ESPN Men's Basketball

The Elite Eight begins with two intriguing matchups Saturday. Florida and Louisville overcame late-season challenges to reach this stage. Syracuse and Ohio State might be the most competitive matchup in the field.

(4) Louisville vs. (7) Florida, 4:30 p.m. ET, CBS

Things to know: Florida coach Billy Donovan once starred for Louisville's Rick Pitino at Providence. That’s the TV-friendly storyline that’s dominated the buildup to this Elite Eight matchup.

But first, we have to answer one question: How on earth did we end up with Florida and Louisville playing for a trip to New Orleans?

Prior to the NCAA tournament, the Gators had lost four of five. Three of those losses were by double digits. Before Louisville earned the Big East tournament crown, the Cardinals had lost four of six.

There just weren’t many reasons to consider this as a potential Elite Eight matchup once the Big Dance began. But both teams are riding serious momentum created by Sweet 16 upsets.

Louisville knocked off 1-seed Michigan State with one of the best defensive efforts in NCAA tourney history. The Spartans scored only 44 points, the lowest tally by a 1-seed since the introduction of the shot clock. Florida sent Marquette home after holding the Golden Eagles to 30.8 percent from the field.

The two teams have been carried by two athletes who’ve stepped up in the NCAA tournament.

Bradley Beal has recorded the following stat lines in Florida’s three NCAA victories: 14 points and 11 rebounds against Virginia; 14 points and 9 rebounds against Norfolk State; 21 points and 6 rebounds against Marquette. The freshman has competed like a veteran.

Louisville, No. 1 in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency ratings, has been the beneficiary of Gorgui Dieng’s surprising NCAA tournament production. The 6-foot-11 sophomore from Senegal has recorded 12 blocks and 5 steals in the Big Dance.

Look for the Cardinals to pressure point guard Erving Walker (8 turnovers in three NCAA tournament games), harass Florida’s potent shooters and dare the Gators to challenge Dieng inside. Look for the Gators to rely on Beal to play catalyst again and slice and dice a Louisville defense that doesn’t match up well with him.

The journey: Louisville defeated Davidson, New Mexico and Michigan State to reach the Elite Eight. Florida earned its shot at New Orleans with wins over Virginia, Norfolk State and Marquette.

Monitor his progress: When Patric Young gets touches (just 13 points on 9 shots combined in team’s last two games), the Gators are a better team. With Dieng surging for Louisville, the Gators need Young to produce on both ends of the floor.

Numbers to impress your friends: Michigan State shot just 22.2 percent from the field against Louisville’s zone (45 of 48 half-court possessions), according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Game’s most crucial question: How will Louisville guard Beal?

The matchup: Peyton Siva vs. Walker. Two speedy point guards who aren’t afraid to attack bigger defenders.

Don’t touch that remote because … Both teams have overachieved thus far. And Dieng’s defensive prowess is worth watching.

(1) Syracuse vs. (2) Ohio State, 7:05 p.m. ET, CBS

Things to know: One of two No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchups in the Elite Eight, Syracuse versus Ohio State features an intriguing personnel matchup.

Syracuse has reached the Elite Eight, its first since 2003, via a zone that is anchored by depth, length and athleticism. The Orange have three of the toughest guards in the field -- Scoop Jardine, Dion Waiters and Brandon Triche. The trio scored 38 points combined against Wisconsin on Thursday. And the Cuse's frontcourt length is unmatched (C.J. Fair, Baye Keita, Rakeem Christmas).

It’s easy to focus on the 14 3-pointers that the Badgers hit against Syracuse in their one-point loss in the Sweet 16. But the final possession -- Jordan Taylor air-balled a 3-pointer -- showcased Syracuse’s defensive lockdown ability. The Badgers couldn’t find a good shot. Wisconsin shot 52 percent from the 3-point line against Syracuse but was 7-for-22 (31.8 percent) on 2-pointers.

Syracuse has everything a national championship contender needs. Ohio State, however, possesses the same profile.

Aaron Craft is the best pure point guard in the field. The sophomore is averaging 12.0 points, 4.0 steals and 6.3 assists in the NCAA tournament. The only blemish on his tourney experience thus far has been his issues with turnovers (11 in three games). That could be a problem against a Syracuse team that entered the Sweet 16 forcing turnovers on nearly one-quarter of its opponents’ possessions.

But Craft is not the Buckeyes' only weapon. Deshaun Thomas and Jared Sullinger comprise the best frontcourt in the field. The sophomores combined for 49 points and 18 rebounds in the Sweet 16 victory over Cincinnati. Syracuse’s chances of neutralizing the tandem decreased when Fab Melo was ruled ineligible for NCAA tournament play.

But the Buckeyes are also one of the top defensive teams in the country (No. 2 in Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency ratings). Syracuse loves to play an up-tempo game, considering its knack for forcing turnovers and scoring on the break. But the Buckeyes (73rd in Pomeroy’s adjusted tempo ratings) can run, too.

Both teams are talented enough to adjust to any situation and/or style. Look for Ohio State to go to Thomas and Sullinger early in the paint. Syracuse doesn’t have the beef to keep the duo from the bucket. Look for Syracuse to trap William Buford and Craft (eight combined turnovers against Cincinnati) and to attack Thomas and Sullinger on offense, seeking early fouls.

The journey: Ohio State defeated Loyola (Md.), Gonzaga and Cincinnati to reach the Elite Eight. Syracuse beat UNC Asheville, Kansas State and Wisconsin.

Monitor his progress: This is a William Buford game. The Buckeyes will need the senior in order to advance to New Orleans. His shooting touch could be a crucial weapon against Syracuse’s zone. But Buford has disappeared at times this season. He scored four points against Cincinnati in the Sweet 16. The Buckeyes will need more from him against Syracuse.

Numbers to impress your friends: Ohio State has scored 55 points off 39 forced turnovers in three NCAA tournament games.

Game’s most crucial question: Will Ohio State crack Syracuse’s zone, despite Craft’s turnover challenges and a 33.6 percent clip from the 3-point line?

The matchup: Craft versus Jardine. Jardine leads one of the best transition attacks in the country. Craft is one of the nation’s top transition defenders. Both have cracked double digits in turnovers in the NCAA tournament.

Don’t touch that remote because … This matchup features two teams with few weaknesses and plenty of star power.

BOSTON – Somewhere, some clever Syracuse fan ought to grab a red cape, a magic marker, ink a Z on his chest and call himself The Zone.

In this NCAA tournament, the Zone (yes, it deserves to be capitalized) has grown to near-mythological proportions and taken on the aura and presence of a superhero, complete with superpowers.

How do you beat the Zone? Why do you play it? How unique is it? What makes it so hard?

It is everywhere, an all-consuming beast. In the two press conferences between Syracuse and Ohio State, on the eve of their Elite Eight match, the word zone was mentioned 50 times.

Heck, if the Orange win the national title, the Zone could earn Most Outstanding Player honors.

Here’s the dirty little secret: The Zone does not have superpowers, nor is Orange coach Jim Boeheim some evil scientist who has concocted something no one in basketball can duplicate.

The Syracuse coach is just committed (or stubborn, pick your word). He does not waver if teams are shooting well against the Zone (as Wisconsin did) and he does not give his players the option of man-to-man defense.

Ever.

“They buy into it because they want to play,’’ Boeheim laughed. "These guys know what we want to do, what we’re about. They work hard at it.’’

Boeheim, in fact, is tickled at people’s preoccupation with his defense, as if he’s unearthed some sort of relic from the peach-basket days.

“It’s always funny to me,’’ he said. “You never hear anybody yelling at Mike Krzyzewski to go back and play zone. Why is that? He’s such a good coach, you don’t question him? Is that what it is? Really? Somebody shook their head down there. OK, that means I’m not a good coach, so you can question me.’’

Thad Matta would beg to differ. The Ohio State coach will be the next to attempt to slay the Zone, on Saturday night, and while he knows conventional wisdom holds the easiest way to beat a good zone is to shoot 3s, he also watched Wisconsin drain 14 and lose.

