Youth springs eternal these days at Syracuse, but success, evidently, comes from a far different fountain.

For the 3-6 SU football team, the perils of youthfulness are spouted toward reporters after each loss. In football, inexperience counts as an excuse, a right to ask for patience, a license to put hope on hold until next year. And understandably so.

For the babyface SU basketball team, which starts its season tonight with an exhibition game at the Carrier Dome, youth is much more a virtue than a weakness. It’s a reason to bat around words like ‘upside’ and ‘potential.’ It’s a reason to think this year’s team offers newfound hope after the failings of last season. And rightfully so.

The reason for this disparity? Where youth is concerned, football and basketball are balls of a very different feather.

On the gridiron, freshmen – most of whom are redshirted – must bulk up to hulking proportions before seeing the field. They must memorize a playbook that’s longer than a magnum opus. They must compete against players who’ve been in college for four and sometimes five years.

On the court, freshmen have it much easier. Underclassmen thin enough to hide behind railings are among the most touted players in the country. Plays are complex, but decidedly fewer than in football. And, perhaps most important, the number of juniors and seniors competing in college basketball has declined considerably, opening the door for younger players.

‘Everybody’s young in college basketball,’ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘There are still some veteran teams, but there are fewer of those teams than ever before. A lot of teams have young players, and a lot of real good programs have young players, and we’re no exception.’

Except that when comparing the Orangemen to previous editions, this year’s team is the youngest in recent memory. At least three freshmen – Carmelo Anthony, Gerry McNamara and Billy Edelin – figure to play prominent roles. Anthony’s job description, in fact, might rest somewhere between saint and savior.

No freshman has led the Orangemen in scoring since Boeheim became head coach in 1976. If all goes as planned this year, that figures to change.

‘Our younger guys are more mature than most freshmen,’ Boeheim said. ‘They’ve played more and had more basketball experience than most freshmen, and they’re well ahead of what I would expect a normal freshman to be.’

Relying on freshmen in basketball, though, is a better investment than it is in football, as this fall has shown.

On its most recent two-deep depth chart, the football team lists nine sophomores and 13 freshmen. Among the rookies, running back Damien Rhodes exemplifies the hazards of depending on a talented underclassman.

Since opening the season with three impressive showings – including a 94-yard rushing performance against Rhode Island – Rhodes has reverted to typical freshman form. In SU’s last six games, the freshman from Manlius averages just over 30 yards.

‘We know that Damien is a talented guy,’ head coach Paul Pasqualoni said after watching Rhodes lose two fumbles against West Virginia. ‘He’s learning the system, and he’s learning what this issue of Division I football is all about.’

In basketball, some players coming from high school don’t even bother learning about Division I. Kevin Garnett. Kobe Bryant. And nearly, SU’s Anthony.

A similar jump to the professional level is out of the question for any high school football player. The gap in size, strength and speed is too great. Plus, NCAA rules say a player must be on campus for three years before declaring for the National Football League.

‘Some of it is physical maturity,’ Syracuse Director of Athletics Jake Crouthamel said. ‘You can get away with not being all that strong in basketball, but not for a long period of time. In football, you come in and you have to build strength. If you’re a young player, it can take a while to do that.’

Boeheim said as much several weeks ago, when a reporter asked the coach about how he planned to fix the problems from the end of last season.

‘We brought four different (freshmen) players in,’ Boeheim said curtly.

In either sport – football or basketball – such a remark would qualify as a valid response. But only in basketball does it qualify as a solution.

Chico Harlan is a staff writer at The Daily Orange, where his column appears regularly. E-mail him at apharlan@syr.edu. Sports Editor Eli Saslow contributed to this story.

Published on November 4, 2002 at 12:00 pm