[So, barring an insane Iowa St. comeback…] Syracuse looks to me pretty much like they did last year. Their 3-point shooting is a little scary because they're capable of shooting the lights out for stretches of a game, and we have a bad tendency at times of not closing out well or otherwise giving up open looks. And closing out is important against Syracuse because they don't actually care about field goal percentage, so they'll take a ton of quick shots from way beyond the arc. Normally you'd be happy with an opponent doing that, but they make enough of those that you have to go guard them out there.
That said, if we can avoid turning the ball over and hold our own on the defensive glass, I think we'll probably be okay. Syracuse's whole m.o. is to force turnovers and grab rebounds so they end up with several more shot attempts than their opponent. If we attempt anywhere near the number of shots they do, our offensive efficiency should make all the difference. One area of concern is fatigue against their press (remember that huge but inconsequential run they put on us in the 3rd quarter last year?) because we're not terribly deep, and this doesn't feel to me like the type of game where Nat is likely to play a lot. On the other hand, I think we have a deeper group of full-court ball handlers now than we did in last year's title game, so that should help.
