A recurring element in SU’s slide of six losses in eight games has been deadeye three-point shooting by the opposition, as the Orange have let them fall at an alarming 46% clip (55-117) in the collective defeats.  In each loss, SU has allowed at least six threes. Contested or open, from 40 feet away or just beyond the arc, the Orange’s perimeter defense over the last month has been anemic at best and embarrassing at worst. Some good news comes on Monday, though, as their opponent, the West Virginia Mountaineers, offers a much more limited three-point arsenal. Casey Mitchell, the team’s leading scorer, can shoot it, but he’s been on a cold streak, having gone just 7-27 (26%) over his last six games from long range. Dalton Pepper is a good shooter as well, but isn’t a true threat in the mold of the Kyle Kurics and Preston Knowleses of the world.

While Mitchell is its leading scorer, West Virginia thrives on bruisers Kevin Jones, John Flowers, and Deniz Kilicli. Cam Thoroughman, while not as talented, epitomizes the physical Big East style every bit as Rick Jackson does – just watch the video below. The tough style of play is exemplified in their offensive rebounding percentage of 40.6%, the sixth-best rate in the nation.

To navigate that challenge, Rick Jackson will have to adjust to the attention defenses have devoted to him recently and restate his case as the conference’s best rebounder. He can’t do it alone, though – CJ Fair will have to step up once again, especially with Baye Moussa Keita being hampered by a wrist problem.

West Virginia has a 16-8 record at present, and the Mountaineers and Orange have four wins against the top 50 in RPI to their record (*aside – that SU win over Notre Dame win is looking better by the week). With a home crowd behind them and an unsightly four-game home losing streak on their resume if they lose and possible drop from the rankings, the Orange should have plenty of motivation to pull this one out. While SU likes to run, the Mountaineers prefer a slower pace (as in 63 possessions per game, good for 304th out of 345 D-I schools), so it shouldn’t be very difficult to get Bob Huggins and his crew out of its comfort zone. It looks like tonight is the night for the Orange to win again at the Dome.

The benching of Fab Melo may have been the first signal, but by the time Louisville nearly ran the Orange out of the gym with a lethal 32-6 run, a win on Saturday just wasn’t meant to be. Credit Syracuse for climbing back into it and making this one a game, but the lack of focus on defense for an entire 40 minutes continues to plague the team. Having beaten the Orange seven straight times, Rick Pitino has the first-edition, dog-eared-to-tatters version of how to beat the Syracuse zone, and he put it on display late in the first half. During their big run, Syracuse lost Louisville’s primary three-point weapons, Kyle Kuric and Preston Knowles, along the perimeter; they got through the paint for easy baskets, and sliced up the Orange in the high post. SU did an admirable job adjusting while they answered in the second half, but the hole was simply too big.

With Kris Joseph struggling mightily and Louisville’s defense putting the drapes on Rick Jackson the whole game, Brandon Triche and Scoop Jardine stepped up. Triche made four threes in the second half on his way to 21 points, a personal career best in conference play. The early knock on this team was the lack of a go-to scorer in big moments. As Syracuse fans, we’ve been spoiled by Gerry McNamara, Wes Johnson and Andy Rautins. While we hoped Kris Joseph would run with that torch this year, he hasn’t. Perhaps Triche can develop into that kind of player, but I’d rather see him blossom as a facilitator (though perhaps he can do both).

Jardine made his usual handful of mistakes, but otherwise played well. If the Orange had a true point guard to facilitate the offense while posing a scoring threat, I don’t think Jardine would make as many errors as he has this season. Followers of the team (myself included) can get in the habit of magnifying Jardine’s decision-making – who didn’t see a few rushed three-pointers coming after he made his first two? – but the criticism also reflects how important he is to the team’s success or failure, and it puts even more pressure on Scoop when you look at the lack of offense that Keita and Melo bring to the table.