“A couple of years ago I heard what I thought was the greatest answer from Coach Boeheim,’’ Matta said. “Somebody asked him, 'What do you do when somebody gets really hot against your zone and they’re making 3s?' He said, ‘How do you know they’re not going to make them against man-to-man?’ He has his philosophy and he’s only won 900 or however many games he’s won. It works for him.’’

Whom to watch

William Buford, Ohio State: Matta went out of his way to commend his senior for his defensive effort against Cincinnati. And it was deserved. It also was welcome deflection from Buford’s offensive woes.

The Sweet 16 has not been kind to Buford. He has played in that round three consecutive seasons and is 8-of-37, including an absentee 1-of-8 against the Bearcats on Thursday.

This season, however, is Buford's first appearance in the Elite Eight. Ohio State needs him to run with the clean start.

Wisconsin offered a nice little road map for their Big Ten brethren in terms of beating the Syracuse zone– hit 3s. Now, expecting Ohio State to be as red-hot as the Badgers is probably silly, but the Buckeyes do have shooters.

Which is where Buford comes in. He’s one of those shooters and he needs to make those 3s.

“The great thing about William is he usually bounces back,’’ Matta said. “Hopefully the odds say tomorrow some higher percentage will be going in for him. But yeah, we need Will to play well.’’

Scoop Jardine, Syracuse: One of Syracuse’s hidden strengths this season is its ability to take care of the basketball. The Orange are eighth in the country, committing just 10.5 turnovers per game.

That number will meet its match in the form of Aaron Craft. Arguably the best on-the-ball defender in the country, Ohio State's sophomore guard is a relentless gnat who not only swats at the ball but also frustrates his opponent into mistakes.

Jardine, typically the primary ball handler for Syracuse, had been very good until Thursday’s regional semifinal against Wisconsin when the senior coughed up the ball five times.

That can’t happen against Craft. Ohio State will turn those miscues into points – the Buckeyes got 20 points off turnovers against Cincinnati – but more crucially, OSU is quite content in a grind-it-out, half-court game. If Jardine turns it over, that means more chances for Ohio State to dictate the tempo.

What to watch

This could be the first time that Syracuse feels sorely the absence of Fab Melo. Rakeem Christmas and Baye Keita have done a more than admirable job for the Orange through this NCAA tournament run, but in their first three games, the duo has not faced anything quite like Jared Sullinger and Deshaun Thomas.

The two are big, strong and armed with an arsenal of scoring touches. Most crucially for Christmas and Keita, Sullinger and Thomas help Ohio State rack up a plus-7.6 rebounding edge, good for sixth in the country — and good for lots of extended possessions. Christmas and Keita will have their work cut out for them in this game.

“James [Southerland] and C.J. [Fair] are going to have to help us,’’ Orange forward Kris Joseph said of defending the Ohio State big men. “It’s going to be the weakside man on the back of the zone that’s going to be able to help the most when [they] get the ball down low. If Rakeem does a good enough job, we won’t need to, but it’s going to be our job definitely to give him a lot of help.’’

BOSTON – The T-shirts were only gifts from Nike, concocted by some faceless marketing whiz, not crafted by clever seniors looking to send a message.

Still, if Syracuse players got together to try to formulate a motto for their team and for their season, they couldn’t have come up with better than the three words emblazoning their Ts:

By Any Means.

Syracuse has won 34 games this year, nail-biters and blowouts, won with defense and won with offense, with their starting center and without him.

The Orange just win, amazing even their seen-it-all coach with their pluck and knack for pulling victory from the jaws of defeat.

“If I wasn’t the coach, I’d be sitting there thinking, how are they going to win that game? They can’t win that one,’’ Jim Boeheim said last week. “And then they do.’’

And really that’s all that matters at this time of year. From October until February, a team has to justify its worth, prove it deserves a bid, prove it merits a high seed.

Now, though, the means needn’t justify the end. Pretty or ugly, easy or hard, it makes no never mind.

Syracuse opted for a plateful of the last Thursday night, surviving a Wisconsin shooting clinic that was equal parts awe-inspiring, amazing or terrifying, depending on your team color choice, to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time since its national title run in 2003, 64-63.

“Yeah, by any means, that’s perfect for us, that’s how we played today, how we’ve played all season,’’ sophomore guard Dion Waiters said. “By any means. It fits.’’

The means in this matchup came in the form of Fair and prayer. That would be C.J. Fair, who was so ineffective in Pittsburgh that reporters were probing for health issues or injury to explain his 1-of-10 shooting in the first two rounds of the tournament, and who out of nowhere shot 7 of 9 to finish with 15 points and seven rebounds on Thursday.

As for the prayer, that came from Waiters, who looked for a little divine intervention as Wisconsin, which shot a blistering 14 of 27 from the arc, had the ball, 15 seconds and a chance to win the game.

“I just kept saying, ‘Please don’t make it, please don’t make it, please God, let him miss,’’ Waiters said.

Whether it was a prayer or simply good defense, Waiters' request was heeded, with Jordan Taylor’s long-distance 3 falling short and Josh Gasser’s desperation heave missing on the buzzer.

“That clock just had to end,’’ Orange junior Brandon Triche said.

When it did, Taylor and his Wisconsin teammates lay prone on the floor. There is one way to beat a zone and UW executed it to near perfection, at one point draining six 3s in succession to go from down seven points to up by three.

But when the Badgers needed those shots, they couldn’t come up with them, missing their final five, including Taylor’s heave.

The loss once more denies Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan a chance to get out of the regional semifinal. The man who racked up Division III titles like a tie collection is now 1-4 in the Sweet 16.

“It was on the line, and I felt like I got my legs into it,’’ said Taylor, who finished with 17 points. “I knew it was a deep 3 but it felt good and then to see it kind of come up short was kind of heartbreaking.’’

One team’s heartache …

“This is one of the best games I’ve been involved in in a long time,’’ Boeheim said. “I think the best game anyone played against us and didn’t beat us.’’

Truth be told, this game was a microcosm of that entire season -- an unexpected star, timely defense and an answered prayer has been both the Orange’s means and recipe all year.

Blessed with a roster deep enough to field a second team, Boeheim has the luxury of finding the hot hand and then feeding it well. In three NCAA tournament games, three different players have led the Orange in scoring.

Fair hadn’t been the guy in a while, though. He’s been on this side of terrible since the postseason began, 2-of-17 from the beginning of the Big East tournament through the third-round victory over Kansas State. He swears he never lost confidence because Boeheim never gave up on him -- Fair retained his starting position and kept playing minutes.

On Tuesday, he said he had a feeling -- not quite a premonition -- that he would play well against the Badgers. And then he promptly turned the ball over on his first touch and missed two free throws a few minutes later.

“I was like, ‘Oh man, this cannot happen,’ ’’ Fair said.

But with five minutes left until the halftime break, Waiters found Fair in transition and the sophomore slammed home the dunk, igniting the partisan Syracuse crowd and his own offensive game.

He’d tack on four more points in quick succession before intermission and keep rolling in the second.

“These were the same shots I was taking last week,’’ he said. “This time they were just going in.’’

Of course, it seemed like most everything was going in during this game. It was a mathematical misnomer, with Wisconsin shooting better from outside the arc than inside of it and Syracuse hitting nine fewer 3s.

And winning.

Which is why it makes only perfect sense that defense sealed the victory.

After watching the Badgers hedge toward Loyola Marymount’s seemingly untouchable record of 21 made 3s in 1990, Syracuse extended its zone a good two steps beyond the line.

Those extra inches made all the difference, pushing Taylor just enough out of his comfort zone to make that last shot difficult, it not downright impossible.

“We wanted to get a stop,’’ said Scoop Jardine, who with Waiters crowded Taylor on his final shot. “We knew it was going to be something with Jordan trying to penetrate or kick out to one of his shooters. We’ve been in that situation before throughout the year. … We believed in our defense. We didn’t panic, we stayed with them and we believed in it and got the stop to win the game.’’

By any means.

