Syracuse Stay Atop the Big East With at (75-71) win

The Syracuse Orangemen survived a late rally by the Georgetown Hoyas, to improve to 12-2 in the conference and 25-2 overall. Early on it looked as though the 5th ranked would rout the 10 ranked Hoyas on their home floor, jumping out to a 15 point halftime lead. Syracuse led by as much as 23 points, with 12:30 left on the clock, but the Hoyas weren’t going to go down without a fight. Georgetown kept chipping away at the lead, and with a minute remaining just one point separated the two top ranked teams.  Georgetown had a chance to take the lead but missed, and Syracuse forward Kris Johnson responded, giving the Orangemen the 3 point lead with 7 seconds remaining. Free throws decided the rest of the game and Syracuse remains undefeated on the road.

With four games to go Syracuse has a half game lead on Villanova for the conference. The two teams face off for conference supremacy on February 27th (though WVU and Pitt could still overtake them, each 2 1/2 games back). Right now I think the conference is Syracuse’s when it is all said and done. The Orange finish out at Providence, home against Villanova and St. Johns, then their last game at Louisville. Providence and St. Johns are two of the weaker teams in the conference so the ‘Cuse should have no problems there. Louisville is always a dangerous team and beat Syracuse in the Carrier Dome earlier this season, but I think Syracuse can take them.

Their tough test will be at home against Villanova, not because Villanova is ranked 4th in the nation, but because its at home. Amazingly, their only losses are at home this season, in the Carrier Dome, one of the hardest venues in college basketball for away teams to play in. Syracuse is actually really lucky how their schedule turned out, with no back-to-back away games in the final stretch, and with an easy game before each of their tough matchups. Villanova on the other hand isn’t so lucky. Their final five games are a bit tougher; they are at 21st ranked Pittsburgh (and the Peterson Events Center may rival the Carrier Dome in terms of home court advantage), home vs South Florida, who has played some great basketball against top teams this year, at Syracuse and Cincinnati back to back, before finishing up with 8th ranked West Virginia at home. While anything can happen in the Big East, the Orangemen will likely hold on to their half game lead for the regular season title (the Big East Tournament is a completely different animal).