BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: SOUTH FLORIDA @ SYRACUSE

January 5, 2008



A battle of Big East unbeatens takes place at high noon at the Carrier Dome on Saturday afternoon as the Bulls from South Florida take on the Syracuse Orange. Granted, each team is just 1-0, but it is still exciting to talk about, especially in the case of the Bulls.

South Florida opened Big East play under 1st year head coach Stan Heath by steam rolling Rutgers Wednesday night, 68-45. The exciting inside/out combination of Kentrell Gransberry and freshman Dominique Jones combined for 44 points and 20 rebounds against the punchless Scarlet Knights.

The young Syracuse team had more of a challenge from an equally young St. John's squad who kept battling against the Orange before Jim Boeheim;'s squad put them away and earned a 76-70 win on Wednesday night. Arinze Onuaku scored 23 pts and grabbed 13 rebounds in an effort very similar to one turned in by Gransberry against RU the same night. Like Gransberry, Onuaku teammed with an impressive freshman as Donte Greene scored 22 points despite foul trouble.

Right now, Syracuse is really only six players deep and four of them are freshmen. With the injury losses of Eric Devendorf, Andy Rautins and Devin Brennan-McBride, as well as the defection of Josh Wright, coach Boeheim is using a line-up of Jonny Flynn and Antonio Jardine, both frosh, at the guards, Paul Harris and Donte Greene at the forwards and Onuaku in the middle. Rick Jackson provides depth in the frontcourt and both Greene and Harris are versatile to see time at other positions. However, their only depth beyond the top six is in the form of JUCO transger Kristof Ongenaet, a forward, and Sean Williams, a raw and skinny freshman center.

After years of struggling with numbers, South Florida actually has a team that is pretty deep, and compared to Syracuse, it looks as if they can look down their bench and find several options to call upon. The Bulls have been successful with a 9-mn rotation since Florida State transfer Aaron Holmes becam eligible. They have a pair of quality lead guards in Chris Howard and Solomon Bozeman and starting wings Jones and Jesis Verdejo have also been playing very well. Holmes backs up the wing and Orane Chin and Ade Saaka play at the forward positions with Gransberry at C. They have a few options deeper on the bench to spell Gransberry, but they will need him on the floor as much as possible.

I look at this match-up and think if there was a chance for South Florida to steal a win against an 'upper-echelon' Big East team on the road, this might be it. It is hard to ignore USF's complete lack of success on the road in Big East play and the traditional home success in the Dome for the Orange, but such a young team, still trying to figure it all out on defense and without Eric Devendorf, they could be ripe for the picking.

Still, it is a long trip north for the Bulls and the first experience for several of these guys in the Dome against the SU zone is a tough task. Again, I think they make things very interesting, but SU gets just enough push to hold them off and improves just enough defensively to stay ahead of USF.


NBE Blogger Prediction: Syracuse 75 South Florida 71