East Regional Final: Syracuse vs. Marquette
The East region played out as most expected with all four top seeds making the semifinals, but in unexpected fashion, the top two fell, making room for three-seed Marquette and four-seed Syracuse in the final, which takes place today.
Against most predictions, the East regional final has turned into a Big East rivalry game, one that has already been played once this year.
Back on Feb. 25, Marquette defeated Syracuse 74-71, dominating the offensive glass with 290-pound center Davante Gardner eating up space in the middle of the paint. He’ll be a big focus of the Orange this time around, but so will Marquette’s leading scorer and offensive playmaker, Vander Blue.
Blue’s averaged nearly 20 points per game during the tourney, but it’s been his clutch plays that have really helped the Eagles get this far. But after squeaking past their first two opponents, the Eagles enjoyed their best showing of the tournament in a domination of two-seed Miami on Thursday.
The Orange are also coming into the game playing their best basketball of the season after knocking off top seed Indiana in the round of 16. Syracuse’s impenetrable zone defense has stymied foes and its balanced offensive attack has proved to be effective against a variety of different defensive approaches.
Syracuse’s balanced attack should serve it well in this game, but considering Marquette has become accustom to playing in close games during the tournament, the Eagles should be able to keep this thing close all the way to the end and based on what we’ve seen from them in those situations, it wouldn’t be surprising if they pulled out the win.
Still, we have to lean towards Syracuse for the victory here. The Orange have simply crushed their opponents and seem to have figured out how to adjust to beat each one. I do like Syracuse to win the game, but considering Marquette already has a win against the Orange this season and considering it always seems to keep the game close, I still like the Eagles to cover +5, even in defeat.
