Two years ago on Selection Sunday, the Syracuse basketball team sat in a near identical situation to the one it faced this year.

After winning the Big East regular-season title, the Orange was expected to earn a No. 1 seed despite being upset in the conference tournament. The same was true this year and again, SU secured a No. 1 seed.

But senior Scoop Jardine pointed out one major difference between that Sunday two years ago and this season.

‘The only difference is we weren’t healthy two years ago,’ he said. ‘We’re healthy now. Everybody’s healthy and we had two great days of practice and I think everybody’s feeling good about it.’

For the second time in three years, Syracuse (31-2) earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. But unlike the 2009-10 season in which center Arinze Onuaku suffered a knee injury in the Big East tournament, the Orange is at full strength entering the Big Dance.

SU was placed in the East Region and will play its second- and third-round games in Pittsburgh, Pa. Syracuse opens the tournament Thursday against Big South champion and No. 16 seed UNC Asheville (24-9).

Syracuse and UNC Asheville will play at 3:10 p.m. on Thursday, after the conclusion of the game between No. 8 Kansas State and No. 9 Southern Mississippi.

‘It’s exciting because you work hard all year long for this, and this is a special moment for our team,’ Jardine said. ‘You always want to see your name called in the NCAA Tournament. We’ve worked hard all year to get a No. 1 seed. We got it. Now it starts over. We’re 0-0. We’ve got to try to win six games.’

If SU knocks off the Bulldogs, it will advance to take on the winner of the Kansas State-Southern Mississippi contest, the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds, respectively. The other top teams in the East region include Big Ten runner-up Ohio State as the No. 2 seed, Atlantic Coast Conference champion Florida State as the No. 3, the No. 4 seed Wisconsin and Southeastern Conference winner Vanderbilt as the No. 5.

‘Obviously Vanderbilt just won. They’re the only team to beat Kentucky on a neutral floor this year,’ Boeheim said. ‘Florida State just won the ACC. They beat Duke twice this year. They beat North Carolina twice this year. They’re a really good team. Ohio State, it’s a great bracket.’

Syracuse enters the tournament coming off just its second loss of the season in the Big East semifinals to Cincinnati last Friday. The Orange wasn’t completely healthy, as senior Kris Joseph jammed his left thumb prior to the conference quarterfinals and C.J. Fair had been battling an illness.

But Joseph said the thumb is good, and Fair said he’s over that sickness. Barring any setbacks, SU should be at 100 percent when it begins play on Thursday.

‘Certainly it hurt us two years ago not to have Arinze,’ Boeheim said. ‘This year, we’re going out there ready to go and healthy. That’s a positive thing.’

The 2009-10 team won its first two games before losing to eventual national runner-up Butler in the Sweet 16. The early exit overshadowed one of the best years in the program’s recent history, and this year’s Orange is looking to avoid that same fate.

‘You already know it’s win or go home,’ sophomore Dion Waiters said. ‘We’re not trying to go home. I feel as though if we don’t make the Final Four or anything like that, that 30-1 (regular-season record) and all that don’t mean nothing.’

Boeheim and his players believe the loss to Cincinnati served as somewhat of a wake-up call for the Orange. The team said it had two great days of practice since returning to campus after the loss.

And although the main goal for the contest against UNC Asheville is to win and advance, the healthy Syracuse squad has some other things it would like to work on, too.

‘We always want to play better than we did in our last game and get better as the tournament goes along,’ Jardine said. ‘For the most part, we have to be better no matter what. In the tournament, you can be beaten against anybody. We have to play our basketball and play as a team and we should be fine.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on March 11, 2012 at 12:00 pm