The Daily Orange

Media Credit: Rachel Fus

As Terrence Roberts went to sleep Sunday night, he wondered how he was going to cope with his torn meniscus in his left knee. It's an ongoing problem the Syracuse forward has been battling since he suffered the injury when SU hosted Drexel on Dec. 19.

The knee has inhibited his play and endurance, which is a problem considering Roberts tries to provide an energetic spark down low by grabbing rebounds and scoring inside. He's been limited to fewer than 20 minutes the past two games.

But Roberts didn't want that to happen on Senior Night in his last home game at the Carrier Dome. He told his teammates before the game that he would block his knee injury out.

In SU's 72-58 victory over No. 9 Georgetown, Roberts scored only six points and grabbed only six rebounds in 29 minutes. But he provided a defensive presence to complement center Darryl Watkins in containing Roy Hibbert and Jeff Green. Hibbert scored only six points while Green was held to nine.

To help ameliorate the injury, Roberts stayed out of warmup drills so he could save all of his energy for the game.

"The pain doesn't bother me (during the game)," Roberts said. "I'm not going to lie to you. The knee is killing me right now. It's all about going out there and playing hard regardless. Unless my leg was turned 90 degrees, I was going to be on that court."

Watkins said he tried to prevent Hibbert and Green from receiving the ball so he wouldn't have to worry about guarding him. But when they did, Watkins guarded up front and limited the inside points.

"We wanted to make sure they went any route today," Watkins said. "I made sure I got in front of him and he didn't get the ball in the spots he wanted to."

Answering the critic
Although Monday's win was praised by the ESPN commentators after the game, there is one particular ESPN commentator who has been critical of Syracuse the past few weeks: Doug Gottlieb. The ESPN personality who led the NCAA in assists in 1999 while playing for Oklahoma State has bashed the Orange's unwillingness to leave New York in its non-conference schedule.

It's criticism that has not gone under Syracuse's radar - especially SU head coach Jim Boeheim and forward Terrence Roberts.

"Doug Gottlieb said we don't even have the chance to be in the Tournament," Boeheim said. "We were 8-5 and we still don't have a chance with being 8-5 in the Big East. We don't have a chance? We beat Marquette and Marquette is in the Tournament. We beat Villanova by 11 points and they're in the Tournament. And Syracuse doesn't have a chance to be in the Tournament?

"I don't mind when they say we're on the bubble but to say we don't have a chance to be in the Tournament? That's absolutely absurd. People like that should lose all credibility."

Gottlieb did mention after the Providence game that he thought SU could reach the Tournament if it was able to finish strong against Georgetown and Providence. But Roberts, who posted media criticism on his locker earlier this season, wants to feed off the naysayers.

"There's guys out there, the Gottliebs of the world, who say we're still out," Roberts said. "But who cares? Who is he anyway? We'll just continue to play. And if people say we're not in, we'll just win the Big East tournament again."

Walking in
The two senior walk-ons, Todd Burach and Ross DiLiegro, entered Monday's game. It was Burach's third appearance of the season and DiLiegro's second. Burach was 0-for-2 with a rebound. DiLiegro played one minute but did record a statistic.

Both players were honored before the game. The crowd was chanting for both of them in the waning minutes of the game before Boeheim inserted them individually as Nichols, Roberts and Watkins received recognition. The walk-ons reciprocated the cheers after the game, having fun with the fans.

"I figure it's Senior Night, it's the last one, why not have fun with it?" DiLiegro said. "Maybe I would have gone out quicker if I didn't play and I wasn't a senior, but you know what, why not? This is the last time around, so I figured I'll stay out there a minute."

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