Championship Edition
So it all comes down to this. Three years of conference tourney disappointment culminates with Louisville’s first trip to the Big East title game with a #1 seed very likely on the line. For a team that has been dissected and criticized for every imaginable reason, the task doesn’t get any easier Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. While the Cards continue to attempt making their case as a legitimate title contender, the Syracuse Orange have become America’s sweethearts with a combination of endurance, guts, and perseverence in the past 48 hours. Fans expecting the ESPN studio or game crew to anoint the Cards favorites in this one will be sorely disappointed as the Orange pageant walks the stage of College Gameday. A 1-seed may be locked up after the early week slip-ups of Oklahoma, Pitt, and UConn, but Louisville would be wise to go ahead and sweep the Big East trophies.
Can Earl Clark and company raise another Big East gold basketball? Will Jonny Flynn complete his ESPN sainthood with another miraculous victory? We dissect the title game in our final BET preview.
#1 Louisville v. #6 Syracuse (9PM EST, ESPN)
Two very talented Big East teams took very different paths to tonight’s championship game, with the Cardinals of Louisville enjoying a couple of days off and dispatching foes in relatively short order. Syracuse, meanwhile, took perhaps the longest road in postseason history, using a combined seven overtimes to dispatch of Connecticut and West Virginia and working this evening on their fourth straight game. Earl Clark is back to his usual March break-out (20.5ppg, 8.5rpg, 5.5apg, 3.0spg in the Big East Tourney), but Jonny Flynn has taken a backseat to no-one in wrapping up a spot on the All-Tournament team.
The super-talented sophomore point guard has turned Madison Square Garden into his personal postseason stage, dropping an unbelievable 68 points and 31 assists on opponents in what has to be a tournament-record minutes log (147 of a possible 155 minutes in his team’s three-game road to the final). Now the Orange return for another 40 minutes Saturday night, facing the unenviable task of cracking Louisville’s pressure and keeping up with the waves of players at Coach Rick Pitino’s disposal.
A roster that only goes seven deep may finally see its legs give way (they have to, right?) as Andre McGee stakes his claim to any Big East recall votes for league defensive player of the year as the point man for Louisville’s aggressive full-court press and matchup zone. With that in mind, the key for the Orange may be Eric Devendorf. The sharp-shooting junior has canned better than 50% of his three-point attempts in the tournament (12-of-23), showing no signs of slowing down despite playing 139 minutes of his own in the past three games. If the reviled gunner can find his legs for another night, it may loosen up Louisville’s zone just enough for Flynn to get in the lane and distribute or make plays. Jerry Smith will be equally important for the Cards – a night removed from dropping four threes and scoring 16 – stretching Syracuse’s defense to allow Samardo Samuels and Clark to work in the post.
These are two fantastic teams, both with very talented starting fives, who simply took divergent paths to arrive at the same spot on Selection Sunday Eve. The Orange have a history of making big runs in the World’s Most Famous Arena, becoming the first program to win the Big East Tourney while playing four games. But these Orange have played four games already taking into account their overtime hours, making it hard to fathom a repeat of that 2006 title run. Flynn and Devendorf will keep Syracuse close for the first half or so, but this is a Louisville team motivated to make their tournament resume very attractive come Sunday afternoon. With UConn, Pitt, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Michigan State all failing to take their conference tourney hardware, the Cards may very well be playing for not only the last #1 seed, but a spot in a “home regional”.
Louisville 77, Syracuse 65
