Syracuse Basketball: The SU vs UConn rivalry continues in New York City

No. 2 AP & ESPN/USA Today Syracuse (30-1 ~ 17-1 in the BE) will step on the court for their first game of the Big East Tournament, having had two byes, against arch rival Connecticut (20-12 ~ 8-10 in the BE), who has had to win two in a row in order to make it to today’s match up with the Orange. The game will tip off at noon with ESPN/ESPN3 televising it. For anyone that enjoys this conference this is one of the marquee match ups that will be sorely missed once the Orange head out to ACC country, and might just make it for one heck of a game, the 14th one between the programs in this tournament, in Madison Square Garden as SU is a lock for a one seed in the NCAA Tournament and UConn is looking to solidify it’s record to make it into March Madness. Out of the last four meetings between the schools three of them have gone to overtime in order to decide who would advance in the tournament.

Both teams have two things in common, first long positive streaks, with the Orange on a ten game winning one and the Huskies on a 13 game post season ride, and second, problems off the court, with Connecticut having had to keep their head coach off the court for three games and one of their players for quite a while due to eligibility problems. However that does not seem like much compared to what Syracuse has had to deal with this season, first with the Bernie Fine ordeal and now with the story, put out by Yahoo Sports earlier this week, that since 2001 the school failed to stick to its own drug policy while playing ineligible players, who might have not even known they had failed the testing or were not supposed to play.

But those are stories that are not of the hardwoods per say, they are going to be dealt within closed doors in offices that a mere blogger will have no access to. The games however I been able to watch, and can talk about, as SU won both previous match ups this season, 85-67 at the Carrier Dome in the first part of last month and 71-69 a week or so ago on the road. It will be interesting to see if head coach Jim Boeheim’s squad is affected by the latest scandal, if the old myth about how hard it is to win three games against the same team in a season is not such a tale after all, or if this is just going to be another epic game between two great programs in the mecca of basketball.

There are three things that catch my attention in this one. Will Syracuse be a bit rusty having not played for a while against a team that has already two wins in the tournament right now. Or will Connecticut buckle under the run and gun of SU as their legs aren’t fresh anymore after two games, with the second one coming from behind and needing OT to win it. The third one is that this will be the first time that UConn’s head coach Jim Calhoun will be on the bench for a SU game as he has battled health issues for most of the year. I have to say this game should not be at noon, but the prime time night one, and the play on the court will prove why. Two great programs, two Hall of Fame coaches with NBA caliber players on their rosters going at it once again for a full forty minutes. It is definitely going to be a good game in my opinion, and with any luck it could be upgraded to a great one.

The Vegas odds makers see the Orange as a 7 to 7.5 points favorite, and while that sounds about right, this a rivalry game with SU being all set for the next tournament and UConn wanting to make sure that they are in as well. I say the game will be closer than the spread, but not by much as Syracuse wins the game by the final of 71 to 67 in a match up that stays undecided for most of the 40 minutes of playing time.