NEW ORLEANS – Obviously, when the Syracuse men’s basketball team plays its fifth Big 12 opponent this season, it will be well prepared. After all, the five teams must have some things in common, right?

‘Nope,’ Syracuse University head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘Not a thing.’

So tonight at 9:22, when No. 3-seeded Syracuse plays No. 2 Kansas for the national championship at the Louisiana Superdome, the Orangemen will contend with a whole new style. And this one – an up-tempo, run-and-gun pace – may give SU its biggest challenge yet.

No Big 12 team – or any team in the nation – runs like Kansas, which blew past Marquette, 94-61, in the national semifinals. With the Golden Eagles shooting poorly, the Jayhawks collected defensive rebounds and raced up the court, running up 59 first-half points.

Even when Marquette made shots, Kansas transitioned quickly. Five times in the first half, Kansas answered a Marquette basket in less than 10 seconds.

‘There’s no time for celebrating,’ SU forward Hakim Warrick said. ‘They can take a made basket and get down the court in a hurry. We just have to always have a man back. If you don’t have a chance at an offensive rebound, you have to get back.’

Seniors Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison anchor the Jayhawks. Hinrich, a 6-foot-3 guard who averages 17 points, controls the outside, while Collison, a 6-foot-9 forward averaging 19 points, mans the inside.

But Kansas derives much of its quickness from guards Keith Langford and Aaron Miles. Against Marquette, Langford sometimes drove the length of the court for layups, even after made shots.

‘We try to get off the net and run no matter what,’ Hinrich said. ‘We run a lot. That’s our whole philosophy. That’s the way we play.’

Syracuse faced a similar style twice this year in games against Connecticut and lost both times. Most recently, the Huskies ran the Orangemen (29-5) out of the Big East tournament, 80-67, on March 14.

In that game, Syracuse failed to slow the pace and force the Huskies into a half-court offense. To do that tonight, the Orangemen need solid rebounding and shooting. Kansas thrives off poor-shooting teams because it transitions misses so quickly.

‘UConn pushes the ball fast, better than anyone we’ve seen,’ SU guard Kueth Duany said. ‘Kansas pushes it even faster, so we have to be ready for that.’

Syracuse’s zone, which has fared well against Big 12 teams, will be hard pressed to get back fast enough to put Kansas into half-court sets. And even if it does, the Jayhawks present a new host of challenges.

To beat the zone half-court, expect Kansas (30-7) to move the ball low to Collison, who will either try to negotiate a high-percentage shot or kick to an open man on the perimeter.

‘You’ve got to really move the ball crisply,’ Kansas head coach Roy Williams said. ‘You have to really fake your passes. You have to penetrate. You can’t just stand and pass it around the horn and expect to get good shots.’

Williams will depend on three upperclassmen starters to dissect SU’s zone. Syracuse, by contrast, starts one upperclassmen (Duany).

‘We played teams led by seniors all year,’ SU guard Gerry McNamara said. ‘At this point in the year, we’re not freshmen, and we haven’t played like it. So I don’t think it makes any difference by now. If we play like freshmen (tonight), we’re in a lot of trouble.’

Published on April 6, 2003 at 12:00 pm