Between The Lines

Trivia Question (Home/Road Edition): How many road games did the Orange Women win in Big East play last season?

This week: Home sweet home. There are 16 games per team in Big East women's basketball conference play, eight at home and eight on the road. Usually any team with a winning record in the Big East goes to the NCAA tournament. It is easier to win games at home than on the road. I believe we all know where I'm going with this one. Coach Q certainly does.

“Home court is important in this conference. This is a home-court conference and you have to take care of home court in order to get a good seed in the (Big East) Tournament and put yourself in position to play in the postseason.”

Therefore the goal becomes to win more at home than you lose on the road and voila, welcome to the NCAA Tournament. Saturday's win at Marquette evened the score for the Carrier Dome loss to Rutgers two weeks ago. “We definitely needed that game,” Q said. “We needed to get one back on the road that we lost here against Rutgers. It's most important to protect home court and when you lose one at home you need to go on the road and steal one and we got one there.”

The Orange then followed up the first Big East road win of the season by defending its home court Wednesday night against Pittsburgh. Next up, another all important home game Saturday against USF.

Higgo's Hero: Carmen Tyson-Thomas. Pittsburgh head coach Agnus Berenato said after her squad lost in the Carrier Dome, “basketball is a non-contact sport” as a somewhat sly jab at the refs. While basketball may not be a collision sport like football, and while some contact in hoops may result in a foul, basketball is most certainly a contact sport. This week we tip our hat to Carmen's ruggedness down low. She's only 5-9 but still managed to dig out 11 rebounds against Pitt including seven possession-extending offensive boards. But this week credit heads Carmen's way for a rebound the box score claims she never grabbed.

Last Saturday at Marquette, the ladies had already roared back from 12 down to lead the Golden Eagles by 2 with less than a minute remaining. Tasha Harris drove the lane, missed a contested layup, and the rebound fell to the ground between two Marquette players and Tyson-Thomas, who incidentally was on her back under the basket. At that point all Coach Q could do was hope something good happened.

“I'm sitting there watching her laying on her back, it's like a rugby scrum, and look up and see the ball pop in Iasia's hands and say “Oh this is good” so when the ball the ball pops into somebody's hands for a layup underneath your basket uncontested you feel pretty good about it.”

The official box score credits Hemingway for grabbing the miss, but Carmen's missing rebound and assist put what Q called a “season saving” win away for good. For taking care of the dirty work down low in her “non-contact sport” Carmen Tyson-Thomas is this week's hero.

Nike Inside Lacrosse Media Poll: As mentioned last week, I'm one of the esteemed voters in the national top 20 men's lacrosse poll. I've submitted my preseason ballot with the results to come Monday. Here's how it looks.

1.	Syracuse
2.	Virginia
3.	Maryland
4.	North Carolina
5.	Cornell
6.	Stony Brook
7.	Denver
8.	Duke
9.	Army
10.	Princeton
11.	Notre Dame
12.	Villanova
13.	Hofstra
14.	Yale
15.	Brown
16.	Johns Hopkins
17.	Loyola
18.	Georgetown
19.	Drexel
20.	Bryant

Until they start playing the games that's my best guess. But the beauty is they have to play them all.

Trivia Answer: The women actually exceeded Coach Q's hopes on the road last season, snagging four Big East victories away from home. Unfortunately, the Carrier Dome slate was packed with top-ten opponents and produced only three wins. Thrice last year the Orange faced a top-ten foe at home, losing to #1 UConn and #3 Notre Dame(by 1), before beating 7^th-ranked West Virginia on senior night.

This year Syracuse's top-ten matchups will likely all come elsewhere. Already the Orange have faced top ranked Baylor in the Bahamas and then 6^th-ranked West Virginia in Morgantown. Still on the slate, a Tuesday visit to #9 Notre Dame and a regular-season ending trip to Storrs to see #2 UConn.

Upcoming Schedule: Home again, home again. It's a second straight game in the Dome for the women, this time against USF Saturday at 1:00. And it's Daddy Daughter day, so girls 12 and under get in free with the purchase of an adult ticket. The first 100 of you to show will get a free t-shirt to commemorate the day, so we look forward to seeing you all at the Dome Saturday.

Then it's back on the road for a matchup with 9^th-ranked Notre Dame Tuesday when the Orange will try for their first ever win in the Joyce Center at 7:00. As always ESPN 97.7 and Orange All Access are your places for women's basketball action if you can't join us in the Dome or South Bend.

Questions: Tweet your 140 characters my way @BrianHigginsSU. Answers could come straight back on twitter, in an upcoming broadcast or in next week's column, so keep your eyes and ears open.

Syracuse University Athletics

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