Just how good is Hakim Warrick...

Warrick is 6' 8" can jump out of the gym, hit from the perimeter, and can turn a game around with one electric play - plus he has a really cool sounding name.

Will his game allow a smooth transition to the NBA or is he just another Darius Miles?
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As a junior, contributed 19.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1,1 blocks per game. Played at least 40 minutes seven of the last eight games and played without a rest 14 times. Named to the All-Big East Third Team. A third-team All-American and first-team All-Big East selection and a finalist for the Naismith, Wooden and Rupp Player of the Year awards.
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2003 Tourney
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Warrick fuels Orange with high-flying act

-- One dunk.

That's all it takes for Hakim Warrick to change a game, a mood, and at times an entire season for Syracuse.

It's not often that a dunk can do all of that, but no one in the country can alter the attitude of a game and 33,000 people more than Warrick.

His latest signature slam came along the baseline. He came up with a steal, and then finished the play with a one-handed baseline jam. The play cut Notre Dame's lead to five points at 50-45.

And wouldn't you know it that after Chris Thomas couldn't make a free throw, Syracuse's Gerry McNamara buried a 3-pointer to cut the lead to two.

The Irish unraveled from there with a five-second call, and a technical foul on coach Mike Brey.

McNamara and Warrick made free throws and Syracuse eventually pulled away for a 60-57 victory.

Can we really credit a dunk?

"As soon as he gets one of those dunks, it changes everything," said Syracuse assistant coach Mike Hopkins. "Did you see what it did to the crowd? We were dead. We had no energy. We were lethargic. As soon as he gets one of those dunks, it changes everything."

And don't think for a minute that Warrick doesn't think about the effect of his dunks. Warrick's reach to the rim, which has to be the longest in the country from the block to the sideline, is akin to the old Stretch Armstrong.

Remember that famed toy? He stretched and stretched his arms out, reaching heights not normally attainable by a doll and certainly no human being.

"I wanted to make a big play," Warrick said. "I attacked the rim and got my teammates into it. When I make plays like that I can get the crowd going. I definitely wanted to make a spectacular play."

"He's ridiculous," McNamara said of Warrick's athleticism from the 3-point line to the backboard. "Nothing he does surprises me. He's the most athletic player I've ever seen. Thank God I've never gotten caught under him at practice."

Warrick isn't about dunking, although he knows that his dunks count for more than just a bucket. Warrick finished with 20 points, making 7 of 12 shots, 5 of 7 in the second half.

Warrick started to get the ball closer to the basket after earlier in the game when he was getting it too far from the basket. When that was happening, the Orange were wilting and listless and down 11 at one point before an 11-0 run by the Orange tied the game at 50-50.

Notre Dame's Torin Francis said the Orange did a decent job of keeping Warrick away from the basket and not allowing him to get position.

"We were giving him the ball 17 or 18 feet from the basket, standing around and watching him dribble around," McNamara said. "If we got him to touch the ball around the block it could be a different story."

The Orange don't hesitate for their pick for national player of the year. Warrick is their choice with his 20 points and eight rebounds a game.

But for Warrick to be this dominant a player, regardless of the dunks, he needs to get the ball in the right spot.

"Every timeout [in the second half], coach [Jim Boeheim] was saying that Hakim is the best player and to go to him," Hopkins said. "He said every time in the halfcourt 'we've got to get the ball to Hakim.' After the game, coach continued to say that we have to get the ball to Hakim every time. If we do that then it will open up our shooters."

That's what happened later in the game when McNamara buried the 3-pointer to cut the lead to two. The Orange has the inside-out combo to make a run for the national title.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves, much like the Orange did earlier Saturday at the Carrier Dome. Syracuse plays Connecticut on Monday. The Orange then go to Villanova, host Pittsburgh and then face a potential Big East conference title showdown against Boston College on Feb. 19.

What would have happened if the Orange didn't come back from 11 down with six minutes left in the game?

"It would have been crushing," Warrick said. "It would have been the most disappointing game of my career. You can't lose a game like this."

They didn't, in large part, because of Warrick's dunk. When he has one, there are usually more that follow and when they do, the game changes for the Orange.

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Probably, but if you've got the talent eventually after playing several years in the NBA you'll gel ~ in comparing the two I’m really only looking at the style of play not college background.

 

I think whoever gets Hakim is going to be very lucky ~ how he does in the tourney will be the real test.
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Last summer, Warrick hit the weight room and added 10 pounds of muscle to his lithe frame, boosting his weight to around 220. Despite fighting double and triple teams this year, he is averaging 21.1 points and 8.3 rebounds per game for the 13th-ranked Orange (24-5).
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Warrick a model of consistency

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) -- Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim takes pride in finding diamonds in the rough. At a camp in Indianapolis, it took Hakim Warrick exactly one play to get Boeheim thinking he hit the mother lode.