PITTSBURGH -- Scoop Jardine sort of hung there for a handful of seconds, inverted over a press table, a computer and the other superfluous paraphernalia of a sportswriter’s workspace, his legs dangling in the air and his hands somehow on the floor to complete the awkward handstand.

Brandon Triche came over to make sure Jardine wasn’t hurt, thinking maybe he could sort of use Jardine’s legs to crank his teammate to an upright position.

Just as he got there, though, Jardine stood up, his trademark grin smiling across his face.

“He said he always wanted to do something like that, go Dennis Rodman over the press table,’’ Triche said. “As soon as he got up, I knew he was fine. He was smiling.’’

And when Jardine is smiling everything is right in the Orange’s world.

Syracuse goes hockey-line deep, giving Jim Boeheim the delighted luxury of playing the constant tinkerer. If one guy is off, surely someone will be on.

But the Orange accelerate from good to special when Jardine and his senior cohort, Kris Joseph, are good and in the second half against Kansas State, Jardine found his extra gear, lifting Syracuse to the 75-59 win and a date in the Sweet 16.

“I’ve been here five years. This is about my legacy and I’m not ready for that to be written yet,’’ Jardine said. “We lost in this round last year [to Marquette] and I took that personal. That’s why I came back. I wasn’t going to let it happen again.’’

Since the brackets were revealed on Sunday, the news surrounding Syracuse has been about anything and everything but basketball. Fab Melo was suspended for the duration of the season on Tuesday, igniting a firestorm of conversation about just how the Orange would win without their big man and if the Orange could win without their big man.

Syracuse did little to quell the worries with a lackluster opener against UNC Asheville, a win that left plenty of people convinced questionable officiating victimized the Bulldogs.

On Saturday, particularly in the second half, the Orange redirected the conversation.

Playing arguably its best basketball in weeks, Syracuse finally looked like a No. 1 seed.

And more, it played like a team that wasn’t carrying around a Melo-sized albatross.

“We were having fun again, out there smiling,’’ Joseph said. “I think some of it maybe was because of pressure. We talked about it, me and Scoop, before the game to the team and at halftime. There’s no reason to not just go out and play. We know what we want to do. We know what we want to accomplish, so let’s just go do it.’’

It sounds easier than it is, frankly. Playing with a target isn’t easy and it’s especially difficult for the Orange, where the target flashes in neon amid the myriad controversies to have hit the team this season.

This team has had more doubters than fans as far back as November. There is no star here, no collection of future NBA talent ready to cash in shortly, which is usually the prerequisite for NCAA success.

A few doubters had to turn convert after this one, when Syracuse showed that the team-as-star theory can work quite nicely. Evidence? How about this? Syracuse had 33 bench points, Kansas State 0.

“Everyone says you have to have a go-to guy and I’m not sure if you’re not better if you have different guys,’’ said Jim Boeheim, who had no problem riding one guy to a national title in 2003. “We’ve had different guys make plays all year.’’

He’s right. On Thursday it was James Southerland saving Syracuse from epic disaster.

This time it was Jardine.

The difference is, the more often its Jardine, the better off the Orange is.

Kansas State, playing without Jamar Samuels, who was withheld due to eligibility concerns, gave Syracuse a dose of Big 12 toughness in the first half. The Wildcats didn’t merely expose Syracuse’s Achilles heel -- its rebounding -- it eviscerated it. Kansas State outrebounded the Orange, 28-16 and even more critically, 15-3 on the offensive glass.

That allowed the Wildcats to hang around, with Syracuse clinging to a 25-24 edge at the break.

But when Jordan Henriquez, who would finish with 14 points and 17 rebounds, picked up his third foul, it was all but over for K-State.

Syracuse should patent its ability to go on a run whenever it needs one. The next time the Wildcats looked up, the scoreboard went from 39-34 to 55-42.

In that dash, Jardine scored six points and dished out three assists, entirely converting his boxscore. In the opening 20, he had 2 points, three assists and four turnovers. By game’s end, he had 16, 8 and six.

“In the first half, in spite of what he might think, he struggled,’ Boeheim said. “He made some bad decisions. You know, I don’t know what he was doing on a couple of plays. And we struggled. But we’re a point guard-oriented team, especially when you play a team like Kansas State. They take away your wing passes, so you really have to do stuff off the dribble.’’

Which is where Jardine comes in.

Jardine does not lack for confidence. He insists he has played well for weeks, even though his coach has practically been begging Jardine and Joseph to play like seniors.

And he argues that his team has played just fine, too, though outsiders might beg to differ.

“I don’t know what a No. 1 seed is supposed to look like,’’ he said. “I just know we’re supposed to win and that’s what we’re doing.’’

They will continue to better their odds if Jardine continues to play as he did against Kansas State.

He was aggressive, going directly at Angel Rodriguez. Because he did, it opened a lid on a Syracuse offense that has been sealed shut recently.

“You know when Scoop is out there, playing aggressive like that, sacrificing his body, it makes us so much better,’’ Triche said. “We feed off of him and his energy. That’s what makes us go.’’

About that ‘sacrificing the body’ thing, Jardine has a confession to make.

“I made a bad shot,’’ he said sheepishly, “so I was trying to make up for it with dramatic effect.’’

And then Jardine smiled.

And all was right with the Orange.

PITTSBURGH — Quick thoughts on Syracuse’s 75-59 win against Kansas State in the third round of the NCAA tournament.

Overview: Syracuse found the easiest way to change the narrative on its NCAA tournament run — play like a top seed.

Since the brackets were revealed Sunday, most everyone has wanted to talk about everything but the Orange’s actual basketball abilities — the premature loss in the Big East tournament, the suspension of Fab Melo, the controversial win against UNC Asheville.

Syracuse played a smart, decisive game against Kansas State, using every bit of its most powerful weapon — its bench — to win the game. The Orange's reserves outscored the Wildcats' depleted bench (without Jamar Samuels) to the tune of 33-0.

It was more than just a wave of players, it was how those players performed. The Orange took smart shots, shared the ball and, defensively, forced Kansas State (an average-shooting team) out of the paint.

There are still issues to overcome, namely Syracuse’s Achilles' heel of rebounding. The Orange were beaten on the offensive boards badly, 22-8, and will struggle especially against a team that is adept on the glass.

But the team that everyone has picked to lose finally reminded everyone why it was chosen as one of the favorites to win.

Turning point: Jordan Henriquez, who kept the Wildcats alive on most of their possessions with yeoman’s work on the boards, picked up his third foul with his team trailing 36-32. Though he didn’t sit long, Henriquez couldn’t afford to be as aggressive and the Wildcats’ offense fell apart.

Smelling the blood in the water, the Orange took over. Scoop Jardine led the charge, scoring six points and dishing out two incredible assists in a Syracuse dash that stretched the lead to 55-42. K-State could never recover.

Key player: Jardine, who’d been only average since the Big East tournament, played his best game in weeks. The senior scored 16 points and dished out eight assists, leading a Syracuse offense that looked far more in sync than it has in recent games.

Key stat: Kansas State shot just 4-of-17 from the arc. You cannot beat Syracuse if you can’t shoot. Sounds simple? It is.

The other equally big one: 33-0, that was the difference in the bench scoring between the teams.

Miscellaneous: Both teams were down a player. On Tuesday, Syracuse announced Melo would be out for the duration of the Orange’s NCAA tournament run because of eligibility concerns, and just 20 minutes before tipoff, Kansas State announced that Samuels was being withheld for similar worries. ... Without Samuels, Thomas Gipson was pressed into service. Gipson usually averages 17 minutes per game. He'd hit the 20-minute mark by the first media timeout of the second half. ... Vice President Joe Biden, a Syracuse alum, was in town for the city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Biden served as the grand marshal.

Next game: Syracuse will meet Vanderbilt or Wisconsin in the Sweet 16 in Boston. It’s the Orange’s first regional semifinal appearance since 2010. Syracuse lost that year to Butler and has not made an Elite Eight appearance since its national title run in 2003.

PITTSBURGH -- Here’s a quick rundown of what to look for in Saturday’s third-round games at Consol Energy Center:

No. 1 seed Syracuse (32-2) vs. No. 8 Kansas State (22-10), 12:15 p.m. ET

One looks like The Thinker, pensively holding his chin in his hand as he solves the world’s mysteries from his courtside seat.

The other looks like The Incredible Hulk, his eyes narrowing and his veins popping as he flails at the world’s inadequacies from the bench.

Turns out there’s plenty of fire in Jim Boeheim and plenty of calm in Frank Martin.

We just don’t see it.

“I think it’s more behind closed doors,’’ Syracuse junior James Southerland said of Boeheim. “He’ll get after you if you make a mistake or if you’re not playing hard, but honestly, with him, I think you worry more if he’s not yelling at you.’’

The man who has perfected the art of blasé, passing off even the biggest disturbance with a hand flick or shoulder shrug, has built his outer calm over inner fire in 36 years of coaching. Boeheim is the constant.

The players change. The zone gets tinkered, but the coach stays the same.

Like a strict parent, Boeheim can get his players’ attention sometimes without raising his voice.

“I think the level of both of our intensities is high,’’ Boeheim said. “[Martin] may show his level a little more than I do. You know, I wouldn’t want him to be mad at me.’’

But beneath the withering stare, Martin actually is one of the gentler souls in the game. Affable and easy going, he’ll tell stories and poke fun at himself gladly.

On a recruiting visit to the home of Jordan Henriquez, Martin, a Cuban-American, started speaking in Spanish. Only Henriquez didn’t speak it.

“I started rambling off in Spanish because that’s my natural language,’’ Martin said. “I could tell the way he’s looking at me that something wasn’t right. When I finished that great first three or four sentences, he looked at me and said, ‘Coach, I don’t speak Spanish.’ You can imagine how I felt.’’

As for the on-court act, one that he promised to try to improve this season when he memorably vowed to clean up his own salty language if his student section would do the same, Martin makes no apologies.

“I’ve got my own way of doing things,’’ he said. “It was the way I was raised. I’m a little emotional. I’m not scared to show my emotion in public. Some guys are real emotional in private and they have a public personality. With me, what you see is what you get.’’

Who to watch: Kansas State’s Jamar Samuels. The Wildcats’ second-leading scorer was in the witness protection program against Southern Miss, making just one free throw and worse, taking zero shots from the floor. That can’t happen again. It puts too much pressure on Rodney McGruder and it doesn’t lead to good results for K-State. In six of the Wildcats’ 10 losses, Samuels failed to score in double digits.

But more critically in this particular game, Kansas State has to get some inside play against the Orange and try to establish Samuels against the replacements in the Syracuse lineup.

Syracuse’s Kris Joseph. The Orange senior is the leading scorer and de facto leader, but hasn’t played like that lately. From the Big East tournament to the NCAA tournament first round, Joseph is just 10-of-33.

That’s got to change, a point of emphasis that even Boeheim has stressed, insisting that the Orange will only go as far as Joseph and Scoop Jardine take them.

What to watch: The 3-point line. Kansas State is not a very good 3-point shooting team, hitting only 34 percent from the arc and making just 5.6 per game. Syracuse played its way to this point with its defense, in particular its defense on the arc. Teams hit only 30 percent on average against the Orange.

Of course much of that was with Fab Melo in the lineup, when the big man’s size allowed Syracuse to really stretch that zone. The Orange got back to that late against UNC Asheville, but that was after the Bulldogs already had done enough damage from the arc to make it a game.

K-State is going to have to drain some 3s in order to crack the zone, but the Orange are going to have to stretch wider, making the middle a little more vulnerable with Rakeem Christmas instead of Melo.

No. 2 seed Ohio State (28-7) vs. No. 7 Gonzaga (26-6), 2:45 p.m. ET

Asked how he thinks Ohio State, his third-round foe, views his team, Robert Sacre smiled.

He then rambled on about how the Buckeyes probably think his team is like the “United Nations, a bunch of guys from all over coming together to make it work,’’ before concluding that he’s certain the Buckeyes respected his team.

Which is true. Ohio State does respect Gonzaga.

But what Sacre danced around, what he wouldn’t say is what everyone always thinks and says about the Zags: they’re soft.

Big Ten equals brawn.

West Coast Conference equals finesses (a euphemism for soft).

“We played two Big Ten teams, Illinois and Michigan State, tough and came out of those, I think, showing who we were,’’ Sacre said. “But everybody expected us to lose those games and everyone still expects us to lose now.’’

The perception really is all wrong. The truth is, Ohio State scores more points than the Zags (75.1 to 74) and shoots better from the floor (48.6 percent to 47 percent), while soft Gonzaga actually outrebounds the Buckeyes (37.1 to 36.8)

And this soft team annually traverses the country to play just about anyone anywhere. Along with those two Big Ten games, Gonzaga this season played Notre Dame, Arizona, Butler and Xavier. Not exactly a pansy schedule.

“There’s nothing we can do about it; it’s the nature of the beast,’’ Sacre said. “All we can do is play basketball.’’

Which brings us to Saturday.

Ohio State will try to ground the more uptempo Zags into the ground and most figure Jared Sullinger and DeShaun Thomas will make life miserable for Elias Harris and Sacre.

If they can stand their ground, they might just be able to rewrite their own script.

Who to watch: Gonzaga’s Harris, who could be the Zags’ X factor. He has to keep track of OSU's Thomas, no easy task considering Thomas just went for a career-high 31, but Harris has the size and athleticism to make it interesting. More critical, with Kevin Pangos trying to get away from Aaron Craft and Sacre preoccupied by Sullinger, Harris needs to score.

Ohio State’s William Buford. For the same reasons as Harris, Buford is an X factor for the Buckeyes. The team’s third-leading scorer can be dominant (he dropped 29 on Purdue) and he can disappear (he came up with just four a night later against Michigan State). In this game, the senior needs to take charge and take advantage if he’s left alone.

What to watch: The frontcourt battle will get a lot of attention, but the game might be won or lost in the backcourt. That’s where Pangos will have to tango with Craft, one of the best defensive point guards in the game. Pangos has been a key offensive component for the Zags this season, averaging 13.8 points per game. They need him to score against the Buckeyes, but more critical, Pangos has to take care of the ball. He’s cut down on his turnovers considerably in recent weeks but has had his share of rough nights against more physical guards -- coughing it up five times against Xavier and Tu Holloway, for example.

PITTSBURGH -- J.P. Primm led his team through the hallways of the Consol Energy Center, chanting, "It’s not the size of the dog.’’ His No. 16-seeded UNC Asheville team backed him in the fight and almost made history.

But like the 108 teams that came before them since 1985, the Bulldogs failed to rewrite the longest-held NCAA tournament tenet: A No. 1 seed has never lost to a 16tth seed since the tourney was expanded 27 years ago. In the end, UNC Asheville joined their underdog brethren and lost 72-65 to Syracuse.

Soon, maybe before this night is over, we will move on to another team, another Cinderella, and UNC Asheville will just be another footnote.

If only it were so easy for Primm to forget. The senior will relive this one for a long time, not just ruminating on what might have been, but also wondering if it should have been.

He and the thousands of UNC Asheville fans born in the two hours between opening tip and final buzzer headed to the exits left more disillusioned than disappointed.

“It’s frustrating when you play that hard and that tough for 40 minutes against one of the top teams in the country, to have a couple of calls that don’t go your way, it just takes the air out of you.’’

Primm was referring to two late-game calls that went against the Bulldogs. With 1:20 left and the Bulldogs trailing by four, Scoop Jardine appeared to miss the front end of a one-and-one. Instead Primm was called for a lane violation. Official Ed Corbett said the violation was clear, that Primm, who was outside the box, released before the ball hit the rim.

Instead of a miss and a Bulldog ball, Jardine then sank both free throws.

Then, down 66-63, Asheville turned up the defensive pressure with a full-court press that seemed to stifle the Orange. A toss to the sideline by the Asheville bench appeared to go off Brandon Triche's hands.

