Marek Dolezaj's mission: "I'm going into the game to win"

Syracuse, N.Y. – He lifted the left leg of his pants to show the damage.

There, on the knotty knee of Marek Dolezaj, a bruise the size of a child's hand had turned into yellow-green. Elsewhere, purple marks, cut at a quarter, covered his knee and shin. A narrow cut had almost healed.

These are a selection of Dolezaj's battle scars, footprints he wears games like that of Wednesday, when he threw his 6-foot-10-frame and 180-pound frame on the Carrier Dome's floor to get rid of of lost balls and create the kind of basketball chaos needs of the team.

"Oh, a lot," he answered the question of how many ground burns, bruises or other scratches and cuts inflicted the games and the practices inflicted.

For information, Dolezaj scored six points, collected nine rebounds, a high in the season, and scored a decisive pass in the Syracuse assassination, 69-49, of Louisville's number 18 in the Carrier Dome. But like most games, the value of the second year could not be measured in the concrete details.

American League coach Jim Boeheim summarized:

"He plays games. He's implicated. Defensively, he was good. He puts his hand on balls, he makes passes that sometimes lead to other passes for buckets. He was very good there. I do not think statistics tell the story of what he's doing there. He had nine rebounds, which is very good. But he is a very smart player. "

The Syracuse players said on Wednesday that their week-long break between games helped them refocus and re-energize for the stretch stretch of the season, as the Orange face a row of ranked teams. Dolezaj also appreciated the four days of concentrated practice. He explained how much the Orange had "mistreated", how "they had run a lot", how these sessions erased the image of the defeat suffered last week in the state of North Carolina and redirected the Orange against Louisville.

He played 23 minutes on Wednesday and entered the center game when Paschal Chukwu got in trouble. Dolezaj is never afraid to express his aversion to the defense of the center, where are hiding larger and stronger bodies and where he is constantly hit and hit.

But he likes to play. And he is willing, he says, to do almost anything that could contribute to the cause of Syracuse.

"I just entered the game to get the win. To help my team win. It's the most important, "he said. "If I score two points and eight rebounds, I'm happy with that. I just want to help my team win. "

He found Elijah Hughes with a perfect pass and Hughes responded by scoring a 3-point shot to give Syracuse a 50-33 cushion. He regularly catches the ball and searches inside the teammates who could break free. On Wednesday, he found Oshae Brissett when Louisville replaced him with a 6-2 guard. His nine rebounds were huge the day the Orange had more missed shots (39-36) than the Cardinals.

Dolezaj only managed three shots in the match. At one point, he drove the ball and tried to pass it instead of heading towards the edge. This shot a "Shoot the ball!" From the bench.

But what he did best is what he does best: he fights.

And because he's fighting, he gets loved by fans of Syracuse. In this northeastern city of blue-collar, fans appreciate the crush, the injured hardscrabble. When Dolezaj comes in or out of a Dome game, complimentary applause accompany it.

"You know, I'm trying to recover the lost bullets, the 50-50 bullets," he said. "I think we did a very good job today to get the 50-50 balls. We jump on the balls and that's the main point. We have to fight every second on the ground. "

On Wednesday night, he joked about the bruises and marks that surfaced after jumping on those loose balls. As his English improves, he often sneaks into short and fun sentences to ask questions.

His importance to his team does not need translation.

"When he is able to dive on the ground like that, lose balls and give us extra goods, it helps us," said Brissett. "It attracts the crowd and it really relieves us. I'm just glad he's a member of our team who can do it for us. "

"He's just playing hard and it's contagious, it's moving us forward," said Tyus Battle, "and he really got us started tonight on defense, that's what he does every night.

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