LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With the paradox in his words, Rick Pitino gave away Louisville’s defensive game plan. Not that it was a secret.

‘We did a great job of trapping him in the zone,’ Pitino said of his target, Syracuse forward Rick Jackson. ‘Even though we are playing man.’

Pitino’s team enforced his game plan throughout the Cardinals’ 73-69 victory over the Orange on Saturday inside the KFC Yum! Center. They double- and triple-teamed Jackson whenever he touched the ball in the paint or on the blocks, even to the point of switching up defenses to do so.

And as a result, Jackson was frustrated for the second consecutive game. Against the swarming Louisville defense, he was held to seven points and seven rebounds.

‘That’s really it,’ Jackson said. ‘They’re double-teaming me, triple-teaming me, not letting me get the chance to make the moves inside. I just have to try to get everything off the backboards and help my team the best I can.’

Perhaps most impressive about the Cardinals’ defensive effort was Jackson’s goose egg in the scoring column in the first half. He didn’t even attempt a shot. Jackson didn’t record his first points of the game until C.J. Fair found him underneath for a layup on a broken play after Fair tripped 1:12 into the second half. By that point, the Orange trailed 45-32.

The Cardinals’ first-half success was a result of Pitino’s squad carrying out the plan. The plan Louisville guard Kyle Kuric said was obvious and perfected by his team during practices after watching film of Jackson’s struggles against Georgetown.

‘He’s a great player, so when he got the ball in the post, we didn’t want to just let him back down our five-man,’ Kuric said. ‘So we wanted to come double him and force him to pass it out and maybe get a turnover.’

Jackson’s first-half frustration, in turn, led to frustration for SU head coach Jim Boeheim and the rest of the Orange. When Jackson did find open teammates, they, too, often failed to finish.

Syracuse shot only 2-of-6 from beyond the arc in the first half. But what really bothered Boeheim was the Orange’s inability to finish close to the basket. He pointed to Fair and junior forward Kris Joseph as the two main culprits.

‘As long as they doubled him,’ Boeheim said of Jackson, ‘we got great shots because two times he got his passes out of the basket, and Kris was in the run, too.

‘And Kris and C.J. didn’t finish.’

One play in the first half was a perfect example. Fair got the ball down low underneath the basket with no Cardinal in the immediate vicinity. But he waited too long to go up for the easy layup or dunk, and his shot was blocked by senior guard Preston Knowles.

Knowles grabbed the loose ball and raced out in transition, and eventually Louisville center Terrence Jennings tipped in a miss on a rebound. This came during the early stages of the Cardinals’ 21-4 run to end the first half that left Syracuse staring at a 10-point halftime deficit.

‘When you don’t finish, that leads to a fast breakout,’ Boeheim said. ‘You have to finish those. I didn’t think we were tough enough in those situations, and I was disappointed in that.’

Louisville stopped Jackson, and the rest of the Orange couldn’t do enough to compensate. By the time he did get going — late in the second half as Syracuse mounted a comeback — it was too late.

For the second straight game, Jackson was left frustrated. For the second straight game, the opposing team stopped him and the SU offense as a whole.

Said Jackson: ‘When you’re down 20, it’s hard to come back and win.’

Melo sits, Moussa Keita starts

Noticeably absent from Saturday’s starting lineup was much beleaguered freshman center Fab Melo.

Boeheim said Melo didn’t play because he missed practice Friday. He would not elaborate on why Melo missed practice and added that Melo is ‘done playing for now.’

Melo practiced Sunday in the Carrier Dome in preparation for Monday’s game at home against West Virginia.

In the SU locker room after the loss to Louisville, Melo said a personal issue at home in Brazil kept him out of practice Friday.

‘It’s just some personal problems with my family in Brazil,’ Melo said. ‘It just wasn’t in my head to practice. That’s why I didn’t go.’

Fellow freshman Baye Moussa Keita earned his first career start in place of Melo, who had started in 24 of 25 games this season. Melo said Boeheim told him as long as he practiced with the team before West Virginia, he would play Monday.

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on February 11, 2011 at 12:00 pm