Go West, Young Men

Go West, Young Men

The Syracuse University men’s basketball team started the season out West.

Now the goal is to make sure it doesn’t end there.

After reaching the championship game of the Big East Tournament this past weekend, the Orange (26-9) received a No. 4 seed in the East Region of the NCAA Tournament and will play its first game against No. 13-seed University of Montana (25-6) at about 10 p.m. Thursday, March 21, at HP Pavilion, in San Jose, Calif.

From a travel standpoint, the seed couldn’t have been worse. SU will have to play on the first day of the tournament’s second round, and it will have to travel as far away from Syracuse as you’re going to get.

But at least the Orange has some experience with the three-hour time difference. SU opened this season with a 62-49 win over then-No. 20 San Diego State on Nov. 11 in San Diego in the “Battle of the Midway,” on the deck of the retired aircraft carrier USS Midway.

“I think it is easier for us having already done the five-hour plane ride,” said Orange senior guard Brandon Triche. “I think we have been battle-tested and are ready for anything that is thrown at us.”

The Orange has already left for San Jose, so the players should have plenty of time to get adjusted to the time difference before Thursday’s game.

“You just have to go,” Coach Jim Boeheim said. “Get on a plane and go. When you’re in the NCAA Tournament, there are no complaints.”

The Orange, which lost four of its final five regular-season games, found its mojo at the Big East Tournament at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. SU defeated Seton Hall, Pittsburgh and Georgetown (take that, John Thompson!) before blowing a 16-point second-half lead to Louisville and losing 78-61 in the Big East title game.

Louisville, incidentally, is the No. 1 seed overall in the NCAA Tournament, and the Orange and Cardinals are two of eight Big East Conference teams in the Big Dance—the most of any conference.

“We are obviously happy to be in the tournament again, and we’re happy with the way we played in New York,” Boeheim said. “We were obviously able to go down there and beat Pittsburgh, a team we had not beaten in the regular season, and Georgetown, a team that beat us twice.

“So, we think we’re playing at a much higher level. With Louisville being the No. 1 seed in the tournament, we did have a substantial lead in the second half against them, so we know we were playing better. We’re looking forward to this tournament.”

The Big East Tournament gave the Orange a chance to reset after its sluggish finish to the regular season. The NCAA Tournament will give SU an opportunity to build on the 3 outstanding games it played in New York City.

“I feel like going into the tournament we need to focus on how our team is doing,” SU senior forward James Southerland said. “You have to go in and do what you do. That is what got us in, and if we continue doing that, we will be fine.”

The Orange will face a Montana team that defeated Weber State 67-64 Saturday night to win the Big Sky Conference Tournament for the third time in the past four years. The Grizzlies, who have won 21 of their past 23 games, are making their 10th trip to the NCAA Tournament. Montana has won two tournament games: against Utah State, in 1975, and Nevada, in 2006.

“It’s going to be a challenge,” Grizzlies fourth-year coach Wayne Tinkle said. “They are really long and athletic. They play zone {defense}, and we’ve struggled at times against a zone.

“But we’re going to be confident,” Tinkle said. “We’ve got guys who can shoot and make plays. We are riding a great wave of momentum.”

Against Weber State, junior swingman Kareem Jamar had 20 points, and point guard Will Cherry added 18 as the Grizzlies won the tournament title despite the absence of leading scorer Mathias Ward, a senior forward who is out after having foot surgery earlier this month.

Jamar, who is 6-foot-5 and the Big Sky Tournament MVP for the second consecutive year, averages 14.5 points per game and leads the Grizzlies in rebounding (6.0 per game) and assists (4.1 per game). He’s averaged nearly 18 points per game in the last eight games.

Cherry, the team’s senior leader, is averaging 13.9 points and 4.2 rebounds per game.

If the Orange defeats Montana, it will face either No. 5 seed UNLV or No. 12 California in the next round, Saturday, March 23, in San Jose.

“They’re a good basketball team,” Boeheim said of the Grizzlies. “Obviously we’ve looked at the bracket; California’s right there, UNLV’s close by (San Jose), so it’s a tremendous challenge for us, but we’re looking forward to it.”

A No. 4 seed has lost to a No. 13 seed in each of the past four years, and who can forget No. 13 Vermont upsetting No. 4 Syracuse in the 2005 tournament? As soon as the Syracuse-Montana pairing was announced, CBS Sports’ Seth Davis picked the Grizzlies to upset the Orange.

But Boeheim, who will be coaching in his 30th NCAA Tournament, said the Orange isn’t feeling any additional pressure because of the history with No. 4 seeds.

“Whether we’re No. 1 or 4 or 5 or 6, it doesn’t matter,” Boeheim said. “We feel we can win, and when we go out to play, we go out and think we’re going to win whatever game we play. Without that attitude, you wouldn’t beat Pittsburgh or Georgetown in New York.”

Montana’s next: SU gained some redemption for a horrible finish to the regular season with a strong performance in the Big East tournament. The team faces the Montana Grizzlies Thursday, March 21, in its first game of the NCAA tourney.

Orange Slices: The Orange is appearing in its 36th NCAA Tournament and has a 55-35 record in the Big Dance. . . SU and Montana have never played.

Montana coach Tinkle is a former Grizzlies’ standout who is one of only 15 cur rent Division I coaches who scored more than 1,500 points in his college career. He’s also married to former Lady Griz basketball star Lisa McLeod, and one of their daughters, Joslyn, is a senior starter at Stanford.

—Matt Michael