The front court was jumbled a bit when it was reported shortly before the game that Fab Melo would not start after missing practice this week. His absence appears to have been family-related, which could mean a number of things, but until he’s back in the mix, you just have to hope he gets his affairs in order soon so he can get back to focusing on basketball. Reports indicate he practiced on Sunday, so we’ll just have to see what Jim Boeheim meant when he said that “he’s not playing for now” in his postgame press conference.

In the meantime, however, that meant a well-earned start for Baye Moussa Keita, who began with four early rebounds, but contributed marginally in 15 minutes. Going from almost certainly redshirting the season to starting shows how hard he’s worked, but it also reflects the trevails in the back of the zone this season.

Those challenges don’t seem apply to CJ Fair, though, at least not right now. As raw as Melo and Keita are, Fair has a basketball IQ as advanced as you’ll find for a freshman, which is especially surprising when you recall how quickly recruiters moved away from him after he had surgery. His court awareness is superb, and until opponents recognize the fight he brings to rebounders and account for him accordingly (Fair’s averaging seven rebounds and two blocks per game in his last three games, plus ten points), he’s going to continue to have these kinds of games.

The biggest takeaway from this game is that opponents are executing against the zone without much of a challenge, particularly from the perimeter. The Orange isn’t flocking to trap when players pick up the dribble like it did last team, it isn’t defending the three, and it lacks the go-to scorer and focus to navigate the Big East schedule with consistency. There are chances to regroup, but it’s suddenly mid-February and the Orange is looking at missing out on a first-round bye in the conference tournament.

For me at least, Louisville is one of those teams where it seems like the players always stick around forever, despite the fact that they only have one senior contributing significant minutes this season. It’s probably the fact that they’ve faced off against the Orange twice in each of the last two seasons, or the way that the six straight losses by Jim Boeheim to Rick Pitino tend to linger. This feeling isn’t unique to Louisville, though, as I’m pretty sure the likes of Scottie Reynolds and Levance Fields waged many a war against Lazarus Sims and Jason Hart (they didn’t).

Turning to this year’s Louisville team, they’re improved from last season’s 20-13 squad, but they’ve overcome a rash of injuries in doing so. They’ve simply survived in a season where only three players in the Cardinal rotation – Peyton Siva, Chris Smith and reserve Stephan Van Treese – have seen court time in all 24 games. When healthy, they’re deep as usual, but with Earl Clark and Samardo Samuels gone, the level of athleticism and talent has dipped from what we saw out of the Cardinals in 2010.

The Cardinals have displayed a massive reliance on the long ball. Their 585 attempts on the season are good for 14th in the nation and second to Michigan among power conference schools, and 40.8% of their shot attempts come from behind the arc. Contrast that with the national average of around 33% and SU’s mark of 31.9%, and it’s a very distinct disparity. In addition to the Wolverines, the Orange have played two teams ahead of Louisville on that list (Northern Iowa and William and Mary) so their experience against teams with such a high preference of firing away should come in handy. Considering how much they like to shoot it, they’re only fifth in the conference in three-point percentage, and even with the Hoyas’ success at the Dome on Wednesday, SU has defended the three adequately over the last few games.

In typical Louisville style, the Cardinals have won games they shouldn’t have and lost games they shouldn’t have. They mounted a furious 18-point comeback against Marquette last month, and a week later dropped a stinker in Providence. Despite coming up short against Drexel in one of the conference’s more embarrassing non-conference losses in recent memory, they went into Storrs and eeked out a one-point win which started the Huskies’ recent slide. Such is life in the Big East. Louisville is 2-4 in conference play away from the new KFC YUM! Center (shudder), compared to an undefeated mark at home against Big East opponents. Given SU’s string of four straight home losses, however, maybe it’s not so bad for Syracuse to be back on the road for the fourth time in five games.

