With the Big East schedulers giving the Orange a full week to bask in a win over Georgetown, the team returns to action Saturday to wrap up the regular season against DePaul at the Carrier Dome. We’ve talked recently about the perceived values, disadvantages, and history of teams with a double-bye in the conference tournament. After last night’s loss to Seton Hall, St. John’s put the fate of the final double-bye spot of this season’s tournament in the hands of SU. With a win tomorrow, the Orange would get another extended layoff, this time until Thursday afternoon. With a loss, they would still get one day off.

As mentioned earlier this week, the Blue Demons’ leading scorer, Cleveland Melvin, will be out with a sprained thumb, which makes a hard job all the more improbable for Oliver Purnell’s charges. Melvin is one of two nice building blocks for Purnell, and the other is Brandon Young. The point guard has averaged 12.7 points per game, is a developing three-point shooter, and is coming off back-to-back 20-point games in Melvin’s absence (though be advised that those 20-point games came against Rutgers and South Florida). With the Orange struggles defending the perimeter, he could have a big game.

There’s not much to be concerned about after Young. Tony Freeland is a decent wing who drives a lot, but has trouble converting from the stripe with a 59.2% clip. He put up a 24-point performance against Georgetown way back when the Hoyas were losing out of the gate in conference play, but has only scored in double figures three times since. At 6’10, Krys Faber has the height to be a good rebounder, but only pulls down 5.4 boards per game, and the back line drops off significantly after him. It’s the perfect recipe for Rick Jackson to cruise on offense, provided his teammates feed him the ball.

Saturday will also provide a chance to see where CJ Fair, Dion Waiters and Baye Moussa Keita are in recovery from their various health issues. It’s an interesting scenario, because if the Orange builds a big lead as they should against DePaul, the starters should get some rest and test out the , but at the same time, the coaching staff would probably like to play it safe with its reserves and not risk re-aggravation, so the distribution of playing time will be something to keep an eye on. As long as the team isn’t rusty after a weeklong break and isn’t looking ahead to playing in New York City next week, expect a comfortable win.

Saturday afternoon’s matchup against DePaul is the Orange’s last home game of the 2010-11 season, and it will be the Carrier Dome swan song for the team’s only senior, Rick Jackson. While his contributions this season have been well-chronicled, his reliability over his entire career on the Hill has been overlooked by many, in my opinion. In the time since Hakim Warrick left for the NBA in 2005 until Jackson’s arrival as a rotation regular in 2008, consistent post production was near-impossible to come by. The struggles of Terrence Roberts and Darryl Watkins were emblematic of the 2004 recruiting class; Donte Greene set up shop down low rarely, if ever, and while Arinze Onuaku was steady in his production, he remained shaky in stamina.

This season, Jackson has been as sure a thing as there’s been in the back of the zone since Warrick dunked everything from the low block and skied for rebounds he had no business getting. Rick’s steadiness has been more pronounced this season, as Baye Moussa Keita and Fab Melo have taken their lumps and DaShonte Riley hasn’t been a factor all season, rehabbing from surgery before the start of the campaign. Opposing coaches have made Jackson a focal point when planning their defensive schemes, which has left opportunities for his teammates to make bigger contributions, even if those opportunities haven’t been cashed 100 percent of the time.

Jackson came to Syracuse with his high-school teammate, Scoop Jardine, from Neuman-Goretti in Philadelphia (drink!). Scouts and college coaches liked his back-to-the-basket offensive game and fawned over his rebounding ability. The 10th-ranked center in the class of 2007, Jackson was ranked behind DePaul defector Mac Koshwal and South Florida big man Gus Gilchrist. Spurning offers from schools all over Philly, Jackson committed to SU fairly early in the recruiting process, in the fall of his junior year. Though Jackson and Jardine were rumored to be a packaged deal, an easy presumption to make, that wasn’t the case. Jardine gave his word to Mike Hopkins in September, and with Jackson still available, Big East coaches flocked to his games in a last-ditch effort to nab him. Soon after, Rick decided to follow his teammate to SU, rewarding the Orange’s deeper connection to the power forward.

His first year on the hill was spent platooning in a reserve role with Kristof Ongenaet behind Onuaku and occasionally spelling Greene. Averaging 12 minutes per game, Jackson didn’t have much responsibility aside from helping keep the team in games, but it was easy to see his potential when he played against weaker schools. As is the tendency for freshmen in the Big East, when league play rolled around, minutes became harder to come by. It was Ongenaet’s first season with Syracuse as well, but the Belgian had built collegiate experience playing juco ball, and that experience, coupled with his defensive intensity, endeared him to the coaching staff as Jackson adjusted to college life.

