NEW YORK – Even after three wins, seven overtimes and four days of Syracuse’s best basketball of the season, head coach Jim Boeheim knew how to put last week’s Big East tournament in perspective.

‘There’s going to be two things people remember about this Syracuse basketball season, two and only two,’ Boeheim said Saturday after a 76-66 loss to Louisville in the tournament finals. ‘They’re going to remember the Connecticut-Syracuse game here, and they’re going to remember what we do in the tournament. That’s all they’ll remember.’

The Connecticut-Syracuse game, a six-overtime thriller that is widely being hailed as the most exciting game in Syracuse history, will not be overshadowed. But what’s up next – the NCAA Tournament – could stand alongside that game.

The Orange was selected as the three seed in the South region during Sunday’s selection show and will open its tournament in Miami Friday against Stephen F. Austin. Before the Big East tournament started, the Orange was widely projected as a six or seven seed.

But after an unexpected run to the finals, that all changed. And thoughts of the NCAA Tournament helped take the sting off Saturday’s loss in the finals.

‘I think we have to just look at the big picture,’ SU forward Kristof Ongenaet said Saturday. ‘Although we lost, it’s not a happy feeling, but the bigger thing is the NCAA Tournament, and that’s what it’s all about.’

Syracuse came to Madison Square Garden Wednesday as the six seed, generally expected to win one game and receive a low seed in the NCAA Tournament. But after a win Wednesday over Seton Hall, Thursday’s instant classic win over UConn, and another overtime win over West Virginia Friday, the Orange is one of the hottest teams in the country.

Each game was defined in its own way. Wednesday’s game, although an 89-74 blowout, contained its share of excitement. With 16 minutes left in the second half, Ongenaet was thrown to the ground while driving for a layup by Seton Hall’s Brandon Walters. SU guard Eric Devendorf stepped into the ensuing melee and received a technical foul after getting into a shoving match with SHU’s Eugene Harvey.

At that point, Syracuse was up by two. It outscored Seton Hall by 13 the rest of the way and won by 15.

‘Altercations like that always bring a team together,’ point guard Jonny Flynn, who won the tournament MVP award, said after the game. ‘When you can get a team together and get a team fired up on one goal and with one strong mindset, that can always help us out.’

The real excitement, though, came the next night. In the second-longest game in Division I history, the Orange topped Connecticut, 127-117, in six overtimes. Devendorf almost ended the game in regulation, after sinking a long 3 that was originally ruled good. After spending five minutes reviewing the play, officials ruled the ball hadn’t left his hand in time.

After 25 more minutes of basketball, Syracuse finally emerged in the sixth overtime by scoring the first eight points of the period. Flynn finished the game with 34 points after playing an exhausting 67 minutes.

‘I’ve got no words to even try to describe it,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘I’ve never been prouder of any team I’ve ever coached.’

A tired Orange team returned to the court less than 24 hours later for its semifinal against West Virginia, who upset No. 2 seed Pittsburgh the day before. Syracuse once again went to overtime but finished the game quickly this time, jumping out to a five-point lead and cruising to a 74-69 win.

In the Big East final Saturday against Louisville, the Orange played a solid first half and went up by eight points. But fatigue set in after the break, and the Orange collapsed down the stretch, shooting 36 percent in the second half. SU lost the game by 10.

After four games and seven overtimes in four days, the main topic of discussion after the tournament was how fatigued the Orange would be heading into the NCAA Tournament. The last time SU went to the Big Dance, in 2006, it had won the Big East tournament after playing four games in four days. But a beleaguered Orange team, led by ailing point guard Gerry McNamara, was upset in the first round by Texas A&M.

This time, though, Boeheim said that will not be the case.

‘I think the last two times we won, we really were riding a couple guys, especially last time. Gerry had nothing left the next week,’ Boeheim said. ‘That’s not the case this time. We’ll be ready to go in a couple days.’

kbaustin@syr.edu

Published on March 16, 2009 at 12:00 pm