When the first week’s batch of top 25 rankings came out Monday, Quentin Hillsman was especially glad and relieved to see North Carolina in the top 10. With all the hype surrounding the program heading into the year, the Syracuse women’s basketball coach wanted to start the season with a splash.

So instead of opening with a couple of home games against mid-majors, Hillsman searched for some serious competition. It was perhaps a questionable scheduling technique, considering the Orange was 9-20 last year, but Hillsman desperately wanted a challenge.

Hillsman was granted his wish, and an immediate opportunity to begin learning just how much attention his team truly deserves.

Syracuse begins its 2007-08 season Saturday against Coppin State (2-1) before taking on No. 7 North Carolina (3-0) Sunday. Both games are in Chapel Hill, N.C., as part of the inaugural Women’s National Invitational Championship. The Orange hasn’t played a non-conference opponent ranked so high in almost five years, when it lost to No. 9 Vanderbilt in November 2002 under head coach Marianna Freeman.

In its first three games this year, UNC has won by an average of 45.7 points, but that’s exactly what Hillsman had hoped for.

‘I scheduled it because I wanted to play Carolina, I really wanted to play them,’ Hillsman said. ‘I thought it was a great opportunity, and I wanted to play someone who I knew, or was hoping, would be a top-10 team. I didn’t want to go in there and play someone like No. 17.’

For the first time in five years, Syracuse did not play any exhibition games before the year, opting to schedule two closed scrimmages. While traditional exhibitions simulate an actual game experience, scrimmages provide a better opportunity for coaching, as teams aren’t bound by a scoreboard or clock.

Under NCAA regulations, players and coaches may not discuss the details of scrimmages.

Hillsman chose the scrimmages over the exhibition games to benefit his highly touted freshmen – a group of four that makes up the best recruiting class in program history, led by Erica Morrow, the first McDonald’s All-American to play for the Orange.

Hillsman wanted to give the young players as much time as possible to learn his system.

Take into account that senior Tracy Harbut didn’t play a game last year while recovering from knee surgery and sophomore Vionca Murray, who just transferred from Virginia Tech, Hillsman has almost a brand new team to teach.

‘You can also get into the situation when you have exhibition games, and when you’re that young, you can develop bad habits,’ Hillsman said. ‘I’d rather be in the gym working on our skill sets and working on stuff in the gym in private than to be out playing an exhibition game. I thought it worked out well for us.’

With the newcomers receiving so much attention entering the season, it’s easy to forget that the Orange returns 91 percent of its scoring from a year ago, including all five starters. Sophomore Nicole Michael had arguably the best season in program history last year as a freshman, setting an all-time mark for scoring with 501 points.

But Hillsman acknowledges that the freshmen have the opportunity to play right away and will play a big role if the team is to succeed. Though he hasn’t publicly announced the lineup for Saturday’s game, he has said repeatedly that he would not rule out starting the rookies.

‘The freshmen are good, and they’re excited,’ Michael said. ‘They went to top high schools and won championships, so they know what it’s like to play a top-ranked team. In our conference, we have six top-ranked teams, so they’re going to have to be ready right away.’

North Carolina will provide Syracuse a good test before starting Big East play against top 10 teams like Connecticut and Rutgers, but not everyone is convinced Hillsman should have scheduled such a tough non-conference game.

At Big East media day in October, UConn head coach Geno Auriemma suggested that Syracuse simply can’t win all the games on its schedule this year, specifically the out-of-conference games.

Still, Hillsman wanted a challenge, and he’s not afraid to defend his decision.

‘It doesn’t matter because Geno’s not coaching this team, he’s coaching UConn,’ Hillsman said. ‘He’ll have a tough time with every game on his schedule, too. It’s hard to go undefeated. … So maybe he knows, who knows? But maybe he doesn’t.’

Published on November 15, 2007 at 12:00 pm