UPDATED: March 20, 12:53 a.m.

CLEVELAND — Scoop Jardine reiterated again Saturday that his left wrist is fine after landing on it Friday night against Indiana State. Jardine doesn’t expect it to limit him when Syracuse faces Marquette for a trip to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament Sunday evening.

‘I’m fine,’ Jardine said. ‘I was fine yesterday.’

With just minutes to play against the Sycamores, the junior point guard collapsed to the floor holding his wrist. He stayed on the floor for almost 30 seconds before rising to his feet. Moments later, with an 18-point SU lead, Jardine took a seat on the bench. There he stayed for the remainder of the contest, and from his spot on the bench he could be seen holding that wrist.

It was the same wrist Jardine had been nursing for the past couple weeks after hurting it late in the regular season. In the locker room after the game, he had a big ice wrap on the wrist. Still, though, he insisted he would be fine.

‘I just fell on it. I keep falling on it,’ Jardine said. ‘I think I did it like three weeks ago. I fell on it again, and it just keeps numbing up on me. It’s a scary feeling when I first do it, but once I get my feeling back, I’m fine.’

Jardine, who shot 3-of-5 from the field and had nine points and nine assists Friday, will be one of the most important players for the Orange Sunday against a guard-heavy Marquette squad.

On Saturday, less than 24 hours after the game, Jardine reconfirmed that he’ll be fine. While he may be experiencing some pain or discomfort, Jardine didn’t appear to be concerned and said that it definitely won’t keep him off the court.

‘Like I said, if we play today, I’ll be playing.’

Orange, Golden Eagles prepare for unexpected conference meeting early in Tournament

Following an 18-game regular-season gantlet and a subsequent 81-56 loss to Louisville in the conference tournament, Buzz Williams was looking forward to a break. It was time to turn attention away from the rugged Big East and focus on the NCAA Tournament.

So as he and his team exited Madison Square Garden on March 10, Williams turned to one of his assistant coaches and breathed a sigh of relief.

‘I’m so thankful that we don’t have to talk about or prepare or play against a Big East program until next Christmas,’ the Marquette head coach told an assistant.

Now, just a week later, as both Syracuse and Marquette advanced through the NCAA Tournament, the two Big East teams will collide again. And as to be expected, Williams wasn’t exactly thrilled when he saw how the bracket unfolded.

But with an NCAA-record 11 Big East teams in the field of 68, it was seemingly impossible to create a field that would prevent two of the league’s teams from facing each other at some point. Two other Big East teams — Connecticut and Cincinnati — will also duke it out for a trip to advance to next weekend.

‘You have to play the next team, and you know in the second game it’s going to be a difficult game,’ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘They know us and we know them, so it’s just a matter of going out and seeing who plays the best.’

Marquette won the first matchup in Milwaukee on Jan. 29. Since then, SU has the better record, but the Golden Eagles have a known formula for beating the Orange’s 2-3 zone: exploiting the dead spots and knocking down 3-point shots.

Syracuse couldn’t pull out a win against Marquette on the road, so perhaps a meeting somewhere in the middle of Syracuse and Milwaukee will help. Either way, it’s a neutral site and the two teams each have the benefit of knowing what each other does best.

‘What I told our guys is we’re playing in the NCAA Tournament,’ Williams said. ‘We’ll be one of 24 teams remaining when we wake up tomorrow, and in order to get to the Sweet 16, we have to win a Big East game on a neutral court. That’s what it is.’

Joseph honors Fab Five

For the first time all season, Kris Joseph broke out the black on black. He felt he had to. For him, it was the best way of showing respect for the 20th anniversary of the Fab Five — a group of freshmen that took college basketball by storm while playing at Michigan.

‘I have a lot of respect for them and what they did,’ Joseph said after Syracuse’s 77-60 win over Indiana State Friday. ‘It was inspiring, and I just wanted to do something.’

Joseph normally wears a pair of white socks with a pair of predominantly white basketball shoes. He altered that routine with black shoes and black socks — a trademark of the Fab Five — during Thursday’s practice and again for the game on Friday.

The inspiration came from a documentary film about the Fab Five that premiered on ESPN nationwide last Sunday, March 13. Joseph watched the film and said he and his teammates appreciated the influence the Fab Five had on college basketball.

Joseph said teammates Scoop Jardine, Rick Jackson and Dion Waiters, among others, were supposed to join him in wearing the black on black Friday. But they claimed in the locker room Friday that they didn’t get the memo.

‘We were supposed to break out the black together,’ Joseph said, raising his voice so his teammates could hear him. ‘We’ll see about the next game.’

aljohn@syr.edu

Published on March 18, 2011 at 12:00 pm