With the Orange having lost five out of seven, many fans are wondering what kind of hope is on the horizon. While I don’t encourage anyone jumping overboard with several chances remaining for the ‘Cuse to right the ship, two SU commits in the class of 2011, Michael Carter-Williams and Rakeem Christmas, will be on their way to Chicago for the McDonald’s All-American game taking place March 30. Carter-Williams, who committed to Syracuse early on, is a lanky 6’5 guard who scores in volume, and has absolutely blown up this season. He’s unique in that he can slash (though without the moves of a Dion Waiters) and be a deep threat. He’s working on developing his instincts, which would be a welcome addition considering some of the decisions we’ve seen Scoop Jardine and Waiters make.

Christmas, a 6’9 forward out of Philadelphia with an enormous wingspan, pledged his allegiance in August, will be reiled upon to pick up the slack down low, mostly on defense, after Rick Jackson graduates. Despite a disappointing performance on national television last month, he’s made a name for himself as a shot-blocking presence. As with Fab Melo and Baye Moussa Keita, there’s a lot to be desired from Christmas on offense, as his footwork and fundamentals have a long ways to go. Projecting down the line, Christmas will have a decent chance to play a significant role as soon as next season, but at this point, it appears as though a lot will hinge on what kind of steps Fab Melo takes over the summer in his development and conditioning.

Wednesday night, Syracuse and Georgetown added another memorable chapter to their storied rivalry, but memorable for all the wrong reasons if you’re an Orange fan. Rick Jackson battled serious foul trouble for the first time all season, and an odd thing happened in that while he was on the bench, saddled with four fouls early in the second half, the Orange took the lead and actually stuffed some cushion into it. Confidence was high – the Orange had an edge in the post even with Jackson riding the pine, and with SU’s younger group faring so well, it was difficult to imagine the Orange giving up the lead.

Jackson re-entered the game with 5:37 left, and the Orange backcourt rarely looked for him. On top of his absence, the Hoyas took advantage of a handful of Syracuse miscues. Perhaps most damaging was Scoop Jardine’s turnover with three minutes remaining. After zipping a bullet past Baye Moussa Keita, rather than sealing off Austin Freeman in transition, he lightly backpedaled, allowing for an easy pass and finish for the Hoyas, which broke a 55-55 tie. The gaffe perpetuated a 15-3 run by Georgetown over the last 6:35 to send Syracuse home, winless at the Dome in three tries since its January 15 win over Cincinnati.

After a road game against Louisville, the Orange will return home on February 14, which means that the Orange will have gone almost a month without a win at the Loud House.  A team whose ceiling involves playing beyond the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament can’t have that on their resume and expect to get very far, but that’s a post for another day.

Back to the game, aiding in the collapse was the disappearance of Kris Joseph. Joseph was among several Orange players whose style of play was affected by the game’s tight officiating. He was whistled for three charges, and while it’s easy to go ahead and blame the refs, great players show the ability to make adjustments to the officiating, just as they show the ability to find weaknesses when defenses adjust their gameplans to give them more attention. That’s not what we saw out of SU’s junior who was expected to make the leap this season. Bad breaks happen – The officiating may have been suspect, as many players pointed out after the game, but at a point, the team has to recognize how the game is being called, figure out a way to win despite whatever the referees are taking away, and, most importantly, execute.

After falling behind in the waning minutes, the Orange rushed to get shots off instead of looking for them with plenty of time remaining. While Georgetown’s slow pace on offense can make a six-point lead look like a 12-point lead, I was hoping for Syracuse to not panic like they have before, especially playing in front of a crowd of over 25,000 fans. That may have been the most disappointing part of it all. Whether or not they publicly acknowledge it, the team has done a poor job handling on-court adversity, with the exception of the early hole dug against Pittsburgh. When facing challenges late in games, though, they get tunnel vision and lose sight of what makes half-court sets work (ball movement).

That’s too bad, because the late meltdown overshadows some very good play from CJ Fair, Keita and Dion Waiters. Fair, as he’s done for most of the season when healthy, converted some very tough shots inside. The Hoyas really discounted his ability to contribute on both ends, and I think that just as rookies in baseball can be successful early in their careers partially because there’s not much scouting information available, there may be a similar case on the Orange sidelines. Defenses will make adjustments as they learn Fair’s tendencies, and he has to then adjust in response. It’s going to be a lot of fun watching him as he continues to develop into a top-flight player.