That portion of the depth chart carried over to the start of the following season, but after Donte Greene left for the pro ranks, a big scoring void was left in his wake. Ongenaet slid into the starting forward spot and Arinze Onuaku manned the middle, but Ongenaet struggled to contribute in replacing the lost offensive production. Eleven games into the season, Jim Boeheim pulled the string and replaced Ongenaet with Jackson for SU’s game at Memphis, where he helped the team win despite the loss of Eric Devendorf to suspension. In his recap, Brent Axe had the following to say about Jackson in his first career start:

Rick Jackson made his debut starting at power forward and responded with what was far and away his best game as an Orangeman. Jackson had 14 points, tying his career high, and was all over the place on the defensive end, making all kinds of hustle plays that won’t show up in a boxscore.

As it turns out, that last part can be used to describe nearly every game in Jackson’s career since, though these days, his hustle is louder in the box scores. Given 24 minutes per game in conference play his sophomore year, Jackson developed his post game as an inside threat alongside Onuaku, and on defense, showed all the ability that Ongenaet displayed and then some. Still gaining his footing, Jackson remained limited against more experienced post players like DeJuan Blair, Hasheem Thabeet and Louisville’s athletic tandem of Earl Clark and Terrence Williams. He was clearly overmatched by an absolute beast in Blake Griffin in the Sweet Sixteen. However, in posting four double-doubles in the season, including one in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the coaching staff’s vision of Jackson in a bigger role started to materialize. Given twice the playing time from his freshman year, his production increased commensurately, jumping from 3.7 points per game to 8.3.

As the incumbent in 2009-10, and with Ongenaet no longer there to back him up, Jackson’s role as a complementary player grew, but signs emerged that he could be much more than that. His coming-out party came in Tampa, when he registered a career-high 21 points on a 9-13 line from the floor to go with 13 rebounds as the Orange beat Florida for the second straight year. Onuaku appeared to be playing on borrowed time with leg troubles plaguing his ability to get up and down the court and elevate for rebounds. As a result, Jackson and Wes Johnson combined to haul in nearly six boards per game, with Jackson leading the team at 7.1 per contest. In a fast-paced battle with Providence, he notched another career-high performance with 28 points, and followed it up with a huge game against Villanova in front of a record Dome crowd. In the conference tournament, Onuaku’s season ended early when Greg Monroe collided with the Orange big man. Boeheim played things close to the vest when it came to disclosing the extent Onuaku’s injury, but the truth was that it was bad enough that he would have to rely heavily on Jackson in the NCAA Tournament. Jackson helped carry the load on defense, averaging nine rebounds in three tournament games, but as the lone post threat on offense, opposing teams could give him more attention without worrying about getting burned by Kris Joseph and DaShonte Riley, who were also thrusted into elevated roles.

After the tournament loss to Butler, Boeheim ordered Rick Jackson to drop some weight over the summer in anticipation of a big senior year. Fab Melo and Baye Moussa Keita would be on the way, and DaShonte Riley would be a sophomore, but all three carried different shortcomings. For Melo, it was a lack of high school development, having only played the game for a few years. For Keita, it was strength, and for Riley, a foot problem that would eventually require surgery to end the season before it even started. Last fall, Jackson showed up to campus 25 pounds slimmer, and through 30 games, his conditioning program has enabled him to play over 35 minutes per game while averaging a double-double. Furthermore, only three times this season has Jackson failed to crack double figures in both scoring and rebounding. Against Detroit, he held a clinic, pulling down 22 rebounds. He got busy in Tampa once again with a season-high 21 points and 12 boards. He’s also showcased an ability to alter shots – on February 19, he blocked seven Rutgers attempts and had six swats in the team’s biggest win of the season so far, against Notre Dame. Steady from under the basket, his 59.1% shooting percentage rivals that of AO. Put it all together and you have a legit all-conference post man.

Now in the home stretch of the season, it’s become clear that as Rick Jackson goes, so go the Orange. In the team’s current four-game win streak, Jackson has averaged 14.5 points and 8.3 rebounds. In SU’s last three losses, though, he’s averaged just 8.3 points and 6.3 boards. In Jackson’s first three seasons, he was never asked to be the focal point from a scoring standpoint, but in an up-and-down season, he’s been the Orange’s only consistent option. It’s fitting, then, that Rick will be the lone senior honored this weekend.

The calendar has turned to March, and the most exciting four weeks of college basketball are upon us. While the Orange has had its share of March sadness in recent years – TJ Sorrentine, NIT berths, Johnny Flynn hurting his back, and Greg Monroe plowing into Arinze Onuaku – it’s also given us Gerry McNamara’s wild ride of 2006 and six overtimes. We’ll talk more in the coming days about what SU can do in the Big East Tournament to raise its seed for the NCAA Tournament and what has to happen in order for the Orange to climb over the Sweet Sixteen hump that has stopped them short of playing a fourth game the last two seasons, but today, we’ll take it a little slower, realizing that there is still one game to play in the regular season, even if it is against DePaul.

