Syracuse Seeks Revenge on Vermont

BUFFALO -- Technically, by Jim Boeheim's logic, his Syracuse team should be even more worried about Vermont this time than it should have been five years ago. And five years ago, Vermont beat his team.

The reason: Vermont probably is seeded lower than it should be, and probably should have been seeded higher than it was in 2005, when coach Tom Brennan's 13th-seeded Catamounts stunned the fourth-seeded Orange in the first round of the NCAA tournament, 60-57 in overtime. It's all a testament to how balanced and deep the average tournament field has become.

"The quality of the teams are just really -- it's unbelievable to me how good the teams in this tournament are,'' Boeheim said Thursday afternoon before his team took the practice floor at HSBC Arena. "The 16 seeds are good. Vermont, a few years ago, would have been a 13 or 14 seed. We had trouble with them when they were a (13). I'm sure we'll have trouble with them when they're a 16, too.''

Syracuse, of course, is the No. 1 seed in the West Regional, and if there was any doubt how much of a home-court advantage it will have for Friday night's game against Vermont, it was erased when the Orange got a huge ovation when they walked onto the court, from several thousand appropriately-attired fans who made the trip west to Buffalo.

Vermont (25-9 and the America East tournament champ) made the typical non-conference road trip earlier in the season, which included a trip to this site to play Rutgers and a game at Providence, so it isn't unfamiliar with hostile, big-program crowds. But coach Mike Lonergan couldn't even deny it: "I don't think we'll have played in any atmosphere like we'll see [Friday] night.''

On the other hand, there is the history aspect. "They know it can be done,'' said Lonergan, who won a Division III national championship at Catholic in 2001 and was an assistant under Gary Williams at Maryland before replacing Brennan at Vermont following that eventful 2005 tournament.

"That was a great Syracuse team. That was a great Vermont team,'' Lonergan continued, later adding, "That game five years ago, I think some of our fans think it's the greatest thing ever. Maurice [Joseph, Vermont's guard and second-leading scorer] was celebrating like we won the national championship when he saw [the pairing] on the screen.''

Joseph actually was in the stands during Vermont's second-round game that year, when the Catamounts lost to Michigan State, because Joseph was finishing up his senior year in high school and preparing to go to Michigan State; he transferred to Vermont after his sophomore season. When he made that decision, he said, "That game definitely did stick in my mind ... That game was definitely a staple, not only in the basketball program, but in the Vermont community as a whole.''
Of course, no current player on either team participated in that game. Big East Player of the Year Wes Johnson, in fact, was in high school and had not started at the school from which he transferred, Iowa State, although he recalled that "we lost, that's the only thing I know.'' Boeheim still hasn't been allowed to forget it, and one of his assistants, Gerry McNamara, played in it. Even to a newcomer, it is so embedded in Syracuse lore that ignoring it was impossible.

When the bracket was unveiled Sunday, senior guard Andy Rautins said, "it certainly fired us up when we saw that.'' The son of one of Boeheim's stars from the 1980s, Leo Rautins, Andy remembered watching the game, and added, "I think all of Syracuse was destroyed by that game. So this definitely serves as a little bit of motivation for us, to try to redeem ourselves a little bit, not have any letdowns.

"We're not taking anybody lightly at this point,'' he added.

Which is one of the many things that Syracuse has done well on the way to the top seed and a 28-4 record: it suffered no real hiccups, never seeming to look past an opponent or letting one sneak up on it. The Orange's only four losses were to Big East teams that made the NCAAs, including Louisville twice -- the latter time on the day Freedom Hall closed -- and once to Georgetown in the Big East tournament, after center Arinze Onuaku went down with his quad injury.

Boeheim said that he still anticipated Onuaku would sit out Friday, and that he was "doubtful'' for a possible second-round game Sunday. Onuaku stayed on the sidelines in his warm-ups during Syracuse's open practice Friday.

Conference sixth man of the year Kris Joseph -- Maurice's younger brother -- would start for Onuaku, which appears to bother few connected to the Orange, except in the sense that the bench, fairly thin to begin with, gets thinner. Seven-foot freshman DaShonte Riley would also play more, but he played sparingly most of the season, and like Joseph, cannot duplicate what the brawny Onuaku contributes.

Every little advantage, like the domino effect of Onuaku's injury, helps a team like Vermont in this situation. But that 2005 game could help in exactly the way Lonergan said it could, if his best player, forward Marqus Blakely, is any indication.

"A lot of people are counting us out [Friday], too,'' Blakely said, "so anything can happen on any given night.''