HOUSTON – Tyler Roberson sat three seats down from Jim Boeheim on the dais before the Elite Eight, barely cracking a grin while his head coach joked that Roberson doesn’t listen.

That came just over a month after a scoreless, four-rebound performance against Pittsburgh, when Boeheim said Roberson wouldn’t play a minute if Syracuse had anyone to put in his spot. And after an 18-rebound domination of Dayton in the Round of 64, Boeheim still wanted more from the junior. If Roberson grabbed four rebounds the next game, the 18 wouldn’t matter to the 40-year head coach. Consistency would.

In the following three games of Syracuse’s tear through the Midwest Region, Roberson has grabbed a combined 29 rebounds. Nine against Middle Tennessee State, 12 against Gonzaga and eight more against Virginia. The often reserved, level-headed forward may not have listened directly to Boeheim’s desires, but his ownership on the glass during 10th-seeded Syracuse’s (23-13, 9-9 Atlantic Coast) run to the Final Four has carried SU’s back line heading into a matchup with frontcourt-heavy North Carolina (32-6, 14-4) with a spot in the national championship at stake.

“I think he’s learned to fight through adversity and maintain his consistency better this year,” Boeheim said. “Obviously I’d hope for that last year, sometimes it just takes a little bit longer.”

In the Orange’s last six games before the NCAA Tournament, Roberson tallied four or fewer rebounds in five of them. SU dropped the same number of games in its final six before reaching the Tournament, with his only total higher than that coming against Syracuse’s next opponent.

Roberson’s 11 rebounds against the Tar Heels on Feb. 29 (six offensive and five defensive) allowed SU, in part, to stay afloat before losing by five on the road. In the two teams’ first matchup this year, Roberson grabbed seven rebounds the game after totaling only four against Clemson the game prior.

Down the stretch of Syracuse’s season, Roberson has held his own against two frontcourt-dominant teams and top rebounders in Gonzaga’s Domantas Sabonis and UVA’s Anthony Gill. Next up is a team anchored by Brice Johnson, Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks down low, and a frontcourt that UNC has predicated its success on.

“I think I’ve been playing well lately,” Roberson said. “I wouldn’t say there’s one reason in particular, maybe I’m just growing as a player and a person.”

Even if there isn’t something to pin his recent success on, Roberson’s resurgence on the glass couldn’t have come at a better time for a Syracuse team that seemed to have resurrected its inferior rebounding from early in the season.

But with a margin on the glass of plus-20 in the last four games, including a net deficit of only two rebounds in the last two games against a pair of teams that came in with a seemingly clear advantage on the boards, SU has given itself a chance.

It’s a chance provided in part by a player who may not have gotten another one if Syracuse had more depth. But Roberson did, and has given Boeheim what he wanted with Syracuse on the brink of history.

Published on April 1, 2016 at 4:44 pm

Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman