Brandon Triche sat on the sidelines and watched Syracuse’s 2010-11 season reach its distasteful conclusion.

He had been in command earlier, scoring eight points in the first five minutes of the game. But a fall and a bruised tailbone forced him into spectator mode for the final 15-plus minutes as the Orange fell to Marquette in the NCAA Tournament’s third round.

Triche’s leading ability was there if only for a five-minute glimpse. But there was much left to be desired. For both Triche, whose forceful offensive nature was limited after that early burst, and for SU, which suffered an early departure from the tournament.

Entering his junior year, Triche wants to alter both. This can be his time.

‘I think you’ve seen flashes of it last year, just me trying to break out, break out,’ Triche said. ‘And I hope, I pray to God that my season is this season. But ultimately I want to win.’

Triche has started more games for Syracuse than any other player on the Orange roster. The junior guard has started all 70 games SU has played in the last two seasons. And through those games, the ups and downs, the adaptation to Division-I basketball and recuperation from a high school knee injury, there has been improvement. Triche moved from a raw point guard on a veteran team to a sometimes-dominant, sometimes-passive shooting guard his sophomore season.

He scored 15-plus points nine times last year, but was held to single digits 15 times. After an offseason in which Triche might have risen to the best shape of his life, many believe it’s his turn to take the leading role.

‘We’re all expecting Brandon to have a breakout year,’ Orange graduate assistant Gerry McNamara said. ‘We think he’s extremely talented, to come in and make a big-time impact offensively.’

Triche spent part of this summer playing for JD’s Finest in the King of Kings Summer League in Utica. His team was comprised of current and former Jamesville-DeWitt High School players. Playing in a cooler element with familiar faces from his dominant past, Triche flourished.

He also flexed the athleticism high school teammates said Triche possesses but hasn’t released at SU yet. In one game, according to Triche’s former high school teammate Alshwan Hymes, Triche took a pass on the wing on the game’s first play, pump faked, drove to the hoop and put home a one-handed slam.

The flashes are becoming more frequent.

‘I think we’ve been talking about it,’ said Hymes, who played on JD’s Finest. ‘If anything, this year’s his year to put the team on his back and lead them to success.’

The ability to transcend into Syracuse’s go-to guy starts and ends with health for Triche.

Bob McKenney said he’s seen Triche do things Syracuse fans have yet to witness. Although Triche was only a three-star recruit out of high school, McKenney, his high school coach at Jamesville-DeWitt, thinks the hoopla surrounding Triche could have been much greater had he stayed healthy through four years.

But in a Christmas tournament his sophomore year, Triche awkwardly landed on his left leg as he drove through the middle of the lane. It was an injury that one of his teammates, Greg Stern, said looked pretty gross when the team later saw it on tape.

Triche played the rest of the game, leading Jamesville-DeWitt to a 71-60 win over St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute. The next day he found out he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

The injury, which kept him out for the rest of his sophomore year, altered the way Triche attacked the game.

‘He was just so above the rim and hitting NBA 3s and quick and fast, it was something to watch,’ McKenney said. ‘Not that he was, he was still the best guard in the state (after the injury), but within the next two years … he had to learn to play a little differently.’

Triche wore a bulky knee brace for most of his junior year. It inhibited his ability to play above the rim and made him feel uncomfortable at times.

But it gave him a chance to develop the rest of his game. Stern said Triche spent more time working on a mid-range jumper. He played at the rim rather than above the rim, playing a little bit safer but still maintaining his aggression.

Triche’s hunger and hard work didn’t waver. But with a big brace — and even in his first year without the brace — Triche’s confidence in his knee quivered.

Yet Hymes, one of Triche’s closest friends, said the 11 games Triche missed with the injury also may have benefited him in the long run.

‘I think he got a lot smarter on the court from his whole sophomore year,’ said Hymes, who plays for Canisius. ‘Being able to sit out and watch the game, learn the game and see it from a different perspective, not being on the court.’

In his junior and senior seasons at Jamesville-DeWitt, Triche became a smarter player. He worked to become a better shooter and a better distributor.

He became the player Syracuse got to know in his first two years.

Triche struggled to adjust at times in his freshman season, averaging less than three assists per game as the starting point guard and playing tentatively. And then he switched to shooting guard for the first time in his life last year, allowing Scoop Jardine to start at the point.

But there were glimpses of a reliable scorer. He burst out with 27 points against Oakland his freshman year, including nine points in a span of less than five minutes. He strung together his first back-to-back 20-point performances down the stretch last year against West Virginia and Louisville.

He has also had duds. Triche scored 22 in a Big East tournament game against St. John’s last year, then rode the bench for much of the second half against Connecticut after making just 2-of-9 shots against the Huskies.

‘I think it’s a confidence thing,’ Triche said. ‘Stepping up and believing in myself. But I’ve been working on that since my freshman year. And the flashes I have worked on just to have the mentality that I am one of the best players on the team, but also I’m one of the best players on the court.’

Part of the volatile scoring numbers can be attributed to Triche’s unselfish play. McNamara said he thinks Triche had a tendency to defer to some of the other players on the team in each of the past two seasons.

And McKenney said Triche still didn’t look fully recovered from his gruesome knee injury. That has led to a missed dunk here or a quick pass where he could have shot there.

‘I don’t think people have even come close to seeing him the way I’ve seen him at times, and I think they’re going to,’ McKenney said.

Triche said his goal in the King of Kings Summer League was to score 100 points every time out. He managed to total 52 in the team’s regular-season finale. The electric playmaking ability at the rim is beginning to return to Triche as his self-confidence and health take better shape.

‘It’s me just having that hunger and showing it more than — showing it with my skills but showing it as an attitude,’ Triche said.

He worked his way toward fitting in his freshman season. He took steps forward into becoming a consistent scorer and playmaker for SU last year. McNamara said he expects to see leaps this year.

So does McKenney. So does Triche, who said he wants to be a player head coach Jim Boeheim can look at confidently with the game on the line.

The skills are there. The health is, too. The confidence is on its way.

‘Being a go-to scorer?’ Triche said. ‘I think just somebody that everybody can depend on. Every moment. It could be being a go-to scorer, but being one of the go-to playmakers I guess is a better way to say it.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on November 9, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr