The Syracuse Orange may have advanced to the Sweet 16 for the third time in four years by beating Kansas State 75-59 on Saturday afternoon, but the really good news for the Orange are the stortlines they now carry to Boston next week.
Scoop Jardine had his strongest game in a while, after struggling on Senior Day and in the Big East Tournament, dropping 16 points against the Wildcats and adding 8 assists and 5 rebounds. As is often the case with Jardine, he was the most effective in the 2nd half, scoring 14 of those 16 points, 4 of 5 shooting.
"The difference was Scoop started to get us going," said Head Coach Jim Boeheim, "made some shots, made some plays. I think we shot 66% in the second half. That's pretty good against a really good defensive team. It's been a while since we've knocked down shots like that. It just makes the game a lot easier when those shots go in."
"Like coach always say, when you try to make plays, sometimes you gonna make bad ones," added Jardine, "you got to forget about it, move on, still be aggressive. My teammates needed me. I was able to get my rhythm and make shots."
Most of the players in the SU locker room after the game gave the nod for game MVP to Rakeem Christmas who was also much more aggresive in the second half as he tried to fill the shoes of an ineligible Fab Melo. Christmas seemed to be getting his rhythm going, playing 34 minutes and finishing with a big 11 rebounds and 8 points.
"This is exactly what he can do," said SU junior Brandon Triche, "he just does a good job playing off us and we did a good job penetrating, getting the ball to him and he was able to finish. He probably should have had more points, but he did a good job."
"(Jim Boeheim) told us all to crash and we all crashed and got more rebounds," said Christmas, that was a big thing."
The Orange did do a much better job on the boards in the second half, after the Wildcats led them by 12 in that category after the first half. Syracuse outrebounded their opponent 16-13 in the second frame after that Coach Boeheim plea for them to get more aggressive.
"We did a great job rebounding," says Triche, "James [Southerland] did a good job rebounding again tonight. Rak [Christmas] did an incredible job. What we did was that we fought. We fought for the loose balls and fought for the rebounds that usually the other gets."
Dion Waiters led all Orange scorers with 18 points, while senior Kris Joseph contributed with 12 points.
Jim Boeheim earned his 47th NCAA tournament win,tieing him with John Wooden for 5th place on the All-Time list.
