A postgame bash was the only way to describe it. It was a Philadelphia party enabled because of Syracuse’s most brutal in-game player and his ferocious offensive attack: Rick Jackson.

Mere minutes following No. 17 Syracuse’s 69-64 win over Villanova, an Orange party ensued in a slender Wells Fargo Center corridor adjacent to the SU locker room. The likes of Syracuse-basketball present and Syracuse-basketball future, as well as members of Jackson’s Philadelphia past, were all accounted for.

‘Everybody (is here),’ SU guard Scoop Jardine later said of the scene inside and outside of the SU locker room. ‘Everybody. My high school team — my and Rick’s high school coach, right there!’

It was the best example of postgame bliss SU head coach Jim Boeheim and Syracuse have showcased all season. With a wide grin planted on his face before he took the press conference podium, Boeheim slapped hands with 2011 SU recruits Trevor Cooney and McDonald’s All-American and Philadelphia native Rakeem Christmas — the nation’s No. 1 center for the Class of 2011, according to Scout.com.

But Boeheim’s celebration with Christmas amid the Syracuse scrum would not have been possible were it not for the play of arguably the No. 1 big man in the Big East, a senior Christmas hopes to follow. Christmas spoke with a merry Boeheim because of a specific element in Jackson’s performance.

For Jackson, it was an attacking offensive game in stark contrast to the last game Syracuse played against Georgetown. On Feb. 9, Jackson played the final five minutes of the game as a coy offensive player due to his four fouls — two of which were called on offensive charges. His forced lack of aggression lost the game for SU the first time, and against Georgetown this Saturday (noon, CBS) at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., Jackson will need to continue to play the way he did offensively against Villanova.

‘When you sit for nine, 10 minutes, it is hard to come back in and have that same killer edge, especially when you have four fouls,’ Jackson said on Feb. 9. ‘You don’t want to commit silly fouls, and that’s what happened.’

Jackson utilized that ‘killer edge’ against Villanova. More importantly, he used it on the offensive end. In 38 minutes, Jackson attacked the Wildcat bigs vertically in a near-perfect offensive game, going 8-of-9 from the field.

That 89 percent clip from the field came not because of sharp shooting. It was due to a hunger to take shots from the easy spots Jackson fought for. Five of the eight makes came on dunks, and one came on an alley-oop layup. The layup was just one of several alley-oops on the night for Jackson, who hammered home pass after pass from Jardine as the duo took over in their hometown.

Carl Arrigale, Jackson’s high school coach, and two current Neumann-Goretti (Pa.) players celebrated with Jackson and Jardine in the postgame scrum.

They spoke of Jardine’s 20-point outing, despite foul trouble, and Jackson’s slew of dunks from Jardine. The two stars on the night had combated foul trouble enough to lead SU to the win. Jackson had two first-half fouls, and Jardine sat for a crucial near-five-minute stretch in the second half with four. It was shades of Jackson versus Georgetown.

‘I just think he never got into it,’ Boeheim said of Jackson on Feb. 9. ‘He never really got back into the game. We need him, obviously, offensively. He’s been so steady for us all year, and we need him there offensively.’

In a whistle-friendly game Monday at Villanova, Jackson was again in first-half foul trouble. But this time, he avoided his third foul until the final three minutes of the game, even though he attacked the basket with the same hunger.

Jardine played the final 7:35 of the game with four fouls. And he excelled, scoring soon after he entered and breaking the Wildcat press to lead SU to the win.

Postgame, Jardine was euphoric as he introduced his Neumann-Goretti family. There was Arrigale and Lamin Fulton, a senior guard who will play at St. Peter’s. And there was a freshman, name unknown to Jardine.

But he was from Neumann, and that was all that mattered when celebrating. He was welcome after Jardine won the game for SU. A win finished off by Jackson, who coolly sank two free throws with 4.6 seconds left to end the game.

Jardine welcomed the nameless freshman to join in, promising he would recruit him to play for SU to follow in the footsteps of Jardine and Jackson, who came to Syracuse together.

In his last game at Syracuse in Philadelphia, Jackson harnessed the element that had been missing in his offensive attack. And he’ll look to continue that against the Hoyas.

Said Jackson: ‘They’ll always remember what you did when you came here.’

aolivero@syr.edu

 

Published on February 23, 2011 at 12:00 pm