It had been a good one, so Billy Edelin beamed in the locker room and joked with reporters. They read him his stats and he smiled. Twenty-five minutes. Ten points. Seven rebounds. Five assists. One turnover.

‘Terrific,’ Edelin said, nodding his head. ‘It’s a good feeling.’

Then he turned to laugh with a few kids begging for autographs and poked fun at a teammate. He’s learned to appreciate the highs in his Jekyll-and-Hyde season. One game, he’ll play for five minutes and fail to score. The next, he’ll play for 30 and pack a stat sheet.

In No. 15 Syracuse’s 89-51 thumping of West Virginia last night, Edelin played perhaps his most well-rounded game all season. And it left him feeling euphoric.

‘A game like this is just great,’ Edelin said. ‘I did everything they asked me to do. Some nights, that just doesn’t seem to happen, so I enjoy it even more when I play well. I’ve just been kind of hot and cold.’

He’s been practically bipolar, a condition SU assistant coach Mike Hopkins attributes to Edelin’s year-plus suspension from college basketball.

‘You look at the history of kids who have gone through what he has, and they haven’t done very well,’ Hopkins said. ‘It has to do with the flow of the game. The longer he’s back, the more the consistency will come.’

Edelin points to a different problem.

‘It’s minutes,’ Edelin said. ‘When I get them, I always play well. If I played 25 minutes a game, I’d do this much or more almost all the time. But some games, I’ll only play five minutes. You just never know what (SU head coach Jim) Boeheim is doing.’

Edelin offered no complaints about his minutes for last night’s game, though. Boeheim left Edelin on the court for 13 minutes in the second half, pulling him only to put in walk-ons when the game was out of reach.

Edelin’s minutes total would likely have been higher had he not bitten through his lip during a battle for the ball midway through the first half. Edelin returned five minutes later but had to receive four stitches in his lower lip after the game. He said the injury won’t cause him to miss any practice.

‘Billy was very good,’ Boeheim said. ‘He helped us on the boards. His defense was good, he made good decisions and he got the ball to people.’

Edelin hit 5 of 7 shots. Most of them came in traditional Edelin fashion, a seemingly improbable running heave from just inside the lane.

‘He had his best all-around game so far,’ forward Hakim Warrick said. ‘He did everything for us. That’s what he does for us.’

At least some of the time.

Who’s that?

Matt Gorman enjoyed his first playing time since the start of the Big East schedule. The crowd seemed to enjoy it, too.

When Gorman, a freshman, entered the game with eight minutes left, the crowd went wild. When he blocked a West Virginia shot on his first play, the cheers grew louder.

‘I guess they like me,’ Gorman said. ‘It’s definitely nice to have a crowd behind you. I wasn’t expecting them to get so loud.’

Perhaps Gorman thought the crowd would have forgotten him. Fans hadn’t seen him play in 2003. Gorman’s last action came when he played 15 minutes and failed to score against Albany on Dec. 28.

‘You’re not going to put in a freshman who’s not ready,’ Boeheim said. ‘He’s worked hard in practice and lifting, but I can’t remember the last time we had a breather to put him in.’

Boeheim decided he’d found one with Syracuse up, 66-34, late in the game. Gorman played the last eight minutes, scoring five points and grabbing three rebounds.

A few minutes after Gorman entered, Boeheim cleared his bench. Walk-ons Ronneil Herron, Josh Brooks, Gary Hall, Tyrone Albright and Xzavier Gaines all played.

Herron was the only walk-on to score. He drove to the basket, got fouled, hit the layup and made the free throw to complete the three-point play.

‘It’s really fun to get out there,’ Herron said. ‘The starters love it more than anybody. They’re our biggest fans. When I scored, they went crazy.’

No practice

Syracuse must take today off because of an NCAA rule.

Syracuse plays three games this week, so it is required to take a day off from practice. Since Syracuse practiced Monday and Tuesday, it will take today off, leaving it only Friday to prepare for Saturday’s game at Georgetown.

‘That’s an unbelievable rule,’ Boeheim said. ‘I just don’t understand it. We only get one day to prepare for Georgetown, which is ridiculous. But we’ve seen them before, so we’ll just go with what we know.’

This and that

SU center Jeremy McNeil played just five minutes, none in the second half. … After scoring five points in the first half, freshman Carmelo Anthony switched headbands for the second, when he scored 19. ‘It’s a superstitious thing sometimes,’ Anthony said. ‘Now you know why.’ … Midway through the second half, a fan launched an orange onto the court, prompting a warning from the officials.

Published on February 26, 2003 at 12:00 pm