Instead Corbett ruled it tipped off an Asheville player. The play, Corbett said, was not reviewable. USA Today reported that John Adams, the NCAA's head of officiating for men's basketball, said on TruTv that "I'm not going to alibi for the gentlemen in the game. They work their butts off. When you see this call, it's either a foul or you give it to the other team that didn't knock the ball out of bounds. He didn't get it right."

Primm acknowledged that nothing was guaranteed, that even if the calls had gone for them, the Bulldogs still had work to do. He just wanted the chance.

“You’re in it and then that happens, it just deflates you. The air just goes right out of you,’’ he said. “I’ll watch it again and it will hurt. I just hope those guys watch it, too.’’

The controversial finish masked the real story. Syracuse, insisting that neither Fab Melo's suspension nor any of the other issues would distract them, played an awful lot like a team with other things on its mind.

The Orange came out horribly flat, unable to solve Asheville's zone defense. Instead of looking for creases and seams, as teams do against Syracuse, they passed the ball around the perimeter, jacking up 13 3-pointers. They made only one.

“We haven’t attacked zones, even though we play it and work against it every day," Jim Boeheim said. “When you make those shots against zones, it’s a different world."

That allowed the Bulldogs to not only stay in it, but to take a four-point lead at the break. When you let a good team, regardless of the seed, hang around, you allow that little nugget of hope to blossom.

UNC Asheville, with four seniors on its roster, didn’t need much else.

The Bulldogs played about as smart and as hard a game as a team can play in their situation, resisting the urge to go-go-go like they usually do, opting instead to methodically and carefully pick apart the Syracuse zone. The Bulldogs dished out 17 assists on 21 made baskets, and despite leading scorer Matt Dickey shooting just 1-of-13 were never officially out of the game until it was over.

“Basketball is not a game of perfect,’’ Eddie Biedenbach said. “We made some mistakes and it cost us. But they made plenty of mistakes and some of them didn’t cost them. I don’t want to comment on officiating. I think to answer [the] question best, that big replay machine up on top, you heard the crowd reaction.’’

The reality is it is emotionally harder to lose close as a 16, but it is tougher to play as a top seed. The Bulldogs had nothing to lose. No one, save the guys in the locker room, really thought they had a chance to win this game.

On the other bench, since the Melo news broke on Tuesday, most people have been trying to figure out when, not if, Syracuse was going to lose.

“There’s always that team everybody wants to lose; that’s us,’’ Dion Waiters said. “I don’t know. Somebody has it in for Syracuse this year. There’s like a black cloud following us around or something.’’

The Orange have used the run of bad news to circle the wagons even tighter, adopting an us-against-the-world mentality. “I don’t think it’s the whole world,’’ Boeheim joked. “Three-quarters, maybe. I think there’s some people in China that aren’t upset with us.’’

But right now the enemy is within.

Syracuse looked lousy against Cincinnati in the Big East tournament. Afterward, they swore they’d learn from that game, that they’d regroup and come out swinging in the only tournament that really mattered.

Instead they created more doubters in their debut.

They are the big dogs in this tournament.

They need to find the fight.

PITTSBURGH -- Quick thoughts on Syracuse’s 72-65 win over UNC Asheville in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Overview: Let’s address the obvious first: This had nothing to do with Fab Melo.

Yes, the loss of the big man alters the way Syracuse plays, especially defensively, but not this much.

Syracuse needed to salvage a second-round win against 16^th-seeded UNC Asheville because it debuted in the NCAA tournament as if it wanted to be anywhere but on the court. The Orange looked disinterested and dysfunctional from the opening tip, allowing the Bulldogs to start believing a miracle was possible.

That it wasn’t meant to be doesn’t change that a fragile team needs to quickly refocus. Otherwise, the curtain will close quickly for the Orange.

The lone saving grace for Syracuse was its defense. With Rakeem Christmas logging most of the second-half minutes, the Orange were able to extend their zone on the hot-shooting Bulldogs and ultimately hold them at bay.

Turning point: There were about 30 in this game, but the most critical was when referee Ed Corbett signaled an out-of-bounds call off UNC Asheville with less than a minute to play, sending Scoop Jardine to the line. Replays showed the call was, at best, questionable. The senior sunk both free throws and Brandon Triche followed with two more, giving the Orange the win in a game they desperately tried to lose.

Key player: His teammates ought to be slapping James Southerland on the back. He came off the bench to basically save the Orange in the second half. Southerland had just two points at the break but finished with 15, including five in the Orange’s game-deciding 8-0 run.

Key stat: This isn’t in the good department. This is in the must-fix department. Jim Boeheim said Wednesday that his seniors needed to play better than they did in New York. They didn’t. Kris Joseph and Jardine were a combined 6-of-18 from the floor and 1-of-9 from behind the arc. The two were only part of the shooting problem. Syracuse, despite the win, shot just 5-of-23 from behind the arc.

Miscellaneous: In his pregame presser, Jim Boeheim admitted that he used to play UNC Asheville in the regular season but has avoided scheduling the Bulldogs of late because “Eddie might come in and eat us," referring to Asheville coach Eddie Biedenbach. … Sans Melo, Syracuse went more with the freshman Christmas than with Baye Keita. Not as active as Keita, Christmas is bigger and bulkier, a little more similar to Melo than Keita, which allows Syracuse to extend its zone as it has all season. … Asheville sub Keith Hornsby is the son of musician Bruce. Irrelevant but entertaining fact.

What’s next: Top-seeded Syracuse meets No. 8 seed Kansas State in the third round on Saturday.

PITTSBURGH -- Here’s a quick rundown of what to look for in Thursday’s afternoon games at Pittsburgh:

No. 8 Kansas State (21-10) vs. No. 9 Southern Miss (25-8), 12:40 p.m. ET

Back when he was an assistant at Cincinnati, Frank Martin watched Larry Eustachy try to rebuild both his career and his life at Southern Miss.

The two schools then were Conference USA foes, and let’s just say it wasn’t a fair fight.

“I remember how bad his team was that year, how frustrated he was with that team,’’ Martin said.

Fast-forward and the two are prepping to face one another in the NCAA tournament, Martin as the head coach with Kansas State and Eustachy with the Golden Eagles team he’s cultivated from nothing to the school’s third NCAA tournament berth.

Eustachy, his struggles with alcohol and his ignominious dismissal from Iowa State well documented, returns to the Dance for the first time in a decade a different person, comfortable in his own skin and happy to share his story.

“There’s nobody that’s got more scars on their fanny than me,’’ Eustachy said. “I could do this blindfolded and backwards and every day. So I think my story is a neat story. I think it’s a great story. I think it inspires people.’’

Martin is usually one of those people who gets inspired. But not this week. This week he’s more worried about what the Golden Eagles present than what his peer has overcome.

“For me, to see his team play, especially over the last 72 hours studying his team, it’s hilarious because it’s like watching his old Iowa State teams play,’’ Martin said. “It’s got Larry Eustachy stamped all over it. A lot of folks say we’re the hardest playing team in America. Well, Larry’s teams were the hardest playing teams when he was at Iowa State.’’

Who to watch:

Southern Miss’ Darnell Dodson. Dodson initially signed with Pittsburgh, wound up in a junior college, transferred to Kentucky and is now with the Golden Eagles. He’s a high-major player who has added a much-needed scoring punch to Southern Miss, averaging 11.1 points per game.

Kansas State’s Angel Rodriguez. The freshman point guard has given Martin a few gray hairs, averaging nearly as many turnovers (2.6) as he does assists (3.2). He’ll have to do more of the latter against Southern Miss’ tough group of guards.

What to watch: The Golden Eagles are not a very good shooting team -- they shoot only 40 percent from the floor -- which makes for tough sledding against a Kansas State squad that is tough-minded, particularly on the defensive end, and considerably bigger. Guards Angelo Johnson and Neil Watson need to be especially strong going to the basket.

