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Marquette Aftermath
In the wake of the stunningly abrupt end to the Orange basketball season...
* Remarkably for all that's been accomplished in the sterling history of the program, Syracuse has still never made three straight Sweet 16s. Nineteen in program history, but never three in a row. That feat is so difficult that the only programs in America that could claim that coming into this year's tournament -- Michigan St. and Xavier -- lost in the first round this weekend.
* SU loses in the second round for the first time since 2001 vs. Kansas... Remember that the supposed scouting advantage was out the window playing a Big East opponent (see previous post). SU is 8-0 over the past four seasons in tournament-setting matchups against non-conference teams.
* SU shot 57% and 55% from the field in its two losses to Marquette. In all other games with a field goal percentage of at least 45%, the Orange were 12-1. The Golden Eagles were the only team to beat the Orange twice this year.
* 10 points (19-9 in the first half) marked the largest lead in an eventual Syracuse loss this season.
* The Orange had a double-digit rebounding edge in four straight and six of the past seven NCAA games before getting outboarded 30-24 by Marquette. Blake Griffin helped Oklahoma to a 36-29 margin in 2009.
* Rick Jackson ends his career tied with George Hicker for 35th on the all-time scoring list (1,245 points), eighth in rebounds (930), seventh in blocks and tied for second in games played (143, with Derrick Coleman, behind Stephen Thompson).
* Head coach Jim Boeheim logged his eighth 27-win season and his first stretch of three in a row.

Syracuse Basketball takes up such a huge place in the hearts and minds of the Central New York community. While it may not feel like it to some now, time will tell this as one of the most successful and interesting seasons in program history. It ended earlier than anyone intended.

It'll be back in a matter of time. Enjoy lacrosse season and spring football.

What is it that Familiarity Breeds Again?

There was some discussion at Quicken Loans Arena today about the pros and cons of conference teams meeting as early as the second game of the NCAA tournament. Orange coach Jim Boeheim didn't really weigh in, saying “It is what it is.”

Marquette's third year head coach Buzz Williams and his staff thought they'd get a break from the Big East for a while. “When we were leaving the Garden after Louisville beat us the way they did, I (was) so thankful that we don't have to talk about or prepare to play against a Big East program until next Christmas.”

Not so fast. The Marquette-Xavier pairing was followed quickly by Syracuse and Indiana State on Selection Sunday.

It seems as though the Orange have benefitted in tournament play over the years by playing teams that haven't had a great deal of time to prepare for them. Is that advantage real or presumed?

If there's any truth to that theory, it would seem to apply only to subsequent contests in tournaments. SU has won second-game matchups in the past two years with Arizona St. and Gonzaga but was that because they were simply better (as the records and seeds would suggest) or did the losers struggle with lack of preparation time?

The most lost against the zone I can ever remember an SU NCAA opponent being was #6 Oklahoma in Boston in 2003. The Sooners shot 31 percent and committed 19 turnovers in the regional final in Boston. That was the second game of the weekend, of course.

It seems worth pointing out that in non-conference tournament-setting games over the past four seasons, where scouting time was limited to 0-1 days between games, the Orange have beaten St. Joseph's and Washington ('08 preseason NIT), Maryland ('08 postseason NIT), Kansas ('09 CBE Classic), Arizona St. ('09 NCAA), North Carolina ('10 2K Sports Classic), Gonzaga ('10 NCAA) and Georgia Tech ('11 Legends Classic). That's eight games without a loss.

Be sure you check out the Orange All Access coverage from Cleveland. You'll find game highlights and the thoughts of coaches and players from both teams. If you like a good story, catch the first few minutes of the press conference with Marquette coach Buzz Williams.

The second question asked him about his journey from junior college assistant to Big East head coach. Williams captivated the room with his response.

Quickly... Scoop Jardine, as he did on our radio broadcast immediately after the final horn last night, laughed off any notion of a negative impact on his left wrist. He said he's been nagged a little all year and jammed it up in the second half of Friday night's game. In the press conference Saturday afternoon, he said he'd be able to play today if there were a game.

I'd be happy to field your questions on anything regarding the Orange or the tournament. Shoot me an email to the Radio Mailbox.

Tale of the Tape: Marquette

It'll be just the seventh Big East Conference matchup in NCAA history and SU's first since beating Providence in the 1987 Final Four. Syracuse lost 76-70 to Marquette Jan. 29 at the Bradley Center. Here's a refresher on how the 3rd-seeded Orange stack up against the 11th-seeded Golden Eagles.

