NEW YORK – To the casual observer, Terrence Roberts and Darryl Watkins scored a combined 17 points and together grabbed 18 rebounds in Syracuse’s 78-65 win over Connecticut in the first round of the Big East tournament Wednesday. But Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim doesn’t view their production that way. Neither does Robert nor Watkins.

Instead they see this: Demetris Nichols scored 28 points. Eric Devendorf scored 19 points. Syracuse shot 45 percent from 3-point range. None of these numbers have Roberts or Watkins directly linked to them. Although in Syracuse’s offense, which relies on screens to open up space, a good offensive day from Nichols and Devendorf is a testament to the two post players.

‘There’s no stat line,’ Boeheim said. ‘It’s not that pretty to just screen and try to get people open.’

Boeheim’s right. It isn’t pretty. But it’s effective.

Roberts and Watkins were both active on offense, opening up space for Nichols outside the paint. SU often utilizes back screens, a type of screen used when a player like Nichols is being over-defended. The back screener – Watkins or Roberts – sets a screen, meaning he impedes the path of the defender, which theoretically provides a few uncovered moments for Nichols.

‘I know if (Demetris is) not getting off like he should, you can either look at two things,’ Roberts said. ‘It’s either him taking bad shots or me and Mookie not screening well to get him open. I think we did a much better job in the second half of getting him wide open looks and getting Andy (Rautins) wide open looks.’

Both Nichols and Rautins are effective perimeter shooters, but neither is ever applauded for the ability to create shots on their own. What it takes, then, are screens from the big players. It’s a task embraced by Watkins and Roberts, seniors who have limited offensive repertoires but have been around the Big East long enough to realize unrecognized plays, like back screens, could be the difference between the first round and second round of the Big East tournament.

‘It’s definitely important,’ Watkins said. ‘Those screens help him get open shots. They put points on the board and are why we’re able to get ahead.’

SU entered the locker room of Wednesday’s game trailing, 38-36. The Orange generated little offensively, save for Eric Devendorf beating his man off the dribble. He was also helped by screens, which opened the lane for him, but SU’s offense was not nearly as good as it was in the second half, when it scored 42 points and hit 50 percent of its shots. More than half of those shots came when SU was in a set offense, when it uses screens to create open shots.

‘We did just we wanted to do in the second half,’ Boeheim said. ‘We moved the ball, we were patient, we set good screens, we got some inside and we got Demetris open from the perimeter.’

It’s the reason why Boeheim responded the way he did when he was asked about Nichols’ 28 points. He lauded the SU senior, who hit big shots as he’s done throughout the season, but then Boeheim made sure he mentioned the big men.

‘These big guys, Terrence and Mookie and Matt (Gorman) have done a great job of getting those guys open,’ Boeheim said.

Nichols was asked to provide his explanation and he, too, understood the value of the screens to his performance.

The soft-spoken scorer didn’t even elaborate. Boeheim did it justice.

Said Nichols: ‘I think coach answered that question.’

Published on March 7, 2007 at 12:00 pm