Four years ago at the preseason media day, the second question Jim Boeheim was asked pertained to the star incoming freshman. He was the one who was supposed to help complete a team with Final Four aspirations, the point guard who can free up Gerry McNamara and become steady in the place of Billy Edelin.

The freshman was Josh Wright.

On the preseason media day this season, Boeheim was not even asked about Wright, now SU’s lone senior. And this had less to do with Wright, who’s proven to be serviceable albeit no star, than it did the hyped group of newcomers to this year’s team – led by McDonald’s All-Americans Donte Greene and Jonny Flynn, high school teammates Scoop Jardine and Rick Jackson, intriguing big man Sean Williams and junior college import Kristof Ongenaet.

There is something romantic about the unknown. It can be anything we want it to be. It’s the unknown that always makes preseason exciting. The unknown is the reason why fans watch drafts and debate sleepers. What could be is sometimes better than what is.

The same logic applies to freshmen. No one knows exactly how a freshman will adjust. Last season at this time of the year, Paul Harris was crowned as the next great player. He was supposed to be like Carmelo Anthony. He was more like Hakim Warrick. Two seasons ago, Eric Devendorf received all the hype. You won’t find a coach who wouldn’t take Harris or Devendorf’s freshman-year production. But it is no stretch to say they failed to meet the hype.

It was not of their fault, though, which is important to realize. Instead, they serve as examples of the way freshmen are viewed. It’s proof that hype is just that. This lesson should be understood this season when discussing this year’s group.

‘I think with freshmen, it’s really hard to tell until you get well into the season,’ Boeheim said. ‘You can’t really tell in practice, you can’t tell the first few games.’

It’s not that easy. That would take away most of the fans’ conversations.

Boeheim provided perhaps the most sound example of the lunacy of preseason hype based on a team’s freshman class: the 2000-01 Seton Hall squad. The Pirates were coming off a Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA Tournament and Tommy Amaker was seen as the hot, young coach in college basketball. He looked pristine by bringing in one of the top recruiting classes in the country led by All-American Eddie Griffin and heralded New York point guard Andre Barrett.

Seton Hall was a hot preseason Final Four pick, and they looked sharp at the beginning of the season. By midseason, acrimony on the team – reportedly with Griffin as the epicenter – unraveled any chemistry. By the end of the season, they were 16-15 and both Amaker and Griffin left.

Boeheim also cited last year’s Connecticut which opened the season No. 20 and finished 17-14. They replaced four first-round picks and two senior contributors with eight freshmen who were simply not ready to be at the top of the Big East.

‘They were highly recruited players as well,’ Boeheim said. ‘You don’t know what freshmen are going to do.’

The other side of the argument is the teams led by freshmen that rode their youth deep in the NCAA Tournament.

The 1991-92 Michigan team rode five fabulous freshmen – Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson – to the NCAA championship game. The legend of the Fab Five was created and college basketball hasn’t been the same since.

Last season, Ohio State reached the final game with its two best players – Greg Oden and Mike Conley Jr. – both freshmen.

Before Billy Donovan became the two-time national champion and snubbed the Orlando Magic, he was a 35-year old leading a Florida team loaded relying almost entirely on freshmen and sophomores to the NCAA title game.

That is the mystery of freshmen. There are so many variables that come into play – strength, defense, maturity – that cannot be judged until the grind of the season continues.

In 2002-03, Syracuse hit it big when a pair of freshmen named Carmelo Anthony and Gerry McNamara rolled to the national championship like they were seniors. It was Anthony who won the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player and Warrick, a sophomore, who blocked the shot that sealed the championship.

That team, by the way, had one senior – just like this year’s team.

Maybe this year’s team, with Wright as the lone senior and six newcomers, can recreate the magic of the 2002-03 team. Maybe they’ll be more like last year’s UConn team. They’ll probably be somewhere in between.

That’s the problem – and some might argue, the beauty – with freshmen. No one knows.

Zach Berman is the sports columnist for The Daily Orange, where his columns appear every Wednesday and other select days throughout the semester. He can be reached at zberman@syr.edu.

Published on November 7, 2007 at 12:00 pm