Andy Rautins living his dream at Syracuse

KEVIN RIVOLI The Associated Press

Andy Rautins grew up wanting to play for Syracuse. “Since Day 1, I wanted to be an Orange man,” he said.

Shortly after Syracuse University lost the 1996 NCAA championship game to Kentucky, Leo Rautins was on the phone from Toronto, talking with his 9-year-old son back home in Jamesville.

“Andy was in tears. I was on for an hour, trying to console him,” Leo Rautins remembers. “I kind of left him with this: ‘You know what Syracuse is waiting for? For you.

“‘You can’t do anything about this game, but you can do something about the future.’”

Leo Rautins paused.

“Syracuse,” he said, “is the only place Andy ever wanted to be.”

It has been a storybook senior season so far for Andy, whose 3-point shooting, blossoming all-around game and leadership have helped SU to a 21-1 start and the No. 3 national ranking.

So every time he drills a clutch 3-pointer, turns to the Carrier Dome and yells “Let’s go!” to pump up himself, his teammates and SU fans, remember this: Andy Rautins realizes how lucky he is and he feels fortunate to share his fairy tale with so many.

“This is definitely how I wanted it to be — to come out my senior year and be a leader. Everyone is really responding. These guys are great,” says Rautins, who is second on the team in scoring (10.4 points per game), leads the team in assists (5.2) and leads the Big East in steals (2.3).

“This is always what I wanted to do. Growing up around Syracuse and Manley Field House, watching highlight tapes of my dad. Since Day 1, I wanted to be an Orange man. It has been my dream.”

Andy never worried about being known as “Leo Rautins’ kid,” the son of the former SU forward and Canadian national team star, a 6-foot-7 guard/forward and 17th overall pick in the 1983 NBA Draft. He listened to his father caution him in high school about going to SU, about the pressure and endless comparisons.

“A lot of kids grew up worshipping Michael Jordan,” Andy says. “I wanted to become the player my dad was. People that doubted me just made me work harder.”

Getting his chance

Providence, coached then by former SU assistant Tim Welsh, was really the only other major college that showed much interest when Andy was a slender 6-foot-4, 175-pound guard/forward coming out of Jamesville-DeWitt High. “If I thought he was just a shooter, I never would have recruited him,” SU coach Jim Boeheim says.

Rautins played sparingly as a freshman. People tend to forget he started 20 times as a sophomore. The turning point in his career came the following summer, when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee while playing for the Canadian National team.

“It was a blessing in disguise,” Andy says. “Everything happens for a reason. I firmly believe that. It let me get my body to where it needs to be, especially in the Big East.”

Rautins came back last season with about 20 pounds more muscle and with a new dedication to his body, from weight training to nutrition.

“Before the injury, if it didn’t have golden arches he didn’t eat it,” Leo says. “It’s totally different now.”

Andy also said he learned a lot from the bench, just listening to what the SU coaching staff wanted.

Watching. Listening. Applying. That’s something he grew up doing.

Show stopper

A Toronto native in his 14th year as an NBA analyst for the Raptors, Leo splits time there and at the family’s home in Jamesville. When Andy was a boy, he’d tell people Andy’s middle initial — J, as in Jay — stood for “jumper.”

The kid seemed to love the introduction.

One time at a clinic Leo worked in the Thousand Islands, he let Andy, then about 4 years old, shoot free throws on an eight-foot hoop in front of a packed gymnasium. Andy went 5-for-5. All swishes.

“Two dribbles. Deep breath. Blow it out and shoot,” Leo recalls of his son’s pre-shot routine. “Just like I had told them in the lecture.”

The gym erupted.

Around the same time, Andy was in the locker room before a Canadian team exhibition game in Erie, Pa. Leo told Andy he could come out on the floor before the game, but to stay by the bench.

“I hear the crowd go nuts. I look behind me in our layup line and there was Andy waiting for the ball,” Leo remembers. “I swear he thought he was part of the team.”

When other kids were watching cartoons, Andy watched “Red (Auerbach) on Roundball,” Leo says.

“And it was for eight hours a day,” he adds.

Being a leader

Andy shares his passing ability with his father, who was a 6-7 point forward. He’s a better shooter and they each play at one speed: Full tilt. “That’s something I learned when I was young: Play hard all the time. Play every game like it’s your last,” Andy says.

His teammates say his attitude is infectious. If the Orange kept practice statistics on high-fives or pats on the back, Rautins would be the leader.

“When I come to practice every day, Andy’s a guy I look to for motivation because he works hard and that inspires me to work hard,” sophomore guard Scoop Jardine says. “I know he’s been through a lot here.”

Rautins says the chemistry among this year’s squad is special.

“Everyone’s really positive, keeping each other up. It’s all about camaraderie,” he says. “We had a great team last year with great talent, but we had a lot of individuals. We genuinely care about each other.”

The unselfish way SU, which leads the country in assists per game, has played and tough defense it has shown most of this season has impressed Leo Rautins the most.

“I’m looking at a team that’s captivated a lot of people because of that and I’m thrilled that the younger guys are seeing this is the way you do it,” Leo says. “It’s not about stats. It’s about winning.”

Andy admits he’s not alone, either. Center Arinze Onuaku, a fifth-year senior like Andy, and junior forward and top scorer Wesley Johnson also lead.

“Arinze’s the quiet, preacher man and Wes gets it done, too,” Andy says. “He does it with his play.”

Family forever

Leo turns 50 next month. Andy is 23. They admit they have a special bond because of basketball, which has taken them all over the world because Leo coaches Canada.

But it goes beyond them.

“We’re a very open family. We talk about everything,” says Leo, a father of four sons, age 24 to 10. “Some things that other people consider taboo or won’t discuss with parents, we’re not like that.”

Leo used to say he’d never get a tattoo, but two years ago when Andy suggested they, Andy’s mother, Jamie, and brother, Jay, 19, and a close family friend all get tattoos, they all did. Look at it from one side and it reads, “Family.” From the other, it’s “Forever.”

ESPN analyst Jay Bilas isn’t family, but he’s a good friend of Leo’s. The former Duke University forward, who was the first player from California Boeheim ever recruited, played in Italy for a while with Leo.

“Andy’s developed into a complete player. He’s the best defender on that team, one of the best in the league,” Bilas says. “He’s very smart. He understands the game.”

Andy says his knack for reading an opponent’s eyes to anticipate a pass helps him.

“He’s got a special ability,” Bilas says. “You can tell a guy all you want, ‘Watch a guy’s eyes.’ But they might not be able to read it. It’s not like the way to guard in that zone is some secret Boeheim only tells the Rautins family. He tells them all, but that kid (Andy) can do it.”

Bilas thinks Andy could play in the NBA and Boeheim says scouts tell him they like Rautins’ potential. For now, though, Andy and Leo are relishing this season — the one for which Andy has waited his whole life. A role player much of his career, now he’s go-to player.

“I think he has a deeper appreciation for it because of what he’s been through,” Leo says.

For all of the players Boeheim has developed over 34 years, Andy Rautins might be the poster boy for patience, hard work and timing.

“You have to work and hang in there and good things can happen,” Boeheim says. “That’s why we’re always better than people think, because we have guys getting ready to play.”

JDIVERON@DemocratandChronicle.com

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