Than Louisville and its not even close....Cuse hasnt had our number like Louisville has...Pitino owns MU basically in the last 5 years at least...the only time Syracuse ever had an advantage over us was with size with guys like Arinze Onuaku and Rick Jackson. Well, they no longer can pound the hell outta us down low.
Agree. Cuse is a tough team and will be a tough game but its winnable. You have to beat some good teams to the Final Four, its just the way it is.
Glad we could avoid Louisville until Atlanta.
Agree, I think MU has the advantage down low. Cuse isnt as good inside as they usually are. Also, our guards will hang with theirs and should be able to turn them over. Hopefully they are actively trying to get the ball at the free throw line or high post earlier to open things up. Seems like they settled for a lot of jumpers early in the game last time which caused them to get down. Fair and southerland are the two guys that could kill MU. They are studs and will be a hand full. Both had good games last time so they shouldn't surprise MU.
I expect huge games out of Cadougan and Jamil Wilson. I think Cadougan will really try and attack the zone and hit the elbow jumper. He's gotten pretty good at that. He also had a few steals against cuse last time so hopefully he can contain mcw again. I see Wilson hitting some big threes and being huge on the defensive glass. The defensive glass is also where I see Lockett being effective in this one. Feel good about this match-up. It'll be a tough but winnable game. I'm not sure I'd say the same if MU was playing Florida or ville.
I would have rather played IU. Said yesterday Cuse was a better team and I still do. It is gonna be a tough game.
Not sure if he's ready, but I think Steve Taylor is gonna have to play a key role tomorrow. He's the best middle-of-the-zone breaker we have aside from Davante.
Quote from: ErickJD08 on March 29, 2013, 03:20:50 PM
I would have rather played IU. Said yesterday Cuse was a better team and I still do. It is gonna be a tough game.
I think I'd rather play Cuse. I just don't like our matchups against IU. Considering the roll the Orange are on, it's almost a push, but we're not on such a bad roll ourselves.
Of the remaining teams, I'd rather play Syracuse than Louisville, Florida, Kansas or Duke.
I'd rather play FGCU, Wichita State or Oregon than Syracuse.
I see Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State as approximately equal challenges as Syracuse.
Having said that, I think Syracuse is a really really good team. But we know they can be beaten. And we know how to do it.
Agree w all of this
Quote from: RushmoreAcademy on March 29, 2013, 03:24:24 PM
I think I'd rather play Cuse. I just don't like our matchups against IU. Considering the roll the Orange are on, it's almost a push, but we're not on such a bad roll ourselves.
I thought IU struggles against your 'tough' teams and I think they would have struggled against us. With the re-watch against Cuse, I thought the first time around they did not come with the same intensity that MU came with. If they play tough, I think Cuse have the edge.
With that said, I think Gardner is the key. No one on that team can match up against him and Gardner can frustrate them. If he plays well, I think it becomes a coin flip.
I'd rather play Syracuse than Louisville too, but seeing as we wouldn't play UL until the final, not sure where this is coming from. Just in terms of which Big East team?
I really wanted Indiana because I felt very confident we would beat them. I feel that playing Syracuse is a coin-flip game. We have recent history on our side, are familiar with and know how to beat their zone, and are playing our best ball of the season. But Syracuse also knows us. Boeheim knows how Buzz coaches and while he hasn't had much success of late (except for one home win where the 'Cuse almost choked up a huge first half lead) I feel Boeheim is better suited to make adjustments to what we do than Crean ever could.
It should be a great game, no matter what our Syracuse troll thinks, and I think if we played 100 times, we'd win 51. I am looking forward to ritualistically slaying and devouring an orange tomorrow before the game as a sacrifice to the basketball gods to give us the strength to defeat the 'Cuse.
Quote from: BrewCity BallCrusher on March 29, 2013, 03:28:10 PM
But we know they can be beaten. And we know how to do it.
And THAT is why I'm not only not nervous/anxious about tomorrow's game, I'm excited for it!
I wanted to play IN because beating them when everyone had them penciled in as the Champs in preseason would be sweet plus taking one from Crean would have made it twice as sweet.
Is it the same refs as yesterday out there? they were letting the big guys play in our game, especially down low and i think if they call a physical game like that again it is gonna end up hurting us a little bit. One of the main reasons we were able to take cuse earlier this year was because of the free throws that Gardner was picking up.