Keita had to step up big, especially in the second stanza with Jackson dealing with foul trouble, and did his usual Baye thing, fighting for rebounds and loose balls, and getting back in transition faster than any Syracuse big man in my eight-year history of following the Orange. Jim Boeheim admitted after the game that Keita got tired and that’s where he started to commit fouls and fatigue led to decreased intensity. For those readers who are still racking their brains over why Boeheim hasn’t pulled Melo out of the lineup in favor of Keita, you might have some of your answer, though one could make the argument that Melo tires out even faster. He didn’t have the game he had against UConn, but without him, Syracuse would’ve really been up a creek.

Waiters took a bit of a step back offensively after parlaying his big spurt against the Huskies into another nice performance against South Florida, but his defense continues to improve. He’s averaging more than a steal per game in just 16.6 minutes per game in conference play. On offense, the production wasn’t there, but none of his shots looked forced, with the obvious exception of a desperation three with 30 seconds left in the game.

Overall, though, the game was a major disappointment and another lost opportunity. Looking at how the team lost focus late in the game, it’s damning to think about how the Orange will fare in an elimination game setting. With Louisville, a nut Jim Boeheim hasn’t cracked in a handful of years, and a Big Monday game coming up against West Virginia, things don’t get any easier.

The nature of the Big East schedule has always been intriguing to me. For whatever reason, the combination of the unbalanced fashion, the lengthy and unique 18-game marathon, and the lack of separate divisions in such a large league never fails to pique my interest.  It also probably has something to do with my origins from Big 12 country, where the schedule involves home and road games within your division, rotating home and away against the other. So in my freshman year at SU, I was initially confused as to why the Orange played its fiercest rival only once that regular season (and it was a great game by which I was introduced to the rivalry, with SU winning in overtime at the Dome).

I suppose that at the time, UConn, who were defending national champions that year, were just more desirable for TV. Georgetown was just starting to dig out of the rubble left by Craig Esherick, and had just hired John Thompson III. While the Hoyas and SU squared off once in 2004-05, the Orange played UConn twice and met once more in the conference tournament. As the Hoyas experienced more success, things started to even out from a scheduling perspective. With that in mind, how Syracuse and Georgetown got here this season, locked in at 7-4 records in conference play heading into tonight’s rivalry game, is where I’d like to start breaking down tonight’s game.

The Hoyas, as many ‘Cuse fans rejoiced at the time, started off at 1-4 in the conference, before we really know how much the conference would beat each other up. Georgetown lost to Notre Dame, beat DePaul, then dropped a Big Monday game to St. John’s and went on to slide with losses to West Virginia and Pittsburgh. Against the Red Storm, Mountaineers and Panthers, John Thompson III’s squad failed to crack 60 points. The Hoyas’ three-point attack went stale in that span, with a collective 14-54 from deep in those three games, or 26%. It couldn’t and wouldn’t last, however.

Since then, the Hoyas have reeled off six straight wins while continuing to lean on the success or failure of the three. In their current winning streak, Georgetown has gone 43-108 on threes, and their 39.8% clip is about as staggering as the fact that they’ve launched 18 threes per game since January 15. The Orange’s losing streak started two days after Georgetown snapped theirs, which provides this funny sense of equilibrium, given how deep the waters run between the schools.

Going into a stretch of playing Georgetown at the Dome, traveling to Louisville and returning for a Big Monday game against West Virginia, it was a huge relief for SU to get back on track with wins over UConn and South Florida. I felt the sense that the players were not only trying to beat Connecticut, but also trying to erase the losses all in one game. The South Florida blowout was moreso a celebration of the Orange returning to winning than an actual game in and of itself, where the only thing to pick apart was the regression of players whose importance to this year’s team is significant, but not critical.

