SYRACUSE - Jim Boeheim doesn't have five freshmen in his starting lineup, and at this stage of his Hall of Fame career that's a good thing.

After Syracuse (5-2) beat Tulane 73-60 on Saturday night, Boeheim again was quick to remind the Orange faithful that he's in charge of a work in progress.

“We are going to make mistakes all year,” Boeheim said, glancing down at a box score that showed Tulane scored 19 points off 14 Syracuse turnovers. “People think I'm really smart, but I can't fix things that young players do in a day, a week, or two months.

“Good teams have veteran guys that help them get through that,” Boeheim said. “We do not have that, so these guys are in their first year of having to play in games. Except for (junior guard) Eric (Devendorf), everybody else is in their first time of being in there and having to make plays.”

Boeheim knew his youngsters would test his mettle, and the Orange's first exhibition game gave a clear indication. He played four of his five freshmen against Division II Saint Rose, and they combined for 36 points, 12 assists, and eight turnovers. In all, Syracuse committed 21 turnovers and had to rally from behind in the final six minutes for an 80-71 victory.

In the season opener against Siena, the Saints had 14 steals, scored 26 points off Syracuse's 23 turnovers, and committed only nine giveaways. The Orange escaped with a 97-89 victory by shooting 58.6 percent, going 11-for-21 on 3-pointers.

“It's hard for young players to know when it is their turn or when we should get it inside,” Boeheim said. “We are still making mistakes on both ends of the court. I don't have the patience for it and some of the mistakes we shouldn't be making, but others we are just going to have to learn to live with as we go throughout the year. You can't fix everything.”

Freshmen Donte Greene and Jonny Flynn have started every game and excelled. Greene leads the team with 17 blocks and was averaging 20 points before an off-night against Tulane (1-for-12 from the field, including 0-for-7 on 3-pointers). Flynn, who established a school record with 28 points in his college debut and hit the winning shot in the Orange's second game, is averaging 13 points and has a solid assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.3 (43 assists, 18 turnovers).

In the middle is center Arinze Onuaku, a junior with the experience of a freshman. He obtained a medical redshirt last fall after preseason knee surgery and as a freshman in 2005-06, though he played in 29 of the Orange's 35 games, logged a cumulative total of just 72 minutes in 17 of those contests. So far this season, Onuaku is averaging 13.7 points and 7.9 rebounds in 32.4 minutes and in the first six games committed just five turnovers. Against the Green Wave, he had 14 points and a career-high 16 rebounds but committed three turnovers.

The Orange's two defeats have been eye-openers. They were outrebounded 47-33 (24-10 on the offensive glass) in a 79-65 loss to Ohio State in the semifinals of the NIT Season Tip-off at Madison Square Garden, and on Wednesday night the Orange hit 56.3 percent of their shots and still lost 107-100 to Massachusetts. The Minutemen had 27 points off Syracuse's 15 turnovers in setting a Carrier Dome record for points scored by an opponent.

As for all the talk about youth, sophomore forward Paul Harris is tired of it already.

“I don't want to hear that we're a young team anymore,” said Harris, who is averaging 12.6 points and 10.4 rebounds and leads the team with 14 steals and 26 turnovers. “These guys are doing things that people in four or five years never do. Jonny Flynn's making buzzer-beaters. Donte Greene's averaging 20 points. Some people don't even do that in their whole career and these guys are doing it already. I don't really consider us that young.”

On TV

• Syracuse at Virginia, Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., ESPN2