Another game, another New York State opponent. The fifth-ranked Syracuse Orange will take on the Manhattan Jaspers tonight (7pm) in the first game of the NIT Season Tip-Off.
The winner will face the winner of Albany Great Danes and Brown Bears, who met earlier in the day. And then the winner of that game will move on to Madison Square Garden. It better damn well be the Orange. (Update: It will be the Great Danes).
The Orange are 20-7 all-time against Manhattan and have won 10 in a row, the last time being an overtime win in 2005. The last time the Jaspers beat the Orange was 1965.
Manhattan is coming off a season-opening win over NJIT by a 62-48 final on Saturday, but the level of competition spikes considerably tonight. The Jaspers are under the direction of first-year head coach Steve Masiello, who welcomes back 10 letterwinners and four starters from last season's club that finished a lowly 6-25 overall, including 3-15 versus MAAC opponents.
The Orange topped Fordham in their season-opener with relative ease. The big questions that emerged were good questions to have...who will make the cut in the final rotation? Will Brandon Triche or Dion Waiters ultimately start? How much will Baye Moussa Keita and Rakeem Christmas contribute, especially offensively? Can C.J. Fair keep progressing?
These questions likely won't all be answered tonight, but we'll come a little bit closer to understanding the answers.
Keep an eye on Kris Joseph, who needs four points to become the 55th player in school history to score 1,000 career points. And because you're wondering, only four schools have more 1,000-point scorers (Louisville, UNC, Duke and Kentucky).
The game will be televised on ESPNU and likely available on ESPN3, so, there you go.
Leave your pre-, in- and post-game comments below.
G'ORANGE!