of their last 13.

Tonight, Temple seeks retribution for a slow start and Syracuse hopes to make up for a late collapse. And both Boeheim and Chaney know their players will be ready, even if this is the NIT.

“I think you see what it takes and what it means for kids to play in the NIT,” Chaney said. “It is a second chance.”

Published on March 27, 2002 at 12:00 pm