Syracuse	vs.	Marquette
Syracuse, NY	Location	Milwaukee, WI
1870	Established	1881
12,560	Enrollment	11,689
27-7/12-6 Big East	Record	21-14/9-9 Big East
Beating 14S Indiana St. 77-60 Friday	Advanced by	Beating 6S/#20 Xavier 66-55 Friday
Jim Boeheim 856-300 in 35^th season. 2005 Hall of Fame inductee. 2003 National Champion. Team USA regular. NCAA record 33 20-win seasons. 45-26 in NCAA.	Coach	Buzz Williams 68--36 in 3rd season. Detail-oriented coach who served as an assistant under Billy Gillespie and Tom Crean. Wrote letters with coaches when first starting to learn craft. 2-2 in NCAA.
Four starters averaging at least 11 points per game. Second nationally with 6.8 blocked shots per game. In the top 20 in four other categories.	Team	Maybe the Big East's best candidate in a 6'7"-and-under scenario. Top players Darius Johnson-Odum, Jimmy Butler and Jae Crowder are tough and can shoot.
At large selection as a top tier team in the nation's toughest conference. Nationally ranked all season. 7-5 vs. teams ranked in the top 25 at the time.	Qualified By	Playing a grueling schedule that featured more than half their games against the tourney field. Close losses early to Duke, Gonzaga, Wisconsin and Vanderbilt. Beat Syracuse in January.
RPI: 19. Strength of schedule: 29. Record vs. NCAA Field: 10-6.	Resume	RPI: 63. Strength of schedule: 30. Record vs. NCAA Field: 6-13.
12-6	vs. Common Opponents (Big East)	9-9
53-33	NCAA History	35-29
2010 Rolled through Vermont and Gonzaga in Buffalo. Lost to eventual runner-up Butler.	Last Time	2010 Clipped by 11-seed Washington 80-78 in San Jose.
Behind national freshman of the year Carmelo Anthony, overtook four Big XII teams, three ranked in the top 6, to win the 2003 title. Also made Final Four in '75, '87 and '96. 19 Sweet 16s.	Best Run	Led by one of college basketball's great characters, Al McGuire, won the 1977 national championship. Defeated North Carolina in the title game. Last made the Sweet 16 in 2003. Burried by Kansas in that Final Four.
5^th all-time with 1809 wins, nation's longest current streak of winning seasons.	Program History	This is sixth straight appearance in NCAA.
Generally thought to be Boeheim's teammate and fellow HOFer Dave Bing. Others under consideration would include former 1^st-overall NBA pick Derrick Coleman.	Greatest Player	Dwyane Wade of the Heat is the program's current poster boy. 1970s stars included Butch Lee
9-3. Assembled five-game winning streak, including victories at Villanova and Georgetown, to close the regular season.	Since Jan. 29	7-6. Beat Providence and West Virginia before losing to Louisville in Big East Championship.

Postgame Notes
Apologies if we gave bad information yesterday, but the Sunday round-of-32 matchup will not be on CBS, but truTV, that means no infringement on "60 Minutes" and a 7:40 tiptime. We'll be on the air at 6:00 on TK99 an ESPN97.7 in Syracuse and 7:00 on the statewide Syracuse Sports Network from IMG College.

* Rick Jackson lived up to his pregame promise of "leaving it all on the floor". He was SU's go-to man early and in a game where Brandon Triche's school-record free throw streak ended at 37, he hit his first eight. Not bad for a guy whose free throws have basically been a coin flip. Jackson had 23 points and seven rebounds overall.

* Jackson passed Damone Brown and Arinze Onuaku into 36th place SU's all-time scoring list. George Hicker, who was at Friday night's game, is seven points away at 1,245.

* Kris Joseph posted his first double-double of the season, 12 points and 10 rebounds.

* Sunday's matchup with Marquette is only SU's second NCAA game against a Big East team after 1987's win over Providence at the Final Four in New Orleans. It'll be the seventh Big East game in the NCAAs, the first since an epic between Villanova and Pittsburgh in the 2009 East Regional Final. Connecticut and Cincinnati will beat SU-Marquette to the punch Saturday.

* The Orange are 3-2 in rematches this year beating Villanova, Georgetown and St. John's while losing to Seton Hall and Connecticut.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part
This is a long day for the Orange and their faithful here in Cleveland getting ready to be among the last teams to take the floor in the NCAAs. Syracuse junior point guard Scoop Jardine said yesterday he'd "follow the big man", pointing out that Jim Boeheim's squads have done just fine over the years while being among the few programs in college basketball that don't have some sort of shootaround at the arena on gameday.

