With or without Tobias Harris in tow, the Orange will make its way to Madison Square Garden Thursday for the first time since last season’s historic Big East Tournament run. The final rounds of the 2K Sports Classic also include North Carolina, Ohio State (who beat the Orange at MSG two years ago) and SU’s opponent for Thursday night, California. It’s a major test early on for SU, who comes in ranked 25th, suddenly staring up at three teams in the top 15. The two rounds at MSG also include an impressive quartet of coaches with over 2100 wins and ten Final Fours shared between Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams, Mike Montgomery and Thad Matta.

Just three games in, the front of SU’s zone faces perhaps its toughest challenge of the year with the possible exception of Villanova. The Golden Bears have garnered a lot of attention since last season for their hot outside shooting. Last season, they led the nation in 3PT percentage at 42.7% and return their best gunners in a senior triple threat of Jerome Randle, Patrick Christopher and Theo Robertson. They are the main reason why Cal was tapped to win the Pac-10.

Those players have picked up right where they left off, going a combined 10-21 from long range in the nascent season. If SU is going to win Thursday night, the top factor will be perimeter defense, because they can’t win trading threes for twos. It will be the job of Andy Rautins, Brandon Triche and Scoop Jardine to keep the ‘Cuse from getting Rhode Island’d to death.

SU’s bigs should have no trouble whatsoever dominating Cal’s post players, whose regulars top out vertically at 6′8″ (Sorry, 7′3″ Max Zhang. Maybe one day.). It’ll be business as usual down low for Wes Johnson, AO and Rick Jackson, as long as Brandon Triche and Scoop Jardine continue to get them the ball in mistake-free fashion.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 12:10 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.