An emotional Phylesha Bullard sat inside the Carrier Dome Jan. 28, struggling to let go of Syracuse’s loss to Cincinnati that day. The SU guard couldn’t shake the turnover she committed that set the table for the Bearcats’ shocking last-second victory.

That’s when her teammates stepped in, joining her on the couches in the team locker room to give the sophomore a simple message.

‘They just told me, ‘Just keep your head up. We’ll get it next time, and we’re going to need you further more in the season, so just keep your head up,” Bullard said. ‘And this is my time to grow as a player, so I learn from my mistakes, so they just told me to keep my head up.’

Bullard has held her head high since that costly mistake against Cincinnati and developed into one of Syracuse’s top reserves during Big East play. The sophomore has averaged 22.8 minutes per game for the Orange in its last six after reaching the 20-minute mark just once in the previous 20 contests. Bullard has worked her way into SU head coach Quentin Hillsman’s rotation, bringing energy off the bench by making hustle plays and battling on the boards whenever her name is called.

Hillsman and her teammates attribute Bullard’s increased role to her work ethic matched by few on the team. For Hillsman, having a player on the bench who can come in and keep the intensity level high is essential in the competitive Big East conference. And Bullard fits the role perfectly for the head coach this season.

‘She competes every possession, and you know that in this conference you can be one or two possessions away from winning or losing the basketball game,’ Hillsman said. ‘So you can’t take a chance of a player coming and just not going hard every possession.

‘And she plays hard every single possession she’s on the floor.’

Bullard said she didn’t develop that mindset or work ethic until this season.

Last year as a freshman, the Cincinnati native hardly saw the floor. She was an afterthought on the bench, playing the second-fewest minutes on the team at 6.6 per game.

By the end of the season, it hit her that she rarely played. And she knew she needed to do something to get on the court. This year, Bullard showed up with a new positive attitude intent on getting better. She said she has put in extra time working out after practices and taking the advice of the coaching staff to heart.

‘I’m trying to push myself. I need to grow as a player,’ Bullard said. ‘And I’m not going to be content with my playing time or even as a player, my skills.’

And that mentality carries over to her play on the court.

It was on display against Cincinnati when Bullard came off the bench to score eight points and pull down seven rebounds in 21 minutes of action. In a game against a Bearcats team still searching for their first conference win, SU looked sluggish and uninspired.

But Bullard did her best to turn the tide of the game with her play. The 5-foot-11 guard battled down low, slipping in along the baselines to corral loose balls for the Orange. She displayed her soft touch on a jumper from the corner, holding her follow-through for a second with confidence.

So when Iasia Hemingway stood at the podium after the 55-54 loss and the conversation turned to Bullard — who turned the ball over with SU up one with 28 seconds remaining — the senior forward had nothing but praise for her teammate.

‘She played great. She came out and she played with so much energy and so much effort,’ Hemingway said. ‘And she always does the little things.’

Hillsman echoed those sentiments after the tough loss, too. The head coach chalked the mistake up to a learning experience for Bullard and the team in a tough season. He described Bullard as an integral part of his program’s future.

Two weeks later, Bullard is just focused on the present. The mistake is in the past as the guard has moved on, keeping the same mentality as the spark plug off the bench she brought into the season.

‘I always tell myself if I get the opportunity, I always have the mindset of just to play hard,’ Bullard said. ‘That’s always my mindset. Play hard no matter what. If I’m having a bad game or I’m not shooting well, just play hard, just play through it, get all the hustle plays.’

rjgery@syr.edu

 

Published on February 13, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Ryne: rjgery@syr.edu