For a player who just netted a team-high 22 points, Paul Harris had to answer few questions about his play on the basketball court following Monday night's game.
Most of the inquiries for the Syracuse forward following his team's 86-51 win over Colgate centered around his new hairstyle: a floppy, blown-out afro that he sported during warm-ups and tied back minutes before tip-off.
"He may have to keep that hairdo," SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. "I was glad he tied it up a little bit. It was scaring me in the locker room."
In the locker room following the game, Harris divulged the reason behind switching from his normal braids to the 'fro. Point guard Jonny Flynn told Harris that in exchange for the hairdo, he would shave his own head. (Flynn went on to confess that he has no plans of taking a razor to his head.)
"He's one of those guys that you bet him anything and he's going to do it," said Flynn, a childhood friend of Harris'. "I made a bet with him that he wouldn't go out like that for the game, and he proved me wrong."
In a blowout game, Harris' hair managed to overshadow the best shooting night of the season for the forward. Harris shot 9-for-13 from the field, after coming in with a 50.9 clip, and collected five rebounds. At the 13:21 mark of the first half, Harris had already scored 11 of his team's 21 points, and went to the bench less than two minutes later.
"He came out, he was really active all over the court, right from the beginning," Boeheim said of Harris.
Harris' 22 points came over a span of just more than 21 minutes. Syracuse's large lead meant the Orange didn't need his services any further than that. Though the hard-working Harris would have gladly obliged.
"Today I just came out and I played hard," Harris said. "That's all it was about." Big game for Jackson
Heading into the season, it appeared reserve center Rick Jackson was ready to step up into a major role. On Monday night, he lived up to the hype, playing the best game of his short Syracuse career.
In just 13 minutes off the bench, Jackson recorded his first double-double with 10 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. Four of those boards came on the offensive end. Before Monday, Jackson had grabbed nine boards twice this season, against Le Moyne and Oakland.
Jackson had yet to make his mark this year before Monday's contest against Colgate, averaging 2.8 points and 5.2 rebounds per game as starter Arinze Onuaku's backup.
Woes from deep If there was a flaw in Syracuse's performance, it came from behind the arc. The Orange continued to struggle in its 3-point shooting, going 4-of-17 (23.5 percent). For the season, Syracuse is shooting at 31.4 percent from deep.
No one hit more than a single 3 Monday night. One of the four came in the game's closing seconds by walk-on Jake Presutti. Guards Andy Rautins and Eric Devendorf, who are expected to be the Orange's best long-range shooters, went 1-of-6. Rautins missed all four of his attempts, and Harris missed three.
After the game, Boeheim said he was not too worried, but acknowledged the 3-pointer has not been falling so far this season.
"We haven't shot it particularly well from the 3," he said.
This and that
Senior walk-on guard Jake Presutti scored his first career field goal, on a three-pointer with six seconds left in the game, igniting the SU bench. … Syracuse's 7-0 start is the best since 2006-07, when the Orange also started 7-0. SU started 9-0 in 2001. … Syracuse has now won the last 43 meetings against Colgate.
kbaustin@syr.edu jediamon@syr.edu
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