ATLANTA — The matchup between Syracuse and Michigan, a pair of No. 4 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, is considered by many experts to be a toss up in the days leading up to Saturday’s semifinal. Even Las Vegas, the city with a sports-betting industry designed to find the smallest discrepancies between two opponents, has Michigan as just a two-point favorite.

Will Jim Boeheim’s 2-3 zone defense frustrate yet another opponent? Will Trey Burke, the Associated Press Player of the Year, continue to dominate games as he has all season?

Those are just some of the questions that will be answered Saturday afternoon. But in the meantime, The Daily Orange caught up with ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas to analyze the matchup. Here’s what Bilas had to say:

The Daily Orange: A lot of Michigan’s play is predicated on Trey Burke being able to penetrate and pass to teammates. Everyone wants to know if Burke can penetrate Syracuse’s 2-3 zone. From what you’ve seen, what are your thoughts on that?

Jay Bilas: I think he can, but I think it’s going to be really difficult. I think Syracuse has been more active in the zone than earlier in the year. In the past seven or eight games, they’ve been really, really active. I think it’s been difficult for opposing guards to get into the lane because of how active Michael Carter-Williams and Brandon Triche have been up top.

I tend to think that the best opportunity Burke is going to have is in transition. If Syracuse turns it over or they take a bad shot and allow Michigan to get a run-out, then Burke can take advantage of getting to the rim or finding some of the opportunistic 3-point shooters that they have. I think their 3-point shooting in transition can be much more dangerous because those are going to be open, step-in looks, which are better shots than they would get against the half-court zone.

The D.O.: One of the things Jim Boeheim has always said is he can’t stop teams from shooting, but he can dictate who takes the shot and where they take the shots, for the most part. So if you’re Jim Boeheim, who do you want taking the 3-point shots for Michigan?

J.B.: You would rather have guys like Glenn Robinson III taking them than Stauskas. You want Stauskas to be made to put the ball on the floor. I think against Michigan you’re not going to be able to stop good 3-point shooters from taking shots. But you can try to limit the amount of open looks that their best 3-point shooters take. One of the things that Michigan can get caught up in is sometimes they can take too many 3s. That’s a concern against the zone is that they jack up too many 3s. That will be advantage Syracuse if they wind up doing that.

The D.O.: Michael Carter-Williams has been great partly because of his length and partly because of his skill. One of the things his length allows him to do is get into the lane, and it seems like once he gets two feet in the lane he becomes a huge problem for defenders. How do you see Michigan trying to stop him defensively?

J.B.: Michigan can put a couple of guys on him. They can put Trey Burke on him, and Burke is a good defender. One of the things when you play against a smaller player is you think about being able to see over him. But the difficulty of playing against a smaller player is that, that player can get under you. Burke can cause some problems there, force Carter-Williams to turn his back. Burke can be disruptive.

They can also put Tim Hardaway Jr. on him, that’s possible. I think that would be an advantage for Michael Carter-Williams if he’s guarded by Hardaway. Hardaway is a really good player, and I think what you want to do is try to take away Carter-Williams’ ability to penetrate and make him a perimeter jump shooter. If you make him a perimeter jump shooter, he is less likely to hurt you.

The D.O.: One of the things that have plagued Syracuse is offensive rebounding. Last year, we saw Notre Dame dominate with Jack Cooley inside, and Andre Drummond had two really good games against Fab Melo. Can Mitch McGary crash the offensive boards and play that role of garbage man inside?

J.B.: Absolutely. I think that’s a possibility. Sometimes that zone will give up some second shots, but that’s a question of where those shots come from. If it’s a 3-point miss, I think McGary is less likely to be as big of a factor on the glass because those longer shots are usually longer rebounds. The better the quality of the shot, the more opportunity Michigan is going to have for an offensive rebound.

The D.O.: Is this Syracuse team really peaking at the right team, or is this group really good at “turning it on” when it matters in the postseason?

J.B.: That’s a good question. It’s hard to determine when and where a team gets hot and where it comes from. Even during the period where Syracuse was really struggling toward the end of the season, they were still working in practice and working hard to get better. I don’t think it’s necessarily a cruise control thing and then a flip-the-switch deal.

But to me, the game was Seton Hall in the Big East tournament. When they played Seton Hall, they got down early as Seton Hall hit some 3s. When they wound up winning that game, with as well as they played on the offensive end, that really gave them a shot in the arm and some much-needed confidence. Their offensive improvement really helped their defense.

Published on April 4, 2013 at 8:41 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13