Sitting in the corner of his office in Manley Field House is the Big East co-Coach of the Year Award-winner Quentin Hillsman won last year. Its purpose, now, seems only to offer a glimpse at how time has flown.

It’s not ironic that Hillsman shared the award with Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma, as two men who attract attention — and, at times, scorn — from the sideline. It is ironic that they can hardly stand to share the same court.

If Auriemma’s miffed by the way Hillsman has built his program, he’s made few efforts to hide it. If Hillsman’s no dummy to on-court bullying, he’s made it clear he got the message.
Either way, last Saturday’s matchup between the Syracuse women’s basketball team and No. 1 UConn was ugly all around.

• There was the pregame talk, with SU players defiantly — or disrespectfully, depending on which side you’re on — talking down the Huskies.

• There was some chippy play, with technical fouls given to two SU players, and physical play all afternoon.

• There was Auriemma’s decision to leave in starter Maya Moore, despite a 40-point lead with less than seven minutes to go in the game. ‘He was sending a message,’ Hillsman told WJPZ radio.

• There were Auriemma’s post-game comments, questioning Syracuse’s game plan, criticizing the players’ demeanor and questioning Hillsman’s way of doing things. ‘I don’t think he made many friends in Connecticut,’ Auriemma said.

It was playground riffraff on both ends, and it was capped by The Trip Heard ‘Round the World by SU’s Nicole Michael, which can only be described as a frustrated competitor letting emotions get the best of her. She won’t be punished by the conference or the team.

On Wednesday, Hillsman joked her recent exposure on various ESPN programs can only help her modeling career. It can’t help Hillsman’s attempts to run a model program.

It seems the honeymoon has run its course for the Orange, which rode into March last year as media darlings and now had to answer questions about respect and sportsmanship after a 50-point loss. That Auriemma instigated a reaction isn’t a focal point; the big issue is where down the line Hillsman set him off.

Do Hillsman’s sideline grimacing and jumping antics really irk a coach with five national titles? Does he see Hillsman as a threat to his pick-and-play recruiting pull? Or is Auriemma just trying to underscore his position as king of the conference roost, belittling a competitor still in his first contract as a head coach?

Auriemma’s no rookie, in coaching or controversy. In the last few years, he was accused of a recruiting offense by Tennessee head coach Pat Summitt, confronted after a game by Rutgers player Cappie Pondexter. He has berated ESPN for its coverage of his team, and said about a rivalry with the Scarlet Knights, ‘How can you have a rivalry when one team always wins?’

He’s top dog and he knows it, so when he says he’s going to win championships, it usually happens. Hillsman’s bravado comes without the backup. It’s never stopped him for reiterating his belief in his team.

‘If people are going to have a problem with us saying we’re going to win every basketball game, then they’re going to have a problem with me for here on,’ Hillsman said on Wednesday.
‘Because I’m never going to go out to any game and say we’re not supposed to win.’

In three years as a head coach, Hillsman’s been a B-12 shot to the Syracuse soul — high on energy, high on demand — striking mentality first, physicality second. Since the day he stepped in, he’s talked of grandeur and greatness, but there was always a message in his mantra.

‘I think people get nervous because I talk about winning every game, winning national championships, but I really believe that if we don’t speak it, how are you going to achieve it?’ he said in an interview in October.

It’s become an edict of his pure intentions — when Coach Q speaks, it’s not exaggeration — and the players have stood behind his no-prisoners personality.

Obviously, Auriemma doesn’t like rivals. Obviously, Hillsman doesn’t like bullies. As a boy growing up outside Washington, D.C., Hillsman would head to a local boxing gym — Oakcrest Boxing Center — every day after school. He fought till he was 13, in the same gym as Sugar Ray Leonard, until basketball came to take over his life.

Fighting and standing up for oneself, however, has never strayed far from his thoughts.

‘It’s like the fighter that gets knocked out and loses his next three fights,’ Hillsman said, when asked if Saturday’s loss could snowball. ‘Hopefully we can do enough in practice to get us going again.’

Hillsman’s next challenge is to keep his players from embracing that combative spirit too closely. The perceptional difference between a team that fights and a team that brawls is wide and crucial.

But the story behind the story behind The Trip can be linked back to two coaches ready to stand toe-to-toe for Big East supremacy. We’ll see how many awards they share from here on out.

Zach Schonbrun is the sports columnist for The Daily Orange, where his columns appear every Wednesday. He can be reached at zsschonb@syr.edu.

Published on January 21, 2009 at 12:00 pm