Tough round for Syracuse

MEMPHIS — Of the 16 remaining teams in the NCAA Tournament, Syracuse could have the most difficult route to the Final Four in Detroit.

Against Oklahoma in Friday’s South third-round, the Orange will have to deal with Sooners’ star big man Blake Griffin. With a win, Jim Boeheim’s Big East team could have to deal with North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough in Sunday’s regional title game.

During Thursday’s pre-game interview, some of the Syracuse players made it fairly obvious that the challenge against the 6-10, 251-pound Blake is something they have rarely confronted. Even so, the Orange players were careful to qualify their words — just in case they have to say much the same thing about Hansbrough.

SU’s Arinze Onuaku: “Griffin’s maybe the best man in the country. He’s just great in the low post.”
Playmaker Jonny Flynn: “Griffin’s probably the No. 1 player and the probably the first pick in this year’s pro draft.”

Boeheim: “If [Griffin] hadn’t been hurt [concussion], Oklahoma probably would have been the No. 1 seed.”

On another front, Boeheim summed up the success through two rounds by the Big East with five qualifiers for the third round: “I always let the facts speak for themselves.”

And on his reputation for being a difficult coach on players: “Sit with [Connecticut’s] Jim Calhoun for a week ... As a coach, you’re always going to want certain things from a player, and it’s never going to be exactly what the player wants.”