Last season, Villanova ran Syracuse through the full range of emotions.

The teams met three times: The first was a 10-point home loss for SU, part of a stretch of four losses in five games that put Syracuse’s season in doubt.

But then, the high point: In Philadelphia, on Feb. 2, it came out with a 14-point win – the capper on a three-game win streak. SU point guard Jonny Flynn left the Wachovia Center waving to the student section after a 24-point performance.

‘Last year we went down there and beat them and it was a good feeling,’ Flynn said after Wednesday’s win over West Virginia. ‘I shot the floater and waved the fans goodbye at the end of the game.’

A month later, the Wildcats got their revenge, knocking SU out of the first round of the Big East tournament with a 19-point win at Madison Square Garden, sending the Orange to a second straight NIT appearance.

So it’s easy to see why Flynn and the rest of the Orange have an emotional attachment to Saturday’s game – a noon tip-off in Philadelphia. It’s the first of two matchups against the No. 17 Wildcats in a span of 18 days. (Villanova comes to the Carrier Dome on Feb. 22.)

Flynn has previously stated that Villanova is among his favorite teams to play. He knows many players from the AAU circuit, including Wildcats point guard Scottie Reynolds, a player Flynn is often measured against.

‘Coming into the season, this is the team I wanted to beat the most out of any team we play,’ Flynn said. ‘… I just got a thing against Villanova. Every time I play them I want to beat them. I want to talk junk to their fans. I want to yell at their bench. I just really want to beat them, beat them bad.’

After a 2-3 start to its conference slate, Villanova seems to be hitting its stride. It has won its last four games, including victories against then-No. 3 Pittsburgh and on the road against Providence.

The Orange hasn’t won a road game since Jan. 10, when it had to come from behind to beat a lowly Rutgers squad. Its only other conference road win was a lackluster five-point win against South Florida on Jan. 2.

‘That’s a tough place to play at, and that’s a tough team to be playing,’ SU forward Paul Harris said. ‘But West Virginia’s a tough team and we just beat them. I think we are going to go down there with a lot of energy and be ready to play.’

But after Villanova, it doesn’t get any easier. The Orange travels to Connecticut on Wednesday for a date with the No. 1 Huskies, before a home matchup with Georgetown three days later.

‘We’ve got to go into Villanova Saturday, and that’s going to be a tough game obviously,’ Devendorf said. ‘And then we’ve got Connecticut Wednesday, and everyone knows what Connecticut is capable of doing. We just have to go in and play hard, and hopefully get two wins out of it.’

kbaustin@syr.edu

Published on February 6, 2009 at 12:00 pm