NEW YORK CITY — Plopped comfortably on the Syracuse bench, sitting three chairs from the scorer’s table, SU’s senior leader Kueth Duany repeatedly got up to help his teammates.

Six times in the second half, in fact, Duany jumped to the aid of younger Orangemen who dutifully refer to Duany as their mentor. After timeouts, as tired Orangemen walked to the bench, Duany eagerly jumped up to offer his seat.

That was about as big a contribution as he made in last night’s 70-63 loss to Memphis at Madison Square Garden. He certainly did nothing on the court.

“I’m very disappointed in our veteran players,” said Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim of SU’s two upper classmen, Duany and junior Jeremy McNeil. “They gave us basically nothing.”

Duany actually may have given less than that. Syracuse’s lone senior, Duany made just 3 of 9 shots. He failed to make any of his four attempts from three-point range. He had only four rebounds. He didn’t have an assist.

For 21 painful minutes yesterday, Duany acted as dead weight to a young Syracuse team. Missed shot after missed shot, he sunk a team that, in the summer, he helped mold and build.

“I definitely feel like I let my team down tonight,” Duany said. “I’m going to talk to them about it. I feel really awful. But I’m the leader, so I can’t put my head down. I’ve got to take this as a challenge.”

If his own disappointment doesn’t serve as enough motivation, though, Boeheim offered plenty of challenges.

In the postgame press conference, Boeheim said he was “disappointed with the veterans” six times.

“The veterans didn’t bring it,” Boeheim said. “No excuse for that. It’s just extremely disappointing. You can’t show up and not be ready to play. I hope they learned that tonight.”

Translation: Kueth, get your act together.

“That’s just him issuing me a personal challenge,” Duany said. “He likes to call me out a little bit. I don’t take it personally. It seems like that’s been happening every game since I stepped onto the Syracuse campus. But it doesn’t bother me. He’s just trying to help motivate me.

“The thing is, this team really needs me. I need to be the consistent guy in here. The steady guy.”

Earlier this year, Syracuse coaches raved that Duany — plagued by inconsistency last year — had finally molded into that steady player. In practices, Duany’s jump shot flew with more arc than in years past. It splashed through the net a little more often.

When Syracuse held an intrasquad scrimmage Nov. 2, Duany led the team in scoring. He slashed through the lane and made layups and recorded double-digit rebounds and hit the three and found open teammates. He looked poised for a quick start to the season.

“I came in here with a lot of confidence,” Duany said. “I’ve been playing pretty well. I thought I’d have a fast start.”

He thought he’d start the season like he did last year’s campaign, when he averaged 20 points to lead Syracuse to the Preseason National Invitation Tournament title, also held in Madison Square Garden.

From there, though, Duany’s 2001-02 season fell fast. He broke his nose, lost his outside shot and spent more time on the bench late in the year than Hakim Warrick, the sixth man.

Duany started last season well and progressively got worse. If that downward trend continues, his biggest role might continue to be giving up his seat during timeouts.

“This is just one game,” Duany said. “I didn’t shoot well. I’ll get over it.”

“He does a lot of things for us even if he’s not playing well,” guard Josh Pace said. “He can give us a boost emotionally. He’s a big-time leader for us.”

But for Syracuse to be successful, Duany will have to be more than that. He’ll have to be a player, too.

Eli Saslow is the sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear regularly. E-mail him eesaslow@syr.edu.

Published on November 14, 2002 at 12:00 pm