SOUTH BEND, Ind. — After drilling 5-of-6 3-pointers in the first half, Syracuse guard Andy Rautins was positive he couldn’t miss. He talked to former teammate and current coach Gerry McNamara about that unique feeling SU shooters get at the Joyce Center, the one where the hoop grows 10 times wider as the game goes on.

One long-range bomb after another kept a surging Notre Dame squad at bay in a game where momentum meant everything.

But after hitting the fifth, putting the Orange ahead 11 with 1:33 to go in the first half, he was also positive about something else: He would take a backseat in the second half, and it was all part of the plan.

‘You hit some shots in the first, and you’re going to draw more attention,’ Rautins said. ‘That’s what happened in the second, you know they played me pretty close, opened up some weakside opportunities and the postgame got going. We played outside-in in the second.’

Emerging as a more refined scoring threat this season, Rautins has allowed the Orange to add a new page to its playbook. When he gets hot from behind the arc in the first half, he becomes the focal point of the offense in the second. By commanding attention and sucking double teams to the weakside, the fifth-year senior exposes a Mack-sized hole in the opposing defense allowing easy drives, open jumpers and passing lanes. This was the case in the Orange’s 84-71 victory Monday.

‘What people do with Andy,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said, ‘and it really helps us in a way because people stay with him so much that we put him down where he’d be a weakside help position and it just opens that driving lane for Kris Joseph, it opens that driving lane for Brandon (Triche), and it opens the driving lane for Wesley (Johnson). It allows us to get in that lane area because those guys aren’t going to leave him.’

The way Boeheim explains it, the plan seems so simple. He conveys it this way: His right hand represents Rautins, as he makes a fist and places it in the background off to the side. His left hand represents the rest of the team, to which he makes a smooth arching gesture on the opposite side of the fist, suggesting a struggle-free path to the basket.

It was a point perfectly illustrated with 2:28 remaining in the second half. Off a recovered tip, Rautins reset the offense right inside of the half-court line. Immediately, the active Irish defense shifted forward, creating a gaping barrier between center Arinze Onuaku and an easy basket.

Rautins lofted a 40-foot pass right into Onuaku’s outstretched arms and the center jammed it home to put a then-surging Irish team out of contention.

‘We’ll go 7-for-11 in the first half from three and in the second half, we’ll just feed the big guys,’ McNamara said. ‘It’s a nice luxury to have when you can’t draw help off of him. It opens the floor for us. You can use the entire floor because Andy is in.’

After a lights-out performance in the first, Rautins was courted almost exclusively by Notre Dame’s speedy point guard Tory Jackson, plus whatever idle defender was nearby to offer a hand.

In the second half, Rautins went 0-for-3 from 3-point range due to the constant pressure. But in the meantime, points in the paint increased steadily as did assists. The opportunistic offense didn’t shift its pace either, as fastbreak points remained on pace.

It’s a system Rautins — whose shooting percentage has risen from .380 in 2008-09 to .459 this season — is ultimately comfortable with. Except for the fact that he’s not completely willing to stop pulling the trigger when the defense gets tight.

‘I mean, if I get a shot,’ Rautins said, ‘I’m taking it.’

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on January 18, 2010 at 12:00 pm