As for Saturday’s matchup, whatever small hope DePaul has of an upset in the Dome (hey, Seton Hall did it) likely went down the tubes Monday when it was confirmed that leading scorer Cleveland Melvin would be shut down for the season with a sprained thumb. He injured the thumb in the Blue Demons’ loss to St. John’s and sat out against South Florida. Not only is Melvin the team’s leading scorer, he’s also a Big East Rookie of the Year candidate, averaging over 17 points per game in conference play, and while DePaul was unlikely to make any waves in the postseason, you can’t help but feel badly for Oliver Purnell. He’s a decent coach who took the job knowing it’s the most challenging one in the conference, and even considering the hurdles in recruiting to DePaul, the cupboard left by Jerry Wainwright was almost completely barren. Melvin wasn’t even a Wainwright holdover – he decommitted from UConn after Purnell was hired, wanting a school that would play him at the wing instead of in the post as a four. For Syracuse, though, it’s another big player out with an injury (following Chris Wright’s broken hand), and another opportunity to build some confidence heading into the postseason.

Another point I wanted to touch on is the value that Syracuse’s wins over Notre Dame and St. John’s have built over the course of conference play. Back on New Year’s day, when SU disposed of the Irish, Mike Brey’s team had built a decent non-con resume. There were wins over Wisconsin on a neutral floor and over Gonzaga at home, plus a fairly innocuous de facto road loss against Kentucky mixed in with some cupcakes under the sub-100 mark in Ken Pomeroy’s rankings. At the time, Notre Dame was viewed as a good Big East team that looked like it would finish somewhere in the second tier as it usually does. Since losing to the Orange, however, Notre Dame has taken down Louisville, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, split with St. John’s and embarrassed Villanova Monday night. The Irish spent all February in the top ten, but even with the exposure in the Big East, it seemed like no one noticed until they caught fire against the Wildcats.

St. John’s story this season is more familiar to hoops fans – they haven’t lost at the Garden since January 22, showcasing impressive performances inside the conference and out, crashing the AP polls for the first time in more than a decade last month. SU blew out the Johnnies at MSG in mid-January, but if it comes to be that St. John’s and the Orange battle in the Big East Tournament, it may as well be considered a turf war.

The Big East schedule has always been chock-full of opportunities for marquee wins, but it’s hard to recall a season where January Big East wins have grown in value the way the ‘Cuse’s victories over Notre Dame and St. John’s have this season.  One meme for Syracuse the last two seasons has been the downfall of non-conference foes that were supposed to enjoy successful seasons. After Syracuse’s coming-out party against North Carolina and Cal last season, both teams failed to make the Big Dance, as did Memphis. Florida barely squeaked in as a ten-seed. This season, Michigan State still needs wins to feel good about its security in the tournament, and the Wolverines are making a last-ditch attempt to crack the field in a down year as well. Northern Iowa collapsed in the Missouri Valley after making national headlines last March. NC State and Georgia Tech’s coaches may not be around next season. In conference play, though, SU’s resume has received a boost from some unexpected schools, and for that, fans can thank Mike Brey and Steve Lavin, who have their teams rolling into the best month of the year.

41% shooting and getting outrebounded by eight rarely does the job on the road, but Syracuse found an exception on Saturday afternoon with a seven-point win over their hated rivals. The victory keeps faint hope alive for capturing the divisive advantage (or non-advantage) of the final double-bye spot in the Big East Tournament, but on a more unilaterally positive note, it gives the Orange four straight wins, the second-longest active streak in the Big East behind streaking St. John’s.

The game as a defensive battle (as games in the 50′s usually are), and that’s where the Orange came up big, with Georgetown committing 16 turnovers, including several in big moments. Not to discount SU’s defense, but without Chris Wright, Georgetown had an awful time creating anything offensively, and the result was a pace closer to JT3′s Princeton Offense than we’ve seen in some time. Leading the charge for the Orange was Scoop Jardine with 17 points, and Jim Boeheim, for the first time I recall this season, openly addressed how up-and-down Scoop has been this season, though the difference is that we only get to see it in games, whereas Boeheim has to bear witness to it in practices as well.

The game also signified a momentary return of the nine-man rotation, thanks to a boost from James Southerland’s nine first half points. He pulled down a few rebounds as well, and perhaps we’ll see him get more run when SU faces DePaul on Saturday. CJ Fair insisted that his rolled ankle was fine, but his 11 unproductive minutes suggest otherwise, though it may just not have been his day. With more time to heal, this is another question that could be answered this weekend.

