Basketball to Rendezvous with ’Cuse

After dismantling the defending national champion North Carolina Tar Heels by 16 points Friday night in the 2K Sports Classic Championship at Madison Square Garden, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim issued a warning to his team.

“I told them one thing,” Boeheim said. “Tuesday night is going to be the toughest game they’ve had all year, so hopefully they are ready for that.”

That’s high praise for a veteran Cornell (2-1, 0-0 Ivy) squad that opened up its season with back-to-back victories on the road at Alabama and Massachusetts before snapping a 21-game home winning streak with a loss to Seton Hall last Friday. Tonight the Red will travel an hour north on I-81 for a 7 p.m. tipoff against Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. [4]‘Orange’ you glad to see me?: Senior guard Louis Dale (12) drives against Seton Hall on Friday night. Dale is averaging 13.7 points per game for the Red.

The No. 10 ranked Orange men have five players who average double figures and boast one of the nation’s top forwards, Wesley Johnson. The 6-7 junior transfer from Iowa State leads Syracuse (4-0, 0-0 Big East) with 17.3 points per game and 7.5 rebounds per game. Johnson’s 25 points and eight rebounds in an 87-71 championship victory over the then sixth-ranked Tar Heels and his 17-point, 11-rebound effort against the then 13th-ranked California Golden Bears in the semifinals earned him the tournament’s most valuable player award.

“I saw all his games so far at Syracuse, and I’m extremely impressed,” said head coach Steve Donahue. “I don’t think there are many players like him in college basketball. He’s probably one of the top players in the country. It would not surprise me if he ends up going high in the NBA draft when he decides to come out.”

In terms of match ups, it will be leading scorer pitted against leading scorer as senior forward Ryan Wittman will be guarding Johnson on defense for the Red. Coach Donahue also expects to use senior forward Alex Tyler, junior forward Adam Wire and freshman forward Errick Peck to slow Johnson down on offense.

“I watched a couple of their games earlier in the year,” Wittman said. “[Johnson is] a really talented player. He’s about 6-7, 6-8, and he can shoot the ball, which makes it really tough. He can also put it on the floor. Whenever he touches the ball, we’re going to have to have great defensive pressure. It’s not going to be just one guy guarding him. Our whole team is going to have to be aware of where he’s at the entire game. We’ll have our hands full with him.”

Syracuse’s size and athleticism has proved to be a lethal combination in Coach Boeheim’s patented 2-3 zone defense. The Orange has held opponents to under 40 percent from the field and 30 percent from 3-point range this season and has forced its opponents to turn the ball over 23.5 times per game.

“Like most people, when we play against a zone, we have to do a really good job of taking care of the ball,” Donahue said. “I think what Syracuse does besides playing a terrific zone with great athletes is they have great energy and really pressure the ball almost to the point where they’re trapping it. You have to be poised and tough with the ball and make good decisions under a lot of pressure. … What they do as good as anybody in the country is convert [turnovers] into points, not just setting up [shots], but they transition so well to the offensive end.”

“Last year, they played us all man, but this year they’ve really been doing a good job of playing zone,” Wittman said. “They have a lot of length. Generally, when other teams play a zone, it opens up the 3-point line a little bit more, but they have such great length and athleticism, which might discourage the 3-point shot a little bit more. In practice, we’ve been working on trying to get the ball inside the zone and trying to get it down low.”

The Red will attempt to snap a 31-game losing skid against the Orange. Cornell’s last victory over Syracuse dates back to 1968. The Red nearly shocked the college basketball world last season when it jumped out to an early 16-point lead at the Carrier Dome and entered the half with a 40-35 advantage. Despite a career-high 33-point effort from Wittman, the Orange men shot 75 percent from the field in the second half to capture an 88-78 victory.

The Carrier Dome, which seats over 33,000, can be an intimidating stage for opponents, but it is unlikely the Red will be fazed since this is the third trip in three years Cornell will make up I-81 and most Syracuse students will be on their way home for Thanksgiving Break.

While neither the players nor the coaches put much stock into the size of the crowd, similar to Coach Boeheim, Coach Donahue acknowledges the significance of this match up.

“I think this is as good as a team as we’ll face all year. and in all honesty as good as a team as there is in the country right now.”