And so, the Syracuse Orange are where they're supposed to be and where they're not supposed to be all at the same time. The Orange take on the Ohio St. Buckeyes Saturday night in the 2012 NCAA Tournament Elite 8 for the right to move on to the Final Four and continue this movie script season.

The Orange escaped with their lives against UNC-Asheville in the first round, took control of the game against the Kansas St. Wildcats and then survived a shooting barrage from the Wisconsin Badgers to make it here.

The Buckeyes have cruised in retrospect. They staved off a solid challenge from the Cincinnati Bearcats in the last round. And now, these two teams who have seemed destined in a way to play one another all year, will finally have at it. The team that was supposed to be here since November (OSU) vs. the team that kept getting reasons not to be here but made it anyway (SU).

The Buckeyes hold a 4-1 edge in the all-time series against the Orange and won the previous NCAA Tournament game in 1983. No time like the present to buck that trend.

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And so, after a week of build-up, a week of hype, a week of breakdowns, a week of puff pieces and a week of Hunger Game references, we made it.

The Sweet Sixteen kicks off Thursday night when the one-seed Syracuse Orange take on the four-seed Wisconsin Badgers in Boston for the right to advance to the Elite 8 where either Ohio State or Cincinnati will be waiting.

The game will be televised on CBS.

The main storyline is how Syracuse's offense will do against Wisconsin's defense. And what a defense it is:

The Badgers' formula for success has hardly wavered over the years under Ryan's guidance, with defense at the forefront of every gameplan. It's no surprise then that UW's defense was not only the best in the Big Ten but tops in the nation among 338 teams, stifling the opposition's attack to the tune of 52.9 ppg. Wisconsin is also among the top-10 teams in the country in field- goal percentage defense at 38.5 percent.

Still, this is the same Syracuse team that found a way to win almost every game it played this season, regardless of opponent. Surely they can do it again.

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And so, the one-seed Syracuse Orange begin their quest to win the East Region and do much, much more, when they take on the 16-seed UNC-Asheville Bulldogs in second-round play from CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh.

The big story is of course Fab Melo's ineligible status for the NCAA Tournament. The Big East Defensive Player of the Year leaves a huge hole in the middle of the 2-3 zone and forces the Orange to rely on back-ups (Rakeem Christmas, Baye Moussa Keita) as well as think about speeding up the game with more defensive pressing and offensive transition.

SU absolutely needs Kris Joseph, Scoop Jardine and Dion Waiters to bring their A-games the entire tournament. No more off-nights allowed.

And the Orange will also look to C.J. Fair, James Southerland and Brandon Triche to pick up the slack, doing what each of them do best.

Syracuse is 3-0 all-time against the Bulldogs. Most recently, the two met on Dec. 28, 2003 in the Carrier Dome when the Orange cruised to a 81-63 victory.

We're not supposed to be nervous about this game and yet, here we are. We need some motivation. We need...this guy:

I feel much more inspired, thank you.

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The one-seed Syracuse Orange continue their march through the Big East Tournament as they take on the four-seed Cincinnati Bearcats in Madison Square Garden at 7:00 p.m. EST.

The game will be televised on ESPN an ESPN3.com. Your announcers are Sean McDonough, Jay Bilas, Bill Raftery (yay!) and Doris Burke (meh!).

Syracuse defeated Cincy 60-53 on the road in hard-fought game that followed the Orange's only loss of the season back in January. Fab Melo didn't play, Kris Joseph led the way with 18 points and Scoop Jardine added 13 points and six assists.

Since then the Bearcats have put together a solid season and entered the Big East Tournament 22-9 (12-6). With wins in eight of their last ten games, including ones over Marquette and Georgetown, Mick Cronin's boys are no slouches.

Believe it or not, Syracuse won the rebounding battle against Cincy without Fab. If they can do that again and try to keep the game flow from slowing down, it should be business as usual (which is to say, still scary).

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The Syracuse Orange and the Connecticut Huskies are going to play one another in a Big East quarterfinal game.

Get settled, you're gonna be here for a while.

After dispatching with the lowly DePaul Blue Demons and the not-as-lowly West Virginia Mountaineers (bye, WVU), the Huskies extended their BET winning streak to seven games and now face a team that beat them twice during the regular season.

The game will be televised on ESPN at 12:00 p.m. EST.