Elsewhere on the court, we got another deceivingly bad shooting line from Brandon Triche. The refs enabled a lot of contact with their conservative officiating style, and Triche could often be seen getting bruised and whacked entering the paint and trying to grab offensive rebounds. In a Big East game officiated in the style that we’re used to – plenty of contact, but more frequent whistles –  I think we see Triche head to the line four or six more times than we saw on Saturday, which, given his streak of now 27 consecutive made free throws, would benefit the Orange in a huge way. As it was, most of the free throw attempts from the sophomore came late in the game as SU iced the victory, so you can’t complain too much.

One thing sure to draw some ire was the absence of Kris Joseph for 39 minutes. He emerged late enough to get a big block and a bigger offensive rebound in the final minute, but his offense continues to come and go. His season has been somewhat of a lightning rod – his struggles in the Louisville game can’t be ignored, but in the five games he’s played where SU lost, he’s averaged over sixteen points per contest. He’s hardly a problem, but if Syracuse is to make an extended run in the wide-open NCAA Tournament, he has to become more consistent. With so many offensive weapons on the team, he doesn’t have to become a 20 PPG scorer, but he can’t continue to fail to crack double figures in the scoring problem.

It’s hard to believe, but March is staring us right in the face.

Having gained some momentum over the last two weeks with the West Virginia victory and after avenging the home loss to Villanova by beating them at their place, the Orange have a chance for another marquee road win to counter a home loss on Saturday. In my time as a student at Georgetown, the Hoya program was rising from the ashes, and a truly competitive rivalry was reborn. With the proliferation of AAU teams and “basketball factory” prep schools combined with national networks airing more high school exhibitions, networks are capitalizing on the demand for college fans watch their team’s prospects. As a result, I feel the players develop more camaraderie with one another, regardless of their eventual college affiliation. Overall, I think that’s a good thing for the game’s image, but for a rivalry as fierce as Syracuse-Georgetown was in the 80′s, where the players (and coaches) never seemed to like each other, the on-court intensity suffers to a degree, though the fans’ passion will never die.

The ‘Cuse got a big break Wednesday night (no pun intended) when senior Hoya guard Chris Wright broke his non-shooting hand and underwent surgery the next day. Against the Orange, Wright has alternated big scoring outputs with games where he was more effective passing the ball. In Georgetown’s win three weeks ago, he only scored six points, but he dished out nine assists against just one turnover. Last season, he averaged 18 points in three meetings against the Orange and went 10-16 from the field, and played 115 minutes with only six turnovers. His absence could push freshman Markel Starks into the fold, which would likely lead to a dropoff in production similar to when DaShonte Riley was forced into NCAA Tournament action last season. Perhaps the more likely consequence is that the Hoyas lean even more on Austin Freeman and Jason Clark plus swingman Hollis Thompson.

Removing the Orange glasses, not being able to play on your senior day against your biggest rival has to be disheartening, even if Wright figures to be back for the NCAA Tournament. Some of SU’s best players over the past few years didn’t stay through their senior years, though in a couple cases, it may have been for the best. But watching a player develop from freshman to senior remains one of the true joys of being a college basketball fan, and is one of many reasons why players like Derrick Coleman, John Wallace, Hakim Warrick and Gerry McNamara keep rock star status in the Salt City.

Syracuse also has a guard who’s hurting, and that’s Dion Waiters. It’s been reported that Waiters was limited in practice to shoot-arounds and didn’t take part in the more intensive parts of practice after getting hip-checked by Villanova’s James Bell on Monday. The left hip remains sore, so we’ll see how long Syracuse can go without him. The importance of keeping players healthy weighs heavier late in the season, and with Wright out for Georgetown, there’s a realistic chance that Waiters may not be needed but for a few minutes to give Scoop Jardine and Brandon Triche some rest. Elsewhere in the Orange infirmary, CJ Fair should be ready to go after turning his ankle. The injury looked much worse when it happened that it turned out to be, and while he practiced at full strength on Thursday, it’s still worth keeping an eye on Saturday.

With the parity in the middle of the Big East standings, both teams remain in the hunt for the final double-bye spot in the Big East Tournament. While both teams are safely in the NCAA Tournament, there remains plenty at stake besides rivalry bragging rights and revenge for Syracuse.

Maybe it’s the team’s first three-game winning streak in seven weeks, maybe it’s the fact that Jim Boeheim’s press conferences are already in postseason form, but the Orange have put me in an optimistic mood. Over the last three games, Syracuse has mostly escaped the long droughts that plagued it during its leaner times and all three guards have stepped up at different points to complement Rick Jackson’s steady play. To boot, this hasn’t been Syracuse fattening up on the DePauls, South Floridas and Providences of the conference, but a steady group of competitive teams with plenty on the line. While the games have been close, they’re displaying more of a collective effort in an extended stretch than we’ve seen since the team feasted on its non-conference cupcakes, and the remaining schedule looks to be advantageous to the ‘Cuse as they charge toward the postseason.