The team was scheduled for breakfast this morning at 10:00 and plenty of time watching games and stretching before the customary pregame film session and meal at 5:30.

A recent lap around the hotel's main floor just revealed some players in the weight room. And two others in a salon, perusing the menu of nail treatments. You know they had some time on their hands.

Here are a few thoughts while we count down to a tipoff near 10:00 p.m.:

* A lot has been made of a couple of stats supporting Indiana State's commitment to balance and defense. The Sycamores have seven players that have made at least a third of their three-point attempts and are 15-0 when opponents score 63 or fewer points. Don't get alarmed as if that gives ISU a big advantage over the Orange. Syracuse has six players that shoot as well (not counting freshman slasher #C.J. Fair#, who is 1-for-3) and is 18-0 when opponent's don't score at least 64.

* Indiana St. coach Greg Lansing seems to be genuinely pleased where he is in life as a first-year head coach at a place where he served as an assistant for eight seasons over two stints. "It's an honor for me, one, to be able to play against a team that's coached by Jim Boeheim, somebody you look up -- I'm a coach's son, so I always looked up and respected tremendous coaches, a Hall of Fame coach like that."
Lansing's father, Dave, was an Iowa high school coach for 33 years. Greg told us for our pregame show that he's never met Boeheim, but out of respect he calls all head coaches simply "Coach".

* Lansing's had an outstanding first year. Only eight had more wins in their first year at a new school this season, and they weren't all first-time head coaches. Still, he'd have a long way to go to catch Indiana State's Bill Hodges who rode Larry Bird to a 33-0 debut in 1979 before losing the national title game.

* Boeheim has coached more than twice as many NCAA tournament games (70, 44-26) as Lansing has overall (33, 20-13).

* Boeheim was asked yesterday if he recalled his first NCAA game. He passed on answering, invoking the "I can't remember what I had for lunch" fib. The Hall-of-Famer's first was March 13, 1977 in Baton Rouge against Tennessee. The Orange won 93-88 in overtime, despite 23 points and 12 rebounds from Volunteer star and future Knick Bernard King. The Orange went on to lose their next game against Charlotte in Lexington, KY.

* SU hasn't lost back-to-back postseason games since the 2002 NIT when it dropped two at the Final Four of that event, the semifinal against South Carolina and the consolation with Temple. Before that, it was 1999, which included a first-round NCAA ouster by Oklahoma St.

* Orange fans at Friday's game included former star and Cincinnati native Louis Orr, Terrence Roberts, Mike Tirico and many others.

On Jackson's Back?
I've felt all year that as the lone senior on this team, Rick Jackson would be determined to give his best effort in the postseason.

Jackson said today he didn't particularly enjoy watching the late rounds of the tournament last year after the Orange were eliminated.

“You feel bad for your seniors on your team, the guys that worked hard their whole career and then they've got to end like that,” Jackson said of former teammates Arinze Onuaku and Andy Rautins. “We just want to come out and really play hard. Leave it all on the court just so people can't second guess what we did. As long as me and my team play hard, I can live with that.”

In SU's last two games last season, Jackson scored nine points (on 4-10 shooting) and pulled down 18 rebounds. He had three turnovers in the season-ending loss to eventual runner-up Butler.

Expect a big Friday from him. Indiana State has one player taller than 6-6 that sees more than 10 minutes of action per game.

Sunday's Game Time
From Matt's Mailbox: What time would the Cuse play on Sunday if they win Friday? – Kevin, Syracuse

Thanks for the question, Kevin. This is an inexact science as the tournament's television partners tend to wait until they've got a feel for the second game matchups before they assign tipoff times. I checked with a local tournament official who said Sunday's games are slated to be on CBS. That means somewhere 12:00-7:30 so as not to delay CBS powerhouse “60 Minutes” too much. Plan on a game time no earlier than 12:10 and no later than 5:00.

That's the best we can do for right now, we'll probably know Sunday's start time during Friday night's postgame show. Then again, we'll know if there's even a game to worry about Sunday.

Greetings from Cleveland

The Syracuse University Basketball traveling party touched down in Cleveland and checked into its hotel within the past hour. This place is attached to The Arcade, built in 1890 as “one of America's first outdoor shopping malls.”

This should be a lot of fun. The NCAAs always are, but the better spots have the arena, hotels and establishments in close proximity in close range.

As any of you who have traveled know, Quicken Loans arena (home of the Cavaliers and this weekend's proceedings) is next door to Progressive Field (home of the Indians). The team hotel is within walking distance and it looks like there are plenty of places to eat and enjoy yourself in between.

