Time - Approx. 3:10. Syracuse-UNC Asheville will follow Kansas St.-Southern Miss, which starts at 12:40. Remember, games are a little longer during the tournament.
Broadcasts - Matt Roe and I will be on the air with Syracuse Gameday (locally on ESPN Radio 97.7 and TK99) at 1:30. Orange Pregame takes over the whole Syracuse IMG Sports Network at 2:30. The game will be nationally televised by TruTV. Kevin Harlan, Len Elmore and Reggie Miller will be on the call.
Venue - Consol Energy Center, home of the Pittsburgh Penguins. The building is new and capacity is around 19,000. Duquesne University is the event host.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Scouting Report: UNC Asheville
A team that plays a little 2-3 zone and wants to score in transition. Where have we heard that before? Although Syracuse and UNC Asheville are separated by geography, conference prestige and pedigree, it looks as though their styles of play may bring them together.
Strengths -
Strengths -
- Experience: Typical of a power at that level, the Bulldogs have played a lot together. They start four seniors and a junior. All them played in last year's NCAA, actually beating Arkansas-Little Rock before losing to Pittsburgh 71-47.
- Confidence: This team has won back-to-back conference championships and has walked the ubiquitous NCAA-blue carpet before. They may not have the athletes, but shouldn't be intimidated by the moment.
- Offense: The Bulldogs scored 81.2 points per game this season, fifth best in NCAA. Asheville is 8th nationally in assists per game and, 15th in field goal percentage.
- Free Throw Shooting: The Bulldogs shoot 76.2% as a team, 15th best. Top scorers Matt Dickey (86.5%) and J.P. Primm (83.8%) ar in Brandon Triche range. Asheville has made 668 free throws this season. Its opponents have shot 671.
- Size: Starting lineup is 6-1, 6-1, 6-3, 6-4, 6-5 and will be towered over by Syracuse. Asheville's only players taller don't play much. They lost a 6-10 center, D.J. Cunningham to an off-season ACL injury.
North Carolina and Missouri may be the only teams that excel in the open floor like the Orange. Syracuse would love to play that style of game and may find it as a kick starter for an offense that has been a bit out of whack lately.
For more, check out our Google Hangout today at noon and follow me on Twitter @MattPark1.Opponent Snapshot: UNC Asheville
Qualification: Big South Conference champion (2nd straight).
RPI: 103. 0-5 vs. RPI top 100.
Season Review: 24-9, won Big South Conference championship for second straight year. Lost to North Carolina, Connecticut, Ohio and North Carolina St., all of whom made the field. Highest-RPI win was over USC-Upstate (RPI 139). Went 19-2 against Big South teams.
Key Players: 6-1 SR G Matt Dickey was MVP of the Big South tournament and averaged 16.5 points per game for the year. Five Bulldogs average in double figures.
Coach: Eddie Biedenbach, a former NC State player, is in his 16th year at Asheville with a 240-232 record there. Biedenbach grew up in Pittsburgh, where Thursday's game will be played.
NCAA History: Eliminated by Pittsburgh, 71-47, after beating UALR in the Dayton opening round. Also won in the opening round in 2003 before losing to Texas, who Syracuse beat in the national semifinal.
Series with SU: SU leads 3-0. Last: 12/28/03 in the Dome, SU won 81-63.
Useless Nugget(s):
RPI: 103. 0-5 vs. RPI top 100.
Season Review: 24-9, won Big South Conference championship for second straight year. Lost to North Carolina, Connecticut, Ohio and North Carolina St., all of whom made the field. Highest-RPI win was over USC-Upstate (RPI 139). Went 19-2 against Big South teams.
Key Players: 6-1 SR G Matt Dickey was MVP of the Big South tournament and averaged 16.5 points per game for the year. Five Bulldogs average in double figures.
Coach: Eddie Biedenbach, a former NC State player, is in his 16th year at Asheville with a 240-232 record there. Biedenbach grew up in Pittsburgh, where Thursday's game will be played.
NCAA History: Eliminated by Pittsburgh, 71-47, after beating UALR in the Dayton opening round. Also won in the opening round in 2003 before losing to Texas, who Syracuse beat in the national semifinal.
Series with SU: SU leads 3-0. Last: 12/28/03 in the Dome, SU won 81-63.
Useless Nugget(s):
- Asheville, in North Carolina's western mountains, is known as "Seattle of the South". People like coffee and grunge music there.
- FR G Keith Hornsby's father, Bruce, was the lead of Bruce Hornsby and the Range. Keith's range: 15-41, 36.6%.
- Asheville technically became the first team this year to clinch to a postseason birth, by clinching the Big South Conference regular season title Feb. 11 with a win over Radford. All regular season conference champions are promised at least an NIT berth.
What to Watch For
As always, SUathletics.com and Orange All Access will have you covered throughout the postseason.
Today:
Ongoing:
Today:
- We expect to be in the team locker room at the Carmelo Anthony Basketball Center. You'll see the first reactions of coach Jim Boeheim and players.
- I'll post a snapshot of SU's first round opponent here as soon as I can.
