Some Syracuse men’s basketball team fans may not know what to feel about earning a first-round bye in next week’s Big East tournament.

Skipping to the second round, or adding an easy win to its record and NCAA Tournament resume? Continue its current roll, or rest up a little before the Big Dance?

Don’t worry. The Orangemen don’t even know what to think about it.

When No. 24 Syracuse plays its regular season finale in the Carrier Dome against No. 7 Connecticut on Sunday at 2 p.m., it’ll be playing for a first-round bye in the Big East tournament. For some, it’s a motivating factor.

‘We want to get that bye,’ SU guard Gerry McNamara said. ‘We want to go down and play the second day. We don’t want to have to play every day. We have to protect our court and hopefully get one against UConn.’

For others? No big deal.

‘I don’t really think about that stuff, to tell you the truth,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘We’re just going to play the best we can. Four or five games ago, we were thinking about not even making it. We’re just going to play each game.’

‘I don’t know what the standings are right now, who lost, who won,’ SU guard Josh Pace said. ‘We’re just looking to play against a very good team at home. We just want to win regardless.’

If the Orangemen (20-6, 10-5 Big East) don’t, there’s still hope to earn the bye. If Rutgers beats Seton Hall at the Louis Brown Athletic Center on Sunday at noon, the Orangemen will bypass the first round whether they win or lose.

But earning a direct ticket to the second round will hardly be the only thing SU will be playing for. It will also be trying to salvage respect against conference power UConn, which has beaten SU by an average of 18 points in their last three meetings going back to last year.

That includes an 86-54 shellacking earlier this season at the Hartford Civic Center, SU’s worst loss ever to UConn (23-5, 12-3) and Boeheim’s fifth worst loss in his 28 season at SU.

The Huskies, who are currently tied for first place in the Big East with Pittsburgh, have dominated Syracuse lately by making their games fast paced. The Huskies race down the court before SU has a chance to set up its 2-3 zone, which has held opponents to an average of less than 60 points in SU’s last four games.

When the game is slowed down, Player of the Year candidate Emeka Okafor is perhaps the only player athletic enough to neutralize Hakim Warrick by himself. Okafor is also talented enough offensively to make SU’s zone collapse more than it usually does, which should create open looks for Husky marksmen Rashard Anderson and Ben Gordon.

Sound fun to draw up a game plan against? Boeheim doesn’t think so, either.

‘UConn is still my favorite to win the whole thing,’ Boeheim said. ‘I’ve picked Connecticut from the beginning of the year. Nothing’s changed. They’re still the team to beat.’

For now, UConn is just a team that Syracuse can’t beat. But Saturday could be the time that changes. Playing in its final home game of the year against one of the nation’s elite teams should create a giant, partisan crowd.

That was the case last year, when SU’s final home game saw Carmelo Anthony say goodbye to the Carrier Dome as a collegian, Sherman Douglas’ jersey retired, a record crowd of 33,071 and SU complete a perfect home season with a win over Rutgers.

Despite the enormity of that game, Warrick thinks Sunday’s primer for the Big East tournament could surpass it.

‘I think it’s going to be even bigger,’ Warrick said. ‘We lost the last three against UConn. The atmosphere is going to be great.’

Published on March 4, 2004 at 12:00 pm