NEW YORK — This is Scoop Jardine’s final Big East Tournament and he isn’t going to let anything — not talk of failed drug testing or even diminished playing time — distract him and his teammates from their ultimate goal.
That, of course, is to keep on winning right through Saturday night’s Big East championship game and deep into late March.
Asked about the latest news swirling around the team — the allegations by Yahoo! sports that at least 10 players since 2001 have tested positive for banned substances — Jardine said such reports only motivated his team.
“It don’t bother us because it’s not us,” Jardine, the Orange’s senior point guard, said following No. 1 Syracuse’s 58-55 victory over No. 9 UConn in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals at Madison Square Garden.
“Everything that they’ve been talking about…actually it disrespects us because this is our season. For myself, this is my final season. For everything to be coming up now, it’s kind of like a disrespect and it brings us closer together and it makes us hungry to go out and prove people wrong.
“And we use the motto, ‘We all we got.'”
Jardine used similar language earlier this year when Syracuse climbed to No. 1 in the national rankings despite the Bernie Fine sex scandal dominating the headlines and the highlight shows.
Syracuse is headed out of the Big East, likely after next season, meaning it’s possible this was the last Big East Tournament tango between perennial powers Syracuse and UConn.
Jardine said he feels sorry for future Orange players who won’t get to play in “the best tournament in the country…in New York City, Madison Square Garden, the Mecca of basketball.”
“Yeah, I do feel bad for them but I hope they come up and bring it [the ACC Tournament] to New York,” Jardine said. “You know, that would be great.”
Jardine also stood up and didn’t pout about the fact that he played just 18 minutes — three in the second half — and went 1-for-6 for two points.
Down the stretch, it was James Southerland (10 points) and Dion Waiters (18) who were the heroes for the Orange.
“I was 1-for-6, you know?” Jardine said. “And clearly I’m 1-for-6 and I’m playing bad, take me out the game. I’m going to tell you myself. There’s guys in there that’s playing better and they can help us win, I’m all for it. And that’s what happened today.
“I’m not saying I didn’t want to be in the game, of course I did. But I was on the bench and I think what I was saying on the bench was helping those guys in the game, so I was in the game.”
Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said it was simply a matter of Waiters and Brandon Triche playing better in this particular game.
“Today Scoop wasn’t making shots, and I thought that the two best offensive guards we had were those two guys,” Boeheim said.
On a lot of teams, a senior point guard not playing down the stretch of a postseason game might spell internal trouble that could sink a team in March.
But that doesn’t appear to be an issue for a team that went 17-1 in league play despite lacking a true superstar.
“We’re deep,” Jardine said. “They’ve been saying it all year. We’re a deep team. We got a lot of guys that can start on every team and for us to put our egos at the door and sacrifice for the team and it saves us. We’re 31-1.”
Jardine is reflecting the defiant attitude of his coach, who, when asked about the drug-testing story, defiantly said: “Nothing bothers us. We come ready to play. That’s what you should do in life. Everybody has problems. I’m much more concerned about my wife being mad at me than I am anything else, to tell you the truth.”
And if Jardine and his teammates continue to stick together and play the Syracuse way, they could insulate themselves from the distractions all the way to the Final Four.
