Paul Harris keeps hearing from assistant coach Mike Hopkins how great of a rebounder he is.

At this point, Harris seems to be providing a different role than perhaps what the media, SU fans and even he want. Instead of highlight reel plays, he’s grabbing rebounds to ease the workload off Terrence Roberts and Darryl Watkins. He grabbed 20 rebounds in Syracuse’s wins in the first annual Black Coaches Association Invitational this weekend. Eleven of those rebounds came against St. Francis (N.Y).

‘This team is having a whole different way of playing,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘Everybody is in different roles with fitting the new guys and the guys coming back with such bigger and different roles.’

Harris wasn’t the only player to complement Syracuse’s depth. Matt Gorman came off the bench in all three games to provide a sparkplug that can be implemented inside, outside and on hustle plays. On Saturday and Sunday, Gorman scored a career-high 12 points.

Harris and Gorman’s efforts epitomize the type of performances SU put up this weekend. There wasn’t a single player who scored 20 points in this weekend’s tournament.

Syracuse won all three games in the BAC Invitational at the Carrier Dome with 83-51, 78-60 and 83-69 victories over St. Francis, Pennsylvania and Texas El-Paso.

Five players struck double figures in Syracuse’s win over St. Francis. Nichols scored 15 points while Devendorf (13), Watkins (11), Josh Wright (11) and Harris (10) followed suit.

In the Orange’s victory over Pennsylvania, Terrence Roberts and Devendorf led SU with 16 points while Nichols and Matt Gorman posted 12 points, respectively.

In SU’s triumph against UTEP, Devendorf led SU with 19 points. Nichols (12), Gorman (12) Harris (11), Watkins (10), and Wright (10) were the other players in double figures.

In Harris’ case, he showed success when he made hustle plays. Harris scored more on put-backs and transition baskets than one-on-one moves. Boeheim thinks Harris hasn’t transferred those skills he once displayed at Niagara Falls and Notre Dame Prep (Mass.). Midway through the first half against Penn, Harris made a steal but missed an easy shot in transition.

‘Paul is still learning,’ Boeheim said. ‘He’s just figuring out when he could go and where he can go. That’s going to take time. It’s a slow process.’

After collecting three fouls in the first half against Penn, Harris’ eyes filled with tears when Boeheim talked to him eye-to-eye about his performance. Boeheim talked to him about missed assignments and how he doesn’t need to force trying to make plays.

Harris predicts he’ll have his established role set by SU’s game against Charlotte on Nov. 22.

‘I’m not going to stand up here and say yes (that’s my role) because I really don’t know,’ Harris said. ‘I’ll fit in sooner or later. That’s my game anyway. I want to get more involved offensively but it will come though.

‘I know (Boeheim) won’t steer me wrong. I have a lot of faith in him.’

While Harris has filled the role player immediately as a freshman, Gorman’s time had to wait.

Sitting behind Hakim Warrick will certainly give a player an opportunity to learn.

But when it comes to getting some minutes, he won’t have much. So was the case for Gorman who spent much of his career on the bench behind Warrick and Craig Forth.

Gorman redshirted at the beginning of the 2004-05 season reluctantly. But this weekend Gorman found out his redshirt is paying off.

‘Whenever I get my minutes, I try to use them as best as I can,’ Gorman said. ‘This is a team where we can use a lot of guys. The more (shots) I take, the more confidence I gain out there. I can hit (the 3-pointer) all of the time out there in practice. There is no hesitation for me to take that.’

His 3-pointer against Penn happened at the 3:09 mark and increased SU’s lead, 31-22, and was part of Syracuse’s 23-7 run to end the first half. He also converted on a 3-point play off a put-back and a free-throw in the second half to put SU ahead, 48-35.

Against UTEP he came in for Watkins after the starting center found early foul trouble.

‘It’s a great story,’ Boeheim said of Gorman. ‘He’s struggled through times and helped us a little bit last year but didn’t help as much as he would like. But he hung in there and he helped us win these two games. He’s going to help us win a lot of games down low.’

Published on November 12, 2006 at 12:00 pm