VILLANOVA (21-6, 9-5) V s . s y r A cuse (22-6, 9-6) • 7 p.m. • Wells fargo center • espn • t K 9 9 . 5 ORANGE SCOUTING REPORT Where Buyers & Sellers connect. 24/7 frank ordoñez / the post-standard SYRACUSE GUARD Brandon Triche looks to pass the ball while being defended by Rutgers’ Mike Poole during Saturday’s game at the Carrier Dome. THREEPOINTS Click the links below Since the start of the 2005- for more Syracuse 06 season, Villanova is 8-3 basketball coverage on 1 against Syracuse. Rick Jackson recorded his • Photos 17th double-double of the » Videos • Search 2 season on Saturday with » Photo galleries 18 points and 12 rebounds. • Track » Live game updates Only five SU players have more • Email double-doubles in a single year: WHO’SHOT » The Orange • Extended Descriptions Derrick Coleman, Rudy Hackett, C.J. Fair is making Basketball blog with Carmelo Anthony, Bill Smith and a push for the Big The Post-Standard’s Billy Owens. East’s All-Rookie Mike Waters and syracuse.com/classifieds team. He had a Donna Ditota Syracuse has more players season-high 17 » Bud Poliquin, The from Philadelphia on its points and eight Post-Standard’s sports roster — Scoop Jardine, Discover the advantage. 3 rebounds against columnist Rick Jackson and Dion Waiters Rutgers. In the » Mike’s Mailbag has — than Villanova does. Maalik last seven games, Wayns is the only current answers to your SU he’s averaging 10.1 basketball questions Post- Standard Media Wildcat from Philly. points. » Follow PSBasketball on Twitter In print and online. TOTHEPOINT » Subscribe to the The winner of tonight’s game still has a great shot at a Orange Scouting top-four finish in the Big East and a double bye in the Report upcoming conference tournament. VILLANOVA SYRACUSE PRIMEMATCHUPPointGUARD 10-corey Fisher 11-scoop Jardine real-time Sr., 6-1, 200 Jr., 6-2, 190 He’s a powerful Jardine struggled guard who can really in the first meeting score. He gets in with Villanova, the lane and makes scoring two points tough shots. on 1-for-8 shooting. SU needs him to play FAST!jobsEASY! NOW! better. Search SHOOTINGGUARD 2-Maalik Wayns 20-Brandon So., 6-2, 185 Triche So., 6-4, 205 He’s similar to Fisher, but he’s a rocket. Triche only made He uses ball screens two of his 10 3-point to beat you off the attempts against bounce. Rutgers, but he still scored 17 points thanks to 9-for-9 free-throw shooting. SMALLFORWARD Videos 24-corey stokes 32-Kris Joseph Sr., 6-5, 220 Jr., 6-7, 210 He’s their best long- Joseph stepped up range shooter. He’s with perhaps his best got deep, deep game of the season range. You have to against Rutgers — 21 make him put it on points and a season- the floor. high eight rebounds. POWERFORWARD 0-Antonio Pena 00-rick Jackson Sr., 6-8, 235 Sr., 6-9, 240 Current Jobs He’s becoming a This will be Jackson’s poor-man’s Dante final homecoming Cunningham. He’s game in Philadelphia. become a very good He had 16 points and 15-foot jump shooter 15 boards in SU’s loss and a very reliable to Nova in January. guy. CENTER 13-Mouphtaou 12-Baye Moussa yarou Keita So., 6-10, 250 Fr., 6-10, 213 It’s all there on: I think he’s gotten Keita has struggled better. He’s in his three games syracuse.com/jobs very strong and since becoming a aggressive. He’s a starter. He still had little mechanical, but Discover the advantage. two blocks in just 11 he’s a beast. minutes vs. Rutgers. Post- Standard Media VILLANOVABENCH Dominic Cheek can shoot the ball and he’s very athletic. Maurice Sutton and Isaiah In print and online. Armwood are both really long frontcourt guys. They don’t have the strength of Yarou, but they’re extremely lanky and