BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: Syracuse vs Georgetown

March 10, 2006


It has been a VERY exciting two days in New York City for the Syracuse Orange under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden and senior Gerry McNamara has been making his last Big East Conference Tournament a memorable one. G-Mac hit a buzzer-beating game winner against Cincinnati in the 1st round, which definitely saved the Syracuse season and yesterday, he hit the shot that sent the game to overtime in the Orange 86-84 victory over #1 Connecticut. Does he have any magic left for Georgetown?

Very quietly, maybe because they had to follow the McNamara heroics two days in a row, the Georgetown Hoyas have pushed their way into the semifinals with wins over Notre Dame and Marquette. Neither win was a work of arc, as the Georgetown offense struggled for long stretches, but the Hoyas kept after it on the defensive end and on the boards to pull out the wins.

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Georgetown was struggling yesterday, scoring just 26 points 5 minutes into the second half, but hanging with Marquette because of their defense. The Golden Eagles were containing the Princeton-style offense with a tough match-up zone. However, Tom Crean was hoping to energize his offense, that had scored only 29 pts to that point and switched to a man-to-man defense and it breathed life into the Hoyas offense. Georgetown's offense is based on high effeceiency and against the Marquette man-to-man defense, it lived up to its reputation scoring on 12 of their next 16 possessions, led by versatile Jeff Green. The Hoya frontline of Roy Hibbert, Brandon Bowman and Green was able to get Syracuse is foul toruble when they met in Washington 13 days ago and will look to do so again. However, they are going to have to do it against the Syracuse zone.

Syracuse has gotten new life, thanks to McNamara's late game heroics, but he has had much more help throughout the game the last two days than earlier in the season. Darryl Watkins has played some of his best basketball of the season in the post on both ends of the floor and Terrence Roberts has upped his production. Demetris Nochols hot some shots yesterday and Eric Devendorf is a fearless freshmen that gets to the basket and finishes with either hand. McNamara registered 13 assists yesterad in addition to his big shot (17 pts), which showed how much the other players steped up their game to finish around the basket.

I expect another close game tonight. I think they teams do match up very well. Georgetown has the edge in the frontcourt and Syracuse has a backcourt edge. Neither team is very deep at all, but Syracuse can go a little deeper. I think once again, it will come down to foul trouble and Roberts and Watkins are much more likely to pick up some quick fouls, and that could kill them tonight. Not playing it on the road might help Syracuse manage the fouls a little better. Georgetown, as always, must make shots. They will have to do it against the SU zone. The Hoyas are 4-pt favorites, and I see another close one. Does Gerry save the day again?


NBE Blogger Prediction:

Georgetown 67 Syracuse 65