With the distractions on and off the court gone, tonight’s  game has the team’s undivided attention. The biggest keys to victory, in my mind, include Kris Joseph returning to his explosive self. His shooting has improved over the last few games, he was one of several ‘Cuse players who faded against USF. Also important is SU’s ability to defend Georgetown’s potent perimeter attack, and if they can’t, their ability to withstand it by answering on offense. As mentioned in the USF recap, something readers may want to keep an eye on is how Brandon Triche’s playing time is handled.

Game on.

Against a struggling team like South Florida, it can be challenging to glean a lot from a team’s performance. The Orange had a sound victory to give Jim Boeheim his 33rd 20-win season, an NCAA record. The mark is mostly a testament to his success and consistency, but also his longevity. As for the game itself, SU got back in the swing of things in a few aspects, and, to be nitpicky, some Orange players missed out on the chance to gain some confidence going into the perennially important Georgetown game.

Rick Jackson posted another double-double, which at this point, is almost like saying the sun came up. The Orange have played 24 games, and Rick Jackson has posted a double-double in 16 of them. As most Syracuse fans probably know, Carmelo Anthony averaged a double-double in his single season on campus, but something fans may not be aware of is that it took Anthony one more game to hit 16 double-doubles than it did for Jackson. Obviously, Rick Jackson is not the scorer Carmelo Anthony was, and Anthony was not the rebounder Jackson is, but ‘Melo was never a slouch on the boards. Without Jackson’s consistency, it’s downright frightening to imagine where Syracuse would be.

To boot, Jackson has been especially consistent in Tampa. The following comes with a small sample size alert, but the lines Jackson has posted in two games at the St. Pete Times Forum have been uncannily similar:

-12/10/09 vs. Florida – 21 points, 11 rebounds, 9-13 from the floor.
-2/5/11 vs. USF – 21 points, 12 rebounds, 8-13 from the floor.

It’s pretty safe to say the guy likes Florida, and on top of the steady overall performances, the Sunshine State has played host to two of Jackson’s three highest-scoring games in his career (the third being a 28-point outburst in Providence in a game best remembered for its hectic pace).

Jackson’s Neuman-Goretti teammate made some maddening ballhandling decisions once again, but over Scoop Jardine’s last three games, he’s compiled an assist/turnover ratio of an even 3.0. It remains difficult to watch Jardine with the ball in his hands without getting a little squeamish, especially when it comes to his shot selection – in conference play, he’s shot a bone-dry 37% from the field, and hasn’t shot better than 50% shooting in a game since SU beat St. John’s more than three weeks ago.

As down as I get on him, I think Scoop has some added pressure due to the inconsistency of Brandon Triche. Triche had a very nondescript game, which was a bit unfortunate because it would have been nice to see him build on his strong outing against UConn. Jim Boeheim’s been looking for his sophomore to be more aggressive when he’s on the floor, but by the same token, Triche has seen his playing time decrease in every game since the Orange was blown out by Seton Hall, and he’s been favoring his back while on the bench, so I can see how it might be tough to establish momentum. Triche was absent for a generous portion of the second half against South Florida, so how much time he gets and how productive he is in the near future is certainly something to keep an eye on.

Baye Moussa Keita also had a rough go of it after playing easily the best game of his career against the Huskies. He only played six minutes, and was saddled with three fouls in the first half. He didn’t need to play a big role considering how dominant Jackson was, but with the Orange leading by double digits in the second half, it would have been a good opportunity to give him some chances in a low-pressure situation. While many have been clamoring for Boeheim to give Keita the starting nod over the continually disappointing Fab Melo, I’m not as concerned, because aside from the Pittsburgh game, the Orange’s slow starts have been mostly offense-oriented, and Keita doesn’t offer much over Melo in that department; it’s on the defensive end where Keita can be a handful. I would have a different tone if Melo looked lost for 20 minutes instead of five, but as long as the best players are getting the most minutes, the Melo/Keita starting argument is probably best left alone.