Say what you want about Scoop Jardine, but his better attributes have shone through his mistakes over the last four games. In that time, he’s shooting 47.8% from the floor, compared to his season average of 41.4%. His shot selection has slowly improved – he still drives into the lane at will, but the paths have been clearer. In addition, he’s hitting threes at a 44% rate in the same period. While I don’t expect him to morph into a Johnny Flynn or Gerry McNamara, his upward trending reminds me of Eric Devendorf’s junior year before he tore his ACL. In his first two seasons, Devendorf was cringeworthy handling the ball. From high dribbles to lazy passes, it was tough to feel confident with the ball in his hands. Josh Wright’s troubles and adjusting to life after GMac miscast Devendorf as a point guard, but when Flynn arrived to take over that spot and bumped him over to shooting guard, the bad habits seemed to go away. Now, Jardine is in no risk of getting moved off the point guard spot, and four games does not a season make, but he may be in the midst of a slight but important transformation.

Jardine’s primary backcourt mate, Brandon Triche, has also started to embrace a role as a leader. Though he took a step back against Villanova, he’s developed a sense of awareness as to how important he his on this team, when many players have openly voiced frustrations at various points over their roles in Boeheim’s system. For Triche to continue to take the steps towards a reliable scorer, he must continue to have an eye towards the tin. His shooting lines have left a lot to be desired recently, but from the free throw line, all that’s desired is that he gets there more often. The sophomore has missed just one free throw this month in going 23-24 from the stripe. If he calls for the ball more often, I’m confident that good things will happen – we saw what happened at the Prudential Center, and how his hot shooting brought the team back from the dead against Louisville.

The sample size on Dion Waiters had been limited, but as with his cousin, the Villanova game could be a sign of things to come. One convenience Jim Boeheim has is that he doesn’t need Waiters to be a 15 PPG scorer right now, but in stretches against Pitt and in Monday’s game, he’s shown that he is capable of bringing an intense scoring dynamic to a team in need of a spark in the backcourt, as long as he stays out of his own way, and I think he’s learned that lesson. As with Triche, Waiter’s assertiveness can only help the team at the line, and against the Wildcats, he proved that he can make them when the pressure’s on.

Of course, CJ Fair is the spark in the frontcourt. With the Orange being off until Saturday, Fair’s left ankle has a chance to heal. He really wasn’t the same after turning it, though he’s to be commended for fighting through the injury when SU is as thin as it is in the back of the zone. He’s been steady all season long, and has thrived in increased playing time. Until the ankle sprain, teams haven’t quite been able to match up with him. He can get into the lane quickly as well as rebound, but at 6’8, smaller defenders won’t give his patented floater much trouble when he returns. On the flip side, he can beat bigger defenders into the lane with his quickness. He’s starting to emerge as a matchup nightmare when healthy, which bodes very well for his future at Syracuse.

That role is one that we expected Kris Joseph to embrace back in November. Just when you think he’s put it together with a pair of good games, he either puts up a stinker or is becomes so passive in the team’s offense that he neutralizes himself. Maybe he’s still recovering from the head injury sustained against Cincinnati and is hesitant to drive because of it, but his aggressiveness has dropped off considerably over the past month. If it wasn’t for his improved three-point stroke (37% on the season), there wouldn’t be much to make him worth accounting for on offense, and he’s been chewed out repeatedly for defensive lapses. While he isn’t a liability, his play could be the difference if the Orange is to survive past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

And I’m running out of ways to describe Rick Jackson’s consistency. Not only does he finish easily on post feeds, but he also gets a lion’s share of rebounds and blocks shots left and right, all the while staying out of foul trouble. Following a dud against Georgetown at the Carrier Dome, he’s definitely eager to make things right on Saturday against a frontcourt that he should have his way with.

The team is improving at the right time, but there are still holes. Baye Keita is having trouble adjusting to the rigors of conference play. While Fab Melo played acceptably on Monday in his limited stint, it remains unlikely that he’ll be a difference-maker down the stretch. Scoop Jardine can turn back into a pumpkin and go 3-10 from the floor at the drop of a hot. Still, this team is playing better.

There aren’t many in Boeheim’s rotation who aren’t a) logging major minutes or b) playing through a nagging injury (some are going through both). Fortunately, the schedulers in Providence did the Orange a couple favors by awarding them a lengthy five-day layoff between the Villanova game and the roadie at Georgetown, and an entire week off before DePaul visits the Dome for Senior Day to cap off the regular season. While some of SU’s physical hardships won’t end soon, you can see the clouds starting to break just in time for March.