We'll deliver more substance in the coming days, but here's a quick fan primer on the events taking place in Cleveland.

Thursday:

You can say what you want about the NCAA – I'd like to have heard everyone in the meeting where they thought it was a good idea to call Thursday's and Friday's games the Second Round – but they've long looked after the fans in any tournament city by mandating open practices the day before games begin. All eight teams here will work out at the Q tomorrow, and that means open doors even if you don't have tickets to the games.

12:00 - Villanova 4:25 - Syracuse

12:45 - Marquette 5:10 - Ohio St.

1:30 - George Mason 5:55 - Indiana St.

2:15 - Xavier 6:40 - TX-San Antonio

The Orange always put on a good show in these showoff layup lines. They'll have a more serious practice after that at Cleveland State's Wolstein Center. SU beat Samford and Kentucky in that building in their first two NCAA games of 2000.

Friday:

4:00 – Harry Buffalo (2120 East 4th Street) is the official hangout of the SU Alumni crowd in Cleveland. TK99 and ESPN97.7 will be broadcasting live there. They'll have some giveaways and such. Matt Roe and I plan on stopping by on our way to the game Friday. Be sure to say hello.

Approx. 10:00 – Game time!

Tale of the Tape: Indiana St.

One's represented by a full-figured, yet powerful sphere of color, Otto the Orange. The other is led on to the court by a “furry woodland creature” known as Sycamore Sam. Since mascot designations aren't likely to help you with your bracket this year, here's a snapshot of 3-seed SU's NCAA first round matchup with 14-seed Indiana State.

Syracuse	vs.	Indiana St.
Syracuse, NY	Location	Terre Haute, IN
1870	Established	1865
12,560	Enrollment	11,494
26-7/12-6 Big East	Record	20-13/12-6 Missouri Valley
Jim Boeheim 855-300 in 35^th season. 2005 Hall of Fame inductee. 2003 National Champion. Team USA regular. NCAA record 33 20-win seasons.	Coach	Greg Lansing 20-13 in 1^st season. Had been assistant for eight years over two stints. Wife, Angie Menser, is former ISU track athlete and current administrator whose brother was a top player on the school's last tourney teams.
Four starters averaging at least 11 points per game. Second nationally with 6.8 blocked shots per game. In the top 20 in four other categories.	Team	Five players average between 8.7 and 11.0 points per game. The Sycamores ranked among the NCAA's top 50 field goal defense (allowing only 40.3%)
At large selection as a top tier team in the nation's toughest conference. Nationally ranked all season. 7-5 vs. teams ranked in the top 25 at the time.	Qualified By	Winning MVC Tournament, “Arch Madness”. As 3-seed, defeated Evansville 52-50 in quarterfinals on last second runner by RFR PG Jake Odum. Then beat preseason favorite Wichita St. 61-54 and overcame a 9-0 game-opening run to eliminate regular season champion Missouri St. 60-56.
RPI: 19. Strength of schedule: 29. Record vs. NCAA Field: 10-6.	Resume	RPI: 85. Strength of schedule: 93. Record vs. NCAA Field: 0-3.
3-0	vs. Common Opponents (UNI, ND, DePaul)	3-1
52-33	NCAA History	5-3
2010 Rolled through Vermont and Gonzaga in Buffalo. Lost to eventual runner-up Butler.	Last Time	2001 Upset 4-seed Oklahoma, lost to Gonzaga.
Behind national freshman of the year Carmelo Anthony, overtook four Big XII teams, three ranked in the top 6, to win the 2003 title. Also made Final Four in '75, '87 and '96. 19 Sweet 16s.	Best Run	Behind national player of the year Larry Bird's five straight double-doubles, ran into Magic Johnson's Michigan State Spartans in the 1979 final in Salt Lake City. Lost one of the most important college games ever, ending that season 33-1.
5^th all-time with 1809 wins, nation's longest current streak of winning seasons.	Program History	Other than back-to-back NCAA appearances in '00 & '01 and the Bird Era, no 20-win seasons since '68. John Wooden, arguably the greatest coach ever in any sport, was 44-15 in two seasons just after WW II.
Generally thought to be Boeheim's teammate and fellow HOFer Dave Bing. Others under consideration would include former 1^st-overall NBA pick Derrick Coleman.	Greatest Player	Bird is not only one of the all-time greats to lace 'em up, he is ISU's career leader in points (2,850), rebounds (1,247) and steals (240) in three years.
February, 1969	Last 5-game losing streak	February

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