What Will Syracuse Have Left?

You have to admire and respect what the Orange are doing. Not content with playing 30 extra minutes Thursday, they decided that for an encore they would do one more overtime before knocking off West Virginia. Now all Syracuse has to do is face a Louisville team that has had a much easier path to the Big East Tournament championship game.

The big question for Syracuse after the Thursday night/Friday morning game was, "How much will Syracuse have left when they play West Virginia?" They had enough, but the question is no longer "how much," but "what."

No. 18 Syracuse 74, West Virginia 69: Recap | Box Score | RPI | Scores

By the end of the 35 minutes, guard Jonny Flynn finally started to look wiped. Flynn played all 45 minutes of the West Virginia game. He played 67 out of 70 minutes before that, and played 35 minutes on Wednesday. He has had a total of eight minutes rest in the games.

Now Flynn and the rest of the Orange have to go against a pressing Louisville defense that has depth and has only played two games. It is hard to imagine this ending like it did in 2006 with Syracuse winning the Big East Tournament. Of course it was hard to imagine a six-overtime game and Syracuse having enough left to win Friday night.

On the West Virginia side, the Big East Tournament became Devin Ebanks' coming-out party. The freshman forward was outstanding in all three games. Against Notre Dame he grabbed 18 rebounds and dominated defensively for West Virginia. In the next two games, he went for 20 and 22 points. Neither Pitt or Syracuse seemed to have an answer for Ebanks as he was just all over the floor.