In one of the stranger games of the season, the Orange conquered several challenges including rolled ankles, lane violations and erratic guard play, plus five three-pointers from Corey Fisher to earn a solid road win over Villanova in Philadelphia on Monday night. With Villanova sliding, SU took advantage of an opportunity to add a third impressive win away from the Dome to go along with victories at UConn and at St. John’s. Villanova had an awful shooting night; if 40% from the floor barely gets it done against DePaul, 32% from the floor and 5-19 from long range certainly won’t do the trick against a team like Syracuse.

Leading the scoring for Syracuse was Scoop Jardine, with 20 points and six assists. While harsher critics would say that his usual handful of mistakes made the game closer than it needed to be (and they would have a point, albeit an obvious one), he also made a number of big plays. After he headed to the bench with his fourth foul and SU up by seven, Brandon Triche and Dion Waiters struggled to keep the Orange treading water. Like him or not, the team needs Scoop, and perhaps it’s best to accept his shortcomings and hope they go away when the outcome hangs in the balance. Still, he’s the team’s most experienced guard by a longshot, and while I wish there were better options – particularly, ones that don’t commit the cardinal sin of turning the ball over and fouling a player on a made basket on the other end – reality can’t be ignored. Scoop did a better job of finding teammates than he has in some time, even connecting with Rick Jackson for a couple lobs. I’m not exactly sure how, but Jardine is now just six assists from cracking the top ten all-time at Syracuse in the category. Assuming he holds onto his spot next season, he could realistically climb as high as fifth, passing names including Allen Griffin, Leo Rautins and Johnny Flynn.

Down the stretch, several players for Syracuse, in addition to Jardine, were crucial in sealing the game. Triche’s 4-14 shooting line wasn’t pretty, and he’s back into a slump as he approaches Rautins-esque streakiness, but he did a lot of work down low for a guard, crashing the glass and battling through a great deal of contact on putback attempts. With seven boards, he outrebounded even Rick Jackson. But no play from the sophomore was bigger than his save of a long pass from Rick Jackson with about 45 seconds left. Triche looked like a center fielder in backpedaling to track the ball down and caught it on the run about three inches from the baseline.

Dion Waiters hit two big free throws to raise SU’s lead from one point to three, following a hard foul from Villanova. Shortly afterward, Rick Jackson, in addition to another steady scoring night and one-man block party (he has 17 swats in his last five games), hit another pair to seal it. Waiters looked to be more at ease Monday night – maybe it was the homecoming element, but his contributions were big.

Fab Melo got three minutes of playing time, an eternity compared to his four-second cameo over the weekend. He was more active than I’ve seen in awhile. He made the most of it, with a block and a steal, and was gone before committing any huge lapses, though I was fine with him not playing beyond that point. His challenges have been well-documented, so there’s not much else to say at this point.

CJ Fair played through a challenge of his own after rolling his ankle in the first half. At first glance, it looked to be much worse than it was, but Orange Nation breathed a collective sigh of relief when he re-entered the game. He was still affected, but as I mentioned in the preview, plenty of SU players are competing through injuries right now, so Fair is no different in that regard.

With just two games left in the regular season, the team is in the home stretch. The season has flown by, but things should slow down, with the team having just under two weeks to get those two games in.

Saturday’s game was about as ugly as they come – Brandon Triche went 3-15 from the floor, the team went to the line 47 times, and needed overtime to beat a Rutgers team that is improving but still struggling. That doesn’t mean the Orange won’t take it, though, and there’s been no shortage of games like these around the Big East, so all you can really do is be grateful for the win and move on.

It wasn’t all unsightly, though, as Rick Jackson provided a boost with 18 points, 12 rebounds and a career-high seven blocks. He left some points at the free throw line, but his effort was crucial nonetheless, and I doubt he’s able to go 44 minutes with 25 extra pounds, so chalk another one up to the big guy’s conditioning program.

Jim Boeheim has had to handle a lot of criticism regarding the slow development of Fab Melo, and as the coach of his team, he also has to answer questions about Dion Waiters’ shrinking production. His treatment of Melo was particularly confounding on Saturday; he put the freshmen in the game just long enough for him to commit a foul on a made basket and get pulled back to the bench, a grand total of four seconds. I understand that Melo’s been a disappointment, but I don’t see the logic in giving him such a short leash that the three minutes he was getting before seems like the 35+ that SU’s more experienced players get on a regular basis. At that point, why play him at all?

CJ Fair continued to earn his wings as a freshman, chipping in 17 points off the bench. The four-second Melo experiment is obviously a noteworthy storyline, but there doesn’t seem to be a proportionate amount of attention given to the positives that Fair and Baye Moussa Keita have brought to the team this year. Before the start of the season, the frontcourt looked to be strong with Jackson, DaShonte Riley, Fab Melo and Kris Joseph. At that point, Baye Keita looked to be headed for a redshirt season. Then Riley underwent surgery that would keep him from playing this season, and any slivers of hope that Melo would contribute something meaningful have long since vanished. This dropped a considerable amount of responsibility to Fair and Keita, and they’ve done a great job of filling in when it didn’t look like they’d play key roles back in the fall.

