After a close call last Friday night on the road against South Florida, SU will square off Wednesday against DePaul, which is Spanish for “Of Paul.” The Blue Demons currently sit at 8-7, 0-2 in Big East play, down there with USF in the ugly bottom tier of the conference. DePaul has had some chances to establish themselves against good teams like Cal, UCLA and starting off conference play with a loss to Notre Dame, but they have no quality wins and perhaps even worse, are just 1 out of their last ten in conference road games. They’ll look to reverse that trend against the Orange when they visit the Carrier Dome.

The Blue Demons are led by Mac Koshwal and Dar Tucker, and as much as we hear about Thabeet, Harangody, Samuels and Blair, I find Koshwal to be one of the more underrated frontcourt players in the conference. He’s averaging a double-double and has posted six straight games with at least ten boards. In the zone, Koshwal may occasionally draw Rick Jackson, but it’s been a few weeks since AO has had a real defensive test in the post, and I think that’s what Koshwal will provide.

Offensively,in a similar fashion to Memphis, DePaul loves to chuck the three, but has experienced big-time struggles when it comes to sinking them. They’re among the nation’s worst teams in three-point percentage, clocking in at 27.1%, so the Orange might want to find some comfortable couches and pop some popcorn because they should be sitting very comfortably in the zone all night.

Another important stat to keep in mind is that DePaul is in the top 10% of the country in offensive rebounds. To me, allowing an offensive rebound is about as bad as a turnover because they give the opposition extra chances. Against the zone, DePaul will have to keep active on the offensive glass to have any chance in this one; otherwise, it could get ugly because the Blue Demons as a team are downright anemic from the field.

The Orange, fresh off cracking the top ten in the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll, is looking to contain a nagging but minor injury bug, as Jonny Flynn, Paul Harris and Eric Devendorf have all had some aches and pains over the last few weeks. Devendorf is going through some hip troubles, but with Andy Rautins on an extended hot streak, Boeheim won’t hesitate to let Devo get some extra rest.

Paul Harris, meanwhile, sat out the USF game after jamming his finger very badly on the rim against Seton Hall. Harris has been quoted as saying there’s “no doubt” he’s going to play Wednesday, and it’s clear that his hometown teammate Jonny Flynn missed having him on the court with him in Tampa.

Speaking of Flynn, the Orange deeply needs him to get back to his old self. I know he’s always been one to play to the level of his competition, but it doesn’t mean that I have no concerns with the 1:1 A/TO ratio he’s posted in two games of Big East play against mediocre opponents. The Orange are about to go into a four-game stretch more brutal than anything I’ve ever seen before, and that’s including the onslaught of Big XII teams SU knocked off in the 2003 NCAA Tournament. If not for his own interests, Flynn needs to step it up for the momentum that can be gained by the rest of this team from his leadership.

Koshwal and Tucker will provide most of the scoring, and Will Walker will chip in as well, but after that, things look pretty bleak. The Blue Demons certainly don’t have the ability to keep up with Syracuse’s balanced attack, the best-shooting team in the Big East. Depaul has topped 80 points in just three of their 15 games, while SU averages 81 a game. The writing is on the wall here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 12:20 am by Brian G. . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.