No. 1 Syracuse (31-2) vs. No. 16 UNC-Asheville (24-9), 3:10 p.m. ET

More than a coach, Jim Boeheim is a basketball fan. He has a working knowledge of what teams are doing -- who’s good, who isn’t.

And while the seed line says his team is playing a walkover, the Syracuse coach knows better.

“They’re shocking to me to be a 16-seed,’’ Boeheim said. “I’m sure most people would say I’m just saying that, but I had seen them play already this year before we got the tapes in. I just think they’re a really good basketball team.’’

The Bulldogs certainly don’t look like a 16-seed, not with 24 wins, a huge cushion in the Big South Conference (winning by four games), an RPI of 91 and a more than respectable nonleague schedule, against the likes of North Carolina, Connecticut and Tennessee.

But the seed is the seed and the only stat that ultimately matters in the end is the obvious one: No No. 16 seed has beaten a No. 1 in NCAA tournament history.

It is the elephant in the locker room that every coach, who preaches that his team believes it can win every game, has to address.

UNC-Asheville coach Eddie Biedenbach knows the history better than anyone. Just a year ago, his Bulldogs won in the First Four to set up a 1-16 game against Pittsburgh. The Bulldogs made that interesting, cutting the Panthers’ lead to six before eventually losing by 23.

That team, however, is now a year older and a year wiser. Biedenbach sports a veteran starting five -- four seniors and one junior -- who remember well what happened a year ago.

“All those things are neat, they’re fun and I love the talk shows and the reporters that write about that stuff,’’ Biedenbach said. “But being the first to do that is fascinating, too.’’

Who to watch:

Syracuse’s Rakeem Christmas/Baye Keita All eyes will be on the replacement Syracuse big men, given the charge to fill in for Fab Melo. Both have played in spurts, but none significantly or certainly on such a big stage. Neither has to be huge offensively -- that’s up to Kris Joseph and Scoop Jardine to get their swagger back -- but they have to be good defensively.

UNC-Asheville’s Matt Dickey and J.P. Primm You can’t say one without the other. The two classmates have achieved more at Asheville than anyone before them, part of the school’s winningest class. More critical to this game, the pair are the premier gunslingers.

What to watch: The pace. UNC-Asheville likes to go, averaging 80 points per game, and it has five guys who can score. All the starters average double figures in scoring. They prefer to get to the hoop or get to the free throw line, where they shoot a strong 76 percent. How that works against Syracuse’s zone, even without Melo, will be interesting.

Syracuse has played through immense adversity.

Bernie Fine was dismissed amid a sexual abuse scandal. Head coach Jim Boeheim made comments backing the assistant that he later retracted. A media firestorm ensued.

Yet the Orange stayed focused.

It looks like a team that’s built for a Final Four run. It's a balanced squad.

And this just in … Syracuse is a very deep team. The Orange have a 10-man rotation.

Dion Waiters is one of the most dynamic reserves in the nation. They’re led by a veteran guard in Scoop Jardine. Kris Joseph is one of the most talented players in the country.

The Orange have been doubted all season. But they just keep winning. And they’ve found that success despite a serious off-court distraction involving Fine. Plus, Fab Melo missed games due to academic trouble. And they still didn’t collapse.

I think this is a resilient squad that can compete with any team in the field.

But it’s not perfect.

Syracuse will fall when a team exposes and capitalizes on its rebounding woes (the Orange have struggled all year with giving up second-chance opportunities).

During a 64-61 overtime victory against Georgetown in February, the Hoyas had a 20-12 advantage on the offensive glass.

Ball control will be pivotal, too. Syracuse forces 16.6 turnovers per game and uses that defensive prowess to spur its crucial transition game.

A team that limits turnovers can make Syracuse play more honest. It'll lose when an opponent can take advantage of the gaps in Boeheim’s zone. In its only two losses of the season, Notre Dame shot 50 percent from beyond the arc and Cincinnati connected on 45 percent of its attempts from the 3-point line. Makes Vandy an intriguing team in the East region.

But a successful opponent will also have to be strong enough defensively to force the Orange to operate in the half court. They love to run and score on the break. They’re not, however, as creative with their half-court game.

They’re great when they’re running. Hard to stop on the break, but a successful opponent will slow them down and force them to use the shot clock instead of relying on quick buckets in transition.

I know the Orange didn’t have Melo against Notre Dame, but in Syracuse’s two losses, they were bullied by Jack Cooley and Yancy Gates inside. Their interior guys are long and athletic, but they’re not that strong or physical.

A successful opponent will have to take advantage of that.

Strength inside, second-chance buckets, slowing Cuse in transition and connecting on 3s against that zone will be keys against this Syracuse team that’s only lost twice this year.

NEW YORK – The dialogue and the punches have been dissected now to almost every syllable and twitch. Everyone knows exactly what happened in the Dec. 10 brawl between Cincinnati and Xavier, knows every inappropriate word, every horrible action.

What everyone forgets: Xavier was right about one thing.

Remember, it all started because the Musketeers belittled the Bearcats for their lack of toughness, and while Cincinnati might have showed its street grit in the late-game melee, it showed its lack of basketball fortitude in the 23-point loss.

“We were soft,’’ Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said. “We were soft early.’’

In perhaps the strangest and most ironic twist in this twisted basketball season, on the same day the Bearcats were criticized for being too hard and played too soft, Cincinnati found the perfect medium.

The Bearcats grew up after that game and grew into a team that has gone from losing to Presbyterian at home to beating Syracuse in the Big East tournament semifinal, 71-68.

It is nothing less than an astounding turnaround, a morality play lived large on the hardwood.

Plenty of people wrote Cincinnati off early; plenty more were disgusted with the Bearcats after the brawl.

And now? Now they’re winning converts by the day.

Cincinnati did not beat Syracuse because it hit 8 of 10 3-pointers in the first half, though that certainly helped.

The Bearcats won because they outplayed a team that had but one stain on their résumé.

“Where we come from, we play to win,’’ Cronin said. “We’re not in it for the old college try. When this tournament starts next week, we’re quietly going to try and win it. We don’t let people outside our locker room define who we are as people or as a team. We try to define ourselves and make sure we’re giving our best effort. That’s what greatness is.’’

Syracuse defined the word for the entirety of this Big East season, rolling through the regular season with just one loss, and that with an asterisk, as the Orange played without Fab Melo.

Syracuse came to Madison Square Garden with its orange army, expecting a coronation.

Instead, the Orange head back home empty-handed.

There is no way to sugarcoat it. Syracuse did not play well. A team that rarely turns the ball over coughed it up 15 times, stymied surprisingly by Cincinnati’s zone.

Seniors Kris Joseph and Scoop Jardine were ineffective, their zone even less so.

The Bearcats meticulously and carefully broke it down, dishing out 17 assists on 25 made baskets. Only a last-minute dash thanks to a full-court press even made this game close.

Instead of their first Big East crown since assistant coach Gerry McNamara’s epic run to the title, the Orange leave digging for a silver lining, insisting they will learn more from the loss than maybe all of their 31 wins combined.

“Look, we want to win the Big East, we want to win every game we play in,’’ Jardine said. “But we could have won the Big East and lost next week and everyone would have forgotten about it. If we lose in the NCAA tournament, nobody would remember if we had won the Big East tournament. That’s the truth.’’

Of course if you’re in the Big East tournament, you view its worth a little differently and the Bearcats are salivating at the chance to claim their first league title of any kind since 2004, when they were Conference USA champs.

“I remember when I came here, I just thought how much I’d love to have a chance to play in that championship game,’’ Yancy Gates said.

Gates, the principal offender in that brawl with Xavier, arrived on campus in the lean years, and though he helped take the Bearcats back to the NCAA tournament a year ago, his senior season appeared headed for disaster.

Before the fight, he was as tentative as his teammates. Cronin would walk into practice and Gates would groan, knowing what was coming.

“I’d be like, ‘Man, I wish he’d just stay home or let one of his assistants run practice,'’’ Gates said.

That’s because Cronin was trying to conjure up something that only the Bearcats could find in themselves -- how to be tough. It took a toll on everybody. The players were demoralized, Cronin exhausted.