Onto Monday night, the Orange have a chance to avenge last month’s loss to Villanova. Perhaps more importantly, however, the Big Monday matchup is Syracuse’s last realistic chance to get in the mix for the final of four double-bye spots in the conference tournament. The scenario is surprising at first, given that Syracuse at one point lost six out of eight, but the conference has been such a dogfight for everyone involved that a team with six league losses is still in the thick of it for such a coveted spot. At the moment, Villanova is in fourth place with a 9-5 conference record, and is tied with Louisville and St. John’s. A win for SU would keep hope alive, though it would still need some help; a loss would give Villanova the season sweep and leave the Orane fighting for a single bye with the rest of the logjam in the middle of the standings. While the double-bye doesn’t draw a perfect correlation to the Big East Tournament crown, the extra day off could do some nice things for a team like Syracuse, whose aches and pains are starting to mount.

Since beating Syracuse, Villanova has been very shaky, going 4-4 in that time with unsightly losses to Providence and Seton Hall. Additionally, its last four games have been decided by three points or fewer, and they needed a miracle three to force overtime against DePaul on Saturday. Corey Stokes, who missed the team’s last three games turf toe, will return, but will come off the bench. Aside from him, expect another test for SU’s three-point defenders; Maalik Wayns, who went off against Syracuse at the Dome a few weeks ago, is 2-14 from long range in his last four games, but the Orange have developed a reputation as a cure for ailing three-point shooters around the conference. Corey Fisher has remained consistent all along, however, and will remain the biggest threat.  It will also be interesting to see how Boeheim uses Keita and CJ Fair to help Rick Jackson contain Villanova’s productive big men, Mouphtaou Yarou and Antonio Pena, who have been important in the Wildcats’ evolution from a heavily guard-oriented group to one that’s a little more balanced.

As you probably recall, former Rutgers coach Fred Hill left Piscataway over the summer in a manner I wouldn’t exactly characterize as professional, having burned bridges with players, baseball coaches and administrators along the way. While no one who watched Rutgers play, be it a fan or a fan of an opposing team, could be too surprised, considering the alarming transfer rate of his players and fierce style, their first season under new head coach Mike Rice has the college basketball world turning heads at the former perennial bottom-dwellers.

Last week, the Scarlet Knights shocked Villanova, coming back late and winning on a four-point play to beat the Wildcats for just the second time since 2004. Though their 4-9 record conferenced record isn’t one to be concerned about, their collection of single-digit losses to teams like Pittsburgh (by three points), Notre Dame at the Joyce Athletic Center (seven) and St. John’s at the Garden (two), in addition to their stunner over Villanova, indicates that Rutgers could be closer to their first NCAA Tournament bid since 1991 than most think. The New Jersey prep school scene has always overflowed with talent, but Hill struggled to retain his players from within the state. Rice has already made waves with his 2011 recruiting class, and it could just be a matter of time before Rutgers is dancing.

In the here-and-now though, losses are still losses, and there’s no ignoring that the Scarlet Knights have been handled with ease by UConn, Georgetown, Cincinnati and Seton Hall. The Orange will look to add their name to the latter list on Saturday. Rice already has some familiarity in the Carrier Dome, as his Robert Morris teams lost to the Orange there twice in recent seasons, in the 2008 NIT and early last season. He has additional experience on Jamie Dixon’s staff at Pittsburgh, so his pedigree has bred plenty of familiarity with the toughness of the conference, which has probably leveled his learning curve a little bit.

He’ll lean heavily on sharpshooter Jonathan Mitchell, who has led the team in scoring in eight of its last 14 games, and has averaged 17.1 points per game in that span, compared to his season average of 14.9 per contest. His 42.3% success rate from distance puts him near the top of the conference in that category, and not far behind him is 6’2 guard James Beatty at 38%.

While Casey Mitchell hurt the Orange from deep on Monday, there wasn’t much behind him from the perimeter, so SU could concentrate on denying him the ball late in the game, a strategy that was important in guiding the Orange to a win. Now, however, the team is back to facing multiple perimeter threats, and the front of the zone will be tested once again.  One stat I feel was overlooked in the wake of the Jim Boeheim press conference hooplah and the avoidance of an unprecedented fourth straight home loss earlier in the week was Scoop Jardine’s five steals against the Mountaineers, which matched a career-high. If you’re a regular reader, you know how critical I’ve been of Jardine in this space, but he’s been playing better lately. He’s still too prone to making mistakes, but with Dion Waiters struggling to produce from the bench, the Orange have few alternatives.

