Welcome to TD Garden, home of the Big Ten-Big East challenge.
The series between the powerhouse conferences in Boston is tied, 1-1, after Thursday's NCAA Tournament East Regional semifinals. The Big East's Syracuse edged Wisconsin, 64-63, but the Big Ten's Ohio State evened things by knocking off Cincinnati, 81-66.
Overall, the Big East has the edge, however, with Louisville's upset of No. 1 seed Michigan State in Thursday night's West Regional semifinal in Phoenix.
A Syracuse win over Ohio State Saturday night in the East final will seal the deal for the Big East.
However, an Ohio State win could set up a possible meeting with Louisville in the NCAA championship game in New Orleans. That would be the ultimate decider of conference supremacy.
State of excellence
The Buckeyes were one of four teams from the state of Ohio in the Sweet 16 - an NCAA record for a state. They're the only one still standing.
Ohio State's victory over Cincinnati eliminated one team. Xavier and Ohio University were ousted Friday night in their regional semifinal games.
Pride in the accomplishment is genuine. Ohio State coach Thad Matta, who moved to Columbus from Xavier, said the state's basketball system is solid.
"I think it speaks volumes to the high school coaches, AAU coaches, and all the great college coaches you have here,'' said Matta.
Senior special
Syracuse has solid senior leadership in guard Scoop Jardine and forward Kris Joseph, a dwindling commodity in the age of top players staying one or two years in school before moving to the NBA. Ohio State has one senior, guard William Buford.
"I think you look at the teams that are successful, usually they have a great core of seniors that have been through it,'' said Matta. "I can remember when we played Syracuse four years ago and Scoop was a freshman. I've always said this to our teams: 'I can't create a drill in practice to give you experience.' We lost a tough game two years ago in the Sweet 16 to Tennessee. William Buford is the only guy on this team that was in that game. I'd love to have some more experience out there, but we're going with what we've got.''
Defense zoned in
The 2-3 matchup zone that Jim Boeheim's Syracuse teams have made famous is hard on opponents because most teams rarely face it during the regular season. But Boeheim likes it for another reason, which was evident in Thursday's win over Wisconsin. Trailing by a point but with the ball, the Badgers could only settle for a long 3-point attempt at the end of regulation, which was off the mark.
"We play zone because we think it's our best defense overall to win the game,'' Boeheim said. "But at the end of games, you'll see at least half the time in a close game, there's a foul called on a drive to the basket. They'll try to get to the basket and they'll foul because you're playing man-to-man. Very seldom is somebody going to go to the foul line and beat us. That almost never happens.''
A short history
A few Ohio State players were taking a close look at the life-size Larry Bird figure outside the Legends Suite at TD Garden. They had the most fun trying to roll up their baggy shorts to resemble the short ones Bird and every other basketball player wore before 1992, when Michigan's Fab Five began the new craze . . . Ohio State guard Lenzelle Smith Jr. playfully pulled the chair from behind Aaron Craft as the Buckeyes players were reaching the podium, sending Craft to the floor. "I picked him right back up,'' Smith said. "Coach [Matta] would kill me if anything happened or anybody got hurt.'' Slightly embarrassed, Craft was plotting a revenge prank on Smith. Stay tuned.
Try BostonGlobe.com today and get two weeks FREE. Mark Blaudschun can be reached at blaudschun@globe.com. Michael Whitmer can be reached at mwhitmer@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeWhitmer. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
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