The Orange have spent all season overcoming ghosts. They beat Pitt and Louisvile (twice) and dominated the conference all year long. Now, Scoop Jardine and Kris Joseph want to erase the memory of the last time SU was a one-seed playing a team they'd already beaten two times during the year. And then they want to win a Big East Tournament in their final trip. It all starts here.

The Huskies have basically wrapped up an NCAA Tournament spot so now it's all about seeding and extending history for them. If nothing else, this is about pride and destiny for the Orange.

The last two times these two played in the Big East Tournament, they played seven combined overtime periods. Regardless of what happened in the regular season, don't be surprised if this one goes the distance as well.

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How can a game mean so little and yet mean so much? The No. 2 Syracuse Orange will host the No. 19 Louisville Cardinals Saturday and while nothing will be on the line, a win could reverberate in the record books.

The game will be televised on CBS at 4 p.m. EST and can be viewed online here.

First and foremost, it's Senior Day. For the final time, Scoop Jardine, Kris Joseph, Nick Resavy, Brandon Reese and Matt Tomaszewski will play under the Carrier Dome lights. They'll go out in fashion, surrounded by 30K+ and of the largest crowds to watch a SU game there.

If they do win, it will be the first time ever that a Syracuse team has won 30 games in a regular season. The Orange will also secure their fifth 30-win season in school history. 31 is the school record for wins in an entire season ('86 - '87) and, God willing, this team can surpass that.

If they win, the Orange will also have 17 Big East wins on the season, something no other team has ever done. The 2009 Cardinals went 16-1.

And finally, if SU wins, they'll complete the season undefeated at home. A win would end the regular season with a 19-0 home record (assuming you don't count MSG games and away games in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Jersey as home games, which is asking a lot).

Louisville leads the all-time series13-5, however the Orange broke a seven-game losing streak to the Cardinals earlier this month with a 52-51 victory.

Syracuse has developed a reputation for winning all year despite the situation or what's at stake. That shouldn't change today.

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The Connecticut Huskies hope to exact some revenge against the second-ranked Syracuse Orange tonight, as the Big East Conference rivals meet at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs.

This is the second meeting between the two in the last two weeks, as the Orange prevailed at home on February 11 in an 85-67 final. As a result, SU's lead in the all-time series increased to 52-36, and it was the fourth win in the last five encounters for coach Jim Boeheim's club over the Huskies. Ironically though, the Orange have never won at Gampel Pavilion.

UConn will be playing once again without coach Jim Calhoun as he continues to nurse a back injury that has been bothering him since last summer. The Huskies are 17-10 on the year, but a game below .500 in conference at 7-8. They have however, won two of their last three games, the most recent being a 73-70 overtime decision at Villanova on Monday. Split between Storrs and Hartford, UConn is 12-3 at home this season.

UConn owns favorable margins in both scoring (+5.0) and rebounding (+4.3) this season, but is in the negative in turnover differential (-1.7). The Huskies have three double-digit scorers in the form of Jeremy Lamb (17.9 ppg, 4.7 rpg), Shabazz Napier (12.7 ppg, 5.8 apg) and Ryan Boatright (10.2 ppg), while center Andre Drummond nets 9.9 ppg and leads the team with 7.6 rpg. As a collective unit, Connecticut is limiting the opposition to 38.3 percent field goal efficiency. Lamb hit for a career-high 32 points in leading the Huskies back from an 18-point deficit to prevail at Villanova earlier in the week in overtime. No other player reached double figures for UConn, which managed a 43.1 percent shooting effort that included a 7-of-23 showing from three-point range. The Wildcats shot just 40.3 percent from the floor, but committed 15 turnovers. UConn outscored 'Nova in second-chance points (17-8) and in bench points (11-4).

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The South Florida Bulls will take their four-game winning streak into the Carrier Dome tonight as they square off with the second-ranked Syracuse Orange in a Big East Conference battle.

The Bulls and Syracuse have met nine times in the past, and the Orange hold a 8-1 lead in the all-time series. Syracuse is a perfect 5-0 against USF at the Carrier Dome.

