NEW YORK — In Syracuse’s first competitive win of the season, SU head coach Jim Boeheim went with a seven-man rotation — and barely used man No. 7.

Sophomore forward B.J. Johnson didn’t leave the bench and guard Ron Patterson logged just three minutes on the Madison Square Garden hardwood in No. 23 SU’s (3-1) 66-63 win over Iowa (2-2) on Friday night. The rest of the playing time belonged to the starting five and forward Michael Gbinije.

Sophomore forward Tyler Roberson, who’s started all four of the Orange’s games, played 17 minutes and didn’t play much down the stretch. Senior Rakeem Christmas re-entered the game at the 5:07 mark with four fouls and avoided a fifth.

Christmas joined Gbinije and fellow starters Chris McCullough, Trevor Cooney, and Kaleb Joseph on the floor in the Orange’s first crunch-time minutes of the year. SU’s lead, which was as wide as 15 points, was reduced to as few as one point, but it was never surrendered.

When asked if Johnson, who was wearing sweatpants while all of his active teammates wore shorts, was available Friday night, Boeheim said, “as far as I know.”

In the Orange’s blowout win over Kennesaw State last Friday, Boeheim played 10 of his players and he used nine in SU’s 18-point victory over Hampton on Sunday.

The rotation dwindled to eight against California on Thursday night, but after Johnson’s 0-for-8 shooting performance in the loss, Boeheim tightened his rotation to seven.

“Coach’s decision,” Johnson said of his minutes on Friday. “(He’s) just going with the flow.”

Published on November 21, 2014 at 10:45 pm

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb