Simply put, Marquette is a team that just can’t catch a break this season.

They’ve lost four Big East games by a combined margin of six points, with two of those losses coming on last-second shots by the opposition. To boot, they just lost by one to DePaul as the Blue Demons broke their 0-24 Big East skid on Wednesday night. Their inability to close games out is reminiscent of the 2007-08 SU team, but without the excuse of a short bench resulting from injuries.

Yes, it’s easy to see why some of their fans are starting to creep up towards the ledge, but more reasonable fans see a team that stuck with #4 Villanova till the very end – twice in one week – and beat the Hoyas, who could be a top-ten team come Monday. Toss in a neutral court win against Xavier and what you have is the best 11-7 team in recent memory, with a KenPom rating higher than 9 teams in this week’s AP poll.

That being said, it’s late January and Buzz Williams’ team is still winless in true road games this season. Nothing would push their naysayers back onto firm ground like a victory over Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. I’ll stop short of calling this one a trap game, but if SU is already looking to Monday’s game against Georgetown, they could be in some real trouble Saturday afternoon.

The Golden Eagles lean heavily on the crutch of their deadly three-point shooting. The long range attack is led by Darius Johnson-Odom, one of the best newcomers in the Big East. He packs some serious heat, carrying a 51.3 percentage from beyond the arc. Joining the perimeter attack are Maurice Acker and Lazar Hayward, who is one of those players you swear has been playing college ball for 8 years, no matter what the facts say. Brandon Triche, Andy Rautins and Scoop Jardine are definitely going to have their hands full on defense. If Marquette’s barrage becomes too much, the ‘Cuse will need a 4th consecutive showstopper effort from Rautins.

As for SU’s frontline attack, they will again have a major advantage down low. Marquette’s glaring weakness is its size, or lack thereof. As a team, they rank second to last in the Big East in rebounds per game and have blocked just 43 shots all season. For reference, Rick Jackson has 37 blocks on the year.

My three keys to the game for SU:

1. Enjoy the Home Cooking

SU is returning to the Dome after a daunting road challenge of three games in one week, which the Orange passed with flying colors. On top of that, the students are back from Winter Break. The loud house shall be rocking.

2. Temper Marquette’s 3-Point Attack

We all know the three point shot is a zone killer. Marquette has four guys who can go unconscious and leads the nation in three point fg percentage. Need I say more?

3. Feed The Post

SU needs to work from the inside out. Onuaku will require the attention of at least two Marquette players when he gets the ball, and once he establishes post presence, it will create plenty of opportunities for open looks from the outside.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 12:15 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.