Will They Care?

In a matter of minutes, Syracuse is going to take the court in Milwaukee attempting to do something that they have yet to do this season: win a legit Big East road game.

During the non-conference schedule they were able to beat soon to be Big 12 champion Kansas at a "neutral site" game in Kansas City. A few weeks later they were able to defeat a Memphis team on the road that is now ranked #5 in the nation - and hasn't suffered defeat since losing to Syracuse.

And yet, Syracuse can't seem to beat any worthwhile teams on the road in the Big East. It's not just that they can't beat them - they can't even keep it close. They lost by 14 at Georgetown (which at the time didn't seem like a big deal because the Hoyas were still considered a good team, who knows what happened to them). They lost by 18 at Pittsburgh. Only lost by 6 in Providence, but this was a game in which they never got closer than 5 for the last 17 minutes of the game, and were down double digits for a while in that second half. They lost by 17 on the road against Villanova. Obviously after all this, they weren't going to have a chance on the road against UConn (lost by 14).

Sure, it can be argued that a lot of this has to do with how tough the Big East is, and when you are playing so many difficult teams, it'll be hard to win on the road. Beating good teams on their home court is just difficult in general.

But that is not the issue here. The issue is, to put it bluntly, giving a damn. In all those aforementioned road losses, Syracuse looked like they couldn't care less about playing basketball. They would play lackadaisical defense, leading to being unable to get any defensive stops when they were needed. Combine this with spending entire games taking stupid three pointers...needless to say, games would often spin out of control quickly.

So what will happen when 'Cuse takes the court today, on the road, against a decent team? Marquette playing without Dominic James - possibly their best player - should make them beatable. A win and Syracuse finishes 6th in the Big East, a loss and they finish 8th. While it shouldn't matter in terms of making the tournament, it could have a big effect on where they end up getting seeded.

Let's hope Syracuse realizes the importance of today's game and they show up to play. When they do show up and play like they care, they can play with anyone in the country. But it's just that, a question we always have to ask ourselves when Syracuse goes on the road: will they care?