Many Syracuse fans have found Eric Devendorf to be the ultimate hot-and-cold player. He has some razzle-dazzle ability around the rim, but his outside shot isn’t consistent enough to excuse his play that has often put the Orange (7-3) in a hole, rather than dig the team out of one, as he has had the tendency to become a bit of a chucker.

On Saturday, in a game against East Tennessee State in which Syracuse racked up a ridiculous 125 points, Devendorf went down with a torn ACL, ending his junior season with the team. Syracuse is now without its two starting guards from last year in Devendorf and the pleasantly surprising Andy Rautins. It also should be noted that it makes a rather young ‘Cuse team that much younger. (Perhaps making Jim Boeheim that much older in the process.) And while Rautins’ absence has been felt to a certain degree so far this year in middle-New York, perhaps Devendorf’s departure could open up opportunities for this team.

Here are Devendorf’s stats with the team since put on the creamsicle colors:

The statistics show that Devendorf was “blossoming” into his best year in ‘07-’08, but you’ll see that with more opportunities to shoot the ball, more turnovers ensue. His career assist: turnover is about 1.2—not exactly the mold for a dynamic player. Devendorf has the physical skill to excel on the Division I level, but has shown time and time again that his mental capacity to play the game is a bit helter skelter.

The owness now falls on marquee freshmen Donte’ Green (FABULOUS player) and Jonny Flynn. But let’s see if Paul Harris can become a little more than the utility player that he’s allowed himself to “devolve” into, if you will. With the injuries to Devendorf and Rautins, it not only hurts their at-large profile come March (though their play in spite of the injuries will tell the story), but it also decimates a bench that wasn’t that deep to begin with.

It’s extremely fortunate that Boeheim teaches the 2-3 zone principle, because he suddenly has a team that will have to conserve its energy and try and stockpile the stamina down the stretch of conference season. Will this team be able to overcome the burden of losing two of its primary point producers and create its own identity? I think it’s likely they can and will.

It should also be noted that Devendorf was very well known as a bit of a trash talker on the floor, and while that attitude may have been a spark to the team at certain times, it also got him promptly benched by Boeheim in certain games as well. The Orange will now have an extremely young, extremely athletic and up-tempo team on the floor, yet they still lack a true leader (which they never had in Devendorf, anyway).

Syracuse’s next five games are all in the safe confines of the Big Blowup Dome, here’s the slate:

»Dec. 18, Colgate

»Dec. 22, Cornell

»Dec. 30, Northeastern

»Jan. 2, St. John’s

»Jan. 5, South Florida

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