“This hasn’t been an easy year coaching,’’ Cronin said. “I’d tell them, ‘C’mon guys, I can’t do this every day. I want to go home and spend time with my daughter.’ They didn’t believe in themselves.’’

And then somewhere after Xavier called them out, humiliated them on the court, and their coach called them out in a postgame press conference, things changed.

The Bearcats won 10 of their next 11 and came to New York having won seven of their final nine.

Against Syracuse, UC sprinted out to a stunning 17-point lead, the Big East leader in 3-pointers made putting on nothing less than a shooting clinic early.

In between the horrible day in early December and this week, the narrative on Cincinnati has changed entirely. After its double-overtime win against Georgetown, a comeback from 11 points down, the Bearcats were lauded for their pluck, grit and yes, their character.

“We heard people saying all of that about us on television,’’ Gates said. “That’s the kind of team we’ve become.’’

NEW YORK -- Jim Boeheim argued on Thursday afternoon that college basketball players don’t care about distractions; players just want to play, the Syracuse coach said.

He was talking about his own team, which has rolled along despite a police investigation into alleged child abuse by a former Syracuse associate head coach, and an NCAA investigation into Cuse's drug-testing policy.

He could have been talking about all the teams in the Big East tournament semifinals.

Notre Dame lost Tim Abromaitis early to knee injury, a loss that coach Mike Brey admitted at least stunned the Irish early on. And then the Irish shook it off, grabbed the ball and rolled along.

Louisville doubled as a MASH unit, with more players in the training room than on the practice floor. The incomplete and ever-changing lineups meant the Cards took some lumps along the way. Yet here they are.

And then there is Cincinnati, one half of the brawl with Xavier that stained the game and both proud schools. Some wondered if the Bearcats would recover. Instead that embarrassing fight became the team’s turning point.

Now it is March and it is simply about basketball for everyone.

The question isn’t how will you deal. It’s who wants it.

Syracuse-Cincinnati

What to watch

The Bearcats at the 3-point line: In the regular season, Cincinnati hopped all over the Orange by draining four quick 3-pointers to build an early lead. Syracuse ultimately won, but that 3-point barrage kept the game tight.

The guards: There are an awful lot of good ones in this game -- Scoop Jardine, Brandon Triche, Dion Waiters and Michael Carter-Williams for Syracuse. Dion Dixon, Cashmere Wright and Sean Kilpatrick for Cincinnati. Syracuse’s backcourt has to take care of the basketball as it has all season -- the Orange had only four turnovers against Connecticut on Thursday -- and the Bearcats need their guards to crack the Orange’s zone.

Who to watch

Yancy Gates: The Cincinnati big man had a terrific game against Georgetown in the quarterfinals, helping the Bearcats come back to beat the Hoyas. He was equally effective against Syracuse in the regular season, scoring 16. The caveat: The Orange were without Fab Melo. Gates needs to be tough, especially on the boards, which is Syracuse’s one Achilles heel, for Cincinnati to win.

What’s at stake

The Orange could walk off the court and still claim the No. 1 seed on Sunday. Cincinnati, making its first Big East tournament semifinal appearance, is playing to up its slot on Selection Sunday.

Louisville-Notre Dame

What to watch

The pace: Notre Dame will want to slow it down, and Louisville will want to go. If the Cardinals can somehow push the Irish out of their comfort zone -- which coach Rick Pitino doesn’t necessarily expect -- it’s a huge advantage for Louisville.
The scoreboard: First, to see if it moves. Though the Cardinals prefer to push tempo, they aren’t exactly an offensive juggernaut. The game against Marquette was more exception than rule. They don’t score a lot of points, nor do the Irish. Second, to see how many overtimes it goes. These teams have played at least one extra stanza in their past four meetings, and six of the past nine.

Who to watch

Peyton Siva: The Louisville point guard did not play well against the Irish in the regular season; he was a nonfactor with only eight points. He’s been sensational in the Big East tournament. In two games, Siva has 32 points, 10 steals and nine assists, and he has played 70 of a possible 80 minutes.

What’s at stake

The Irish have never played for the Big East tournament title, going 0-for-4 in semifinal games -- including last year, when Louisville upset the favored Irish. Louisville, meantime, has played for the title three times since joining the league.

NEW YORK -- Three seats in on the bench, Scoop Jardine jumped around like a little kid -- high-fiving Michael Carter-Williams, motioning to his teammates on the court to get back on defense or to slow down the tempo.

In other words, Jardine acted like a happy scrub.

Only Jardine isn’t exactly accustomed to being a spectator. He’s a senior, with at most eight more games left in his collegiate career. He’s a guy who averaged 30 minutes a game last season.

And there he was, logging all of three minutes in the second half.

Smiling.

“I know a lot of people would say that this is hurting my future or whatever, but if we win, everybody will get noticed," Jardine said. “Of course I’d rather be out there, but this is about winning a national championship. If I’m having a bad game, Dion [Waiters] can pick me up. If Dion is having a bad game, Brandon [Triche] can pick him up. If it’s not Brandon, it’s me. We’re all on the same page. We’ve got each other’s back."

All season, everyone has pointed to Syracuse’s depth as a reason it could win a national championship.

Lost in translation of the definition of depth: unselfishness. This hockey-line rotation that coach Jim Boeheim can call on wouldn’t work if starters were pouting when they're yanked or subs were crabby that they aren’t starters.

That's why guys like Jardine can sit back and enjoy the show while others run it. Syracuse is now 31-1 and in the Big East tournament semifinals courtesy of a 58-55 win against Connecticut.

“They’ve all bought into the fact that this is what they have to do to win games," Boeheim said. “I’m sure they don’t always like it. I know Scoop doesn’t like sitting out like that, but they want to win."

In a lot of ways, the Orange defy the modern-day standard for championships. There is no obvious future NBA star on this team, no current lottery pick.

There’s no collegiate star, for that matter.

In a typically tight game against Connecticut, Syracuse won on the deft shooting of James Southerland, who scored only 10, but each of those points was critical -- including a 3-pointer that cut a onetime Huskies lead of eight to one, a jumper that gave Cuse a six-point cushion and two free throws to ice the victory.

Forgive UConn coach Jim Calhoun if he didn’t concentrate his scouting on the junior.

Southerland hadn’t hit double digits in scoring since the Notre Dame loss on Jan. 21. In between, he’s tossed up three goose-egg games.

“It felt really great out there, especially being at home and all," said the Queens, N.Y., native. “The first one I felt was good; the second was kind of rushed. It’s good my teammates are here for me. They’re not giving up on me just because I missed two shots, and it feels good."

That the Orange have so many choices was especially obvious against Connecticut, which hasn’t been able to develop a consistent third scorer all season. Shabazz Napier tried to do too much, taking ill-advised forced 3s or driving to the hoop with too much recklessness, and shot 5-of-17.

Jeremy Lamb didn’t do enough, finishing with only 10 points.

And aside from Andre Drummond, no one else did much of anything.

Now the Huskies will wait to see whether they did enough as a team to merit an NCAA tournament bid.

“We probably have as many quality wins as anybody in our position," Calhoun said. “I am not going to make a pitch for it. I trust the basketball committee, and there’s no doubt in my mind they will look at it, and if what they say is true, that they want you to play good people, I think 22 out of 32 top 100 teams is probably a pretty good schedule."

Syracuse, of course, has no worries. At this point, there is no imaginable scenario that would keep the Orange out of a No. 1 seed with ticketed dates in Pittsburgh and Boston.

Before that, of course, Syracuse has business to finish in New York. The Orange have not won a Big East tournament title since 2006, when Gerry McNamara worked his Garden magic.

“We want to win," Jardine said. “It’s that simple."

And if that means being head cheerleader instead of leading scorer, the Orange to a man are just fine with that.

Editor’s Note: To see our expert picks for each of the nation’s 12 top conferences, click here. To cast your vote in these races, visit SportsNation.

A quick look at the player and coach of the year races in the Big East:

Player of the year

Syracuse is far and away the best team in the Big East Conference.