So while it was frustrating to a small extent to see the Orange miss out on an opportunity to get their less seasoned guys some experience, I can hardly argue with the final result. A resounding victory on the road is exactly what the Orange needed to keep momentum going into Wednesday’s big game against the Hoyas.

Tuesday night’s game definitely wasn’t pretty, but for now, that’s not what matters to Jim Boeheim and the Orange. More importantly, SU put to rest a four-game slide with a major win on the road over Connecticut. After another messy start, things looked dim once again, but the Orange came alive late in the first half, taking its first lead on a buzzer-beating hook from Rick Jackson to take SU into the locker room in the midst of a 22-6 run. The Orange didn’t surrender that lead the entire second half, though it was threatened with a pair of runs from the Huskies. SU prevailed largely on inspired performances from its freshmen.

Baye Moussa Keita was incredible on defense, contributing 27 hard-fought minutes off the bench during which he pulled in 11 rebounds, blocked two shots and tallied six steals. The refs let an unusually high amount of contact go unwhistled, especially when it came to scrapping for rebounds, and very few of Keita’s boards went uncontested by UConn’s strong rebounding core. His hustle also shone through during a chasedown of a Husky layup, and though he was called for goaltending, and eventually fouled out, you have to admire his passion. He didn’t contribute much production on offense, but the hoops gods rewarded Keita’s effort with an improbable basket in the second half where it looked like the center was merely trying to keep a rebound alive. Keita was openly frustrated recently with the learning curve of Big East play, so tonight’s game could have signaled a turning point where he’s more confident and things slow down for him.

Keita wasn’t alone however. CJ Fair continues to take advantage of playing time awarded to him where James Southerland couldn’t. On Tuesday night, Fair played like he was about three inches taller and 40 pounds bigger than his 6’8, 203-pound frame.  The resemblances to Josh Pace are easy to identify, especially with the running floater, but I think Fair goes much harder on the glass, though that could be because Pace often played the two with a deeper stable of forwards than what the Orange has now.

Speaking of two guards, Dion Waiters also provided a nice spark off the bench, including the defensive end, after being benched against Marquette. I was most impressed by his increased comfort in the zone. He’s still getting used to the fact that he isn’t the main option he was in high school, but when he sees an opportunity to drive, there’s no doubt he’s going to take it. He put a great crossover move on UConn for a layup during SU’s Orange’s big run.

The last individual player I want to touch on is Brandon Triche, which also means that I might be starting to take Rick Jackson’s double-doubles for granted. In any case, the sophomore played well, though it took some prodding from Boeheim to be more aggressive. He was the team’s leading scorer, but you’d never know it because he calls such little attention to himself – both in his demeanor and in that the guards he plays with always seem to have a nose for the basket, even when the paths are obstructed.

As a team, I was impressed with how well the backcourt contained Kemba Walker. They held a national Player of the Year candidate essentially harmless for all forty minutes, allowing just eight points on an ice-cold 3-14 effort.  In fact, no Husky besides Jeremy Lamb cracked double figures. This weekend, the Orange will escape the climate madness of the Northeast with a date at USF to finish the three-game road trip. Here’s to a momentum swing of a different nature than the one SU had to endure for the last 16 days.

The Big East will showcase its unique form of cannibalism once again Tuesday night, when Syracuse takes on Connecticut at the XL Center in Hartford. Both teams are coming off rough losses; we saw what happened to the Orange over the weekend in Milwaukee, but UConn is reeling from a double-overtime home loss to Louisville.

The early knock on the Huskies was that they were a one-man show, led by Kemba Walker. While Walker still carries the team averaging 24 points per game, his young supporting cast has rounded into form. Jeremy Lamb has posted season-high marks in scoring his past two games, and Roscoe Smith grabbed a season-high 12 rebounds in the close call against the Cardinals. Shabazz Napier’s 23 points on Saturday were also a career-high.

See what I’m getting at here?

