GREENBURGH, New York, March 25, 2007 -- Jumping from the frying pan into the fire may be child’s play compared to the leap from the cauldron of NCAA Tournament pressure into the searing stress of the NBA playoff race.

Yet that’s exactly what new New York Knick Randolph Morris will be doing tomorrow night against the Orlando Magic. Is he ready? ”I don’t know,” the personable 6-11 center-forward flashed a shy smile following practice at the team’s Westchester Training Center. “I think at first I’ll probably be a little nervous. Then, after a couple of transitions, it’ll be just basketball.”

It might be more basketball than Morris could imagine. In addition to the already crippling avalanche of injuries -- Jamal Crawford is out and neither Quentin Richardson nor David Lee is likely to play -- and semi-healthy players such as Stephon Marbury and Channing Frye in important roles, Eddy Curry and Steve Francis came down with flu symptoms. Neither player practiced.

Could the REALLY New Kid On the Block be pressed into action? “Hey, you never know,” Coach Isiah Thomas shook his head. “If I feel he can help us win, yes.”

Last Sunday, Morris scored 22 points and yanked down 8 rebounds in Kentucky’s second-round NCAA Tournament loss to Kansas. In a never-before-seen move, the Knicks signed him as a free agent just five days later “and here we are,” smiled Morris, barely believing the whole whirlwind himself.

Morris declared for the 2005 NBA Draft, then decided to return to school without ever signing with an agent. This made him ineligible to be drafted again and he became a free agent throughout his last, junior, season at Kentucky.

Though a number of teams showed interest in the talented “big”, the Knicks leaped at the opportunity in the most aggressive fashion. “They contacted my parents,” said Morris. “They ran it by me. We all felt that the Knicks showed the most interest in me and they had my best interest at heart. So I told my Mom and Dad, if we can make it happen, let’s make it happen.”

“I like what I see of Randolph,” said Thomas. “He’s got a ways to go but we definitely have a lot to work with.”

“We monitored his situation for some time now, and once his season ended we made contact,” added Thomas. “We thought he’d be a good addition to our team. He is potentially a first-round pick. So we figured if we can get an early jump and bring him in, it’s like having two picks again this year.”

“The rules allowed it -- and we used the rules in our favor.”

With Randolph, even before this year’s draft takes place Thomas figures “the Knicks have added six solid players over the past two years.”

“He’s definitely someone who in the long term fits into our plans, fits into our young core,” said the coach. “He’s a good low post scorer with a strong inside presence. He’s got a good middle range game and a nice touch on the basketball. He really understands how to get to the foul line. The way that we like to play, we like to put the ball inside, pound it to our big-s, and get as close to the basket as we possibly can and get to the foul line. And those are the things that he does.”

Still, with just 13 games to go in the regular season and standing a game and half out of the last Eastern Conference playoff spot, the Knicks appear to be at a crucial tipping-point in their season. “We have had some slippage over the last couple of games,” said Marbury. “But I think we’ll be able to refocus our energies onto what we have to do. We know what’s at stake.”

“We definitely have got to hold it together,” said Thomas. “We’ve got to keep competing. Defensively, we’ve been pretty solid. However, offensively with all those guys out…I’m trying hard to tweak something on the offensive side, however this late in the season, I don’t think there’s much tweaking that we can do. We’re not scoring a lot, so we definitely have got to keep the our team from scoring.”

“Mentally, we’ve just got keep punching, got to stay together, keep moving. This is a time when we’re definitely being tested with the injuries and everything else that we have. And it’s all happened at a very critical time. We’ve got to stay positive -- but we also have to play well. But, basically, it’s got to be a low-scoring game for us right now."