Syracuse advanced to the Sweet 16 for the third time in four years after wins over UNC Asheville and Kansas State in the second and third rounds of the NCAA Tournament. The Orange will now battle No. 4 seed Wisconsin (26-9) at 7:15 p.m. Thursday at TD Garden in Boston.

UW knocked off No. 13 seed Montana and No. 5 seed Vanderbilt to get to Boston. The Daily Orange spoke with Elliot Hughes, sports editor and Wisconsin basketball beat writer for UW’s student newspaper, The Badger Herald, about the Sweet 16 matchup.

The Daily Orange: What was the lasting impression you got from Wisconsin’s first two wins of the tournament?

Elliot Hughes: I think they’re on a rich stretch right now. These last two games have been as high of a performance as I’ve seen out of them. They’re shooting over 45 percent (sic) right now. They’re playing pretty tough basketball, which is saying something for Wisconsin in rebounding and hustle plays and that kind of thing. The last thing, it felt like (Mike) Bruesewitz and Ben Brust, two guys who were kind of in a funk recently, those guys stepped up. Josh Gasser played well. Apparently he had the flu the night before. The team is on a pretty nice roll right now.

The team was in a slump in the middle of the season when it lost three in a row. What was the main cause of that?

EH: I don’t think they shot the ball that well. I think they attempted over 20 3-pointers in all three of those games, and they didn’t hit many of them. That’s kind of their kryptonite. They take a bunch of shots from the perimeter every game, and they don’t always make them. They’re not always consistent really. When they do make them, they’re pretty difficult to beat. And I think during that period, the offense kind of sputtered a little bit. They missed Keaton Nankivil and Jon Leuer, two graduates, during that period. Taylor didn’t really have anyone to dish it out to or anything like that. I think the offense just sputtered a lot.

Jordan Taylor’s had a down year from what expectations were. Has he figured things out now toward the end of the season?

EH: He still doesn’t have guys like Leuer and Nankivil around him, so defenses are focusing on him more than they could afford to last year. He didn’t shoot particularly well in the last game, but he’s still as smart of a point guard as he used to be. He’s protecting the ball well, and he knows when and when not to shoot. Although sometimes he’s kind of forced into it because his teammates aren’t as aggressive as Taylor’s past teammates.

Wisconsin has the best scoring defense in the country, but Syracuse has said the last couple of games it would much rather play against a man-to-man defense than a zone. How do you see that matchup going?

EH: Syracuse likes to run a faster game, and whenever Wisconsin plays anyone, they’re always the one trying to slow the other team down. They’re used to that. The Badgers are one of the top teams with field-goal percentage defense, but the thing with Syracuse is they’re so athletic. They’re a lot more athletic than the Badgers are in my opinion. They probably have pretty good size on (Wisconsin), too. It’s going to be a pretty big challenge for (UW). They haven’t seen many athletic teams or teams as deep as Syracuse in the Big Ten. That’ll be a very interesting matchup.

Is there an X-factor player or an X-factor stat where you can say, ‘If this happens or this player gets going, then Wisconsin likely will win this game?’

EH: I think an important part of this game will be Wisconsin’s turnovers. Syracuse, they cause as many steals as anybody else in the country. They’re (No. 3) in the country, and Wisconsin is No. 2 in least amount of turnovers given up. When you consider that the Badgers might have some chances with offensive rebounds, if they can execute there and protect the ball, then the Badgers might be able to get by, even if they don’t shoot particularly well. I think turnovers will be pretty big.

zjbrown@syr.edu

 

Published on March 20, 2012 at 12:00 pm