Another game, another example of why Syracuse is the deepest team in the country.

Kris Joseph, the Orange’s leading scorer for the last two years, went 0-for-6 from the field and didn’t score a single point. Didn’t matter.

Fifth-year point guard Scoop Jardine only scored five points in 20 minutes of playing time. Not a concern.

For SU, it’s just not a big deal when one or two players struggle. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a starter, a reserve, a freshman or a senior that is having an off night. There are at least eight other players ready to pick up the slack, as the Orange once again showed in its 75-49 obliteration of Seton Hall Wednesday night.

Not only did Joseph fail to score against the Pirates, he really didn’t do anything until after halftime. He had one rebound, an assist and three steals that salvaged his first half stat line.

But did anyone really notice?

By halftime, Syracuse had a 19-point lead and Seton Hall looked like just another one of those nonconference cupcakes that was severely outmatched by the No. 1 Orange.

‘It says great things about us,’ Joseph said. ‘We have a great team. Whether I could go scoreless, Scoop could go scoreless and we can still come out on top like this, it’s a great sign. It’s really exciting to see.’

Syracuse came into the game leading the Big East in scoring at 80.7 points per game, but did not have an individual player in the league’s top 20 scorers. That won’t change after Wednesday.

The depth of this team has run 14 straight opponents out of the gym to start this year.

Seton Hall didn’t have a player on their bench who averaged more than 3.9 points or 2.7 rebounds per game. And the Pirates’ reserves made a valiant effort Wednesday in contributing 16 of their measly 49 points.

Meanwhile, SU’s bench scored 40. And that was without James Southerland hitting a 3, with none of the walk-ons scoring in garbage time and with freshman Michael Carter-Williams adding just two points in 11 minutes.

Instead, Dion Waiters turned in his usual big game with 15 points, C.J. Fair made an offensive appearance with nine and Southerland tallied eight.

‘Any given night, any player can give you anything,’ Waiters said. ‘Any player can lead the team in scoring any night.’

It’s to the point where the second team Syracuse puts out could at the very least hang with — if not beat most of the teams — in the country. Scrimmages in practice likely give the Orange players their best competition for weeks at a time.

‘You’d be surprised,’ Southerland said after the win over Tulane. ‘We got a lot of game, too.’

Surprised? Not even a little bit.

The Orange’s second team consists of its second-leading scorer (Waiters), its best 3-point shooter (Southerland), a 6-foot-11 center (Baye Keita), a 6-foot-8 athlete who can handle the ball (Fair) and a 6-foot-5 freshman point guard (Carter-Williams).

There aren’t many teams in the country that boast a starting lineup like that, let alone a bench.

And what may be scarier is that the players know they’re that good.

‘We’ve got 10 or 11 starters on this team,’ Waiters said. ‘That’s what I say. And it shows. Everyone who comes off the bench is going to give you something whether it’s on the defensive or offensive end.’

Against the Pirates Wednesday, the boost came from sophomore center Fab Melo. He matched a career-high with 12 points, set an SU record with 10 blocks and came up three rebounds short of Syracuse’s first triple-double since Allen Griffin did it in 2001.

Just like Waiters said. Anyone can give them anything on any given night.

So Joseph didn’t score. Jardine had five points. That isn’t likely to happen again for the rest of this year.

But on the off chance it does?

Said Waiters: ‘It ain’t gonna matter.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on December 28, 2011 at 12:00 pm