Still, relying on youth in the front of the rotation can be a slippery slope, just as relying too much on youth in the back of the rotation can be one, in the case of Syracuse’s bench. UConn struggled when Louisville went to a matchup zone, which will yield some hope for SU fans anxious for the Orange to kick their nasty losing habit. A more experienced team would have probably fared better. A prevailing theory on why Syracuse succeeds so much in non-conference play and takes more lumps when conference games roll around is that the Big East coaches see the Orange zone year after year; they know from experience as much as anything which methods of attacking it work and which ones don’t, given their own team’s strengths and weaknesses. In UConn’s case, it may have been a case of the players’ limited experience failing Jim Calhoun against a zone.

Still, it’s going to be very tough on Tuesday at the XL Center for the Orange, with UConn’s young core becoming more refined by the game. ‘Cuse still needs boatloads of help down low to assist Rick Jackson in rebounding. Baye Moussa Keita has played better as of late, but is still getting adjusted to life in the conference. Fab Melo…well, we all know he’s been a disappointment, and nobody’s expecting the light to go on anytime soon as he continues to deal with conditioning and inexperience issues of his own. Jim Boeheim’s frustration with James Southerland’s inability to rebound is well-documented, and Kris Joseph can only do so much.

Meanwhile, UConn’s size outside of Alex Oriakhi can be deceiving; they’re sixth in the country in offensive rebounding percentage, and are fourth in the nation in total rebounds per game. Even Kemba Walker at 6’1, pulls down 5.3 rebounds per contest. Despite their recent home woes, I think Syracuse would have a good chance to stop their slide at the Carrier Dome, but on the road at Connecticut, even if the weather keeps a few thousand UConn faithful homebound, it remains tough to see the Orange pulling an upset.

The Orange dropped their fourth game in a row on Saturday, but some solace can be taken in that SU looked to have tightened up on defense in the second half, forcing Jimmy Butler to make a couple of tough shots in the closing seconds to sink Syracuse in Milwaukee. During the current losing skid, there’s been a lot of talk about the two main ways in which opponents have shredded the zone – drawing defenders into the paint, which opens passing lanes (Pittsburgh) and hot three-point shooting (Villanova and Seton Hall).

On Saturday, it was a mix, as Jae Crowder was the beneficiary of porous defense, while Butler and Darius Johnson-Odom paced the perimeter attack by each knocking down a pair of threes. However, Marquette also mixed in some penetration, and like Villanova, scored a bundle from the line. The Golden Eagles went to the line 33 times, of which only six came with the motivation of Syracuse getting the ball back as Marquette pulled away. Syracuse, on the other hand, had 14 attempts, and made just more than half. Though it’s understandable for fans to blame the officiating for such a wide free throw disparity, usually, it’s simply a difference in the style of play, and that looked to be the case last weekend.

Another culprit for the difference is the fatigue of SU’s starters, which can subsequently be attributed to the struggling  but young bench. Only twice has an SU bench player scored in double figures in Big East play, and both times, it was CJ Fair. Compare that to the first nine games of last season’s conference slate, where someone (usually Kris Joseph) came off the pine to score at least ten points ten times. Now, anyone who followed last year’s team knows how fortunate the Orange was to have a budding star in Kris Joseph and a less burdened Scoop Jardine coming off the bench, but a top-tier Big East team should be getting better production than the paltry contributions of this season’s role players. Dion Waiters’ preferred method of rhetoric during the Seton Hall game only made matters worse, and James Southerland has been so cold lately that he was essentially frozen to his seat. As a result, four SU starters played more than 30 minutes and three totaled at least 38.

While SU would enter unforeseen territory in the long Jim Boeheim era with a fifth consecutive loss Wednesday at UConn, it could just be that there are so few upper-crust teams that nearly every program in the top half of the standings (with the possible exception of Pittsburgh) is bound to take more lumps than usual. Georgetown dropped four in a row to start conference play, but have since reeled off five straight; Villanova beat the Orange soundly, but followed it up with an egg against Providence and a close loss to the Hoyas. Marquette lost four out of six games before beating the Orange. While a staggering nine teams are in the RPI top 25, the conference looks like it’s merely cannibalizing.

