Big East battle in Cleveland
The Syracuse Orange earned a No.3 seed in the East Region of the 2011 NCAA Tournament for their consistent play in the toughest and deepest league in college basketball. But they had better be ready to play the once over upset-minded Marquette Golden Eagles in Sunday’s third round game in Cleveland.
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#11 Marquette (21-14, 9-9 Big East) vs. #3 Syracuse (27-7, 12-6 Big East)
Date/Time: Sunday, March 20, 7:45 PM ET
Venue: Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, OH.
Broadcast: TruTV
Money Line: Marquette +175, Syracuse -210
Spread: Syracuse -5
Over/Under: 140
Considered by many as the underdog, 11th seeded Marquette made many visionary bracketologists happy on Friday night.
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The Golden Eagles held Xavier’s Tu Holloway, who had averaged 20.2 points, to five points on 1-of-9 shooting as they quashed the Musketeers bid for a fourth straight round of 16 appearances in the NCAA tournament with a 66-55 win.
Marquette was one of a record 11 teams from the Big East Conference to be selected for the NCAA Tournament this season. The Golden Eagles are no strangers to this tournament. They are making a sixth straight trip to the tournament, and they have been in this tournament seven times in the last ten years.
However, Buzz Williams’ squad had to prove their candidacy as an at-large team using late season Big East tournament victories against Providence and West Virginia. They also defeated West Virginia during the regular season, along with Notre Dame, Connecticut, Bucknell, and you guessed it — Syracuse.
For the third-seeded Orange, they were on a mission to make up for last season’s disappointing tourney appearance, when their title run as a No. 1 seed ended with a loss to upstart Butler in the round of 16.
Rick Jackson scored a season-high 23 points, C.J. Fair added 14 and the Orange set their course for Houston with a 77-60 win over Indiana State in a second-round game Friday night.
Syracuse has a dubious history of being all or nothing and started the season with 18 consecutive victories, but they played average ball the rest of the way, going 7-6 in the regular season. They will need an all out effort if they want to avoid an embarrassing early dismissal at the hands of Marquette.
The Golden Eagles is a squad that averages 76 points per contest. Jimmy Butler paces the scoring at 16.0 points per game, followed closely by Darius Johnson-Odom (15.9 PPG), both of whom led in scoring in the team’s shocker over Xavier.
Meanwhile, the Orange were going good offensively, but their task may have just gotten harder. Guard Scoop Jardine injured his left wrist in a hard fall with three minutes left to play against the Musketeers and was seen walking back to Syracuse’s locker room rubbing his wrist.
Prediction: Still, the Orange have too much talent to go down to defeat in this contest. With or without Jardine, Syracuse should pull this one off by a decent margin.
The odds makers have the Syracuse Orange as a -5 point favorite with an over/under of 140.
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