Trevor Cooney insists there are no mind games when shots don’t fall.

“I’m not saying, ‘If I make the first one, I’m going to shoot an X amount of shots,’” Cooney said. “… I’m not saying, ‘Oh, great, now I’m 1-for-5. If I miss the next one, I’m 1-for-6.’

“I mean, you just keep telling yourself to take good ones and if I’m open, I’m going to shoot it.”

So he does. But lately, Cooney’s mantra hasn’t yielded results — at least not at an efficient rate. The Syracuse junior has now shot less than 37 percent from the field in each of his last four games, but hopes his luck turns around Saturday when Syracuse (17-9, 8-5 Atlantic Coast) takes on Pittsburgh (17-10, 6-7) at noon in the Carrier Dome.

Cooney lumbered through Wednesday night’s game, hitting just 1-of-10 from the field and totaling just three points. The Orange still prevailed over No. 12 Louisville, 69-59, despite what Jim Boeheim called the worst game of Cooney’s career because of how good his looks were.

“Maybe he’s got to take tough ones, I don’t know,” Boeheim said. “But he got really good looks tonight. This was the first time this year, that I can remember, where he got a lot of good looks and he just couldn’t get the ball to go in the basket.”

Cooney’s turned in a pair of 28-point outings in ACC play, the latest being SU’s loss at North Carolina on Jan. 26, but his drop-off from 3-point range dates back even further.

In SU’s loss to Clemson on Jan. 17, five foul shots accounted for all of his scoring as he missed seven shots from the floor. He hasn’t made more than four 3s in a game since SU’s win over Wake Forest on Jan. 13 — 10 games ago.

And in the four games since then that he’s made three or more 3-pointers, he’s had to fire at least eight attempts to reach that total. It’s translated to less attempts from inside the arc — tries that usually help Cooney balance out his game.

“He takes the shots he takes in practice and he knocks them down,” SU forward Rakeem Christmas said. “He’s going to go into practice, work on the same shots he takes and he’ll be fine.”

On Wednesday, Cooney elevated from the right wing to drain a triple 32 seconds into the game for the Orange’s first points. But that was all he’d get to go down against the Cardinals.

He missed in all sorts of ways and from a range of distances — including a fast-break layup that rolled off the rim for his only miss within the perimeter, and a deep, NBA-range 3-point attempt that clanked off the iron just as his other shots did.

When it was all said and done, Cooney’s 10-percent clip was his second lowest in a single game this year.

He’s possibly the only SU player currently averaging 10 points per game that will come back next year. Christmas only has five more games in an Orange uniform and forward Michael Gbinije’s hot streak could mean a departure to the NBA.

So how Cooney finishes up the last five contests of the season could go a long way to dictating the momentum — or lack thereof — that Syracuse carries into next year.

“It’s frustrating when you get good looks, you finally get good looks, and they just don’t go in,” Cooney said. “I felt like I was right on. You can compare it to baseball — just hitting line drives up the middle and they’re just getting caught in the outfield.

“I mean, hopefully I’m just due. That’s all I can say.”

Published on February 19, 2015 at 11:51 pm

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