WEST VIRGINIA LOOKS TO END ORANGE RUN IN NYC

March 13, 2009



WOW!




WOW!!


That pretty much sums up Thursday night at Madison Square Garden. First, Pittsburgh fell to West Virginia, spoiling everyone's hope for a third match-up, and second in less than a week, between Pitt and Connecticut. Now, that game seems to have happened days ago because it was upstaged as the story in NYC this week by the incredible game that followed between Syracuse and Connecticut.

The Orange let a seven-point lead slip away in the final three minutes and change and then saw a potential buzzer-beating three-pointer from Eric Devendorf that would have won the game come a fraction of a second too late and were forced to go to overtime against the more-rested Huskies. Afterall, SU played a pretty emotionally charged game the night before against Seton Hall. Through FIVE, yes, count them FIVE, overtimes, the Orange seemed to battle uphill, never leading for a single second in any of the overtimes. Yet, they made their foul shots, got timely buckets from the three-point line from Andy Rautins and, kept knotting the score to force another extra session. Finally, in the sixth overtime, a Andy Rautins three and Paul Harris (finally) converted a couple shots in close and SU took an eight-point lead and this one would stand as SU upset UConn 127-117 in a six overtime CLASSIC.

Wow!


Will the Orange have ANYTHING left tonight?


Here are some pregame previews and stories on tonight's match-up:

Six Overtimes (Syracuse Post-Standard)
Special Freshman Give Huggins' Game Plan a Boost (Times West Virginian)
WVU Upsets Rival Pitt, Advances to BE Quarterfinals (Daily Mail)
WVU's 1-3-1 Zone Stymies Panthers (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

By the time 9:30 tonight rolls around, Syracuse and West Virginia both would need to put Thursday night behind them. Each team probably has accomplished what they set out to do in NYC this week, win their opener and knock off their top rival, now they both have a real shot at staying in Madison Square Garden for the duration of the 2009 Big East Tournament.

Of course, the question on everyone's mind, will Syracuse have anything left?

This is not a real deep team, usually playing a seven-man rotation with a cameo appearance here and there from an 8th player. In two nights, they have played 110 minutes of basketball, completing a 3-hour, 40-minute plus epic showdown after 1 AM on Friday morning against the Huskies. Now, they need to pick back up and go after the Mountaineers, a team they cruised past in the regular season, 74-61, at the Carrier Dome.

Bob Huggins' team got through their first two days with toughness and tenacity. Despite shooting just 36% in their opening win over Notre Dame, WVU dominated the boards and their athletic ability and speed buried the Irish early. The ultimate test of toughness came Thursday night when WWVU out-toughed the big, bad Panthers and shocked their rival 74-60.

In their first meeting, the SU zone caused the young Mountaineers a lot of trouble. Freshman Darryl 'Truck' Bryant will be in the spotlight once again as he will need to do a much better job of attacking the zone to hit the seams and spot shooter Alex Ruoff open for a wing jumper. Also, look for WVU to get the ball in the high-post area, likely with Devin Ebanks, and use their versatility to attack SU from inside. Ebanks and Da'Sean Butler are very capable scorers.

For Syracuse, they have size in Arinze Onuaku and Rick Jackson and they will need to use it and try to get easy baskets near the hoop. They will also need to attack the boards with some intensity because WVU will go after rebounds from every angle and position.

Both SU and WVU also need to avoid falling into a trap that might have hirt both Pitt and UConn, they need to focus on there here and now...not what happened last night. Whichever team is able to do that, I think will be the winner. In this case, since they did not have to grind through 70 minutes of basketball into the wee hours of the morning, look for the Mountaineers to have a bit more in the tank and follow the lead of the exploding Devin Ebanks and get another impressive win.

NBE Blogger Prediction:

West Virginia 74
Syracuse 68