USF comes in with a 17-10 overall record and has already set a new program record for wins in Big East action with its 10-4 league record. The Bulls extended their current winning streak to four games on Sunday in their 56-47 victory over the Pittsburgh Panthers. Head coach Stan Heath had to be pleased with his team's defensive performance, as it held the Panthers to a season-low 47 points and held Pitt's stars Tray Woodall and Ashton Gibbs to two points each. USF has the lowest scoring defense in the Big East, with an allowed average of just 58.2 ppg. However, the Bulls are also ranked last in scoring offense as they net only 61.1 ppg.

Augustus Gilchrist is leading the balanced Bulls with a scoring average of 10.5 ppg. Victor Rudd, Jawanza Poland, Toarlyn Fitzpatrick, and Ron Anderson Jr. are all steady contributors for USF as well. Fitzpatrick is leading the team with 6.5 rpg. Anthony Collins had a breakout performance against Pittsburgh on Sunday, as he scored a career-high 22 points and handed out six assists. The freshman guard has been a superb distributor as of late, as he has handed out six assists or more in six-straight games.

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The No. 2 Syracuse Orange look to continue their best start in program history as they head to Piscataway to tangle with the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at the RAC.

This will be the 47th meeting in the all-time series. Syracuse holds a 37-9 edge in the rivalry after it won its last 11 games with Rutgers.

Rutgers fell for the fourth straight game on Wednesday as it was bested 71-53 by the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The Scarlet Knights shot 39.3 percent from the field and slightly lost the rebounding battle 37-35 to Notre Dame in the loss. Second year head coach Mike Rice's Rutgers team is 12-14 and 4-9 in Big East action. The Scarlet Knights have not been overwhelming offensively, averaging just 65.7 ppg, and they have allowed opponents to outscore them with an average of only 64.3 ppg.

The Scarlet Knights are a very young team as no seniors receive significant playing time. Freshman guard Eli Carter leads the charge with a scoring average of 13.6 ppg. Carter has scored in double figures 20 times this season and ranks third among freshmen in scoring in league play. Myles Mack has been a very serviceable sixth man. In his last 16 games, Mack has netted 10.0 ppg off the bench. With Gilvydas Biruta providing size and scoring from the forward position and Dane Miller's energetic play on the wing, Rutgers has the tools to hang around with nearly anyone, but still lacks the experience.

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Tied with No. 1 Kentucky for the best overall record in the nation, the Syracuse Orange hit the road tonight to clash with the Louisville Cardinals in a Big East Conference showdown.

As for the Cardinals, they've rebounded nicely after losing three of four conference games in January. After bowing to Marquette on the road (74-63) in the middle of the month, Louisville has logged six consecutive victories and is now 8-4 in conference play, which keeps it in the hunt for a top spot in the standings with the Big East Tournament just a few short weeks away. On Saturday, the team picked up a narrow 77-74 win over West Virginia in Morgantown, evening out the all-time series with the Mountaineers on the road at 3-3 in the process. Louisville has now won at least 20 games in 10 straight seasons, and head coach Rick Pitino has done it a total of 20 times during his illustrious career.

Not only do the Cardinals hold the overall lead in the series with Syracuse at 13-4, they've also been almost unbeatable at home in the relationship, posting seven wins in eight opportunities, not to mention winning seven straight matchups overall. The two teams are slated to close out the regular season against each other in early March.

Trailing by as many as 13 points in the first half on Saturday at West Virginia, the Cardinals turned up the defensive pressure after the break and held the hosts to just eight total field goals and escaped with the three- point win after Darryl Bryant missed a three-pointer at the end of regulation. Louisville had a balanced scoring attack that saw five players reach double figures, beginning with Kyle Kuric who tallied 17 points and knocked down a pair of crucial free throws in the final moments. Russ Smith pitched in with 16 points, Chris Smith and Wayne Blackshear 13 apiece and Peyton Siva finished with 10 points and five assists. Kuric, who had a huge game against Syracuse last season, leads four regulars in double figures with his 13.2 ppg, followed by Russ Smith (12.3 ppg), Chris Smith (10.5 ppg) and Gorgui Dieng (10.1 ppg), the latter also responsible for a team-best 9.2 rpg. Siva (8.5 ppg) has had his moments on offense, but it is his job to distribute the ball (131 assists) and also play tight defense (41 steals) and because of him and Russ Smith (55 steals), the Cardinals are averaging 9.4 thefts per game which ranks among the best in the nation.

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