The Daily Orange

Media Credit: Matthew Ziegler Paul Harris smiles during Syracuse's blowout victory over Rutgers Tuesday. Harris scored a season-high 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the win.

After a sound 70-40 win over Rutgers in the Carrier Dome Tuesday night - Syracuse's third blowout in a row, clinching a first-round bye in the Big East tournament - only one question remained.

Is Syracuse a lock for the NCAA Tournament?

The Syracuse players and head coach Jim Boeheim were mostly noncommittal about their prospects of returning to the Tournament for the first time in three years. But that didn't stop Selection Sunday (March 15) from becoming a discussion topic.

Boeheim, for one, continued his season-long policy of not discussing tourney bids. "We've just got to get the next game, get to New York," Boeheim said, "That's it."

Tuesday's win gave Syracuse 22 wins on the year, eight losses and a 10-7 mark in the Big East. The Orange still has one regular season game on the slate - Saturday at No. 13 Marquette - plus the Big East tournament next week, before the NCAA Tournament would start.

Although the Orange faltered midway through the Big East season, the Orange will finish with what can be considered a strong resume: At least 22 wins, including ones over No. 5 Memphis (on the road), No. 9 Kansas, Georgetown and West Virginia. Syracuse also boasts at least 10 wins in what is widely considered the nation's toughest conference, and a current RPI of 23, along with a No. 25 ranking in the AP poll.

Syracuse is locked into a top-eight seed in the conference tournament, after Tuesday's win coupled with a Cincinnati loss to South Florida.

While Boeheim didn't specifically address the Tournament, he did talk about the difficulty of playing in the Big East, and praised his team for not falling apart during its tough mid-conference stretch of game, when it lost seven of 10 games while playing six top-15 teams.

"I just think that kind of schedule, that kind of stretch can just undo you," Boeheim said. "When I looked at it, I knew we had to start out well. We did. I knew we had to steal a game or two as we went through the process, and I knew we had to finish strong coming into the last part of the year. We've been able to do that."

Continued...

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