John Pitarresi: Syracuse has a shot
Syracuse is playing its best ball of the season.
Good timing.
The Orange will charge into their first-round Big East tournament game against Villanova at noon today coming off an 87-72 romp Saturday over Marquette.
Good thing.
SU needs the momentum, because it will take at least two wins in the tourney for the Orange to get into the NCAA tournament.
Joe Lunardi, probably the nation's best-known and possibly most credible "bracketologist," didn't have SU in his field of 64 as of Tuesday, but he did have the Orange as the last team out. However, he already has seven Big East teams in the tourney. Eight? That might be a problem, even if the league is the largest in the country and maybe the best and the coaches are squawking that they deserve that many. Eight Big East teams did make it in 2006.
SU can solve the problem by winning at least twice at Madison Square Garden. That means defeating the Wildcats today, then beating top-seeded Georgetown Thursday. And, maybe, winning one more, although Lunardi doesn't seem to think so.
Is SU up to the task? The Orange have proven they can beat both the Wildcats and the Hoyas, having split a pair of games with both teams. And Jim Boeheim said his team played its best game of the season in defeating Marquette, and it was difficult to argue with that. The Orange shot 59 percent against one of the top defensive teams in the conference, made 5 of 11 3-point attempts, got a more-than-healthy 39 points in the paint - many of them from 6-foot-11 3-point shooter Donte Greene, believe it or not - and held the Golden Eagles to 42 percent shooting. All pretty good, whether or not Marquette pulled a semi tank job because it was already assured of being in the national tournament and was locked into its position in the Big East tournament.
SU is a very good, not great team with a lot of tremendous young players. Spending a season watching Paul Harris, Arinze Onuaku, Jonny Flynn, Greene and Kristof Ongenaet has been a revelation. They can do things that no one even thought to attempt a generation ago. Sensational players, but they still have a bit to learn, and they do miss the injured Eric Devendorf and Andy Rautins, both for their long-distance scoring ability and their experience. And, as eye-popping good as they can be, the league is full of other guys who can play - Luke Harangody and Kyle McAlarney at Notre Dame, Jeff Adrien and A.J. Price at UConn, Roy Hibbert and Jonathan Wallace at Georgetown, David Padgett at Louisville. Jerel McNeal at Marquette, Sam Young and Gilbert Brown at Pittsburgh, Joe Alexander at West Virginia, Scottie Reynolds at Villanova. That means the league is full of teams that can beat each other. You might be tired of hearing about parity in college football and basketball, but it is here for sure, and certainly in Big East basketball.
So expect SU to do well in New York in what you know will be a massive dogfight. They are seeded ninth, but I have them sixth in the league based on my own not very sophisticated but I think meaningful system. Georgetown, Louisville, Notre Dame and UConn are the top four seeds in order, but I have it Notre Dame, Georgetown, UConn and Louisville.
It'll be a mess, but it will be fun - as long as SU wins a couple of games.
Observer-Dispatch