athletic. James Bell is a glue guy. SYRACUSESTATS MIKE’SMAILBAG GP-Gs Min. FG% 3FG% FT% reb PF A TO Blk sT Pts Post-Standard basketball writer 32-Joseph 27-27 31.7 46.4 38.6 71.0 4.9 1.7 1.9 2.3 0.6 1.4 15.0 Mike Waters answers readers’ questions about the Orange, the 00-Jackson 28-28 35.2 57.7 0.0 50.9 11.2 2.0 2.4 1.9 2.4 1.2 13.0 Big East, all of college basketball 11-Jardine 28-28 32.3 40.5 33.1 66.3 2.2 1.6 5.9 2.9 0.1 1.7 12.2 and just about anything else. 20-Triche 28-28 28.8 44.0 33.1 80.8 2.4 1.9 2.9 1.8 0.1 0.8 11.4 Submit your question to Mike at 5-Fair 25-0 18.2 54.5 33.3 58.3 3.7 1.3 0.3 0.8 0.7 0.8 6.5 » [email protected] 3-Waiters 27-0 15.7 37.1 29.9 85.0 1.4 1.2 1.4 0.9 0.1 1.2 5.9 While I’m confident 43-Southerland 22-2 15.2 41.4 36.2 75.0 2.5 1.5 0.5 0.2 0.7 0.5 5.0 Q. Syracuse will make the 21-Jones 11-0 8.3 36.7 39.3 100.0 1.1 1.0 0.5 0.1 0.2 0.5 3.4 NCAA Tournament this year, 12-Keita 28-3 16.1 56.2 0.0 48.4 4.2 2.4 0.2 0.7 1.4 0.6 2.5 their freefall in the polls has me 51-Melo 26-24 9.5 55.0 0.0 36.8 1.8 1.6 0.2 0.7 0.7 0.2 2.0 wondering: What’s the highest 34-Tomaszewski 8-0 2.0 80.0 100.0 50.0 0.1 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 1.5 a team (Syracuse or otherwise) 14-Lyde-Cajuste 4-0 2.2 50.0 0.0 100.0 0.5 0.2 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.0 1.0 has been ranked during the regu- lar season, only to not make the 24-Reese 8-0 2.0 60.0 0.0 50.0 0.5 0.2 0.5 0.1 0.0 0.2 0.9 tournament? 13-Hoffman 4-0 2.2 50.0 50.0 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.8 — richard 2-Resavy 6-0 1.7 33.3 0.0 0.0 0.3 0.3 0.5 0.2 0.0 0.2 0.3 25-DeRemer 2-0 1.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.5 0.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Mike Waters: This was a 4-Hart 2-0 1.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 really hard question to answer. There was no ready-made SU totals 46.7 34.5 65.5 37.8 15.2 16.0 12.0 6.5 8.5 73.0 list that I could find. It would Opponents 39.5 32.6 66.2 33.6 17.9 14.6 13.8 2.9 6.2 63.1 require going through each week of the Associated Press poll, which made its first appear- VILLANOVASTATS INSIDE LASTFIVEGAMES ance in the 1948-49 season, Pts reb A THESTATS Villanova and cross-checking it with the 10-C. Fisher 16.3 3.1 5.0 Jackson played 42 West Virginia 66-50 NCAA Tournament field. 24-C. Stokes 14.6 3.4 1.4 minutes in the OT Rutgers 76-77 However, I did come up with 2-M. Wayns 13.4 2.8 4.6 win over Rutgers these nuggets: Pittsburgh 54-57 According to veteran AP 0-A. Pena 10.3 7.4 1.6 despite being in foul trouble. He’s Seton Hall 60-57 college basketball writer Jim 13-M. Yarou 9.2 7.4 0.4 averaging 35.2 DePaul 77-75 OT O’Connell, no team that was 23-D. Cheek 5.8 4.0 0.7 minutes per game, syracuse ever ranked No. 1 has failed to 32-J. Bell 2.8 1.4 0.3 but hasn’t fouled make the NCAA Tournament. South Florida 72-49 25-M. Sutton 2.5 2.3 0.3 out of a game all In 1971, Southern California year. Georgetown 56-64 lost only two games. Both were Louisville 69-73 to UCLA. Southern Cal finished Home West Virginia 63-52 the regular season ranked second away in the country behind UCLA. neutral Rutgers 84-80 OT But back then, only one team per conference made it to the NCAA Tournament and USC was left out. Since 1975, conferences have been able to send more than one team to the NCAA tourney. And that’s where it got hard to check on each and every AP poll. CATCH IT IF The highest ranking for a Syracuse team that didn’t play YOU CAN. in the NCAA Tournament hap- pened in the 2001-02 season. Syracuse was ranked No. 8 in A sports magazine mid-January with a 16-2 record.