Which is great when it comes to winning games, but a real problem when you’re trying to sort out player of the year trophies.

Usually you can at least find one obvious candidate from the best team in the conference. With the Orange, that’s impossible. Together they are unbeatable, but individually they almost cancel one another out. Is Scoop Jardine more valuable than Kris Joseph? Does Joseph do more than Fab Melo? How about Dion Waiters, the guy who comes off the bench to rank second on the team in scoring?

All four will get and deserve votes but Syracuse is truly a sum-of-its-parts squad, one where every piece is critical but none more than the others. Someone on this team could win Big East POY -- and if we were voting, we’d lean Waiters -- but it’s not likely.

So who are the obvious candidates? There are two front-runners – Marquette’s Darius Johnson-Odom and West Virginia’s Kevin Jones.

Johnson-Odom has been terrific for a team that has been rock steady all year. Second in the Big East (behind Jones) in scoring, he averages 18.4 points per game. He’s scored in double figures in every game he’s played in save one -- suspended for the first half against West Virginia, he had nine.

Jones, in the meantime, had to be great for coach Bob Huggins’ young team to survive -- and the senior forward has been great. Along with leading the league in scoring and rebounding (20 points and 11 boards), he’s put up 18 double-doubles this season.

Some other long shots to consider: Marquette's Jae Crowder, Notre Dame’s Jack Cooley, Georgetown’s Jason Clark and Seton Hall’s Herb Pope. St. John’s freshmen D’Angelo Harrison and Moe Harkless have been terrific but there’s another newcomer award for them.

It’s a tough pick between the two favorites and I waffle daily but I’d probably lean Johnson-Odom because he has not only been sensational, his team has been, too.

Coach of the year

Interesting test case here -- do you reward the guy who has steered the loaded roster to near perfection or do you celebrate coaches who have had surprising success?

Jim Boeheim is one trip to South Bend away from perfection, achieving such rarefied air despite dealing with the fallout from the Bernie Fine scandal in December. Outsiders might argue that a kindergartener could coach a team with so much depth and talent. What looks easy, though, isn’t always. Managing a team -- especially in this day and age, when premier players come in with premier egos -- is not easy.

And Boeheim hasn’t steered a team to near perfection in any old league. He’s done it in the Big East.

Mike Brey and John Thompson III, meantime, took the opposite run to success. Neither is supposed to be here.

The Irish were picked ninth in the league, and that was before Tim Abromaitis blew out his knee. After that? No one figured Brey’s team to be of any consequence.

But Brey, who memorably retooled his team two years ago after Luke Harangody’s injury, has done it again. Notre Dame is 12-5 in the league, vying for a top-four finish. Brey, who won coach of the year honors last year, has imbued his team with confidence, handing over the keys to the sophomore backcourt of Eric Atkins and Jerian Grant, and letting them run the show.

Thompson’s year at Georgetown has been equally impressive and equally surprising. The Hoyas were picked 10th in the preseason coaches’ poll after losing Chris Wright and Austin Freeman to graduation.

Instead, Georgetown is knotted with Notre Dame at 12-5. Henry Sims has been an eye-opener, the ideal point-center for the Hoyas’ Princeton style, and Otto Porter is arguably among the top freshmen in the conference.

Outsider choices: Mike Dunlap and Stan Heath. Dunlap is supposed to be an assistant, helping Steve Lavin. Instead, while Lavin recuperates from prostate cancer surgery, Dunlap has been running the show at St. John's, and running it with a roster stuffed to the gills with freshmen. Heath, meantime, has pulled himself off the hot seat and the Bulls into the conversation, taking South Florida to its best finish since joining the Big East.

This is another can’t-go-wrong choice. And hey, could you argue with Marquette's Buzz Williams winning it too? Not me.

My pick: Boeheim. The name of the game is winning, and no one in the league has done that better this year than the Syracuse coach.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Syracuse has some glaring weaknesses.

The Orange are not a great rebounding team and give up way too many second chances on the defensive glass. They're not a deadly outside shooting team. They don't have a bona fide superstar who can take over in late-game situations.

All of those flaws were laid out for the world to see Monday night against Louisville, the team that has exploited Syracuse's liabilities more than any other the past few years.

Yet here's the undeniable good news for the nation's second-ranked team. The Orange found a way to trudge through a defensive morass and pull out the 52-51 victory -- their 26th win in 27 tries this season -- against one of the hottest clubs in the Big East.

"We really didn't play well, especially from the guard position," senior point guard Scoop Jardine said. "We didn't score the ball like we usually do. But we fought all game, on the road against a tough Big East team that really has had our number. And that speaks highly of our team."

Much like last week's 64-61 overtime win against Georgetown, Syracuse struggled to make shots. Rick Pitino's matchup zone caused confusion just as it had in Louisville's seven-game winning streak in this series dating back to 2006. The Orange connected on just 34.4 percent from the field and went 1-for-15 from the 3-point arc, its second-worst showing from long range in the past 15 seasons.

Kris Joseph bailed his team out against Georgetown, scoring 29 points and drilling six 3s. But on Monday, Joseph picked up his fourth foul early in the second half and wasn't much of a factor with just two field goals. Jardine, who had 21 points in a hot shooting day over the weekend versus Connecticut, was 0-for-8 from the floor and didn't score.

"Normally, when your two best players are struggling in college basketball you can't win, at home or especially on the road," coach Jim Boeheim said. "And they both struggled mightily tonight."

Boeheim, though, has arguably the deepest well of talent in the country to draw from, and that played a key role Monday. The Syracuse bench scored as many points (26) as the starters, led by 13 from C.J. Fair, who scored the game-winner. It's that depth that makes the Orange dangerous, especially when guys like James Southerland and Baye Keita -- the eighth and ninth men Boeheim called upon Monday -- can contribute six crucial points down the stretch when every basket is precious.

"We've got a lot of guys, and everybody believes in each other," sixth man Dion Waiters said. "We're not just a one-man show."

That depth also gives Boeheim the versatility to play different styles. This month alone, Syracuse has won track meets against St. John's and Connecticut by scoring 95 and 85 points, respectively. And they've won hand-to-hand combats versus Georgetown and Louisville.

On Monday, with the outside shot not falling, the Orange took advantage of their length inside by getting to the rim as often as possible. Of their 21 field goals, 18 were either layups or dunks. That became even more pronounced in the second half, when their only points outside the paint or the free throw line came on an eight-foot jumper by Brandon Triche.

The game was really won, however, on the defensive end. Louisville is deeply flawed offensively itself, especially when point guard Peyton Siva can't penetrate and create open looks. After a hot start in which he was directly or indirectly responsible for his team's first 13 points, Siva got saddled with his third foul before halftime. Syracuse's big men started staying at home defensively when he drove to the rim, and Siva finished with more turnovers (five) than assists (four). The Cardinals had a chance to take the lead in the final five seconds, but Siva's pass was intercepted by Waiters after he got cut off along the baseline.

The Orange also locked onto Louisville's Kyle Kuric, who had averaged 22.5 points in the teams' last two meetings. Kuric went just 1-for-8 from the field with a lone 3-point make. The Cardinals were held scoreless for the final 3:38 after a 15-2 run had put them up by five and worked the home crowd into a lather.

"I'm telling you, we really gutted this one out," Jardine said. "They didn't make many shots, but we got the guys we wanted to shoot it."

Boeheim knows that these types of slogs will pop up again during the NCAA tournament. He also knows that if Louisville had made one more play in the final minutes, we'd be sounding much louder alarm bells about Syracuse's holes, like the 18 second-chance points it surrendered thanks to poor rebounding execution.

Yet the Orange -- who have a very real chance of heading into the Big East tournament at 30-1 -- displayed admirable grit and poise in a challenging environment on Monday night. Their very real weaknesses might not be enough to offset their many strengths.

"We could have hit a few more shots and we definitely could have crashed the boards a bit better," Triche said. "We could have done a lot of things better tonight. But to win a game like this, going down to the last shot, that's definitely something we're going to use for March."