The Big East isn’t alone there, however. The Big 12, believed to be a powerful league, might only send four teams to the Big Dance. Complicating things, preseason #3 Kansas State currently stands 2-5 in conference play, and their once-promising center just quit th team as the Wildcats stare down a likely NIT berth; The ACC is looking hollow beyond Duke and surging North Carolina; The SEC is similarly dry, and the Pac-10 is down once again.

Though it probably won’t make fans feel any better about the Orange’s current struggles, the team’s situation is hardly unique once you examine the “upper echelon” of college basketball this season.

On Saturday, Syracuse takes on the first of three consecutive road opponents, first venturing to Milwaukee to take on Marquette. The Golden Eagles’s season has been one of many close calls. Six of their eight losses, all to very good teams, have come by five points or fewer. They weren’t afraid to hit the road in non-conference play, but they’ve come out on the short end too many times to be considered a contender for a top-tier finish in the conference, despite remarkably winning nine of the last ten games in conference play last season.

That doesn’t mean they won’t sport a dynamic offense on Saturday afternoon. Syracuse, known for guarding the perimeter well all season, has allowed its last three opponents to shoot 10-17 (Seton Hall), 11-24 (Villanova) and 6-15 (Pittsburgh) from long range. It’s well-known that one way to bust the zone is to be successful from deep, and Buzz Williams has a trio of bombers in Darius Johnson-Odom, Jae Crowder and Dwight Buycks who can give Syracuse fits once again. Johnson-Odom is the team’s leading scorer and shoots 37.8% from three-point land, though he’s been even better as of late; Crowder, one of the best juco transfers in the country this season, is the opposite in that he sports a higher overall clip than Johnson-Odom, but has been cold lately, though he remains a threat. Crowder, who checks in at 40.6% from long range, is also a physical type, averaging 6.9 rebounds per game in just 27 minutes per contest. Buycks, who has been a terrific shooter both inside and outside the arc, has the look of a player who isn’t getting the ball as much as he should In addition to the stable of shooters, Jimmy Butler is one of the best wings in the conference

Defensively, Marquette has a lot of work to do, which could mean some very nice things for an Orange team looking to get out of an offensive rut. The Golden Eagles have had ten games this season where the opponent scored at least one point per possession. Marquette’s schedule has included Gonzaga, Duke and Vanderbilt, but even Rutgers and UW-Milwaukee didn’t have much difficulty converting on possessions. The inability of their defense to get stops at crucial moments in games has been a major sore spot all season long.

I discussed yesterday that there aren’t a ton of viable options personnel-wise at Jim Boeheim’s disposal to fix the problems that have been plaguing Syracuse, particularly in the frontcourt. Dashonte Riley is rehabbing from surgery, Fab Melo has been a disappointment on both ends of the floor, and Baye Moussa Keita, for all the defensive tenacity he brings, looks lost on offense. It seems as though the best band-aid for that problem is simply for the guards to feed Rick Jackson. Against Marquette, Jackson will enjoy a size advantage if he’s matched up against Crowder, and an even bigger advantage in athleticism to begin the game, which is when center 260-lb. Chris Otule lumbers up and down the court at a pace that can accurately be described as Melo-esque.

A lot of fans are starting to panic, as the team has lost games to opponents that a third-ranked team should be able to beat. If you ask me, this hasn’t exposed the Orange as much as it has exposed the silly rankings system. There’s no shame in losing at Pittsburgh, especially without Kris Joseph; losing to Villanova at home, while disappointing, is also a “respectable” loss, and Seton Hall, at full strength, is a team with a great chance to end up in the Tournament after their early season struggles. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a coach in the Big East who would want to face Kevin Willard’s squad on the first day of the conference tournament.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of kinks for the Orange to iron out, or that finding the solution will be easy. Having lost three in a row and looking down the barrel of three straight road games (and four of five overall), the next two weeks will tell us more about this team than any other stretch of the season. While it’s not yet time to panic, the microscope is coming into focus.