Between The Lines

Trivia Question (Big East Winning Streak Edition): For Jim Boeheim's club, four- or five-game Big East winning streaks are both a treasured but reasonably normal occurrence. Reference the squad's 5-0 start in the league this year. For Quentin Hillsman's women's side it's a feat to be celebrated. With three straight wins in their back pocket the women faced a 30-11 first half deficit Wednesday night at Cincinnati. It didn't take a long strategy session for Q to diagnose his team was in trouble.

“We were down 19 and it wasn't looking great, but at halftime we just went there and said we didn't come this far to win the games that people thought that we couldn't win -- the Louisville's and the St. John's games on the road -- to come here and lose.”

Riding reigning Big East Player of the Week Kayla Alexander's 18 points, the Orange slashed the Bearcats advantage to eight at the half, then eventually led by eight before hanging on to win, 55-53. That makes now four straight conference wins for the women. Today's question is, when is the last time the Orange won five straight in the Big East?

This week: Didn't we go over this last week? Army lacrosse? The first-round playoff loss to Army last year was the overwhelming topic of discussion entering the season opener against Denver. Talk of the way last season ended has yet to die down with guess who, Army, arriving Sunday. “I'm madder than I would be for any other game,” Brian Megill said. “But we just have to come into it like it's another game.”

For Coach Desko, it's one thing to use the loss to fuel an offseason of improvement and another entirely to try to harness that emotion into one game. “I think the guys, they watched some film this week, some of them on their own watched the TV version. Hard to watch. You've got some seniors that won championships in their freshman year and sophomore year. And now to play against Army who ended our season in the first round of the playoffs which this group isn't used to. They're certainly motivated and our job as coaches is to keep them focused on what it's going to take to beat them this time.”

Usually the potential issue with the Army game is its location on the schedule. For the tenth straight year the Orange meet the Black Knights the week before facing titanic rival Virginia. But this year the potential issue is not looking ahead, it's over excitement for the issue at hand.

Also keep an eye on some potential brother-on-brother crime Sunday when the Marasco's JoJo and Matt collide. Last year, JoJo was in just his second collegiate game while Matt was a reserve defenseman for the Black Knights. This year both start. We can only hope for at least one possession when the elder Matt tries his hand at guarding his younger brother.

“We spoke a little bit, we're going to put his initials on my helmet and put my initials on his helmet so just do a little family thing,” JoJo said. That's polite and all, but where the trash talk? These guys are close in age brothers after all. “We'll probably hold that for the field, we'll get after it a little bit and he'll get after me probably so we'll wait for that.”

Higgo's Hero: Whoever figures out the Big East tie breaks. There is currently a one-game gap between fourth and ninth place in the Big East women's basketball standings. Four teams are 9-5 in league play while the Orange are one of two at 8-6 with 7-7 West Virginia lingering in tenth. Enhancing the league's smushed middle is the vast separation of the haves and the have nots.

The top three in the league, UConn, Notre Dame and DePaul, have lost only one game to the other 13 teams. That being Louisville's perhaps tie-break trump card win over DePaul Wednesday. Conversely ,the bottom four of the league, Villanova, Cincinnati, Seton Hall and USF, haven't won a single game against the top 12.

Therefore welcome to an impending tie breaking mess. With two Big East games left for all 16 teams, it's hard to find a combination of how the standings could land where the tie-breaking procedure will be simple. I recently purchased a slide rule and abacus just in case. I'm pretty sure they're necessary for tie breaks 14-through-16.

If the season ended right now, Syracuse would be the eight seed in the conference tournament. By Monday night around 11:00 when Big East play will have concluded, who knows. This week's hero is whoever gets to figure out who plays who next weekend in Hartford.

Trivia Answer: 1988. Current Big East Director of Officiating and then Syracuse Head Coach Barb Jacobs led her squad to six-straight Big East wins as part of a 13-3 conference record. It remains the school's longest Big East winning streak with the only other five gamer coming in 1986. The 1988 Orange rode the strength of streak all the way to the women's first-ever appearance in the NCAA tournament.

Upcoming Schedule: The Orange Women take the Carrier Dome court for senior day Saturday at 1:00. Then Sunday features a full day of lacrosse in the Dome. First the ladies meet Virginia at 12:30 before the men's playoff rematch with Army faces off at 4:00. Then we'll get to the bottom of the Big East women's basketball tie breaker mess Monday when the women head to Storrs for a 7:30 matchup with top ranked UConn. Whatever your Syracuse sporting pleasure this weekend and beyond Orange All Access has you covered. You can also catch both women's basketball games on ESPN 97.7 and the men's lacrosse action on TK99.

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 ope

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