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Northern Iowa coach offers blueprint on how Syracuse can beat UNC
Syracuse will have its hands full on Saturday when it plays North Carolina in a national semifinal in Houston. While the only No. 1 seed left in the field will be an overwhelming favorite against the 10-seed Orange, there's precedent for an upset.
For starters, one has to look no further than Sunday, when Syracuse used a stunning 25-4 second-half run to turn the tables on top-seeded Virginia in the Elite Eight. If the Orange can do that to the mechanical Cavaliers, arguably the least likely team in the country to suffer such a collapse, they can do it to anybody. Beyond that, there's a blueprint for an underdog stunning UNC.
The Orange's rally against the 'Hoos in Chicago was reminiscent of the 29-8 second-half run Northern Iowa used to flip the script on North Carolina during a 71-67 win over the Tar Heels in November. And while there are some notable differences between Carolina then and Carolina now, there are still things Syracuse and coach Jim Boeheim can learn from the Panthers' shocker in Cedar Falls.
"When we played them here, Marcus (Paige) was hurt and did not play, and taking nothing away from the way our guys played -- we played our tails off -- that makes them a different team, having Marcus on the floor," Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson told FOX Sports on Wednesday. "That puts their leader on the floor, another guy that does so much at both ends.
"And the way he's playing right now, obviously he's a key to what happens," Jacobson continued. "Because he opens up the floor even more for their tremendous size, and those guys up front do such a good job putting pressure around the basket."
If there's one thing Syracuse proved effective at in its two regular-season losses to North Carolina, however, it's containing Paige.
In the first, an 84-73 Carolina road win, the senior guard scored three points on 1-of-8 shooting (the first of a four-game stretch that saw Paige shoot a combined 5-of-35 from the floor). In the other, a 75-70 win in Chapel Hill, Paige was 2-of-10 from the floor with six points. Overall, Paige hit just two of his 13 3-point attempts against Syracuse this season, and while that's no guarantee he won't light up the Orange the third time around, as he did in the teams' only meeting last season, Boeheim has been effective (at least this year) in forcing someone else to beat his team.
Even without Paige, though, North Carolina was still a handful, and while it's not as though Boeheim will copy UNI's game plan (Syracuse will no doubt rely on its patented 2-3 zone on defense, while the Panthers played straight man-to-man against UNC) Jacobson noted three key areas he and his coaches focused on when preparing to play the Tar Heels.
"One, they're so big and so effective inside, and that puts a lot of pressure on your defense," Jacobson said, highlighting the importance for Syracuse in keeping the ball out of the paint. "And they are terrific in transition, made shot or missed shot. They get the ball into the frontcourt and immediately put the heat on your defense as well as anybody in the country.
"And then (senior forward Brice) Johnson and Marcus are playing at such a high level, and you've got to deal with their depth," Jacobson said. "(North Carolina coach Roy Williams) is not afraid to play 10 or 11 guys, and you don't see that all the time."
Williams used nine players in his team's 88-74 win over 6-seed Notre Dame in the Elite Eight, the Tar Heels' closest game in a tournament run that also includes double-digit wins over Florida Gulf Coast, Providence and Indiana. Syracuse, meanwhile, sticks to a seven-man rotation, with freshmen Tyler Lydon and Franklin Howard generally the only players to enter off the bench.
Should 'Cuse knock off the Tar Heels and continue on its baffling run, the win likely won't resemble Northern Iowa's early season upset too closely. But you can bet Boeheim is paying close attention this week to the things UNI did right in its win, hoping to put his guys in the best position possible to stun again. After all, they've done worse to better teams already.
"To think that Virginia still didn't have one of the best years, this year and over the past number of years, is wrong," said Jacobson, whose team was eliminated by Texas A&M following a historic late-game meltdown in the round of 32.
"It doesn't mean their players aren't as good as they were when that game started, and it certainly doesn't mean that Tony (Bennett) isn't one of the best coaches that college basketball has seen," he continued. "But when you play enough games and you put yourself out there, every once in a while, stuff happens."
You can follow Sam Gardner on Twitter or email him at samgardnerfox@gmail.com.