Brandon Triche has also done a few things to get fans feeling confident about the backcourt in spite of the lack of depth, with two straight 20-point games. He’s been picking up a lot of slack left by Kris Joseph’s struggles and the extra attention given to Rick Jackson, and he continues to make the transformation from passive complementary player to team leader. He’s been driving to the basket when he sees a lane, and if he isn’t finishing, and sometimes if he is, he ends up on the free throw line, a place where he’s been comfortable all season as the team’s best free-throw shooter.

There isn’t a ton of depth in the Rutgers frontcourt to stop Triche and the rest of the Orange from finishing in the lane. Gilvydas Biruta can clog the lane with a 6’8 230-pound frame, and while he has experience from Lithuania’s national team, he is nonetheless a freshman in the Big East, and even with his size, he’s only the third-best rebounder on the team. Mitchell and sophomore Dane Miller are the Scarlet Knights’ top two rebounders, at 5.9 and 5.7 boards per game, respectively. Opposing offenses are fifth in the nation at not having their shots blocked by the Rutgers defense, and that lack of size has also lead to teams to shoot it from deep – Rutgers is near the bottom of the barrel nationally at three-point attempt percentage on defense, a stat which weighs the number of threes a team takes against a given defense over the number of total field goal attempts from the floor.

The dearth of size also means that Rick Jackson should continue to break out of his mini-slump and get back to his regular production, even if Rutgers doubles him in the post. In the big picture, the Scarlet Knights are a Big East team rising from the ashes, but this matchup is a bad one for Rice’s troops. Prediction: Syracuse 73, Rutgers 59.

You often hear pundits of all sports talk about the importance of team chemistry. It’s especially magnified and discussed in March, when so many big games come down to a possession here or a break there. While talent undoubtedly plays a key role, it’s also important to have a team whose players understand and live up to their roles. As an example, John Calipari’s uber-talented young teams are constantly in a race against time to become as cohesive as possible before Selection Sunday. When they fall in the Dance, that turnover and youth is always cited as a reason why they disappoint. Looking back at Syracuse teams through the years, there have been several cases where you could look at the comfort level of the players with one another, positive or negative, and draw a logical conclusion.

The 2001-2002 team was clicking on all cylinders before a rift between Preston Shumpert and DeShaun Williams played a role in the Orange losing seven of ten games and falling into the NIT. While Billy Edelin had some off-court issues a season later, the 2003 championship team improved as the season progressed and peaked at exactly the right time. The defections of several players between 2004 and 2007 corresponded with a lull in success. The chemistry of the 2009-10 team seemed perfect, as everyone had a defined role and everyone knew where to be on defense. That group had one of the best blends of talent, experience and attitude that I’ve ever seen in a college basketball team. If not for Arinze Onuaku getting hurt, the team very well may have cut down the nets in Indianapolis.

But a positive team chemistry doesn’t always lead to similarly positive results. The 2007-2008 team looked to be on a roll, with freshmen Donte Greene and Johnny Flynn and the “Dynasty” craze. Easy as it was to dismiss the fad (the team was coming off an NIT trip, and freshmen, one of whom would leave after one season and one after two, were proclaiming a dynasty?), the team had two pairs of high school teammates, which looked to have little downside. Unfortunately, injuries, youth and a lack of depth caught up to the Orange that season, as they ran out of gas and landed in the NIT field once again.

This season, there has been no shortage of players airing their frustrations in transitioning to the roles Jim Boeheim envisioned when he brought them on board. Mookie Jones is reliable for a public display of resentment or four each season; James Southerland has had his setbacks and was quoted earlier this season expressing his struggles in accepting his role, and when given an opportunity to change that role, failed; Dion Waiters has also been in the doghouse and continues an uphill climb to get minutes; Kris Joseph hasn’t transformed into the household name like many thought at the beginning of the season. After playing a complimentary role last season as a freshman, Brandon Triche finally appears to be turning into the kind of leader the head coach thinks he’s capable of being, though it’s taken some prodding.

While a victory over West Virginia this season isn’t exactly what you would call a “marquee win,” it signified more than simply the Orange stopping the bleeding at home. It signaled the potential of a team turning the corner and coming together little by little, even if it comes later in the season than most would have liked. In addition, there’s a recruiting class on the way whose members have conveyed a semblance of camaraderie with one another, and the worst thing that could happen is for them to join a locker room filled with players whose attitudes are constantly at odds with what’s expected of a collective dynamic. The players don’t have to be buddy-buddy with another in order for the team to be successful, but they have to buy into the team mindset. While it was tempting for fans to grow impatient with the Orange in its recent slide, the team looked more cohesive against a challenging opponent than it did in many weeks in Monday’s victory. In order to be successful Saturday against Rutgers, later in February against Georgetown, Villanova and DePaul, and against whoever is in store for the postseason, SU must continue to turn the corner and realize that potential. Until then, the questions about this team’s chemistry will persist.