MEMPHIS, Tenn. – All week leading up to Friday’s NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 game (7:27 p.m., CBS), Syracuse’s focus has been on containing Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin, the frontrunner to win national player of the year honors.

One thing is a given. SU head coach Jim Boeheim will employ his famed 2-3 zone. At the Orange’s introductory press conference Thursday afternoon here at FedEx Forum, just about everybody wanted to know how a zone defense – even the Boeheim zone – would be able to stop a player who has been virtually unstoppable all season.

As always, Boeheim remained defiant about his beloved defense.

‘The hard thing about coaching zone, when you’re a man-to-man team, and you play man-to-man and you’re losing, they just say, ‘Well, you’ve got to play better,” Boeheim said. ‘When you’re a zone team, and you’re losing, they say you’ve got to play man-to-man.

‘Fortunately, I don’t listen to those people.’

So far this season, and for most of Boeheim’s 33-year coaching career, that strategy has worked just fine. Throughout the Big East schedule, Syracuse has relied on Arinze Onuaku and Rick Jackson to clog the middle of the zone and try and contain some of the country’s top big men, including Connecticut’s Hasheem Thabeet and Pittsburgh’s DeJuan Blair.

On Thursday, Boeheim confirmed that game plan won’t change against Griffin, who leads the nation by averaging 14.4 rebounds per game, in addition to his 22.5 points. So far in the NCAA Tournament, Griffin has lived up to all the hype. In the second round against Michigan last Sunday, he put up 33 points and 17 boards.

The SU players have been inundated with questions about Griffin from the moment they beat Arizona State last weekend to advance to the Sweet 16, starting Tuesday when they faced the local media in Syracuse. That didn’t change Thursday, as all three in attendance – Boeheim, point guard Jonny Flynn and Onuaku – were all asked at least one question about Griffin.

Flynn, perhaps, summed it up best.

‘There’s nothing really to say about him that everybody in this world doesn’t know,’ he said.

Boeheim was quick to point out Griffin is not the only player he is worried about. Oklahoma also boasts four players who have hit at least 40 3-pointers this season and has the ability to change a game with its outside shooting almost as much as with its inside presence. Guard Willie Warren averages 14.7 points per game.

With that in mind, the Orange will be counting on guards like Flynn, Eric Devendorf and Andy Rautins to jump out at shooters and on the big men down low to handle Griffin. That’s what will make tonight’s contest such a challenge. But Boeheim stressed that defensively, he has tweaked and adjusted the zone to best match-up with the Sooners.

‘Our zone is different against every team we play,’ Boeheim said. ‘That’s the only way you can be effective playing zone.’

Back in Memphis

Last time Syracuse played in Memphis was the start of a crucial turning point that has affected the team for the rest of the season: It was the first start for Jackson, and he has started each game since. Jackson replaced Kristof Ongenaet in the lineup at power forward on Dec. 20, when the Orange beat then-No. 21 Memphis, 72-65, at FedEx Forum. He scored 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds.

Since then, Jackson has been a key contributor.

‘I think he’s gotten better. I think it took a while,’ Boeheim said. ‘…I think he’s playing very well right now. I think he’s really improved over the last six, seven, eight games. You know, he’s made a difference.’

The game was especially important for Syracuse, because it beat a ranked team without Devendorf, who was suspended. Perhaps, playing here on Beale Street again is a stroke of good karma for the Orange.

‘Getting a win like that when you don’t have a player like Eric Devendorf does something for the team,’ Onuaku said. ‘After that, we said in our mind we’re a good team, and we’re on the verge of doing a lot of things in this NCAA Tournament and even this season.’

jediamon@syr.edu

Published on March 26, 2009 at 12:00 pm