SYRACUSE - Massachusetts made its Carrier Dome debut a memorable one back in November with a stunning victory over Syracuse. The Orange are determined not to let that happen again.
“We owe them one,” Orange center Arinze Onuaku said. “They're probably going to come in here and they're probably going to think they can beat us again, but we're going to go out there and play hard. We're a better team than we were earlier in the season.”
The teams meet again in the Carrier Dome on Tuesday night in the NIT quarterfinals, and a trip to Madison Square Garden will be on the line. The winner advances against either Arizona State or Florida on April 1.
The top-seeded Orange (21-13) are coming off an impressive 88-72 win at home over Maryland, while the second-seeded Minutemen (23-10) advanced with a 68-63 come-from-behind win against Akron on Saturday at the Mullins Center.
Ricky Harris scored 20 points as the Minutemen rallied from 12 points down with eight minutes to go to nip the Zips. It was eerily similar to their win over Syracuse in the fall - UMass trailed by 12 points with 14:32 left and posted a 107-100 win, the most points ever scored by an opponent since the Carrier Dome opened in 1980.
Duplicating that feat would be remarkable. No team has beaten Syracuse twice in the dome in the same season. And only once has an opponent beaten the Orange at home twice in the same season - Penn State in 1922-23.
“I think we're more hungry,” said freshman forward Donte Greene, who leads the Orange in scoring with 17.5 points per game. “We understand what we need to do.”
Tops on the list will be defending the long-range shot. In their impressive victory, the Minutemen hit 14-of-31 3-pointers and methodically dissected the Syracuse zone and whatever other defense the Orange tried.
“We just want to play as well as we can,” said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, who is 0-3 against UMass. “It doesn't matter what tournament you're in, you go out and you want to play as well as you can.”
Syracuse has overcome the disappointment of not making the NCAA tournament, but the Orange's deflating loss to Villanova in the first round of the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden still grates.
They feel they have some unfinished business there.
“We're just trying to win the NIT. We want to get back down to the Garden,” Greene said. “We know we had a disappointing season and there are definitely disappointed fans.”
This isn't the same team the Minutemen defeated in the sixth game of the Orange's season. Guard Eric Devendorf led Syracuse with 23 points (four games later he was lost for the season with a knee injury), and four of the team's five freshmen (center Sean Williams has not played since mid-January) now have a full Big East season of experience.
“I'm sure that it (another loss to UMass) is not going to happen twice,” junior forward Kristof Ongenaet said. “It's not going to happen. That was our mistake. It was preseason, so we can't let that happen anymore. We have to get that win.”
Notes: Of schools Boeheim has faced two or more times in his 32 years as head coach at Syracuse, UMass is the only one he has never beaten. The Minutemen are 3-0 against the Hall of Famer, winning in 1992, 1995 and 2007. ... The Minutemen reached the 1991 NIT Final Four in New York for their best showing in 10 previous appearances .
On TV
• Massachusetts at Syracuse, 7 p.m., ESPN
The teams meet again in the Carrier Dome on Tuesday night in the NIT quarterfinals, and a trip to Madison Square Garden will be on the line. The winner advances against either Arizona State or Florida on April 1.
The top-seeded Orange (21-13) are coming off an impressive 88-72 win at home over Maryland, while the second-seeded Minutemen (23-10) advanced with a 68-63 come-from-behind win against Akron on Saturday at the Mullins Center.
Ricky Harris scored 20 points as the Minutemen rallied from 12 points down with eight minutes to go to nip the Zips. It was eerily similar to their win over Syracuse in the fall - UMass trailed by 12 points with 14:32 left and posted a 107-100 win, the most points ever scored by an opponent since the Carrier Dome opened in 1980.
Duplicating that feat would be remarkable. No team has beaten Syracuse twice in the dome in the same season. And only once has an opponent beaten the Orange at home twice in the same season - Penn State in 1922-23.
“I think we're more hungry,” said freshman forward Donte Greene, who leads the Orange in scoring with 17.5 points per game. “We understand what we need to do.”
Tops on the list will be defending the long-range shot. In their impressive victory, the Minutemen hit 14-of-31 3-pointers and methodically dissected the Syracuse zone and whatever other defense the Orange tried.
“We just want to play as well as we can,” said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, who is 0-3 against UMass. “It doesn't matter what tournament you're in, you go out and you want to play as well as you can.”
Syracuse has overcome the disappointment of not making the NCAA tournament, but the Orange's deflating loss to Villanova in the first round of the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden still grates.
They feel they have some unfinished business there.
“We're just trying to win the NIT. We want to get back down to the Garden,” Greene said. “We know we had a disappointing season and there are definitely disappointed fans.”
This isn't the same team the Minutemen defeated in the sixth game of the Orange's season. Guard Eric Devendorf led Syracuse with 23 points (four games later he was lost for the season with a knee injury), and four of the team's five freshmen (center Sean Williams has not played since mid-January) now have a full Big East season of experience.
“I'm sure that it (another loss to UMass) is not going to happen twice,” junior forward Kristof Ongenaet said. “It's not going to happen. That was our mistake. It was preseason, so we can't let that happen anymore. We have to get that win.”
Notes: Of schools Boeheim has faced two or more times in his 32 years as head coach at Syracuse, UMass is the only one he has never beaten. The Minutemen are 3-0 against the Hall of Famer, winning in 1992, 1995 and 2007. ... The Minutemen reached the 1991 NIT Final Four in New York for their best showing in 10 previous appearances .
On TV
• Massachusetts at Syracuse, 7 p.m., ESPN
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