- Ticket information will be on SUathletics.com tonight. Short version: the school gets precious few tickets, about 350. Around 10% of those are set aside for students, the rest will be up for grabs staring first with Orange Club donors at a level of at least $5,000.
- You can expect the tipoff time of SU's first game to be released late tonight or early tomorrow. CBS and Turner can't make those calls until the brackets are set.
Monday:
- We'll be trying our first Google Hangout at noon Monday. I'll field your questions and comments about the tournament. More information is available on the SUathletics.com Orange Nation page.
Wednesday:
- Assuming, the Orange start in Pittsburgh (or any other Thursday/Saturday site), there will be a practice open to the public at the game arena. Syracuse is among the most fun teams to watch in this scenario as they have put on a show for their may fans and have a more serious practice elsewhere.
- Matt Roe and I will cover the open practice and press conferences and file a preview on Orange All Access.
Thursday:
- Our usual gameday coverage will include the radio pregame at least 90 minutes prior to tipoff and a postgame call-in show on ESPN Radio 97.7 and TK99 in Syracuse and many other great stations throughout the state (Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, New York).
Ongoing:
- I'll be Tweeting as news and thoughts come up @MattPark1.
Resume Complete
Happy Selection Sunday, a virtual holiday on the sports calendar. It's also judgment day for college basketball teams, with nothing more they can do to improve their presentations to the NCAA tournament selection committee.
The #2 Orange (31-2) are hardly nervous job seekers at this point. For the first time in school history, they've been in the top 5 throughout the year and ESPN's Joe Lunardi has placed them as a number one seed from his very first bracket projections in November. Barring a major shock from the panel, Syracuse will be placed as a number one seed in the East region. The Orange were previously top seeds in 2010 and 1980.
Here are some of the tools used to make sense of seeding the field of 68.
RPI - The Ratings Percentage Index is a function of a team's record (25%), its opponents' record (50%) and its opponents' opponents' record (25%) with some adjustment to add value to road and neutral court wins. As you'd expect, there's almost no variation among the sources for this:
Computer Rankings - Although MIT was ranked highly in Division III this year, its primary impact on college basketball is inspiring various number crunchers. These computer rankings are widely thought to be better predictors of game outcomes than anything else in black and white.
On-Court Performance - Again, the Orange will be on footing as solid as anyone in the game at this point:
The #2 Orange (31-2) are hardly nervous job seekers at this point. For the first time in school history, they've been in the top 5 throughout the year and ESPN's Joe Lunardi has placed them as a number one seed from his very first bracket projections in November. Barring a major shock from the panel, Syracuse will be placed as a number one seed in the East region. The Orange were previously top seeds in 2010 and 1980.
Here are some of the tools used to make sense of seeding the field of 68.
RPI - The Ratings Percentage Index is a function of a team's record (25%), its opponents' record (50%) and its opponents' opponents' record (25%) with some adjustment to add value to road and neutral court wins. As you'd expect, there's almost no variation among the sources for this:
Computer Rankings - Although MIT was ranked highly in Division III this year, its primary impact on college basketball is inspiring various number crunchers. These computer rankings are widely thought to be better predictors of game outcomes than anything else in black and white.
On-Court Performance - Again, the Orange will be on footing as solid as anyone in the game at this point:
- 31-2, already the most wins in a whole season in program history
- 17-1 and regular season champions of the Big East by three games
- 9-1 in in road games, including wins at tourney-bound Louisville, Connecticut, Cincinnati and North Carolina St.
- 3-1 on neutral courts (although all of those were at friendly Madison Square Garden)
- 4-0 vs. RPI top 25, 7-2 vs. RPI 26-50, 6-0 vs. RPI 51-100, 14-0 vs. RPI >100. A typical 16-seed, could have an RPI over 200. SU was 5-0 against those teams.
- To win the title, you need to be able to win six straight games against good-to-great competition. The Orange have winning streaks of 20 and 11 this season.
- Against Lunardi's guess at the field, SU is 13-2 with the losses coming to qualifiers Notre Dame and Cincinnati.
- Last 10 games: 9-1
- Among the nation's top five in scoring margin, turnover margin, assist-to-turnover ratio, blocks per game and steals per game.
Eye Test - The Orange will get checkmarks here too in a couple of the indicators that are most important for basketball people. NCAA champions almost always have future NBA players, which Syracuse does. Size and athleticism may be the biggest separation between power schools and the so-called mid-majors. Again, Syracuse will hold its ground in this category.
For more during the NCAAs, you can follow me on Twitter @MattPark1.Thursday, March 8, 2012
Greetings from MSG
Just checking in quickly from New York. I'm looking forward to keeping Orange Nation engaged throughout what could be a great postseason.
When the top-seeded Cuse meets UConn at noon today, it'll be the most often played Big East Championship series. Syracuse leads 7-6 and the teams have met in six of the past eight tournaments.
They have combined for 12 Big East tournament titles. The Orange have won five, most recently in 2005 & 2006. Connecticut has taken seven and, counting last year's win, has won seven straight games in the event.
More to come. Follow me on Twitter @MattPark1.
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