Alan Griffin’s great block, high score figures, happened after an interesting meeting with his coach

Syracuse, NY – Halfway through the second half of the game, Buffalo won Saturday at the Carrier Dome, Jim Boeheim beckoned to Alan Griffin during a timeout.

The SU coach had a clipboard in his hand. It was a conversation, he nodded, and then they both joined the orange squat.

“I was trying to tell him to wake up and play basketball,” Jim Boeheim later said when asked what that meeting was about.

Whatever happened there, whatever the words were, something dramatic happened when the game resumed. Griffin, who had scored four points by then and had been a somewhat invisible presence, suddenly emerged as the best player on the Carrier Dome field.

He made a pass to Marek Dolezaj at the break. He threw in missed shots. He sank a three-point wing shot, which helped SU 75-72. He led the band and scored. He jumped back. He buried free throws.

None of this affects the game he made that sent the game into overtime.

With less than 10 seconds left in the game, Griffin followed Buffalo’s Jayvon Graves, who had a transitional chance to end the game in regulation.

But no.

Griffin ran into the game, got up and somehow hit the ball. Quincy Guerrier came with him and Orange and Buffalo will play five more minutes in overtime. There, Syracuse won 107-96.

Asked to describe his mentality on the block, Griffin described the moment as “winning or going home.”

“I felt it was a play I could make. And I didn’t want to disappoint my teammates, “he said. “It simply came to our notice then. And I just had to come back. They had my back. Nothing but giving back. “

“This is probably the best block I’ve seen here,” Jim Boeheim said. “He made an incredible play and saved the game.”

Buddy Boeheim said he almost knocked the ball over his head. In one amazing moment, Griffin had to reach the game and block the shot, Orange jumped from despair to excitement.

“I said, ‘Dang, he’ll probably score that,'” Buddy Boeheim said. “AG has just come out of nowhere. I’ve never seen a block like this before. It was just crazy. He just flew. He probably had his head on the edge. It was incredible. “

Griffin, however, was not finished.

He scored the first points of overtime on a backhand kick. His work on the offensive glass brought him a comeback to increase the US advantage to 93-88. He led the band and was rewarded with free throws.

Finally, Griffin will contribute 20 points in the second half to help Storm Orange recover from a 16-point deficit. His last stat line: 24 points at 8-of-14, 10 rebounds, three assists, three blocks and two steals in 40 minutes.

“It simply came to our notice then. He’s a great player. He has an extraordinary energy “, said Buddy Boeheim. “He gets up and down on the floor as well as anyone I’ve seen.”

Just one game ago, Jim Boeheim told reporters about Griffin’s lack of energy in the Northeast game. Griffin, the US top scorer at the time, played 24 minutes and did not score against the Huskies.

His coach had noticed more of the same for much of the Buffalo game. He was standing and watching, Jim Boeheim said. He looked nothing like active, aggressive, high-powered SU coaches who went wild during the pre-season.

Then there was a timeout, a clipboard and a conversation.

And everything seemed to change.

“It just reminded me of how good a player I am,” Griffin said. “She was fired. That’s all I can say. He fired me. It was something I knew I could do inside me and he took it out of me. I was in it to do it. We both knew that. And I don’t know what to say, it’s played. “

Donna Ditota is a reporter for Syracuse Post-Standard and Syracuse.com. Do you have a comment or an idea for a story? Get to her [email protected].

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