Save for those few fleeting minutes every game, Michael Gbinije and Trevor Cooney are always there.

Individually they’re good, even very good. But together they’re great. Game-changing. So in tune with what each other, and Syracuse is doing that they’ve begun to transcend how much two players can mean to one basketball team.

There are a lot of ways to try and explain Syracuse’s (16-8, 6-5 Atlantic Coast) 6-1 record since starting 0-4 in conference play. Some are, in no particular order, Jim Boeheim’s return from suspension, the much-improved play of the 2-3 zone, the meteoric maturation of Malachi Richardson and the Orange striking an effective balance in an offense that was once ineffectively one-dimensional.

But aside from the Boeheim renaissance, all of the perceived strengths fueling SU’s current run are rooted in Gbinije and Cooney’s collective play. Their athleticism, understanding and ability to assess all angles of the zone are the backbone of Syracuse’s defense. The attention they draw from opposing defenses has given Richardson the space to grow and thrive at the same time. The offense runs through their hands on every possession and is only as balanced and successful as they are.

If the Orange is going to parlay its last seven games into any postseason success, it will be because of the two fifth-year guards that make up the ACC’s most important backcourt. Miami’s backcourt of Angel Rodriguez and Sheldon McClellan can challenge their experience and skill. Louisville’s backcourt of Trey Lewis and Damion Lee is probably the conference’s most talented pair. Yet it’s hard to ignore what Gbinije and Cooney mean to this surging Syracuse team.

In a word: Everything.

“We’ve been through almost every game of basketball you can possibly play,” Cooney said after SU beat Virginia Tech in overtime on Tuesday. “… When you have experienced guys down the stretch, making shots like he did, making plays like mine, it definitely helps.”

On Jan. 28, Syracuse beat then-No. 25 Notre Dame 81-66 behind 22 points from Cooney and 15 points and five assists for Gbinije. The pair also helped force Steve Vasturia, Notre Dame’s primary ball-handler, commit an uncharacteristic four turnovers. Rex Pflueger, who filled in for then-injured point guard Demetrius Jackson, scored two points and didn’t make a shot.

“When you have fifth-year senior guards that are men, they really control things,” UND head coach Mike Brey said after the game. “Those two guys are really good.”

Fast forward two days and Georgia Tech was getting the same treatment. Gbinije finished with a game-high 16 points while Cooney shot 3-for-12 from the field to finish with seven. But they dominated the game from the defensive end, making Jim Boeheim confident in extending the zone in crunch time because they were simply smothering Adam Smith (the conference’s leader in 3s made) and Marcus Georges-Hunt.

After the game, Boeheim said “it was as good a defensive effort at the end there as I’ve ever seen.”

“They are men. You just look at them, they are men. And they play like it too. They never get rattled, they know exactly what they’re supposed to do every possession offensively and defensively,” Georgia Tech head coach Brian Gregory said two days after the game.

“… those guys set the tone defensively with their activity at the top, and that can’t be understated. And then offensively, all three of the other guys kind of play off of those two.”

One day later, Gbinije hit a 30-foot 3-pointer to extend the game against Virginia Tech and then he and Cooney scored the first five points of overtime to permanently put the Hokies out of reach.

The effect the pair has on games can quantified by statistics and qualified by Syracuse’s month of results. Gbinije, in his first season as a full-time point guard, has scored in double-figures in all 24 of the Orange’s contests. He plays 38 minutes per game and Cooney plays 37.3 to rank ninth and 20th in the country, respectively, in Kenpom.com’s minutes percentage. Gbinije ranks first in the ACC with 2.3 steals per game and Cooney ranks second with 1.7.

Then there are the intangible effects that are hard to measure but easy to see. The way Gbinije and Cooney subtly slap hands before almost every defensive possession as if to say, “No one is penetrating this zone.” The way they organize the offense late in games. The way they’ve taken a middling team with low postseason prospects, gathered the pieces and pushed Syracuse over the line that separates contenders from the squads no one gives a damn about.

Between the two of them, this run is 10 college basketball years in the making. And it’s certainly showing.

“When you have that experience that you can’t find it anywhere else,” SU freshman guard Frank Howard said. “That’s not something you can’t recruit, that’s not something you can go out and get, it’s something that has to work out. And it’s working out.”

Published on February 7, 2016 at 11:31 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse