In two of Syracuse’s three wins last weekend in the first annual Black Coaches Association Invitational, the first words that came out of Jim Boeheim’s mouth were about how his team’s defensive effort was the reason the Orange prevailed.

Whether it is in man-to-man, 2-3 zone or both, Syracuse will try to carry over that defensive success in its fourth game in six days when it hosts Northeastern tonight at 7 at the Carrier Dome.

‘We always try to focus and make sure we play hard defense against all our men,’ SU center Darryl Watkins said. ‘They didn’t get the ball where they wanted it.’

It doesn’t take Boeheim, the head coach, or any player to point that out. SU’s defensive numbers speak for itself.

The Orange gave up 60 points a game in the BCA invitational by holding St Francis (N.Y.), Pennsylvania and Texas El-Paso to 32.3, 38.5 and 30.3 percent shooting, respectively. Watkins’ 12 blocked shots contributed to SU’s total of 32 while Wright’s 16 assists helped the Orange accumulate 50.

SU played solid defense in different scenarios. With a struggling offense at the beginning of the first half against the Terriers, SU played man-to-man in hopes of creating turnovers and to revitalize a transition game.

It worked. SU forced 26 turnovers. From those turnovers Syracuse scored 31 points. The strategy masked an inexperienced offense and broke open a game that was once a stalemate.

‘We always try to play man defense and we will see how much we can play it as we go along,’ Boeheim said. ‘I think we will use both defenses and see which one is most effective.’

Boeheim found out that SU’s man-to-man defense against Penn on Saturday did not pan out as well as the previous night. Penn guard Ibrahim Jaaber exploited SU’s man-to-man by finding open lanes inside and by nailing open jump shots for 12 of his team’s first 17 points. With 7:23 left in the first half, the Quakers only trailed by one point.

The rest of Penn benefited as well because SU too often stepped forward to contest a player, leaving others open on backdoor cuts.

But once SU switched to the 2-3 zone, it forced Jaaber to play solely on the perimeter. He didn’t take another shot the rest of the half and only scored six points in the second half. Syracuse went back to man defense at times but stuck to the zone in the final 17 minutes of regulation.

Initially, Syracuse adopted its man-to-man defense when it had a smaller lineup that consisted of Wright, Eric Devendorf, Paul Harris, Demetris Nichols and Terrence Roberts.

But the Orange changed to the 2-3 zone when bigger men, such as 6-foot-9 Matt Gorman and 6-foot-11 Watkins, joined Roberts, Harris and Devendorf. Then SU continuously switched defenses with varying combinations not determined by height.

‘It depends what they throw at us,’ Gorman said. ‘They threw some backdoors at us when we were in man-to-man. So we swapped up with a 2-3 and were able to stop them.’

Against UTEP the Orange continued its signature zone to limit the Miners’ perimeter players. SU opened the second half with a 13-0 run while holding UTEP scoreless for the first 5:12 of the half.

It should come as no surprise that Syracuse has played more man-to-man than its traditional 2-3 zone. That’s usually the case at the beginning of the season when SU doesn’t usually have to worry about a solid defensive effort to secure a victory. But against Penn, the Orange had to revert to that plan – something Boeheim said will only benefit the Orange down the road when it faces stiffer competition.

‘It was a good experience to play a team that moves the ball as well as Penn does against the zone,’ Boeheim said. ‘I thought our zone really held up extremely well. That will be good experience for us.’

Published on November 14, 2006 at 12:00 pm