SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Amarri Monroe sees the ball drop out of CCSU’s hands and starts sprinting. He makes a final play for the ball, diving on the floor to corral it. After a short jostle, Syracuse forces a tie-up with the possession arrow in its favor.
The scoreboard read 92-45 with under four minutes to play.
“What Amarri Monroe did,” head coach Gerry McNamara said. “Is what this program needs to be.”
Monroe played just 17 minutes, but they were the best 17 minutes that he has played in a Syracuse uniform.
He scored eight points, grabbed four rebounds, and dished out three assists on four-for-five shooting as the Orange stomped Central Connecticut State 102-49 on Thursday night.
After Syracuse’s game against UConn in October, McNamara said that Monroe wasn’t quite up to speed in terms of his conditioning. He didn’t join the Syracuse team until August as a five-in-five player, so it took a little bit more time to get back into shape. He’s not all the way there, but Thursday showed signs of what could be coming this season.
“He’s getting close,” McNamara said on Thursday. “He’s getting there. I’ve liked the way he’s looked in practice, but I sure as heck liked the way he looked tonight in the game in terms of physicality.”
Monroe emphasized the difference between being “in shape” and being in “basketball shape” multiple times when speaking postgame. He said that he was feeling a little sick on Thursday, but still could’ve played more than the 17 minutes that he got if called upon.
“I’m slowly getting back into basketball shape,” Monroe said. “But I think my second wind and my wind is there, it’s just getting my legs back under me.”
Over the last few months while building up, Monroe says that he’s been working out multiple times a day, including a lift every single day.
In the first half, Monroe caught the ball ready to move downhill at the top of the key. He dribbled twice, gathered the ball, and finished right through the chest of the CCSU rim protector. About a minute later, he caught the ball on the wing, drove two dribbles on the baseline, and finished through the chest of another CCSU defender.
Having watched Monroe for three years in the MAAC at Quinnipiac, plays like that were what I’d come to expect. McNamara agreed.
“His minutes were physical,” the head coach said. “His minutes were the guy that you and I have watched for a few years. He just looked right.”
The other type of play that we came to expect in the MAAC from Monroe came a minute and a half later. Syracuse forced CCSU into a pick-up at the JMA Wireless logo, and Monroe jumped the pass back towards the center of the floor. He threw down a one-handed fastbreak slam.
Monroe finished top 10 in the MAAC in steal rate each of the last three seasons, ranking second in steals per game each of the last two campaigns. He joked that the dunk at the end of the fastbreak was the first time he’d dunked since his junior year – even though he had 19 dunks last season.
“When I got that steal and a dunk,” he said. “It felt like I was playing basketball at Quinnipiac again. That’s my favorite basketball. I love just bringing energy to the team, but that gets me going. Getting stops and getting out running, definitely gets me going.”
His teammates have noticed his improvement over the last month as well.
“He’s getting more and more comfortable within our system,” Sadiq White said. “Amarri’s a guy who can do it all. He could be a bruiser; he could be a knockdown catch-and-shoot guy. He’s a guy who can rebound and a guy who can also initiate our offense. I love having him on the squad. Just knowing that no matter when I come out, nothing’s going to slack. He’s going to rebound; he’s going to play hard and defend. Offense is going to come for us at the four position, but just go out there and play hard is number one for us.”
But Monroe’s Thursday night performance will be remembered for the dive. The play where he endeared himself to the Syracuse fanbase and showed an example of what the standard is for McNamara’s SU team.
“We talked about being a full 40-minute team,” Monroe said. “The game isn’t over. (It) doesn’t matter how much we’re up. I still want to play with that same intensity.”
