40 Minutes Of Hell: Syracuse Players Logging Some Serious Minutes

The Syracuse Orange had two players go for 40 minutes in their 63-47 win over Notre Dame on Monday night. One of them, C.J. Fair, has played every minute of the last four games, 235 consecutive minutes. The other, Jerami Grant, is a freshman suddenly in a position where he's going to be expected to log 30-40 minutes a night.

Is this all something we need to be concerned about? Jim Boeheim certainly doesn't think so.

"Well, we have no one else. What am I going to do? It’s not a hard decision. It’s not a decision. I’ve said it many times. Maybe in a really up-tempo game you’re going to get tired. You get a two-minute rest every four minutes in college basketball. You should be able to play 40 minutes – easily. We’ve played 40 minutes with no timeouts. We averaged 99 points per game and Dave Bing never came out of the game unless the game was over. You should be able to play that many minutes."

Playing 40 minutes is one of those things we've all decided as being this grueling, unattainable pace that no mortal can keep up, but, you know...Jim is right. It's not THAT big a deal for finely-tuned, well-trained athletes in peak condition.

We know C.J. isn't going to complain about it but what about Grant? Can the frosh keep up the pace if needed?

"It’s definitely a transition I had to get used to. Playing 40 minutes for two games straight is definitely tiring but I feel like Ryan [Cabiles, SU strength and conditioning coach] does a great job in practice making me run and keep my conditioning up so I felt good out there."

Good man.