After a sound 70-40 win over Rutgers in the Carrier Dome Tuesday night – Syracuse’s third blowout in a row, clinching a first-round bye in the Big East tournament – only one question remained.

Is Syracuse a lock for the NCAA Tournament?

The Syracuse players and head coach Jim Boeheim were mostly noncommittal about their prospects of returning to the Tournament for the first time in three years. But that didn’t stop Selection Sunday (March 15) from becoming a discussion topic.

Boeheim, for one, continued his season-long policy of not discussing tourney bids. ‘We’ve just got to get the next game, get to New York,’ Boeheim said, ‘That’s it.’

Tuesday’s win gave Syracuse 22 wins on the year, eight losses and a 10-7 mark in the Big East. The Orange still has one regular season game on the slate – Saturday at No. 13 Marquette – plus the Big East tournament next week, before the NCAA Tournament would start.

Although the Orange faltered midway through the Big East season, the Orange will finish with what can be considered a strong resume: At least 22 wins, including ones over No. 5 Memphis (on the road), No. 9 Kansas, Georgetown and West Virginia. Syracuse also boasts at least 10 wins in what is widely considered the nation’s toughest conference, and a current RPI of 23, along with a No. 25 ranking in the AP poll.

Syracuse is locked into a top-eight seed in the conference tournament, after Tuesday’s win coupled with a Cincinnati loss to South Florida.

While Boeheim didn’t specifically address the Tournament, he did talk about the difficulty of playing in the Big East, and praised his team for not falling apart during its tough mid-conference stretch of game, when it lost seven of 10 games while playing six top-15 teams.

‘I just think that kind of schedule, that kind of stretch can just undo you,’ Boeheim said. ‘When I looked at it, I knew we had to start out well. We did. I knew we had to steal a game or two as we went through the process, and I knew we had to finish strong coming into the last part of the year. We’ve been able to do that.’

In 2007, Boeheim publicly criticized the selection committee’s decision to leave out Syracuse, after his team finished 22-10, 10-6 in the Big East. Last season, Boeheim was quiet when his 19-13 squad was left out of the dance. Syracuse has missed the last two NCAA Tournaments, the first time it has missed consecutive Tourneys since 1980-82.

SU guard Andy Rautins said the Orange being left out of the Tournament two years ago was enough to convince those players who are still on the team to be reticent about ever saying the team is in.

‘The whole team’s idea is not to think about the tournament,’ Rautins said. ‘We just want to get through this last game and then do some work in the Big East tournament and see where that takes us.’

Tournament speculation started Sunday, after Syracuse earned its 21st win with a blowout of Cincinnati. Point guard Jonny Flynn didn’t openly say the Orange has earned its berth, but hinted that he thinks the resume is strong enough. Flynn did not address the media Tuesday.

‘They say Cincinnati’s on the bubble, and that was a team that we had to beat,’ Flynn said Sunday. ‘And we handily beat them, so this should be a good statement for the selection committee to look on.’

One win later and Syracuse hasn’t opened up any more about its case for the NCAA Tournament.

‘We’ve just got to focus on the game we’re playing,’ SU forward Paul Harris said. ‘We play Marquette, we’ve got to focus on Marquette.’

But even if they won’t talk, the players can still hope.

‘Hopefully we’re in,’ Rautins said. ‘But we don’t want to talk about it.’

kbaustin@syr.edu

Published on March 3, 2009 at 12:00 pm