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Jonathan Mitchell had pretended he didn't hear the booing. Mike Rosario had sworn he didn't. Freshman Dane Miller had admitted the catcalls at his coach hurt and then changed the subject and Ndiaye, with a turned ankle too big to slide into his boot, could've done exactly the same.

But after logging 108 games as a Scarlet Knight, after yet another demoralizing, oh-so-close loss -- this one an 81-65 setback to No. 5 Syracuse -- Ndiaye wasn't taking any easy route. He looked straight at the television camera, he smiled at the four people arced around him and the senior from Senegal said there's no shying away from the truth.

"We're going through some crisis right now," he said. "There's a lot of words going around about us, the coaches, the team. It's hard on the team but at the same time we have to learn how to deal with it. No matter what people say outside, it's not about that right now. It's about us coming out and giving it our best."

For a while there Wednesday night, the Scarlet Knights really seemed to be. It's been a brutal week, from supposed cornerstone forward Gregory Echenique requesting a release from his scholarship to former forward JR Inman's ranting diatribe against coach Fred Hill on Facebook. The calls for Hill's dismissal have turned into a chorus, chatter has made a Rosario departure seem like a fait accompli and then came the introductions at Rutgers Athletic Center, when the boos rained down on Hill.

And yet, after falling into the usual ugly halftime hole (this one was 18), the Scarlet Knights kept clawing. Down 23 with 17:24 to play, they blazed out a 20-5 run, 14 points coming of Rosario's hands, six off Miller's. Syracuse responded with a 7-0 run to go back up 60-45 and then the Knights did it again, with reserve Mike Coburn knocking in two threes, feeding Mitchell for another and then bouncing a perfect pass inside to Mitchell again, getting Rutgers to 65-56 with 7:37 to play.

Syracuse didn't get to 16-1 (3-1 Big East) without cause, though, and the Orange ultimately pulled away. Five players finished in double figures, Andy Rautins nearly notched a triple-double (23 points, nine assists, eight rebounds), but there was something in the Scarlet Knights' fervor that got the season's first sell-out crowd pounding its feet.

Yes, the Knights' 22 turnovers were unseemly, and sure, 40 percent of that crowd was clad in Orange. But the Scarlet Knights fought, without one allowing that the drama surrounding their program could be a crutch.

"You don't pay attention to those kind of things. We're getting ready for a game," Mitchell said.

"Once I step between the lines it's just me and my teammates and them lines on the floor," Rosario said.

"Whatever people are saying, we are not focusing on that. We are focusing on the rest of this year," Ndiaye said.

It truly was remarkable. Hill didn't enlist a media relations official to cut off questioning and no one seemed to be managing the players' words. Mitchell, a transfer from Florida himself, said Echenique -- who is reportedly headed to mid-major Creighton -- was a "vital" cog in this team, and then wished him all sorts of luck. Rosario very politely said, "No comment" when asked about Echenique and then very insistently said no, his classmate's departure isn't a signal to him.

Ndiaye acknowledged that his coach may be under fire, saying "Whatever happens happens. This is a business." And then he said the speculation may as well quit involving his teammates.

"I am really not looking at what others are saying," he said. "I really don't care. I'm out here to play basketball, to play Rutgers basketball. I am here for the team no matter what."

That's why he called a players-only meeting this week, he said, to address Echenique's transfer, their coach's hot seat and Inman's verbal assault. He couldn't say the boos surprised him and late Wednesday, after Hill said the boos won't sway him off his "plan and vision" and promised "I have my dream job," Ndiaye pledged agreement. He and his teammates, he said, can still quiet that noise.

"Even though there were people who are booing, there were still people there for us, clapping for us," he said. "That's what we're out here for. That's why we come out here every day so hard, the whole team is giving it their best."

Just like he did Wednesday.