Naturally, it was a dunk.

"I was sitting two courts away at a workout," Boeheim said. "Usually, you don't even go to workouts, you go to games. I looked over and saw this skinny kid just going up way over the basket and dunking, and I said, 'I've got to find out who that is.' I just saw that one play, and he was explosive. I liked him from the beginning."

"He saw something in me," said Warrick, who grew up in Philadelphia and averaged 15.6 points, 13 rebounds and 4.8 blocks to lead Friends Central High School to a league title his senior year. "I'm glad he saw whatever he saw."

Syracuse had only one scholarship to offer and Boeheim was in a bind. The Orange had been trying for three years to land Julius Hodge of New York City. When Hodge committed to North Carolina State, Syracuse had its man, beating out Big East foe Providence _ with a little help from Warrick's mother.

"She loved the atmosphere here. She definitely wanted me to wear orange," Warrick said. "It was kind of tough waiting. I didn't want to miss a scholarship at another school. My mom told me to go out there and be patient."

"In the end, we got the right player," Boeheim said. "Sometimes in recruiting things work out for everybody, and it's certainly worked out for us and Hakim."

Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli tried to recruit Warrick but said there wasn't any reciprocal interest.

"We were very aware of him," Martelli said.

As a raw freshman forward, Warrick started 19 games and averaged 6.1 points and 4.8 rebounds. He blossomed as a sophomore and was named the Big East's most improved player after more than doubling his scoring average (14.8), increasing his rebound average to 8.5 per game, and throwing down 80 dunks.

With his 7-foot arm span, the 6-foot-8 Warrick also posted 44 blocks that season, the last one placing his name in NCAA tournament lore. He swatted away Michael Lee's last-second 3-point attempt to preserve Syracuse's 81-78 triumph over Kansas for the 2003 national championship.

Just the thought of that makes Martelli ponder what might have happened last spring if he had Warrick teaming with backcourt stars Jameer Nelson and Delonte West. Only one rung from the Final Four, the Hawks lost to Oklahoma State, 64-62, in a regional final.

"We would have won the national championship," Martelli said. "God bless the guys we used, but that was the position we were short. He came through our gym and worked out a couple summers ago, and I could just see he had a tremendous work ethic. And his upside, the room for improvement, was startling to me."

Last year, Warrick contributed 19.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.1 blocks per game and was a third-team All-American and first-team All-Big East selection in leading the Orange into the round of 16 of the NCAA tournament. He had emerged from Carmelo Anthony's considerable shadow and was a solid star, and that placed him at a crossroads -- stay in school for his senior season or enter the NBA draft.

Anthony turned pro after leading Syracuse to the national title as a freshman, and Warrick had to fight the considerable temptation to follow his good friend.

"It was a tough decision, and right up to the day we had to decide it was 50-50," said Warrick, now fifth all-time at Syracuse with 1,958 points. "I really wasn't leaning any way, but when it came to that day I just felt that coming back would be the best decision."

Last summer, Warrick hit the weight room and added 10 pounds of muscle to his lithe frame, boosting his weight to around 220. Despite fighting double and triple teams this year, he is averaging 21.1 points and 8.3 rebounds per game for the 13th-ranked Orange (24-5).

Warrick does most of his damage ducking and darting between bodies in the paint but also has developed a solid mid-range jumper and in practice has been working hard on his perimeter shot.

And he has been a model of consistency. As a junior, Warrick scored at least 18 points in 22 of 31 games. This season he has a dozen double-doubles and has at least 18 points in 22 of 29 games. In the last five, he has set personal highs three times, scoring 32 at Villanova, 35 against St. John's, and 36 -- including seven resounding dunks -- in a win over Providence last Saturday in the final home game of his college career.

"When he decides he's going to score, he scores and there's nothing you can do about it," junior guard Gerry McNamara said. "If he decides it's his game, you pretty much can't do anything. After we lost the last game (to fifth-ranked Boston College on Feb. 19), he took it harder than anyone, and that's a great sign. He proved his point."

Small wonder that Warrick's a finalist for a second straight year for the Naismith, Wooden, and Rupp awards honoring the nation's best players.

"I couldn't ask for a better ending to my career," said Warrick, projected to be a lottery pick in the upcoming draft. "We've had a really good season. We lost a couple of close games, but I still think we can go out there and play with anybody in the nation.

"Four years ago, if you had asked me if I ever dreamed of doing the things I've accomplished here, I probably would have thought it wasn't possible. This is just great. Hopefully, we've got a couple more games ahead and we'll be cutting down the nets again."

"He's a nice story," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. "He came back."

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I think Warrick will be top ten for sure - maybe higher depending on his performance in the tourney.