When Syracuse and Cincinnati played last, the NCAA Tournament was on the line. In hindsight, it can even be argued that UC’s head coaching job was at stake.

Syracuse won the game and eventually reached the tournament when Gerry McNamara hit an improbable running 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded. Cincinnati didn’t reach the NCAA Tournament and interim head coach Andy Kennedy bolted to Ole Miss after the interim tag was never removed.

Tonight at 7, Syracuse will host Cincinnati in the first game since that decisive Big East tournament matchup. The Bearcats have a new coach, four new starters and are nothing like the team they were last season. But that doesn’t eradicate the bitter taste possible between their program and SU after the way last season ended.

‘They lost a lot of players and got a lot of JUCO players,’ guard Eric Devendorf said. ‘But it’ll still be a tough game. We still gotta go out there and have a good game.’

Cincinnati had a promising start to the season, albeit against weak competition. It won five of its first six games and worked its way to a 9-3 record, including impressive wins over Xavier and North Carolina State.

Since then, though, the Bearcats hit a wall. They’ve dropped their last four games, including their first two in the Big East. What’s worse, SU is the first part of a five-game stretch that includes the Orange, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Georgetown and Louisville – five of the marquee teams in the conference.

‘It’s the Big East, you can’t sleep on anyone no matter what their record is,’ senior forward Terrence Roberts said. ‘We know it is going to be a battle, but we know we want to be the better team and continue to get better and play as a team, so we are ready to protect home court.’

There’s some validity to that claim. Louisville lost by nine points to Marquette, which lost by 15 points to Providence, which lost by 15 points to Louisville. It’s a triangle of parity. While there are programs that are more prestigious than others, every game in the Big East seems to provide a legitimate chance for an upset.

SU has three straight Big East wins, which head coach Jim Boeheim knows is a rarity.

‘There are no games in this league that are easy every night. You go out there, you got to be ready,’ Boeheim said. ‘You have got to play well. There really aren’t many easy games in college basketball if you really think about it. It’s going to be tough every night.’

It could be especially tough when the other team is playing with extra motivation. Even though most players on Cincinnati weren’t on the team that lost on McNamara’s shot last season, it was enough of a hit in the program to give UC something extra for tonight’s game.

‘We’re expecting them to come back on the revenge trip,’ senior Darryl Watkins said. ‘We have our minds set that’s it going to be a tough game.’

Published on January 16, 2007 at 12:00 pm