McNamara’s Revenge Alters NCAA Picture

Overrate that.Criticized by local papers as overrated earlier in the week, Syracuse guard Gerry McNamara responded with one of the best two-day stretches you’ll ever see. McNamara hit a running 3-pointer at the buzzer to stun Cincinnati in the opening game of the Big East tournament on Wednesday, but that was merely the prelude to yesterday’s performance.Playing against the top-ranked team in the country in the Big East quarterfinals, the senior point guard carved up the Connecticut defense like a Thanksgiving turkey. He handed out 13 assists, tied the game at the end of regulation with an NBA-range 3-pointer, and helped Syracuse upset the Huskies in overtime, 86-84. In doing so, McNamara transformed the Syracuse’s postseason fate from NIT-bound to a lead-pipe cinch for the NCAA tournament’s field of 64. Should the Orange prevail over no. 23 Georgetown in Friday’s semifinals, they could even find themselves seeded in the upper half of the draw.McNamara’s ability to find his teammates helped compensate for an offnight shooting. He made only 3-of-14 from the floor, but his passing was a major reason all five Orange starters scored in double figures. In fact, the official box score likely stiffed him – by my count he had 14 dishes.If you take that number, and add in the three baskets he made on his own, then McNamara accounted for 17 of Syracuse’s 31 made field goals – pretty impressive for a guy having an offnight. He pulled a similar feat in the win over Cincinnati, playing a hand in 15 of Syracuse’s 30 made baskets despite hitting just 6-of-17 from the field.Unfortunately, the cold shooting has been a trend for McNamara all season, and that’s where the “overrated” mutterings came from. A preseason favorite for conference player of the year, McNamara made only 35.5% of his tries in the regular season, an extremely poor conversion rate considering he easily led the team in shot attempts. But he’s made them when they counted this week, saving a season that his cold shooting had helped derail in the first place.As for Connecticut, Jim Calhoun’s team needn’t worry about its status – even with yesterday’s loss, the Huskies have done more than enough work to be a no. 1 seed. But the defeat could hurt them if Villanova wins the Big East tournament this weekend. In that case, the Wildcats could claim the top seed for the entire tournament, and UConn would end up seeded to square off with Duke in the national semifinals for a second time in three years.But the Huskies’ lackluster performance yesterday should be a cause for concern heading into the NCAA tournament. Despite a major size advantage, UConn seemed unsure of how to attack Syracuse’s zone and settled for way too many 3-point attempts – 33 in all. The only thing keeping the Huskies in the game was some scintillating foul shooting – they made 28-of-31 – which nearly helped them overcome an abysmal 32.4% shooting day from the floor.Moreover, Connecticut had all kinds of trouble converting inside, despite the size edge. Big men Hilton Armstrong and Josh Boone combined to shoot 3-of-13, and several of Boone’s offerings were rejected by rotating defenders he didn’t see coming. Additionally, the Huskies set an unofficial record for most missed two-foot tip-ins, thus squandering what should have been a huge edge on the offensive boards.Despite all those woes, the Huskies still would have won were it not for their last-second brain lock in regulation time. With UConn up by three with only 11.2 seconds left and Syracuse inbounding the ball, it was obvious to everyone except Jim Calhoun that Connecticut should have fouled and denied the ‘Cuse a chance to tie. Instead the Huskies allowed McNamara to get a running start and fire up a 3 – albeit a very long one – completely unmolested. That play capped a series of mediocre defensive performances that began with a loss to Villanova on February 13 – another pressing problem heading into the tournament.There’s a local twist to the Syracuse upset story. With only 64 teams invited to the Big Dance, the Orange’s entry will result in another team’s expulsion. That could mean trouble for two local teams: Hofstra and Seton Hall. If it was my tournament, I wouldn’t take either of them, but fortunately for them I’m not the one making the call.Seton Hall’s status is tenuous after a flat performance Wednesday night against Rutgers in its Big East tournament opener (and, as it turns out, ender).The Pirates say they belong based on their 9-7 record in Big East play, but look a little closer and that result isn’t very impressive. Due to the league’s unbalanced schedule, Seton Hall got to play bottom feeders South Florida and St. John’s twice – had one of those games been replaced by, say, Marquette or Pitt, one has to think the Pirates would be 8-8. That becomes 8-9 after the loss to Rutgers, with little to offset it save an impressive non-conference win against N.C. State. Unfortunately, the Pirates also lost by double figures to Richmond, the 12th-place team in the Atlantic 10 (a conference apparently as bad at math as it is at hoops) and got the bejeezus beat out of them by Duke, 93-40.As for Hofstra, the Pride (no longer the Flying Dutchmen, so as not to cause offense to our friends in Rotterdam) are in the odd position of being a small conference school that could nonetheless receive an at-large bid. Hofstra’s league, the Colonial Athletic Association, was unusually strong this year. UNC-Wilmington won the league tournament and could end up seeded as high as no. 8, while George Mason also has a strong resume and probably will receive an invite. The Pride are next on the list, with a 24-6 record and two wins over George Mason in the past two weeks. Their most notable non-conference win, however, was beating St. John’s – and really, who hasn’t done that?Hofstra’s best card to play is an extremely favorable RPI rating (RPI is a system the NCAA uses to help rate teams, although its accuracy is dubious at best). As a result, they could join the Pirates in sneaking into one of the tournament’s final spots. But Thursday’s events probably won’t help them.In addition to Syracuse grabbing a bid, the loss by no. 6 George Washington in the Atlantic 10 tournament essentially uses up another spot: G.W. was guaranteed to get in anyway, and now the A-10 conference tournament winner will get an automatic bid too. On a positive note, two other upsets – Florida State’s inexcusable loss to Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament and Michigan’s defeat by Minnesota in the Big 10 – may have opened those spots back up.Regardless of what happens the rest of the weekend, those two local teams will be sweating things out on Sunday afternoon when the field of 64 is announced. But one club that won’t be is Syracuse, not after McNamara’s heroics once again delivered a Jim Boeheim team into the tournament field. Regardless of your feelings on the rest of the senior guard’s season, there’s almost no way to overrate the importance of the two big shots McNamara made at the Garden this week.jhollinger@nysun.com

McNamara’s Revenge Alters NCAA Picture

McNamara’s Revenge Alters NCAA Picture

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