Big Dance: Syracuse Zones Michigan State into Tourney Oblivion

How stifling is Jim Boeheim's legendary 2-3 match-up zone?

Consider the fact that dude's longtime assistant -- and former coach-in-waiting -- Mike Hopkins took the Washington job and installed it.

Lo and behold, with basically the same personnel, Hopkins morphed the Huskies from a 9-22 undeachiever to a 21-13 club that beat the likes of Kansas and Arizona.

 

With today's 55-53 loss to the 'Cuse, Tom Izzo and his Michigan State Spartans still haven't sorted that out.

 

It's all enough to make one wonder if the Selection Committee stuck the Orange as their last choice just to dick with a few of the tournament's usual favorites.

Consider:

 

This is hardly conspiracy theory.

Look who the 'Cuse has in store if the chalk actually holds for once:

The fundamentals of Boeheim's zone scheme are actually quite simple.

Here's Hopkins summarizing them when he was still on the Syracuse staff:

 

Of course, the Orange add bells and whistles to their strategy against every particular opponent, but there it is.

Boeheim is one of the few coaches who recruits to his system rather than recruiting the hotshots du jour. One of the few exceptions was Carmelo Anthony, but only because he bought into the system.

That worked out rather well.

 

Frankly, Syracuse could use Melo this year.

If anything's gonna derail the Orange, it'll be their inconsistent offense.

But if and/or when that happens, they're taking great pleasure in busting up brackets everywhere.