NCAA Tournament Team Profile: Syracuse Orangemen

Jim Boeheim designs his teams to be competitive in the NCAA Tournament every year and 2010 is no exception. Syracuse is a defensive monster heading into the Big East Tournament and a potential number one seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Rautins is key to Syracuse defense.
Syracuse best defensive player is senior guard Andy Rautins, who can take over a game defensively and still adds offensive production, scoring 10.6 points a game, to go along with his aggressive rebounding style and his ability to push the pace of the game.

Forward Wesley Johnson is the best overall player on the team. Johnson's ability to play both ways is a reason for Syracuse resurgence and potential number one seed. Johnson missed the 2008-2009 season and has been making up for it this season scoring 16.1 points a game pulling down 8.8 rebounds a game.

Syracuse defense is a frustrating defense that breaks down their opponents. Syracuse plays a 2-3 defense and makes sure that they own the paint under the basket. Syracuse shuts down all passing lanes under the basket and works hard to get their opponents on the outside perimeter. This does make Syracuse vulnerable to a team that gets hot from the 3 point line but they are willing to take that chance.

Syracuse shooting percentage from free throw line 64.9%.
Syracuse Achilles heel is their horrible free throw shooting percentage. At 64.9% Syracuse ranks 249th out of 334 NCAA school, see how all schools rank here. Free throws will be critical come NCAA Tournament time. If Syracuse finds themselves in a tight game down the stretch their horrible free throw percentage will destroy them.

Syracuse ranking from the three point line 38.2%.
Syracuse ranks 38th with with a 38.2% success rate from three point land, which will be a positive for the defensive minded team. To see how all teams rank click here. Defensively against the three point shooting teams allows 30.6% 3 point shooting percentage by their opponents which ranks them 39th in the NCAA rankings.

Freshman forward Mookie Jones is the best Syracuse Orangemen player from behind the three point arch. Jones has a shooting percentage of .462 from from three point land, making 25 of 54 three point shots he has taken. The freshman Jones weakness comes at the charity stripe where he is shooting just 57%.

Keys for Syracuse to make the NCAA Tournament Final Four.
The keys for Syracuse to make the NCAA Tournament Final Four will be to win big. Syracuse will have to make sure they have 15-20 point leads heading into the final five minutes. If Syracuse finds itself in a close game down the stretch they will have hit better than their miserable 64.9% free throw shooting percentage.

Syracuse 2-3 defense will annoy and frustrate even the best teams. A good coach with more than two days to prepare, may have an answer for the defense but rest assured, Syracuse will make the Sweet 16 easily. According to the latest bracket projections by ESPN's Joe Lunardi, Syracuse will probably be playing teams such as an Xavier, Sienna or Ivy League school Cornell. Cornell would provide an interesting match-up for Syracuse and if the game is close down the stretch watch out for a close game. Syracuse will prevail though.

Jim Boeheim's NCAA Tournament history.
Jim Boeheim has made the NCAA final three times in his coaching career and finally won the NCAA Tournament in 2003 with Carmelo Anthony leading the way. Boeheim is famous for struggling early in the NCAA Tournament but he does possess a 40-25 NCAA Tournament record and Boeheim is tied for eighth all-time for NCAA Tournament wins.

Boeheim on the Dan Patrick Show.
Boeheim was on the Dan Patrick show Wednesday and was rallying support for a 96 team NCAA Tournament. Under Boeheim's plan the first round would reward the top 32 teams with a bye the first week and 64 teams would battle it out to play in the final 64 games. The NCAA can't get a true playoff system in college football but they will get this together by the 2011 NCAA Tournament.

sources:
www.espn.go.com
www.cbssports.com
www.danpatrick.com