Syracuse is BACK IN THE BUILDING:
For the Syracuse basketball team, the last few days have been a whirlwind. The Orange won two games in Miami last weekend to advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, traveled back to Syracuse Sunday night for two days and hopped back on a plane Wednesday for Memphis, Tenn.
Not ideal for downtime. Or celebration.
Despite all of that, Jonny Flynn still had time to call Paul Harris Monday night. Not to devise a scheme to stop Oklahoma’s star forward Blake Griffin. Not to dream up how to best attack the Sooners’ defense. No, Flynn called Harris just to talk and, for a moment, revel in the moment.
‘Jonny Flynn called me last night, and that’s all he was talking about, is we’re in the Sweet 16, and the last couple of years we’ve been in the NIT,’ Harris said Tuesday.
Syracuse (28-9) will take on No. 2 seed Oklahoma (29-5) tomorrow night at FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn., in the Sweet 16. The victor will advance to the Elite Eight and play for a chance at the Final Four against the winner of North Carolina-Gonzaga. It is the first time the Orange has reached the Sweet 16 since 2004, when Syracuse lost to Alabama in Phoenix.
More is riding on Friday’s game than just a spot in the Elite Eight. An SU win would give head coach Jim Boeheim his 800th career victory. He would become the eighth coach in history to reach that mark. Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun was the last to enter the prestigious club.
So in case the players needed any extra motivation, they also have a chance to make history, even if the team is trying to look past it.
‘That would be huge for him,’ shooting guard Andy Rautins said. ‘That’s a milestone, and it certainly would be big. But our goal is to just take it as another game, and we’re not looking to get coach his win.
‘And I don’t think he’s thinking like that, either.’
To move on, the Orange will have to find a way to contain Griffin, the overwhelming favorite to win national player of the year honors. The 6-foot-10 forward averages 22.5 points per game and leads the country with 14.4 rebounds per game. In the first round of the Tournament against Morgan State, he scored 28 points and grabbed 13 boards. He followed that up with 33 and 17 two days later against Michigan.
Griffin was the conversation focus when Syracuse met with a horde of local media Tuesday afternoon. Boeheim prematurely cut off his press conference because he felt every question asked was about the same topic.
Nevertheless, the onus will be on center Arinze Onuaku and power forward Rick Jackson to keep Griffin in check. Even though he has gone up against top big men in Big East play like Connecticut’s Hasheem Thabeet and Pittsburgh’s DaJuan Blair, Onuaku said Griffin is in a different class all to himself.
‘He’s a guy that’s versatile but also strong around the rim,’ Onuaku said. ‘He doesn’t really model anyone we’ve seen in the Big East.’
The stakes have risen for Syracuse in the last couple weeks. Since making its magical run to the Big East tournament final at Madison Square Garden, the Orange has become one of the nation’s darlings. Expectations have increased.
While reaching the Sweet 16 may have been an acceptable goal a few months ago, that is no longer the case.
‘In the beginning of the year, our goal was just to get into the Tournament,’ Harris said. ‘But now, we’re here, we want to win it all.’
Published on March 25, 2009 at 12:00 pm
