After 4-year absense, Syracuse glad to advance to 2nd round of Tournament
MIAMI – There was a new addition to the Syracuse’s uniforms Friday. An NCAA logo was sewn on.
Paul Harris didn’t notice until he stepped onto the American Airlines Arena court, but he was presently surprised.
‘I didn’t even see it until the game started,’ Harris said with a laugh. ‘I was like ‘Whoa, hey no more NIT’.’
As the Orange broke its streak of back-to-back NIT appearances, it also broke its streak of first-round exits in the NCAA Tournament. The last two appearances in the big dance, the Orange lost to Vermont and Texas A&M, respectively.
With a 59-44 win against Stephen F. Austin Friday, the Orange erased a lot of those memories in its attempt to revert to its history of being a perennial powerhouse in the Tournament.
‘Coach Boeheim is used to winning,’ Jonny Flynn said. ‘He’s used to getting the to the Sweet 16 and to the Elite Eight. And just to get back on track this year and get back to the NCAA Tournament and hopefully get some wins for this program is big.’
The win was the first in the Tournament since 2004 when SU the defending national champions and beat Brigham Young and Maryland before getting bounced in the Sweet 16 by Alabama.
The Orange will have an opportunity to return to the round of 16 Sunday against Arizona State. who beat Temple, 66-57 in the game following Syracuse’s here in Miami. But the Orange has much bigger goals than just a trip to Memphis, where SU will go with a victory over the Sun Devils.
‘It’s a great win for the program, especially since not having a win here in a long time,’ Andy Rautins said. ‘It was our goal at the beginning of the season to get back to elite status that Syracuse used to have.’
Sniffling Orange
The Orange has battled injuries all season. Andy Rautins and Arinze Onuauku both returned from ankle and knee injuries. Now, as the team is finally getting healthy, it has to deal with something else – the flu.
‘Man, it seems like everybody either has a cough, stuffy head, nose,’ Flynn said. ‘I think it’s coming down from ‘Cuse down to here. I don’t know what it is. Hopefully this extra day we just get better, get some rest and everybody be healthy to play.’
Even as Boeheim spoke to the media after the game, he was coughing and sniffling his nose.
‘I’ve been sick for a couple of days,’ Boeheim said. ‘Kind of congested and a sore throat. But I don’t feel that bad, yet. Hopefully, everybody will be healthy.’
Kristof Ongenaet was held out of Friday’s game against Stephen F. Austin with an illness. He said if it were the Elite Eight or Final Four, he would have definitely played. The Orange was up double figures throughout the contest, so his services were never needed.
He said began to feel sick last night at around nine o’clock, then began throwing up this morning. It wasn’t discussed until this morning if he would be held out of the game. The combination of his sore ankle that he hurt in practice Thursday, the illness and the fact it allowed him only two hours of sleep the night before resulted in him sitting out.
Ongenaet said he still doesn’t have an appetite and the last meal he had was 5:30 Thursday night.
‘Hopefully get better tonight so I can eat something before I go to bed,’ Ongenaet said. ‘…I can’t wait for Sunday, my foot will be better, I’ll be better, maybe not 100% but definitely ready to go.’
Published on March 19, 2009 at 12:00 pm
