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from the Sporting News/Mike DeCourcy.
1. Arizona vs. Syracuse, neutral court. Who wins and why?
DeCourcy: The toughest part of that question is never knowing how a player will react to facing a capable zone defense, and Syracuse’s is much more than capable.
If it were just two teams playing man defense, Arizona has better players by a razor-thin margin. If we were doing a draft of the two teams based on how they’ve played this year, say, two of my first three picks—and three of the first five—would be Wildcats. (Nick Johnson, C.J. Fair, Aaron Gordon, Tyler Ennis, T.J McConnell).
But that’s now how it works. They’ve gotta play. The fact that Arizona’s guards are not big and that their 3-point shooting is not lethal could be an issue. Certainly lack of size out front hindered Ohio State in facing zones set by Iowa and Minnesota, and we all remember what happened to Indiana in two encounters with the SU zone.
However, Pitt has won 10 of 14 games against Syracuse under Jamie Dixon, and a lot of those were earned without great perimeter shooters or tall guards. Maybe even most. The Panthers have taken a patient approach to breaking the SU zone from the inside out, and they don’t get rattled. That would seem to be the sort of team Arizona is, based on its comeback effort at Michigan, for instance, which preserved the unbeaten record.
Ennis, Syracuse’s freshman point guard, has been spectacular directing the team’s winning streak. He is an excellent scorer but doesn’t force that aspect of his game, which is a problem for a lot of “scoring points” in the current atmosphere.
Where SU might lack is its ability to generate enough offense against a defense as oppressive as Arizona’s, which could use Gordon as a lockdown defender against Fair and Johnson to keep shooter Trevor Cooney from finding open looks.
That’s why I’d lean toward Arizona. But, man, would I love to see this game.
1. Arizona vs. Syracuse, neutral court. Who wins and why?
DeCourcy: The toughest part of that question is never knowing how a player will react to facing a capable zone defense, and Syracuse’s is much more than capable.
If it were just two teams playing man defense, Arizona has better players by a razor-thin margin. If we were doing a draft of the two teams based on how they’ve played this year, say, two of my first three picks—and three of the first five—would be Wildcats. (Nick Johnson, C.J. Fair, Aaron Gordon, Tyler Ennis, T.J McConnell).
But that’s now how it works. They’ve gotta play. The fact that Arizona’s guards are not big and that their 3-point shooting is not lethal could be an issue. Certainly lack of size out front hindered Ohio State in facing zones set by Iowa and Minnesota, and we all remember what happened to Indiana in two encounters with the SU zone.
However, Pitt has won 10 of 14 games against Syracuse under Jamie Dixon, and a lot of those were earned without great perimeter shooters or tall guards. Maybe even most. The Panthers have taken a patient approach to breaking the SU zone from the inside out, and they don’t get rattled. That would seem to be the sort of team Arizona is, based on its comeback effort at Michigan, for instance, which preserved the unbeaten record.
Ennis, Syracuse’s freshman point guard, has been spectacular directing the team’s winning streak. He is an excellent scorer but doesn’t force that aspect of his game, which is a problem for a lot of “scoring points” in the current atmosphere.
Where SU might lack is its ability to generate enough offense against a defense as oppressive as Arizona’s, which could use Gordon as a lockdown defender against Fair and Johnson to keep shooter Trevor Cooney from finding open looks.
That’s why I’d lean toward Arizona. But, man, would I love to see this game.