The second seat was without its rightful owner. Stationed between Jim Boeheim and Stan Kissel on the Syracuse bench, the emptiness of the chair was obvious. The intended message clear.

If Bernie Fine, who’s held that seat for 35 years, couldn’t sit there, no one would.

‘That’s a guy we love and miss him on the team,’ SU center Fab Melo said. ‘So yeah, that was a tribute.’

Roughly 48 hours after the men’s basketball program and Syracuse community was rocked by allegations of molestation against Fine, an associate head coach currently on administrative leave, the Orange took the floor in the Carrier Dome against Colgate. The legendary assistant to Boeheim was honored by players each time they passed his traditional seat, paying homage to a man that helped build the SU program. And in the wake of the shocking accusations by Bobby Davis and Michael Lang, Syracuse showed no signs of dishevelment to knock off Colgate easily 92-47.

For more than three decades Fine has sat to the left of Boeheim, clipboard and magic marker in hand. In the team’s first game without him, that chair became a focal point for the SU players as they entered and exited Jim Boeheim Court.

Moments before the opening tip, Melo tapped the chair with both hands. He would do so each time he jogged past as a way of ‘high-fiving’ the absent coach, whose main responsibility is working with the SU big men.

It was an idea, Scoop Jardine said, conjured up by Melo a player who viewed Fine as a role model.

‘We told him we are going to play hard for him,’ Melo said. ‘And that’s going to be the whole season.’

Melo spoke for himself and fellow center Baye Keita, both of whom were bursting with emotion to begin Saturday’s game. The former recorded a block in the first minute of the game. Minutes later, Keita swatted three shots in a span of 52 seconds.

‘Every night we step out there, we’re just going to play the way he would want us to play,’ Keita said. ‘Hopefully we’re going to get him back soon.’

Without Fine, assistant coach Mike Hopkins took over working with SU’s interior players, and Gerry McNamara was promoted to the coaching staff.

McNamara and Boeheim insisted the events of the past two days weren’t much of a distraction for the current players. The team practiced Friday behind closed doors, and both asserted that focus wasn’t an issue.

Still, Brandon Triche and Dion Waiters couldn’t deny the amount of shock and disbelief that set in upon hearing the news Thursday afternoon and evening.

‘My initial reaction was this can’t be true,’ Triche said. ‘It must be a different Syracuse team somewhere else, it must be a different coach named Bernie Fine.’

Waiters said it was strange not seeing Fine on the bench for the first time since he was recruited by the Orange and that the whole team played in his honor against the Raiders.

‘I didn’t even know what was going on,’ Waiters added. ‘Is it true? Is that really Coach Fine? Things like this, you’ve got to have his back. And you’ve just got to continue to pray for him and hope everything work out and hope that everything going on isn’t true.’

Boeheim said the coaching staff met with the players after the news came out to discuss the situation and ‘went through everything.’ This included reminding them what they should be focusing on going forward: classes and basketball. Not the scandal swirling around the Syracuse campus, expedited by the horde of media outside the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center before and after the team practiced Friday.

‘We’re going to focus on basketball, like we did today,’ Boeheim said. ‘Everything will be determined outside our team. We need to focus on what we’re doing. … These players have nothing to do with anything. And the coaching staff has to focus on these players and what they need from us.’

The first step in that plan was accomplished with the 45-point blowout over Colgate. Next is a two-game swing in New York City, a getaway arriving at perhaps the perfect time for the Boeheim and his players.

A chance to play away from the campus by visiting the home-away-from-home Madison Square Garden.

As the rumors and reports continue to snowball, Waiters said he won’t stop thinking of Fine. Though basketball remains the principal focus, he and his teammates hope Fine can once again be part of that picture and return to his seat.

‘I just hope everything works out for Coach Fine, man,’ Waiters said. ‘He’s a great guy. He’s been a great guy since I’ve been here. I’m always going to have him in my prayers, hoping everything works out great.’

mjcohe02@syr.edu 

Published on November 19, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13