Orange Ironmen Somehow Press On

NEW YORK -- What a breeze, overtime.

"We're getting used to it, yeah," Jonny Flynn, Syracuse's precocious sophomore guard was saying as he bounced off the Madison Square Garden parquet early Saturday morning, destined for another late-night dinner of fast food and an evening date in the Big East championship. His legs were rubber, his energy indefatigable, his smile glowing like a neon light. They don't know for sure, but Flynn's teammates swear he grins in his sleep. And really, who can
blame him?

Less than 24 hours removed from winning the second-longest Division I men's basketball game ever, the 18th-ranked Orange outlasted West Virginia, 74-69, in a semifinal game that stretched from Friday into Saturday. Compared to the epic six-overtime thriller over Connecticut one night earlier, these extra five minutes were mostly exhausting parades to and from the free throw lines. But it's not as if anyone is asking for refunds.

"Sorry we didn't give you a longer game tonight. We tried," said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, while the sold out crowd filed out of the Garden, mentally spent. It was all Boeheim could do to muster up a weak smile. In a few minutes he'd somehow find the energy to lead his team on another search of an open restaurant, apparently a tough find in the little 'burb known as Manhattan.

"Syracuse, you can get something to eat at 2:30. I couldn't find anyplace last night," Boeheim said, and for a moment you wanted to ask a man who had just earned his 14th trip to the title game how it was a million visitors never have much trouble tracking down a slice after midnight, but Boeheim could be forgiven a rare slip into clueless tourist territory. He has the most important, hectic part of his job down pat: Syracuse is 5-0 in overtime this season, a statistic that bodes well for the Orange during March, the most unforgiving time of the year.

Next up for Syracuse is top-seeded Louisville, 69-55 winners over Villanova in Friday's earlier game. Not that the Orange appear to need much rest, but considering the Cardinals press like demons on nearly every possession, it will be interesting to see if Syracuse has any adrenaline left in the tank. Of course, many wondered how the Orange could possibly respond with anything but yawns and dribbles off the toes Friday, and they still managed to rule the boards on both ends, score eight points off the break compared to West Virginia's four, knock down 32 in the paint next to WVU's 22 and collect 21 second-chance points opposite WVU's 13.

Anything else, before catching a few winks?

There was Flynn, as sublime a leader as you'll find, lodging 67 minutes in the quarterfinal, 45 more Friday night. All he did was score 15 points and dish out nine assists against the Mountaineers, never losing his composure even while his tongue hung loose on his drives deep into the paint. If it wasn't quite as dominant as his 34-point, 11-assist performance Thursday night against the third-ranked Huskies, it's only because Boeheim thought the kid might need a breather now and then.

"I don't know why the coach took him out those three minutes," said Boeheim. "He was not thinking, not good coaching probably. (Flynn) wants to be out there, he doesn't like to come out. All the great players I've had hate to come out."

And there was Eric Devendorf knocking back 23 points, one more than he scored in 61 minutes during the unforgettable win over Connecticut. Devendorf put to bed the idea he'd be lugging around dead weight when he heaved in a 3-pointer from half court as the buzzer sealed the first half, putting Syracuse up, 36-29. He was 4-for-8 from beyond the arc, none bigger than the trey he hit with 3:44 left in the game after Flynn found Devendorf alone on the wing and within a horn's blow of the Garden's largest Orange blob. Devendorf turned to the crowd and thumped his chest. Tired? Syracuse ought to never sleep again until the first week of April.

If Syracuse had a smoother touch at the foul line, West Virginia might never have pushed the game into OT. Well-rested and on a hot streak, the Mountaineers finished in a panic, heaving up airballs and rushing passes. There was a moment when coach Bob Huggins tried to snap his clipboard in two, but all it did was sting his hands.

"They've got the damn things now you can't break them," Huggins said, before taking the blame for forcing his players into an overtime fire drill.

With Syracuse never backing down, with Connecticut and Pittsburgh both dropping, Louisville has mostly been the forgotten first seed throughout the week. The Cardinals trailed by 10 points early against Villanova, and at halftime Rick Pitino walked into the locker room, yelled that he was speechless, and then decided his team would be better off with a tongue lashing. A No. 1 NCAA seed was at stake, and New York's native son had no desire to be laughed out of the Garden.

"I said, I don't recognize any of you. I don't know who you are. That's not Earl Clark, that's not Terrence Williams, that's not Jerry Smith," Pitino recalled later. "Everything that we've gone through to become a good basketball team, you totally changed in a 20-minute half."

The Cardinals responded with a voracious press, creating turnovers and draining eight 3-pointers, Clark and Andre McGee hitting back-to-back 3s to open the half. Clark had 17 points, Smith added 16 and the Cardinals reached the Big East championship game for the first time since joining the conference four years ago.

The bags under Pitino's eyes suggested he was one of the many who stayed awake late Thursday night, transfixed by Syracuse's marathon battle with Connecticut. He described sitting in his hotel room with his daughter and his niece, as the overtimes blended and bedtimes were missed.

"In the second overtime, my niece Christina said, "Uncle Rick, when do they stop an overtime? How many do they go?" I said, they go on forever. They never go past two or three. At the fourth, I said let's go to bed. Two young kids were glued to it. I've never seen anything like that in my life," Pitino said.

Syracuse's 127-117 six-OT win over UConn was a hearty mixture of adrenaline and spirit, inspiring the laconic Boeheim to call it "the greatest game ever played." In the brief hour after Louisville's semifinal win, as the Orange were about to take the court and prove they hadn't exhausted every ounce of strength the night before, Pitino offered a prescient prediction.

"Syracuse will really gut it out and play well in the first half and somewhere in the second half they lose their legs, normally," said Pitino. "If they don't you're really looking at something special."

He and the Cardinals will see it up close Saturday night.