Syracuse Prevails Deceptively

The best thing that happened for Syracuse early during Saturday’s victory over Mississippi State? According to Orangeman Coach Jim Boeheim, it was Mississippi State jumping out to an early lead by making several outside shots over Syracuse’s zone.

That, Boeheim reasoned, probably got the Bulldogs a little too comfortable firing from deep rather than trying to work it inside against the 2-3 zone.

“Sometimes, when you’re playing zone defense and a team makes a couple of outside shots, they think it’s going to be easy,” Boeheim said. “They think they can make threes, and sometimes they take more threes than maybe they would like to in that situation.”

Said Mississippi State guard Darryl Wilson, who was six for 13 from three-point distance: “At the beginning of the game, I think Dontae’ hit a three, Marcus hit a three, I hit two threes. Every time we hit a three, they responded and made big shots and made big plays.

“We thought maybe we could shoot them out of their zone, but the score shows that we didn’t.”

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Wilson, a senior, played his last game as a Bulldog. Will center Erick Dampier and forward Dontae’ Jones, who both have a season of eligibility remaining, follow him into this year’s NBA draft?

Both are projected as possible lottery picks.

Jones reiterated his earlier statements that he was considering leaving early, and though Dampier said he hadn’t really considered it, most Bulldog observers believe he will declare for the draft.

“It’s something I’m definitely looking at,” Jones said Saturday night. “It’s a real possibility.”

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Kentucky’s victory over Massachussetts, which avenged a Nov. 28 loss to the Minutemen, ran the Wildcats’ record to 14-0 in same-season revenge games during Coach Rick Pitino’s seven-year Kentucky tenure.

“After we lost the game [to UMass], we put it to rest,” said Kentucky guard Tony Delk. “And we were hoping that we got an opportunity to play them again, and then it happened.

“When you lose that early in the season, you learn from your mistakes. And I think we did a good job of that.”

The Wildcats were denied a chance to go to 15-0, and erase its only other loss this season, earlier Saturday when Syracuse knocked off Mississippi State, which beat Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference final.