The phone in Murray Forth’s home rings incessantly.

Relatives and friends from as far as Boston call the family’s East Greenbush home in an effort to track down tickets for this weekend’s NCAA Tournament East Regional in Albany.

His son, center Craig Forth, will be starting for the No. 3-seeded Syracuse men’s basketball team when it takes on No. 10 Auburn at 9:40 p.m. on Friday. And their home is a mere five miles from the Pepsi Arena.

‘I could walk there if I had to,’ Murray said.

But surprisingly, he must politely decline ticket requests.

The team is allowed to give Forth four tickets, one each for Murray and his wife, Maggie, and one each for Forth’s brothers, Brian and Jeremy. Murray said he was unsure whether Forth’s girlfriend would even receive a ticket.

‘Somewhere along the line, somebody thought that the parents could get a bunch of tickets,’ Murray said. ‘Parents don’t get (anything). I’m just glad that I get a seat.’

Although Murray said he is unsure whether his son will have any free time to visit home in Albany, he admits the proximity makes the game even more enticing.

‘The further they go, the more exciting it gets no matter where they play,’ Murray said. ‘But it’s more exciting here because let’s assume 90 percent of the fans will root for SU.’

Of course, Murray isn’t the only one excited by the game’s proximity.

The Orangemen are 17-0 at home this season and Friday’s contest is a virtual home game.

‘It was crazy,’ forward Hakim Warrick said. ‘We knew all we had to do was win two games and off we would go.’

SU assistant coach Mike Hopkins said the Orangemen’s home record is so good because of the fan support the team received in the Carrier Dome, but he’s quick to point out that Albany isn’t quite the home game some suggest it is.

‘Really, it’s two-and-a-half hours away,’ Hopkins said. ‘Philadelphia’s only three and a half. Anywhere in New York, they’d say we had a home-court advantage.’

Still, the drive is a lot shorter than the 18 hours from Auburn or from other East Regional schools Butler (13 hours) and Oklahoma (25 hours). Hopkins credited the Dome crowd for a number of the comebacks the Orangemen made throughout the season. Though there won’t be a Carrier Dome full of SU fans in the crowd, there could be almost 15,000.

Considering the tournament was sold out last May, the majority of the fans will come from Albany or will buy tickets from scalpers. Both Jill Skotarczak, the media relations director for the Albany’s East Regional, and Murray said the city is a bastion for Syracuse fans.

‘A lot of people from around here congratulated me on Craig going to Syracuse, not because they knew him, but because they had always been Syracuse fans,” Murray said. ‘Every time we go up there, it’s surprising because I see people I know from Albany.’

With a short distance to travel from Syracuse, the Orangemen won’t be relying on just Albany residents to give themselves a home-court feeling.

Gauging by SU student reaction, the Carrier Dome atmosphere won’t be absent despite the Pepsi Arena’s smaller capacity.

In order to get tickets, sophomore Salman Cheema said students started camping out at 11:30 last night. He said his friend, Doug Kellogg, slept on two blankets outside the Carrier Dome at 12:30 a.m.

Those who failed to procure tickets from the university may have quite a price to pay.

At 9 p.m. last night, the asking price on eBay for one ticket was $515. The ticket had received a bid of $125. Another pair of tickets had received an offer of $1,150. Most asking prices were between $800 and $1,000 for two seats.

But while Syracuse fans are camping out and searching the Internet frantically, opponents aren’t so excited about the prospects of playing in Albany.

‘I think you like for the court to be as neutral as possible, but I don’t know how you can do that,’ Auburn head coach Cliff Ellis said. ‘Somewhere along the line, you’re going to get in somebody’s backyard. It’s just going to happen. Somebody is going to be close to home. Syracuse happens to have that advantage, and that’s just the way that it is.’

Although none of the opposing coaches have criticized the NCAA’s decision to place Syracuse in a ‘home-court advantage,’ Ellis and the Tigers are using an ‘us vs. all’ strategy to motivate themselves.

“It’s almost like a road game,’ Auburn forward Marquis Daniels said. ‘You just have to feed off that negative crowd.’

Published on March 25, 2003 at 12:00 pm