NEW YORK – Paul Harris stormed down the court, two Syracuse players on one, with Terrence Roberts to his left. Down 47-46, SU had its first chance to take the lead in the second half against Oklahoma State.

Harris slowed up and tried a no-look pass to Roberts. Roberts, not expecting it, had the ball go behind him and out of bounds, back to Oklahoma State.

Thus began Syracuse’s second-half turnover party. It was a microcosm of Harris’ night: close, but not good enough.

Harris is scoring for SU, especially in late situations, but he committed six turnovers and had only three assists.

The freshman scored nine of his 11 points in the final 3:45 of the game to lead the Orange comeback, but that was after the turnovers put SU in a 13-point hole.

‘I don’t even know what to say about myself tonight,’ Harris said. ‘I definitely got to hit the weights.’

Harris said the turnovers were a byproduct of him not being physical enough. Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim thought otherwise.

‘He started making mistakes, he over-dribbled the ball,’ Boeheim said. ‘That’s how he played in high school and you have to learn in college when you can’t win, you can’t, and he hasn’t learned that yet. He’s got a long ways to go.

‘I laugh when people talk about him being our best player. He’s not good enough to start for us right now. That’s the facts.’

Harris played just nine minutes in the first half, even with Eric Devendorf’s limited play. Harris took three shots and missed them all, including two 3-pointers. He had two points from two free throws.

He played a similar game Saturday against Wichita State. At the half, Harris had zero points, but ended with 14 – including some key buckets down the stretch to put SU back in the contest.

Tuesday night, in his debut at Madison Square Garden and national television, Harris seemed passive in the first half. During the final 20 minutes, he created better opportunities down low by penetrating to the basket, but that’s also when the turnovers came. Harris committed all seven giveaways in the second half.

The normally talkative Harris buried his face in his body and was extremely soft-spoken in the locker room after the game. He was asked by a member of the national media when the last time he had lost two games in a row. Harris couldn’t answer, possibly because it has never happened before.

‘I really don’t remember,’ Harris said.

He very nearly avoided the back-to-back losses. As he did Saturday night against Wichita State, Harris started the Syracuse rally with a thunderous dunk – almost a mirror of the one from Saturday. He leaped from just inside the foul line and slammed it. The two points brought SU within seven and got the largely pro-Syracuse crowd hopping.

Harris scored five more points following the dunk, but it wasn’t enough.

‘I gotta step it up,’ Harris said. ‘I gotta be the leader I know I am capable of being. These last two games, last game I waited too long, and this game I can’t do nothing at all. I was out of my whole game. I didn’t even rebound, assist, nothing.’

For the first time in his basketball career, Paul Harris is left without an answer to his inconsistent play.

Said Harris: ‘I don’t know what the heck (is going on). I don’t know, man.’

Published on December 5, 2006 at 12:00 pm