Everyone thought Billy Edelin’s absence was over when he entered the game against Providence last week. The sophomore guard was held out of two games because of ‘personal reasons’ before returning against the Friars.

Apparently, Edelin still has some issues to resolve. He was a no-show for the Syracuse men’s basketball game against Rutgers on Tuesday night. When he missed the previous two games – against Connecticut and Pittsburgh – Edelin dressed and warmed up with the Orangemen. Last night, he wasn’t in the Carrier Dome.

After the game, Boeheim declined to comment on Edelin’s absence.

Gerry McNamara said he didn’t know where Edelin was.

‘All right. Right now. No questions,’ Boeheim warned, even before a reporter could mutter three words. ‘We’ll release something as soon as we have something to release.’

Edelin practiced Monday with the team, making his absence last night a surprise. Teammates said they didn’t know that he wouldn’t be there. Even Edelin’s father, William, said he had ‘no idea’ why Edelin wasn’t playing and found out that Edelin wasn’t playing when the game started.

‘I talked to Billy the other day,’ William said. ‘Everything seemed normal.’

Syracuse is used to playing without Edelin, who sat out his entire first season, 12 games of his redshirt freshman year and now three games this season. McNamara and Josh Pace took turns handling the point guard duties. As a team, SU only committed seven turnovers.

‘We’ve got to play, whether somebody can’t play or is hurt,’ Boeheim said. ‘You just have to be able to adjust to that and go out and play. I coach the guys that are here. That’s all you can do. I’m going to coach them as hard as we can. Somebody could get hurt tomorrow and not be able to play. Those things can happen. It’s unfortunate, but you coach the guys that are there.’

Freshman Demetris Nichols started over Edelin for the fourth straight game. Against Providence, Nichols scored a career-high 17 points and grabbed eight boards. Nichols finished with only three points coming off a 3-pointer he hit two minutes into the game.

After the game, Hakim Warrick said he was instructed not to speak about Edelin.

‘I’m not allowed to talk about it,’ he said.

McNamara, though, did it for him.

‘What (Edelin) does is his business,’ McNamara said. ‘Whatever is going on with him, we support him. He’s got to take care of whatever he’s trying to do.’

Boeheim said he would issue a statement tomorrow on Edelin’s situation. It’s not known at this time whether he’ll make the trip to Miami for Saturday’s game against the Hurricanes.

Terrence Roberts, who came into the game averaging 8.6 minutes, ate up a bunch of playing time in Edelin’s absence. He had four points and three boards in 14 minutes of play.

‘You can harp on Billy all night,’ McNamara said. ‘It’s not going to get anywhere. I say it over and over how important he is to this team. There’s not much more I can say about it. He’s huge for this team.’

Published on February 10, 2004 at 12:00 pm